Forces War Records.co.uk

A question about : Forces War Records.co.uk

BEWARE! Check bank statements if you think you have made a one off payment to access their website. My hubby paid a one off payment of Ј5 (so he thought) in October. Have just noticed they have taken 2 unauthorised payments of Ј8.95 in November and December. Went back onto their website to find a contact number and saw that the auto renew box was ticked. Hubby did not tick (or even see) that box. They do not have a contact number so have sent email and hubby talking to bank. Bank just said they are not allowed to do this, so they are on the case. Just wanted to warn all my money saving friends. Last thing we need is someone taking our hard earned cash, especially before Christmas.

Best answers:

• I recently had a similar experience with this website, having not noticed payments coming out for 7 months. To be fair to the company, having contacted them and highlighted my concern, they refunded 6 months of payments.
  KH
• Renewals of 'Full Membership' will be taken automatically if you paid by credit/debit card (unless you update your account to signify you do not wish this to happen), unless your current card fails in which case we will send you an email informing you of such.
  There is an option to not have payment taken automatically from your profile after paying for your first term of 'Full Membership'.
  What this means: We may change prices and the amount of time you get for each payment, but we won't change the terms you agreed to if you are already a 'Full Member' unless this is affected by clauses 13 or 14 in the terms below.
  Your initial payment will allow you to use the site for the time you have selected, we allow you to extend this period by having an automatic renewal system option selected upon payment. When you pay there is a check box you should leave 'ticked' if you want us to renew your membership every month. If you don't want your membership to be automatically renewed and be charged recurrently after the initial subscription then please switch this off by un-ticking the check box (details on how to do this are below).
  How to cancel payment of subscriptions and edit your profile on Forces War Records
  1. Log into your account by using the 'log in/register' button in the right uppermost part of the page.
  2. You will notice now the same spot has 'your email address'/your profile/logout' displayed.
  3. Click on 'your profile'
  4. You can now:
  View and amend any saved records and units
  Alter your existing email address
  Choose whether to receive emails or not from us
  Choose whether to renew a paid for membership or not upon expiry
  Change your password.
  You can switch this off at any time, or you can contact us and we'll gladly do this for you.
• I signed up for a one month pass and while it looked like a fair company I made sure to look for any ongoing subscription tricks. I only found an auto renew box which I am certain I deselected.
  Ten months later I find that they have been taking Ј8.95 out of my account every month, on irregular days.
  They have taken Ј89.50 from me without my permission and I am furious. I have contacted them but they say they won't give me a refund. I'd advise everyone to steer clear of this company.
• I have just signed up with this company for 1 month and having just checked it is saying my membership expires on the 23/10/2013. This correct but i did untick auto renewal.
• Looks like deliberate deception to me, it gives the impression that the payment is only for one month, and that's fraud. I got caught, and they offered a very small refund.
  It also automatically ticks other boxes that you may not know about on your profile.
  Exactly the sort of company that deserves to go out of business, if justice were ever done.
  They send an acceptance e-mail too which should indicate you have been opted into repeat subscriptions.
• I hope I can help with this case.
  Please note that Forces War Records do offer a completely free search of the database to see if they have any relevant records within the database and you don't even need to register with them.
  If you wish to become a full member you can see details of the costs under the 'Subscription rates.' As for the auto renew payment, there are notifications of this on the subscription rates, also notification of this setting on the payment page when you subscribed in addition to the payment page stating payment is 'per' month and in the Terms and Conditions. Please note you can check your settings by:
  Loging into Forces War Records and click on the “Your Profile” button at the top right of the screen
  Then under 'Membership' make sure that the box marked 'Auto Renew Membership' is not ticked. If you still have a problem please contact them and they can do it for you.
  You will find almost all genealogy websites follow this practice as most members find it a benefit that the system renews their account automatically as they subscribe for multiple months whilst they complete their research.
  If you have any issues, problems or questions please contact the 'Customer support' or 'Live Chat' at Forces War Records as ONLY they will have access to your account. They will review your case and if necessary issue a refund.
• I too have just received my credit card statement today, and noticed that forces war records have taken two months payment when I only signed up for a one off payment for one month only. I am livid. I thought I had checked all terms and condition very cardfully. Will be on to them.
• Yep they had me as well, Thought I had signed up for the Ј5 December trial and noticed that at the end of January a payment of Ј8.95 was taken. looked for the site for scams on google and there were loads of people duped, as they do not tell you that more payments will be taken Which is quite underhanded to say the least . It was that site that told me how to stop payments .
  I stopped the continued payments and contact the Bank to have them put on stop in case they try to take any further payments.
  I have sent them one contact email , and tried to get on CHAT but so far no chance, has anybody been able to get on CHAT with them or are they as elusive as the tick box. Has anybody found there phone number (probably be a premium number)
