From: G6JPG@255soft.uk   
      
   On Wed, 23 Mar 2022 at 10:23:28, Jenny M Benson    
   wrote (my responses usually FOLLOW):   
   >I just received an e-mail from FMP, telling me that they accepted an   
   >error report I had submitted and would be correcting the error within   
   >72 hours.   
   >   
   >Goodness knows how often I have reported transcription errors to FMP   
   >(many times... many, many times...) and I have always received an   
   >acknowledgement but I don't remember ever having a "yes, we accept and   
   >will correct" response before.   
   >   
   >Is this a new thing FMP are doing or have I been wasting my time all   
   >these past years?   
   >   
   I've been doing them for years too (more as a service to genealogy as a   
   whole than to FMP). I've usually received an automatic reply, but don't   
   _think_ I've received the more detailed sort of reply you describe -   
   until in the last 24 hours, when I got two such. So yes, I think they're   
   new.   
      
   Of course, FMP don't know how their own mail system works; it sends   
   emails containing a plain text part and an HTML part. I think most of   
   their staff are unaware of this, and whatever is supposed to make sure   
   the same thing is in both is very broken. The ones I got - in the HTML   
   part - start "Dear J. P.,", and go on "we agree that 1 out of 1 of   
   them need attention"; the plain text part starts "Dear [name],", and   
   goes on "we agree that [x out of y] of them need attention".   
      
   (Since I received two such emails, I wonder if they'll ever refer to   
   more than 1 in the "of y" position, as well. I cant see how they could.)   
      
   Their ignorance that their emails contained two parts came to a   
   ridiculous head a year or few ago, with me asking why they were telling   
   me about special offers after - sometimes months after - the closing   
   date; eventually the penny dropped to me, that (I have my email client   
   set to show me the plain text version by default when an email contains   
   both parts) their newsletters hadn't been updating the plain text part   
   at all, so it contained the newsletter text from many issues previously.   
   (Needless to say, when I at first lodged such queries, they tried to   
   blame _my_ setup.)   
      
   In the recent emails, they say "Thank you for reporting the error(s) you   
   found on a Findmypast record transcript. It’s viewable here for your   
   reference.", where "here" is a link (in the HTML portion - not in the   
   plain text portion!). Clicking on the link did indeed take me back to   
   the record in question, but AFAICS with no indication of the error I'd   
   reported or what my correction was. (I admit I didn't look too hard.)   
      
   (Despite this, I think FMP are better - in many, not all, ways - than   
   Ancestry. Of course you really need both, as each has records -   
   especially county/parish records - the other doesn't. Though I let my   
   Ancestry sub. lapse last renewal because they'd always had some sort of   
   offer at my renewal time and this time they didn't, so it would have   
   been something like a 40% increase - and, mostly, I haven't missed it [I   
   do have a DNA "account"]. I rather suspect they've stopped _doing_   
   offers on their subscriptions, concentrating on doing them on DNA [over   
   things like mother's day, Easter, Remembrance weekend, etc.] instead.)   
   --   
   J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf   
      
   It is important to write so that you can be understood.  It is far more   
   important to write so that you cannot be misunderstood.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)