NewspaperArchive

I signed up for a monthly subscription and was not able to use the site at all. It would "grey out" and I was unable to use anything. There was no "Live Chat" feature for me to use. It was NOT in the bottom left corner as they stated. I sent TWO emails to their customer service address a few days apart. They have not responded AT ALL. I have tried the site multiple times thinking it would finally work. It did not. Do not waste your money on a site that has no way of contacting them other than an email system that they obviously ignore or are so inundated with complaints that they are unable to answer. I will be filing a complaint against them with the Iowa Attorney General office. Stay away from them!

1. Newspaperarchive continues to bill my credit card even though we have spoken and agreed they would cancel.
2. The "chat" only returns a "too sad, system is down
Too bad there is not a minus-five rating for service.

I was locked out of my account. I went to customer service but could not get anything other than a robot who could do nothing. I created a help ticket and ONE WEEK LATER I got an email from someone or thing posing as a human offering to help. He told me to clear my cookies and cache but that did no good. When I tried to respond to him, I just got sent to another robot. This is probably the worst experience I have ever had with a genealogy site. It's unbelievable! Ancestry has a newspaper site that works fine.

While searching yesterday, 3 issues occured: 1) newspaper article would load, but highlighter tool said it could not find my search term. 2) When I finally found what I was looking for, clipping tool would not work to clip the article. 3) Eventually, newspaper articles would not load.

The following is the reply from Christopher James, customer service, "You are so frustrated by our site, why not just quit? Click on your name while logged in and select "Cancel".

Chris

Signed on for a trial. Have been billed since 2015, twice a year. Very little data, poor search engine, NO CUSTOMER response. Did not catch the twice yearly billing, ok shame on me, did not catch it until this year. Hidden in all the other card bills. Hard time cancelling, non-responsive phone number, questionable e-mail response...
These people sit back and rely on consumer mistakes and billing oversight / lack of close scrutiny to make a good living...

Within 24 hours I tried to cancel 6 mo subscription $74 but was charged $80. I did not find anywhere on the site that I could cancel so I sent an email. To this moment no reply. I notified my credit card company and am disputing. I tried numerous searches and found 1 item - a marriage picture I could use. Every search was information I already had and had gotten from Ancestry.com or Newspapers.com. Searching here is extraordinarily difficult and there are many steps you have to go through to even begin searching. I've inquired as to why my 6 months was $80 while they show 6 months as $49.95, hum! If you want great results use anything but NewspaperArchive. I am most likely STUCK with this charge but I will make every effort I can to warn others to stay away, far, far, away. Watch what you check off too as there is something you check and agree to not dispute fee. In my opinion just not worth the effort when I can do better other places.

The advertisement promises a 30-day full refund. I gave them $49.95 yesterday afternoon for a subscription. This morning at 6:30 a.m. I attempted to sign on and their system rejected my login information. I started an online chat with their customer service (they don't publish a telephone number), and the guy was rude, saying their site was currently "undergoing maintenance" and could not estimate when that maintenance would be completed. He suggested I try to login again in a couple of days. I reminded him I had given him $49.95 only hours earlier, and said I wanted to talk about getting that 30-day refund the website had promised. He said he would cancel my subscription, but he could not refund the money because I had "exceeded the number of downloads allowed" for a refund. (I think I looked at only 3 newspaper articles yesterday.) Then this guy closed the chat box, and has refused to talk to me further. These guys are real losers--don't lose your money like I did!

I signed up for Trial Subscription and was charged $19.99. I contacted them, said they don't offer trial on monthly. If I could afford to pay the other subscription I would of done it. One thing I needed, just one thing. Looking for plane crash my uncle died in. I'm a senior on SS. I can't afford those expensive subscription. This company treats senior unfairly. They refused to refund. You can't even read the newspapers they are so blurry.
Very unfair, inconsiderate company. Do not trust them. Do not buy their subscriptions.

I could not cancel the subscription during the 7 day free trial with Newspaperarchive. Com. They would not answer the listed phone or email address. Without my permission my credit card was charged $74.95 for their 6 mo. Subscription posted on 3/2/2021.

Because the advertisement promised a 30 day full refund if not satisfied, I decided to give it a try. In order to see what is available, you must pay for six months which they say is fully refundable for 30 days. I will admit that I didn't read the small print on a different page but I did read the small print on the sign up page and there was nothing that said once you actually use the site, you no longer get a refund. The data available is not from major newspapers, so the product is not good. The customer service just kept giving me a broken record response, though I know they could have returned my money as promised in their advertisements. Newspapers.com gives a very good product and is a much better company. I hope people read the reviews here and don't fall for this bait and switch.

