---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Price Change and Improvements
From: "info_at_familytreedna.com" <noreply_at_familytreedna.com>
Date: Tue, March 26, 2013 1:26 pm
To: michael_at_newsummer.com
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It is with great satisfaction that we announce a permanent price change and
other improvements that will positively impact your projects.
Prices:
Due to the recent upgrade of our state-of-the-art laboratory, coupled with
research and development into increasing lab efficiency, we are able to
permanently
offer the basic Y-DNA12 test for $49 beginning April 1, 2013. The current
sale
of Y12 at $39 will end at 11:59PM CST, March 31,2013. We are also working on
bringing down the price of the basic mtDNA test as well; we hope to have that
accomplished during the first half of this year.
We understand that several projects have a minimum requirement of 37 markers
for the Y-DNA test, but we’ve learned through the promotion with the lower
price point on the Y-DNA12 last month, that it did not reduce the number of
orders at the 37-marker level. Therefore, there was a net gain for the
database,
not only by increasing the number of members, but also increasing the number
of potential upgrades to higher levels.
We hope that you can encourage family and friends who saw the price as a
barrier
to now come on board. It is our goal to ensure every single person is able
to have the "DNA experience," at least at the basic level. We are working on
a letter that you can send to family and friends to invite them to take
advantage
of the new pricing.
Customer Service:
Family Tree DNA is the only company exclusively dedicated to genetic
genealogy
and anthropology. We offer the widest range of tests, from the basic ones
mentioned
above to specific SNPs and all to way to the "Walk Through the Y" and the
Full
Mitochondrial Sequence.
Every month our lab in Houston processes tens of thousands of discrete tests.
Given the increase in the volume of orders and tests, we are adding
additional
people in our Customer Service department. These are all qualified personnel
that receive very specific training and who give an individual answer to each
email and phone call that they receive under almost every circumstance. Our
policy always been to answer email between 24 to 48 hours (excluding on
weekends),
and we are working towards coming back to this norm. We apologize for the
inconvenience
that delays beyond this norm have caused and we appreciate your patience and
support while this situation is being corrected.
IT:Our IT Department has a number of responsibilities. The main ones are:
1. Making sure that our Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) works
flawlessly so that there are no mix-ups in the lab or errors during
processing.
2. Making sure that results coming out of the lab are seamlessly integrated
with the personal records from our customers.
3. Writing the code for new features to be implemented, whether those
features
are conceived in-house or at the suggestion of our customers.
Obviously, they also have to fix bugs, because as we know - unfortunately -
bugs happen. Any of you that have iPhones, iPads or Android apps know that
we receive almost daily notifications for updates which most of the time
relate
to bug fixes. That doesn’t mean we accept all bugs as inevitable—beyond a
certain
point they’re not acceptable, so we are also taking the necessary steps to
improve this situation by hiring additional qualified people. We believe that
the results will be noticed soon. Again, we apologize and appreciate your
patience
and support.
* * *
As we grow and remain the leading company in the field of genetic genealogy
and anthropology, we want to recognize the vital contribution that you - the
project administrators - have played in this field since we pioneered it in
2000. The recent groundbreaking paper "An African American Paternal Lineage
Adds an Extremely Ancient Root to the Human Y Chromosome Phylogenetic
Tree," published
in the most prestigious journal in the field, The American Journal of Human
Genetics, and widely mentioned in the press, was generated from a sample
analyzed
at our lab. The paper was authored by a group that included Family Tree DNA
group administrators, our lab people and a member of our Scientific Advisory
Board among others. This is a testament not just to the quality of FTDNA's
science, but also to your contribution as citizen scientists over the years.
For that we sincerely THANK YOU!
Family Tree DNA
www.familytreedna.com
"History Unearthed Daily"
© All Contents Copyright 2001-2013 Gene by Gene, Ltd.
--
Second VP, the Cooley Family Association of America
President, the Genealogy Club of Humboldt State University
Administrator, the Eldridge Family DNA Project
Administrator, the Ashenhurst Family DNA Project (in the works)
Administrator, the alt-McDowell DNA Project
Co-Administrator, the Cooley Family DNA Project
Instructor "Genealogy and Family History," the Osher Lifelong Learning
Institute (OLLI)
Received on Tue Mar 26 2013 - 14:44:16 MDT