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November 22, 2005

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Speedy-0

Ahem! This is a PENDING lawsuit, and NO FINAL JUDGMENT has been rendered by the court.

Retraction time, Dick?

Dick Eastman

Yes. That is stated in the first sentence of the article: "a PENDING class action lawsuit may affect your rights."

David Staub

Speedy-O is correct that this is a pending lawsuit and no final judgment has been rendered, but reading his post may lead one to conclude (erroneously) that this Ancestry.com notice is simply information about a pending lawsuit.

Those familiar with class actions will recognize this as a notice of proposed settlement, a formal step in the settlement process to end the litigation. Failing to respond DOES affect your rights. In this case, anyone who fails to take action by January 24, 2006 will be included in the class and will be bound by the terms of the settlement, assuming that it is approved by the court at the hearing on February 13. Waiting until it is no longer PENDING and a FINAL JUDMGENT has been rendered is TOO LATE to opt out.

Of course, in most class actions the individual claims are so small that opting out is not a realistic choice. However, the purpose of a notice of proposed settlement is to do exactly what Dick's write-up does - to alert you to the proposed outcome before it is too late to do anything about it.

Greg

Hi, I'm based in the United Kingdom and have just received a document explaining about the Lawsuit against Ancestry.com. As I had been using this service about a year ago and haven't since, I was a bit wary of this letter. What with Scams etc, so can someone explain what this is about and how genuine it is. Thanks.

Dick Eastman

I have not seen the letter you mentioned but suspect it is legitimate. To make sure, read the official explanation on Ancestry.com's web site at http://www.ancestry.com/legal/class.aspx?o_iid=21156&o_lid=21156&o_it=20875

Gary D. O'Dell

I have tried several times in the past to obtain information and have not been completely successful, working with and paying Ancestry.com very very frustrating to say the least,
I beleive that information that belongs to you or your family should not be held for $$$ by these people Respectful Gary D. O'Dell

anna

Hello
I got a letter from a law firm from Pittsburgh about the Ancestry classaction but have never heard from since.

rich mealey (Seattle, WA)

I just received an Auto-Renewal notice from these guys. That would be fine, except that I spoke to them in August to place cancel. They agreed, asked why, and I thought the deal was done. Now I'm in the position of sending threatening emails back to their fraud department. Has anyone else experienced this? Was this just a really misfortunate oversite in my one case? Does anyone know of a firm with experience fighting Ancestry.com?

My latest email reads:

"I called you in August to cancel this, and still you are demanding an "auto-renewal" - stated below. If by chance you disregard my demand to cancel - placed in August, I will do 4 things, I will require that my bank reverse any charges to your organization, I will notify the attorney general for the state of Washington about your deceptive practice, and I'll consult the FTC regarding your deceptive practices, and since I recorded the phone call with your support staff and save my email, I will encourage my attorney to initiate a class-action law suite against Ancestry.com. It's a shame. Where I once enjoyed the services of Ancestry.com, these days, I'm just furious and outraged that you would send me any kind of correspondence advising about some unlawful 'auto-renewal'. What is your problem?"

I hope it's just me, but let me know if you experienced this with Ancestry.com

rich mealey (Seattle, WA)

I'm happy to report that Ancestry.com responded to my email. They have done the right thing, and corrected an oversight - that's what responsible organizations are supposed to do. Kudos to Ancestry.com.

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