An email reply to a query concerning a 'No Will' PDF basically said, "We cannot provide you with a will for Fred Bloggs because you did not enter the name Bloggs correctly". So how did they know?
I have now received five 'No find' PDFs from the Wills people. I am sure I am not that incompetent at filling in an online form. What would you do?
Well, I found a couple of wills on the Ancestry that I would really like, so I made my way over to the Probate service, signed in with no problem and searched for the wills (I think the search facility is abysmal, but there you go). Could I find them, like hec I could, the pages on which 'my' wills appear on Ancestry are nowhere to be found on the Wills site. I love the way they say "Can't find what you are looking for? Try searching again using different search terms." What different search terms do they think I can use? A person only has one name and one year of death So, I've sent an e-mail with snips of the entries on Ancestry to prove that the wills exist........should I hold my breath, I think not going by other people's experience. I got the standard reply saying how busy they are - I suspect with people complaining
The same happened to me about 3 weeks ago. I sent the evidence that they existed and am still awaiting a reply...
9th of February I got one of those messages after doing the same and still no follow up. I just checked and still "0 document pages returned". Professionals would have reverted to the old system - which speaks volumes for Iron Mountain.
I've just received one of these 'No find' PDF's I give up, they won't reply to e-mails, they send PDF's containing nothing and they don't have the complete probate index to search, what the **** (insert whichever expletive you fancy) are they playing at
A little confused about how this thing works now. I sent for a Will last week, and after a few days I received an acknowledgement of my order (rather than straight away). When I logged in to the site a file was available for download - hurrah - but it was a Grant of Probate, not a Will. This morning I had an email saying my order had been completed - followed the link and again, just a Grant. However, refreshed the page, and there was the Will too.
You're not the only one who's confused. I received this from the GRO yesterday, after complaining about not being able to find an entry for a will on their index, despite it being on Ancestry. They had already replied once saying they had fixed the problem, but it still wasn't (isn't) on their index so I complained again (still with me?) Dear customer, We are sorry that you are still unable to locate your details from our website. Our technical team are currently working on this and we hope to get it fixed as quickly as possible. However, there is possibly a temporary workaround whilst our team fix the searches. If you are able to, then we would recommend using Ancestry or another resource if you can get the information to use on our website for ordering. As long as you have the correct FULL NAME, DOD, PROBATE DATE, REGISTRY, you can actually type this information into our fields and we will find it. For Example: If you typed BROWN and view the calendar for Brown, but entered the details for John Smith and those details were accurate and included all names including the middle names, then we would be able to locate it. Please reach out if you have any further queries. Kind Regards, HMCTS Wills Helpdesk It took me ages to work out exactly what they were getting at, but my little brain got there in the end and I have now ordered said will I love the phrase 'Please reach out if you have any further queries' .......
Probably because that would be too clear and they would be overwhelmed with complaints. By the way, the will I was looking for on 4 February still comes up with nothing
Well, I ordered the will which didn't appear on the GRO index using the if-you-can't-find-the-will-use-a-different-name suggestion and it worked By looking for the will of someone called Smith (not difficult ) and then filling in the form but using the name and details for the person who's will I wanted, gleaned from Ancestry, I sent it off with trepidation last Thursday - and it arrived yesterday, so maybe they are getting their act together
I ordered a will about an hour ago (17:11), went to have my tea and it has now arrived (18:11)! World record? Perhaps because it was a military one?
I emailed them today You ask for feedback. Your data sets seem mixed up Searching for Mary Meeks who died in 1895 results in other 1895 pages with Spiller to Spong Bagham to Bagnall, Cotton to Cottrell, Colquhoun to Colwill, Roberts to Roberts, and Smith to Smith.
I've just had a very similar thing happen - looking for a surname beginning with 'H' and had three results, one page beginning with 'S', one with 'M' and one with 'P'. I've given up e-mailing them, I just filled in the form with the details gleaned from Ancestry and sent it off - it worked last time......
How long does it take to get will? The money was taken on the 4th July and I haven't received the will yet.
I have just had an email which people might find helpful (see image). They also say... We would also ask you to consider what you input into the advanced search options. Especially for dates before 1996, as sometimes, it is better just to search for the first and last names as above. Keeping the search as simple as possible.
