Geni Review by Amy fisher,  Jun 8, 2013

This site lists my Grandfather as deceased and he is very much alive. I still haven’t found a way to contact Geni to tell them.

Geni Review by Treesha,  May 31, 2013

GENI IS THE BIGGEST SCAM EVER!!!! (I wish I could give a negative stars rating above)

They DO NOT allow you to contact customer service/help unless you are a premium member…aside from the fact that you CAN NOT DELETE ANY INFORMATION once you add it!!!

Then random people begin updating your family tree…and even if you block them, their information stays attached to your family tree.

If anyone is researching Geni:

RUN FAST NOW!!! DO NOT SIGN UP ON THEIR WEBSITE!! YOU ARE SIGNING A CONTRACT WITH YOU-KNOW-WHO…YOU WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO GET YOUR PRIVACY BACK!! THEY POST INFORMATION ABOUT YOU AND YOUR LIVING FAMILY MEMBERS THAT IS EASILY ACCESSED BY
A-N-Y-O-N-E!!!

Biggest Pro: CAN’T THINK OF ANYTHING
Biggest Con: THEY RIP OFF YOUR FAMILY HISTORY AND YOU CAN NEVER GET IT BACK!!!

Geni Review by Donald Gudehus,  Apr 27, 2013

This is a poor to medium quality amateur level genealogy website. If one is serious about genealogy, do some research first. Ancestry.com has some nice features and has access to census data, user family trees, and other material. If you are computer savy, install geneweb on your home system or on a server and take advantage of the best professional level system there is. Also, geneweb is free, as opposed to Geni.

Biggest Pro: Some amateurs use it and have some useful information that can be accessed
Biggest Con: It costs money for a mediocre service and is not secure

Geni Review by COLL,  Apr 8, 2013

This site is full of crap, allowsw people to steal your info and add names that no one has a clue to who they are or proof of source this site is just a name collecting site ,m Private is jsut that Private but here its means nothign , I have woirked very hard researching my tree and I will Not have have anyone waltz into this site and steal it. this site needs an over haul and or totally deleted is even better.
why send emails to me if thqt there is other matches if I cant get to them without paying,
This site needs to be abolished never heard frim again take it off the net

Biggest Pro: No pros
Biggest Con: all you what you claim is bogus

Geni Review by Alan,  Mar 7, 2013

This site is a total scam. we just paid $119.40 for a years membership 3 weeks ago. After a week, I was unable to log in (Password or user name had changed).

I sent several emails to complain and received an automated response saying that a ticket had been created and they were looking into it. Their replies said to click on a link to see the status. When I clicked on the link, it takes me to…wait for it…the log-in page! Of course they don’t even have a telephone number, although when I contacted my bank to dispute the charges, the bank gave me a phone number for them 310 651-2004. I called it and was transferred to voice mail. I’m pretty sure I won’t be hearing from them.

I’d like to see these scumbags wind up in jail.

Geni Review by SteveB,  Feb 14, 2013

Site works well for me. Used it a couple years. Never paid a cent. A change late last year removes the 100 ancestor limit. I’ve found a lot of ancestors that I’d probably not have otherwise. I’m a happy user.

Biggest Pro: not paying the monthly fees Ancestry.com would charge
Biggest Con: Geni is probably not as good as an ancestry.com subscription

Geni Review by Coaster,  Jan 28, 2013

Do not, under any circumstances, have anything to do with these crooks.

Biggest Pro: Gets your heart rate up
Biggest Con: Yes… “biggest con” is right!

Geni Review by Yosh M,  Jan 16, 2013

UPDATE to my earlier review.
Geni has been bought by MyHeritage. The new owners have restored the wealth of service offered for free and taken a sensible and generous approach to the users. They’ve also improved privacy. A change for the better and good enough reason for me to upgrade from 1 to 5 stars.

Biggest Pro: Great for online collaboration with other family members
Biggest Con: None, now.

Geni Review by Geni is a bunch of crooks!,  Jan 12, 2013

I started at geni in 2009 to build my own private tree. Since then they have made my tree public and charged me $417 to do that! Now that I paid the $417 for a LIFETIME subscription, they have reduced my lifetime to 5 years.
I hear “class action lawsuit” everywhere!
If you are considering geni…run like hell! They are a bunch of crooks!

Biggest Pro: None
Biggest Con: They are crooks who will take your money and run!

Geni Review by John,  Dec 15, 2012

I signed up as a life member for Geni, when my heritage purchased them they decided not to honor pase contracts and canceled my life membership. At this point I do not trust my data on their site
I am investigating what legal avenues I have for recourse, but cannot recommend this site to others

Biggest Pro: Na
Biggest Con: A lifetime membership replaced with a 5 year membership and then expect to pay to renew

Geni Review by George Capton,  Dec 14, 2012

My GENI account has been downsized from a life time membership to a five year membership. This is a criminal act as far as I am concerned, but how can I fight a big company.

