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| Image from pingtree.com |
We've all seen the headlines about 23andme going into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. We've also seen recommendations from the California attorney general and NPR to download our information and delete our accounts there. We've also seen recommendations from respected genealogists in the DNA field to keep our accounts going as we don't yet know to whom the company may be sold.
I'm all for supporting genealogy sites. I've learned a lot about my ancestry and relatives using the big four sites. You could say I get geeky about this. Why, on 23andme just this month I connected with my first cousin's daughter. It was great.
That's all well and good, but what happens if you can't even download your 23andme DNA data? I'm finding out now.
It's not good enough to know your own username and password to log into the site. Once I click on downloading my data, I am asked for my birth date. I enter my correct birth date. The site tells me I am wrong. I try again. Now I'm locked out for too many tries.
On April 3rd, I accessed the chatbot for customer support. It took my email address. Later that day I received an email requesting a scan of my driver's license. I sent that scan in. On April 3rd.
It is now April 8th. I checked back in with the chat bot and was able to upscale my concerns to be able to chat with a person (or so I'm told). That person said it had been escalated to ST but that "there's a delay of response because we are currently experiencing a high volume of inquiries." I can just imagine.
In the meantime, I've been denied access to my data for five days.
I'm hot under my collar. Let's see how long this will take.
