04 May 2013

DNA Survey Results: Companies

A big thank you to the 36 people who responded to the survey posted here last Sunday. In response to the question "What was your overall level of satisfaction with the service from the company or companies you used?" 34 responses were very satisfied or satisfied, 3 were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied.
23andMe
1 person was very satisfied, 3 satisfied, and none dissatisfied or very dissatisfied. A comment was "23andMe has most depth and definity",
Family Tree DNA
There were 12 very satisfied responses, 13 satisfied, none unsatisfied and 2 very unsatisfied. Comments included "FamilyTreeDNA has the surname-group charts", "poor communication from the company (FTDNA)", "experience with FTDNA about their poor customer service", "I felt as if FTDNA had taken my money and now couldn’t be bothered to notify me or help me understand my test results."
Ancestry DNA
Two responded as satisfied, one as dissatisfied.

In addition to the company-specific there were comments on problems in understanding results, disappointment in not finding close matches, and that the tests had been oversold.

Comment on Family Tree DNA
In reading the negative comments about FTDNA bear in mind that 25 respondents reported being very satisfied or satisfied. The problems seem mainly recent, perhaps dating from the restructuring of the parent company and a signal that genealogy was less important when the company changed name from Genealogy by Genetics, Ltd. to Gene by Gene, Ltd.  Max Blankfield of FTDNA informs that "starting in mid last year our good reputation has been damaged. Please be sure that we are working hard to restore it back to the good name that our customer service used to have."

The responses to this survey suggest the long-time FTDNA claim that "90% of genealogists choose Family Tree DNA" may no longer be true.

Come back tomorrow to see the results for the survey question on the different types of DNA test.

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