Biggest Pro: None I can think of
Biggest Con: A lifetime membership disappears and is replaced with a 5 year,membership get a refund and then pay over $ 500.00 every five to replace what I have already puschased once.

Geni Review by Peter,  Dec 12, 2012

My membership to Geni services were reconducted after their takeover by myheritage on terms which I find unacceptable. Does any one know of a class action?

Con, do you have an email address to get in touch with them?

Peter

Geni Review by Con,  Dec 10, 2012

I liked Geni (which I bought a lifetime membership to) for the past 4 or so years. Last week I received a notice from them that they had made some changes and merged with another company, and that they were no longer going to honor lifetime subscriptions! They offered 5 years instead.. well, last time I checked, 5 years was not a lifetime!
I wrote in my complaint and they said take it or leave it, and that they would refund my money.. I replied that I wanted to remain a lifetime member and that they should HONOR the contract I have with them… They refuse. I then asked if they were going to check with me to make sure my address was current if they were going to return my money, to which they replied that they were going to refund my credit card!!! For charges made 4 years ago???? They told me that if that card was no longer current I should give them another number to credit it to… HUH??? Now why would I give them another number?
Beware of Geni, I think things are changing, and not for the better!

Biggest Pro: They used to be a good company
Biggest Con: they aren’t anymore

Geni Review by julie dolph,  Dec 5, 2012

can read my website it’s not in english

Geni Review by tanya,  Oct 13, 2012

when I joined geni years ago my family tree was supposed to have been strictly confidential. A password was issued at the time of my subscription to open the site. Now it is available to the general public with just the googling of my name or any of my relatives. I believe this is an invation of my privacy and if I had known this would happen, I would never have joined Geni. My tree was tapped on by other distant relatives and their in-laws who added their family trees so that now there are so many trees linked on that it is unmaneuverable to find the immediate family members. Also the fact that some of the information added is not verifiable or false, making the tree a complete farce. You have sold your credibility for the sake of profit. Shame on you

Biggest Pro: None
Biggest Con: Exploits people who were promised many thing when geni first started. People are not in control of their history.

Geni Review by leanne schroder,  Oct 13, 2012

I think this site s***s as my so called half sister has put information about her father, He is not her father and I cannot get it removed. She is not the daughter of my father and my bank accounts were hacked, Thank you geni

Geni Review by Robert Williams,  Oct 3, 2012

cannot believe this site is still around. they do not follow their own terms and conditions. After all the time and resources burnt on it, I have NO control on my profile or tree now. Started as one innocent merger request, but then everything went out of hand.
Biggest CON job.

Biggest Pro: nothing
Biggest Con: waste of time. now I need to do this somewhere else all over again

Geni Review by Ed Blevins,  Sep 24, 2012

Geni was fine until they limited their free customers to 100 members. I had already obtained 750 plus people in my tree. Out of the blue pro members started changing my tree. I contacted one of the profile managers about his mistakes, His reply was a sarcastic ‘ I don’t even know what you’re talking about’ .I know who my ancestors are and I don’t have time to waste on a company that changes rules in mid stream and keeps all your hard work

Biggest Pro: none
Biggest Con: Geni’s management team

Geni Review by Phil D,  Sep 14, 2012

Geni’s place as a genealogy center has not kept up with user expectations which includes greater than a 100 person limit for the free membership. Geni benefits immensely from the total aggregate of information placed by users. A reciprocal benefit to the user is not offered. Their system of keeping track of people added is a mystery. When I had added 17 people my “add count” according to Geni was greater than 70. Their research capability is limited. Their software is appropriate and allows reasonable flexibilty in entering data. Correcting mistakes is a nightmare. For the amount of money they require it is worth purchasing my own software and using short term paid research facilities on the internet. USE WITH CAUTION.

Biggest Pro: Limited Free Access; Limited Research Capability
Biggest Con: Declining User Confidence Levels for Privacy and Free Access

Geni Review by Dave Eaton,  Sep 12, 2012

You have GOT to be kidding! First, it is SLOOOW, plus the menus often do not seem to respond at all. I entered a total of 7 “people” in 20 minutes before I gave up. (I wanted to delete my “account” so I was not wasting any space on their equipment, but I could not find any way to delete my whole account, or even to delete just one of the people I had added (incase I had added them erroneously, of course! So at that point I went back and put in generic names rather than real ones ~ that took quite a while, too, but I certainly don’t want to ask any relatives to try to fight through that mess!) Sometimes the names did not even show in the boxes that were created! Other times a popup box had info, but only after I moved the cursor away from the box. Very non-intuitive! Tried t do a “search”, but couldn’t get it to do anything at all. Gave up!

Biggest Pro: Cannot think of one at all!
Biggest Con: Sloooow, unresponsive.