  Got an answer back by email and they said they will return the Ј8.95. Two days later it arrived back in my VISA. Well done thought it might take 28 days.
• Yep they had me too!
  Last Easter I paid Ј5 for what I imagined was a month's subscription. I din't find anything useful and requested money back but to no avail. Then, in January of this year I found they had deducted 10 months subscriptons of Ј8.95 per month.
  After visiting my bank and taking professional advice I approached FWR and eventually, with much determination and persistant requests, I was refunded the 10 payments.
  I am sorry to see that people have been taken in again in February.
• They got me last year and point blank refused to return the money they took by deception (imo). Voted with my feet.
• Because this site could not come up with the goods, they kindly offered me a refund of my Ј8.95 one month subscription. In spite of repeated emails, no refund has been received, just a comment that the money has left their account, as if that is now 'closure'.
  I have asked whose account they have refunded, as it certainly wasn't mine but no further contact. I would advise people to be wary of this organisation, it is not contactable by phone and is not registered with companies house, so if you have a dispute, you are at their mercy.
• I've found it hard to get them to stop emailing me, it's very annoying.
  I fill out an unsubscribe and check I am unsubscribed in my account each time they email me but still the emails came.
  Had to go via a block sender route in the end.
• I took out a ONE month subscription on 29 Jan 2014 and now find that have taken another month's fee from my card.
  I only took the one month subscription that was offered - I have asked them why they have taken more than one month and asked for the return of the Ј8.95 taken from my card on 25 Feb 2014 - they did not have permission to take this money. I am very angry that they have done this.
  This window popped up on their site when I went to SEND them my email complaint:
  "Your Full Membership was automatically renewed because in your profile the auto renew payment was set to 'Yes'. This option is chosen when you make payment for Full Membership as per our terms and conditions, it also states this on the payment page when you complete payment. If in future you would prefer to not have your membership automatically renewed, please go to YOUR PROFILE and set Auto Renew Full Member Payment to 'No' which will ensure in future no more payments are taken."
  I DID NOT TAKE OUT FULL MEMBERSHIP AND NEITHER DID I ASK TO AUTO RENEW!
  I feel conned - this Auto Renew is new to me - like the other person reported this has come out of thin air??? Bit like the small print you did not read - it is all very misleading and like I say I feel totally conned.
  I have asked them to cancel my account with them in its entirety.
  Apart from this I was not impressed with their record holdings. I checked a few records thinking it would save me a trip to Kew but should have saved my money and bought a train ticket instead. One I was searching I know was subject of a Court Martial in France in 1917 and they had nothing on this at all. Others I could not find and when I did the information was sketchy and I did not feel confident with the detail. My Uncle who served in the REs throughout WW2 was not even listed? Not impressed at all.
• It might help those still having difficulty with these people to know that the company running Forces War Records is:-
  Clever Digit Media Ltd.
  Registered Address:
  Challeymead Business Park Unit 4,
  Ground Floor,
  Melksham,
  Wiltshire,
  SN12 8BU
• Their previous company was called forces reunited limited .
  There is a asa adjudication about them here
  https://www.asa.org.uk/Rulings/Adjudi...DJ_211686.aspx
• A user of that company also,posted this
  Recently I received this email from Forces Reunited:
  Dear XXXXX,
  It has been more than a year since your last visit to Forces Reunited and we wondered if you have mislaid your account details. If so, here is a reminder for you.
  Username:XXXXX@XX.com
  Password:XXXXXXX
  (I replaced my details in this post but they were sent in clear by Forces Reunited.)
  This horrified me as I work in IT security and I couldn't believe that a web site serving the forces is doing this.
  I know I haven't used the site for over a year but the data in my profile is still correct and the only thing stopping this getting into the wrong hands is that I still use the registered email address (also was never hacked).
  I am very concerned that people that are veterans or currently serving that registered a while ago but no longer use the registered email address, either due to forgotten password or the worst case it was hacked are at risk.
  I did contact Forces Reunited regarding this matter and I got the following response:
  07 January 2012 20:08:20 by Support
  ----------------------------------------------
  The password is only sent to the registered email address but we note your concern Sir.
  Regards,
  Forces Reunited Support
• According to them my father didnt exist.
  Paid the extra money for a more detailed search and got nothing extra.
  No answer to emails....
  The web site should be registered with proper contact details.
  From info on her I have now looked and found that my "one off month payement" magiced itself in an autorenew subscription.
• I too have discovered a series of payments taken from my bank account by this company. I did not knowingly agree to pay anything beyond one month at Ј8.95.
  It is extremely worrying that this company is accessing my bank account using the debit card details I used for what I considered to be a one off payment. Surely not legal?
• Everyone who has problems with Forces war records please contact Watchdog, I have reported them and the more people that contact Watchdog the more they will listen!
  ssl.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mg74/contact
  I think it's disgusting what forces war records are doing, expecting people not to notice an extra Ј8... Coming out of their account! Horrible company DON'T TRUST THEM!