Magazines Direct Reviews 810

Missed issues and 5 days late on occasions no,reply to emails spoke of cancelling no confirmation but is cancelled total lack of customer service

They are literally scammers. They’ve made it impossible to cancel on their website, which is done on purpose so you’ll be sending emails like a freaking idiot—only for them not to reply, leaving you completely in the dark. You’re stressed out because you can’t communicate with them. Just save yourself the hassle, contact your bank, explain the situation, and warn others about this god-awful company.

Edit:* Contacted my bank and was immediately refunded—just goes to show I’m not the only one who’s had problems with this awful company.”

** I received an email from them, refund accepted. Good, but too little too late.

Several calls, completion of contact form, callback request, and email - NO RESPONSE to anything.
Trying to cancel a gift subscription and Magazines direct are making it IMPOSSIBLE. I have wasted hours at this point and no one will so much as reply.

You can reach the main number (for new subscribers they are more than available), but when you get transferred to cancellations surprise surprise no one wants to speak to you.

Disgusting money grabbing behaviour and zero customer service. They are just hoping you forget and that the subscription rolls over into the next payment.

I have had a failed delivery problem since November. 4 times they have said they have resolved it (alleged 'system issue') and said the missing issues will be credited and delivered. Every time this has not happened. I have given up and asked them for a refund - no hope of getting that though. Total rip off. Avoid.

Magazines Direct wrote to me to say my subscription was cancelled as there was an issue with my payment (there wasn’t), then took the DD anyway. Now saying they have no record of the DD. Umpteen emails later (including sending proof of DD), situation not resolved and emails not replied to.

They get you to take a subscription on the promise of a welcome gift which never arrives and when you contact them they ignore you and don’t respond. Terrible customer service.

I have been a subscriber to Guitarist Magazines for several years and usually take out an annual subscription but last year subscribed by direct debit deducted from my bank account at quarterly intervals.
On that basis Magazines Direct promise to give at least three days notice of any subscription price increase.
By a letter dated 31st December 2024, but received by me on 28th December, Magazines Direct notified me of a subscription price increase 28% higher than I could have subscribed for through the magazine. On the same day I emailed them, drawing the matter to their attention and advising that I did not wish to renew my subscription and cancelling my authority to deduct any further money from my account. I promptly received a reply advising that my subscription had been taken on 28th (ie no three day notice!) and my subscription has now been cancelled. Since that date I have been emailing to try and get my subscription money refunded. Despite, promise of a refund and a telephone call nothing has happened and I am still awaiting my refund! I feel that I have been consistently mislead and now I am being totally ignored.
I feel that by agreeing to pay for my subscription by Direct Debit I have been taken advantage of and my subscription increased without my agreement. Magazines Direct have not honoured their agreement to give me sufficient notice of an increase and do not value me as a loyal subscriber. Very poor customer service!

No option to cancel. They do send stuff but it's a scam website.

Absolutely useless. Spent long periods on hold, hours of trying to get a response, got no helpful response, no response to email, wasted hours of my time and their unhelpful courier lied to so I cancelled my order and won't be renewing my subscription to Computer Active. This comes after months of being messed around with my previous subscription when you took my money and again gave me nothing, so I missed several issues and it took you months to sort out. Avoid like the plague.

I ordered a subscription to Living etc for my other half for Christmas and wanted to manage it online. agazines Direct still haven't added it to my account despite numerous phone calls and emails and seem more than happy to ignore my requests. Be careful if you have a problem with them.

I wish I had never signed up for a 6 issue £1 subscription, because they make it almost impossible to cancel. You cannot cancel within the account, just an 0330 number, which is answered fairly quickly, but after taking you through security they transfer you to a number where you will wait ALL day! All designed to frustrate you to hanging up so they can lock you in and charge you money. I will never fall for one of this hassle-free £1 try before you buy type scams again, they're just a total scam to get money off people, I wasted an entire afternoon on this nosense.

Terrible company. They don’t send you any information when you initially subscribe and so you have no reminders when the magazine auto renews neither do you have any information to contact them. They replied to my initial email when I asked for my money back but they refused to answer correctly just stated that my subscription will continue to renew. I have since sent 4 emails with no reply, just their auto reply saying they will get back to me so they clearly have no intention of resolving my complaint and so I will be referring them to Trading Standards. DO NOT set up a subscription with this company. Their customer service is beyond dire.

If I could give this company zero stars I would!
Bought a gift voucher before xmas so the recipient could choose their own magazine. Never received the voucher and everytime I speak to someone they cannot deal with my query because they need a subscription number, which I don't have. Ended up making a chargeback claim for a refund through my bank after a month of getting nowhere with them

Absolutely appalling company to deal with. They take ages to respond, and when they do they don't listen to your problems properly, so end up making things worse, they'll even attempt to gaslight you to make you go away. AVOID.

EDIT 17/1: when they realise they're about to lose you as a customer, you hear from someone higher up who is actually quite helpful and does actually try to listen and respond. So, some credit for that, I lift my review from a 1 to a 2. But I would still be VERY wary of dealing with the regular customer service advisors, just awful and don't seem to care a jot.

They tell you it's easy to cancel a rolling subscription but it isn't. They make it nearly impossible and don't give you any notification that you're about to automatically renew. Total ripoff. I'm still struggling to cancel it.

My subscription had not renewed as expected, despite paying in advance at the beginning of the year. Upon calling customer service I was offered a refund (hopefully I will receive this) and simply told to renew.

Unfortunately this has resulted in me missing two or possibly three issues. If I am to buy the back issues from their site it will cost more than the two year subscription, which is a complete nonsense. There was no offer of sending the back issues as a result of their error. I am disappointed with the service, and this is not the only time I have had issues with my subscription with Magazines Direct, hence I have chosen to rate them.

Two orders and two refunds later...... I feel myself compelled to add my review of my dealings with Magazines Direct.

I ordered the Halloween Special of SFX as a stand alone with no subscription first on the 11th October and then the 26th November (following an apparent restock) and both times, when I'd waited past the recommended delivery period, I called and checked on the status as to where my magazine was.

Both times I placed the orders and called to check, I was told, that due to having no stock of the issue in question, I would be getting a refund.....

I wish to have no further dealings with this company. Like others have mentioned, zero stars should be an option for ratings but alas, I have to give one star.

They make it so difficult to cancel your subscription. You can't do it on the website, which is difficult to navigate anyway and I had difficulty setting up an account because they seemed to have lost my old one and then I couldn't even type in some of the "required" boxes to fill. Finally got through to someone on the phone and they do everything they can to keep your subscription active, was also randomly disconnected so had to start the whole process again. The magazine issues did all arrive on time so no problems with that.

After seeing an offer for 6 issues for £1 and then a quarterly subscription - I decided to go for it. I wish I had read the reviews - within the first week, they took five unauthorised payments totalling around £80+ without any explanation, now I'm chasing them up for a refund - I have no idea how they think taking this money out of my account, especially after accepting an offer, is okay? Totally disgusted and doubt I will be using them any time in the future, so I just want to cancel and move on.

UPDATE: despite their response below, I have received nothing from Magazines Direct - in fact, they ignored my original email with proof of 5 original unauthorized payments, and sent me another email confirming my monthly subscription, despite me asking to cancel it. Incompetent and unprofessional

I have had a subscription with this company for a few years and never had an issue with them. I have recently moved house, however, I didn't update my address in time so my magazine went to my old address. I called them up and spoke to Sandra, who explained error to me, checked what stock they had left and reissued the missing issue for me. Great service and happy to continue my custom with them.