Thursday, October 25, 2007

Followup to "Deal of the Year?"

I posted on 7 October about what appeared to be the "Deal of the Year?". I received the box of software and documents a week later, and it appeared that it had everything promised. I waited until today to install the software due to my other time commitments.

I quickly installed FamilyTreeMaker 16 (in a separate directory from FTM 2005), GenSmarts (and updated it online) off the CD, and downloaded the Ancestry Reference Library (quite a few reference books, in a separate program called AncestryView), the 1-2-3 Family Tree in PDF format, The Official Guide to FamilyTreeMaker 16 in PDF format, and the Ancestry's Concise Genealogical Dictionary in PDF format. In addition, there are two DVDs with the FTM 16 Official Training DVD and the Ancestry Historical Maps & Photos Collection on DVD. There were also The Official Guide to FamilyTreeMaker 16 in book form, plus the small QuickStart Guide for FTM 16 in booklet form which provided directions for installing and signing up for everything.

I have not been able to fulfill the come-on of a one-year Ancestry subscription as part of this deal. The QuickStart booklet calls it a FREE TRIAL subscription, accessible through the FTM 16 Internet menu and the "Start an Ancestry.com Trial Subscription" link. I did that and got put into the Ancestry Store web page default screen with no visible link to proceed. I finally chose to "buy" a book for $6.95 just to get into the shopping cart area and there a Trial Subscription for $29.95 was listed. I eventually X-ed out of the web page. So I don't have the Ancestry.com subscription yet.

One of the commenters on my previous post said that they had to call Ancestry.com to get the subscription, so I will call them and see what can be done. I will update this post when I find out what happened.

All of that was obtained for $16.95 plus $6.00 shipping at http://www.nothingbutsoftware.com/. Note that this specific deal item (using the link on Lee Drew's FamHist2 blog) is now $49.95 at that web site. There is another deal with a 9-month subscription and fewer add-ons for $29.95, and another with a 6-month Ancestry subscription and fewer add-ons for $14.95.

If someone didn't have genealogy software, these would be excellent deals even without the Ancestry subscription. Even if someone had an earlier version of FamilyTreeMaker, this is a pretty good deal for an upgrade plus GenSmarts and the books. If the Ancestry.com subscription comes through, then it was an outstanding deal.

I would be interested in how other folks did with this deal, especially with the Ancestry subscription part of it.

UPDATED 12:30 PM: I called Ancestry and talked to a very nice woman (Sherry) who told me that since I already had an account, that I couldn't have two accounts at the same time. She said I needed to cancel my present subscription when it is up, and call them to activate my new subscription on that date.

It was difficult to find the Ancestry phone number - in the US, it is 1-800-ANCESTRY (262-3787). I did note that you can cancel your subscription online, but you need to know the date it ends or else you'll get billed for another year.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Randy

I couldn't get the trial via the software either... but I did call billing earlier this week and told them my dilemma. They asked for the barcode from the box and forwarded my information over to the department that handles those requests and said I should hear back from them by the next day and if not she gave me her name and extension to call back. This was AFTER 6pm CDT. With 1/2 hour my current ancestry subscription had been extended for one year and I had an email confirmation of it... I was VERY impressed with the fast response.

I had absolutely no problem getting the trial. BTW, I wasn't as lucky as you - I had to pay a whopping $29.95. Also the subscription offered is to the US Deluxe Collection, not World Deluxe.

Good luck!

Lee Drew said...

Randy,

I found another 'Deal' today with Footnote.com You can read about it on my FamHist blog at http://tinyurl.com/2gxbqz

Feel free to pass it on or repost it. We might as well let as many folks as we can know about it.

These 'deals' help our research funds stretch just a little farther and that is most welcome.