Absolutely useless website with a useless search engine. Would give 0 stars if possible. I guess if you're looking for your grand-uncle's obituary maybe that's the place to go, but if you're trying to find articles on a specific subject in a specific area don't waste your time. I cancelled within 3 hours of signing up, so hopefully I will receive a full refund.

This site is a total rip-off. The search engine is completely useless as it returns hundreds of "hits" that have nothing to do with the word searched. By scrolling forever through one search I found an article to view... except it was so blurry it could not be read. The site says you can download a PDF for a clear view, which I did, only to find out that when you do that you have given up any right for a refund. Avoid this site at all costs.

I'm in a trial phase for Newspaper Archive. It's slow, laggy, and it times out constantly with "error 522" which tells me it's their problem - not mine. I was checking it out because I've used Newspapers.com for awhile now and like it but I was looking for newspapers it didn't doesn't provide. I've not seen any I can use in Archive and combined with the terrible website speed and overall performance I'm not going to waste any more time with it. I hope they let me cancel without charging but reading other reviews here that doesn't always happen evidently. I already regret trying it so I hope that regret doesn't get even worse.

Do not do business with this company. Newspaperarchive.com has a poor product so they offer a 30 day money back guarantee to get you to subscribe for a longer subscription then ignore your attempts to claim the subscription. They have been fined $100.000 by the Iowa Attorney Generals over deceptive online practices. I paid the subscription with PayPal thinking if I had a problem it would be easy to correct with PayPal help. Wrong! They seem to not care they are dealing with a dishonest company.

I signed up for a trial of this, mainly just to get my brother in laws obit. However, I started trying out the site. My last name is Jack. I searched the local newspaper in Kittanning, Pa. I got 121,807 records. Despite the fact that I put in "Jack" in the last name search, it counts every single time the work "jack" appears anywhere. I'm doing family tree work, I don't care about jack o lanterns or Jack Nicklaus. Even if you go into the obituary search and type in "Jack" in the last name box is still gives you the word "jack" that pops up in every obit, whether it be a last name, first name, nickname or whatever. A total waste of time and money. I got a 1 week trial, I'm on day one and I am most likely going to cancel on day 1.

Thus is a complete rip off!
I mistakenly clicked on something that said free trial what I was looking for an Obit
The next thing I know there is a $166 charge on Mastercard
I don't even remember giving my CC number out.
I have this in dispute with my bank.
I want a refund!

I paid for a month yesterday and within hours site told me my account had "expired" and I needed to "upgrade" to utilize. Emailed them immediately. Waiting for a response. Interesting that so many complain of not getting responses to complaints, yet repeatedly on this site "Christian" states complaints can be addressed via email. I don't believe these people/clients are lying, and I saw they have an "F" grade by BBB, as well as had been heavily fined. When I click on my account name, all that comes up is the word "upgrade", so how can I cancel?

(Billing begins:
11/3/2018

Billing amount
$19.95 USD)

I'm waiting, Christian.

They charged a nominal fee to join for 3 days. The site was OK but then I decided to cancel. In order to cancel, you have to call an 888 number. Although I beat the deadline, they billed me for another month. Of course, if I were to complain, they would probably put me on hold for half an hour with their 888 phone number.

Having a recent need to research a celebrity from the 1950s, I needed an online newspaper archive. newspaperarchive.com is a U.S. based organisation that delivers what they claim: an archive of (mainly) U.S. newspapers from ancient (at least the 1920s) to more recent days. Their interface is a bit clunky, but navigable and their prices are vastly more reasonable than many similar sites. When I went to cancel my 12 month subscription early (because I had sucked down everything they had that I needed) they surprised me by saying that I could continue accessing the site until the subscription actually expired. I did appreciate that.

I must say that I had a good experience. I notice that the other reviews didn't bother to read the Terms and conditions as we all should when getting a contract. The agent was efficient and answered all the questions. Stop acting like children and read the fine print!

I was checking some old stuff on this website and found the needful information. They have a graceful way to show the content of old newspapers. I can say... Wowwww.
I really appreciate their work.

Found a lot of marriages, obits that were needed. Found out cousins marriages, divorces, births of children with DOB

Very good, works very well, has the most newspapers