Family Tree DNA FTDNA refused to refund money after I canceled an order because of non-delivery Houston Texas

November 15, 2017

One week ago I placed an online order for a Family Tree DNA test kit.  I received an email indicating that my order had been received and confirmed and the funds disappeared from my bank account.  I NEVER received any notification of any kind regarding the details of the shipment of my order.

The first information I received from FTDNA regarding my order was an email indicating that my test kit had been returned.  I indicated that because my order had been returned I now demanded that I be provided with a tracking number for the second posting of my order.  The only response I received was a short sentence informing me that my test kit would be shipped that same day.  No mention of any kind regarding the tracking information.

Up until this point, 24 hours afterwards, I have sent more than half a dozen emails replying to the last email I received from FTDNA indicating that unless my test kit was shipped with a tracking number and I be provided with that tracking number, FTDNA was to cancel my order IMMEDIATELY.

I also submitted a complaint to FTDNA so-called Customer Support regarding the non-delivery of my order and subsequent refusal to acknowledge and comply with my demand my order be canceled and have yet to receive any response from there either.

If you wish to read the contents of the actual email dialog (Warning - some crude and rude language on my part!) you can read it at

www.chazwilliams.x10host.com/ftdna-bs.pdf

In addition to filing this complaint, I am also submiting a complaint to the Consumer Protection Division of the Washington State Attorney General's Office.

As I explain in considerable detail in my emails to FTDNA, their behavior is so far outside any and all appropriate professional standards that it amounts to being criminal in nature.  By that I mean it is a deliberate and willful decision to act contrary to established standards of professional behavior and thus constitutes engaging in a conflict of interest - which certainly is accurately described as an abuse of personal discretion where no such personal discretion even exists.  And abuse of discretion is a short-cut to negligence which immediately escalates to discrimination (double standard of behavior) and harassment (pattern of behavior not supported by law).  Yes, copy and paste that sequence of civil liabilities if you like it as much as I do.  And then remember to add in the fact that any cooperative effort involved in that behavior pattern that involves two separate divisions of FTDNA (such as online sales and customer support!?) also constitutes collusion, conspiracy and potential corruption.

I have read some responses in this forum that claim to be directly from FTDNA that attempt to diffuse the lack of credible customer sevice these repeated complaints clearly indicate exists.  Should any of those trolls feel motivated to respond to my complaint, remember that only adds another participant to the collusion and conspiracy aspect of this situation.  So PLEASE, do respond and make my arguments even stronger.  I strongly suggest any such trolls actually send their message back to FTDNA to act in a more professional and acceptable manner instead of further harassing me.

My best recommendation to anyone considering FTDNA to explore their DNA is to look elsewhere to spend your money.  You can import your DNA tests from other sources and still access the FTDNA database and study groups.  That is exactly what I am going to do as I have already had my DNA analyzed by Ancestry.com.