I was browsing around World Vital Records this morning looking at how far this resource has come since I first subscribed shortly after they opened for business. One database particularly caught my eye -Regimental Losses in the American Civil War 1861-1865 (free until March 8th). The LDS Biographical Encyclopedia is interesting too. As of yet, I haven't had much success finding family members on WVR, but I still think it has great potential.
I was happy with my browsing until I stumbled upon their cancellation policy. I couldn't believe what I was reading. You can sign up for WVR online, but if you want to cancel your account, you have to call them. This is one of my biggest pet-peeves. Ancestry.com used to have this same kind of policy, but they changed and now you can cancel your account online. It also looks like Footnote.com requires a phone call to cancel if you choose to end your subscription before it expires...although you can set "auto renew" to off if you want to let your subscription expire.
Why do these genealogy companies always make it so hard to cancel your subscriptions? Can someone please explain the logic of allowing online subscription purchases, but not cancellations? I'm usually a cynic and my guess is they want to make it harder for people to cancel. When Ancestry had this similar policy, and I called to cancel, they spent much of the conversation trying to talk me out of it. It really was sort of a distasteful (used car salesmen like) hard sell - I'm glad they stopped doing this. I don't know if WVR tries to talk you out of canceling, but it seems to me the convenience of doing it online is just basic customer service.
