Archant Reviews 47

Purchased a annual gift subscription for some family members was told I couldn’t do it without giving the recipients email otherwise they couldn’t have it. Having done
what they said the email to activate the subscription on their email never arrived when it was suppose to appear on December 25th. Emailed twice no reply so rang a few days ago. Eventually my family member got an email to activate yesterday. This was supposed to be a Christmas present how disappointing. You would never guess they wanted to be in the magazine subscription business they put every obstacle in your way and wouldn’t recommend them to anyone as for free Amazon vouchers forget it it won’t happen.

This is the second time a paid up subscription with Archant has failed to materialise. The first time was in August 2020 when I bought a magazine subscription as a birthday gift. This time I paid for a magazine subscription as a Christmas gift for my cousin, who was supposed to get an email on 25th December with a link to be able to take up the offer of 12 months of Yorkshire Life. He never received the email. Also, as an inducement I was supposed to get a £10 Amazon voucher. Again this never appeared.

Purchased a 12 month gift subscription in October with the incentive promise of a additional £10 Amazon voucher at a price of £34. Nice offer but still chasing where my Amazon voucher and waiting for a working subscription code to emerge.
This unfortunately looks like finishing up in the small claims court very shortly. You have been warned the price of subscription involves a ‘run around’ by poor customer service. You have been warned.

Have had a magazine subscription with Archant for last 5 years but this year I've been trying to ascertain whether the subscription fee is increasing by £16 per annum and no one seems to be able to reply to my enquiry! Seems a bit of a jump in fee if it is an additional £16 per annum and some kind of customer service would be nice .....

Took out and paid for subscription with free gift card. After 28 days have received neither and am still waiting for a refund.
An absolutely useless company, would recommend avoiding taking out a magazine subscription with this company.

Terrible. I wanted to try EADT newspaper for one month. Not only is there no option to cancel online, but I cancelled via telephone being as helpful as I possibly could with feedback and I’ve been charged again.

Something isn’t right here. Feels like they get your details and make you call so there’s nothing in writing as proof of cancellation….

If I do not have a refund in 24 hours and a response to my email I’ll be contacting trading standards.

I have been trying to open an account for my Norfolk Life magazine subscription. I started the process on 19th April (job no. 03156596). To date despite several people responding at various times I am still unable to register. My latest emails of 27th & 29th April have gone unanswered. Does anybody at Archant care about this problem?

I purchased a 12 month gift subscription of Norfolk Magazine for some friends and they were thrilled with their gift. I was not so thrilled when I discovered the subscription had been renewed automatically, without any reminder being sent or anyone contacting me to see if this was required. When I noticed the Direct Debit payment as an ‘upcoming transaction’ on my banking app I immediately cancelled it, but the money was taken the next day.
If I bought a friend a pair of earrings for their birthday, they might love them, but they wouldn’t want the same pair of earrings the following year & every year thereafter. So why does Archant presume I’m happy to give my friends a Norfolk Magazine subscription year on year?
I see that back in January Archant were looking to improve their customer service & “as a priority” they were going to notify customers before they were billed for another subscription. 3 months on it appears nothing has changed. So much for your desire to improve customer service!

I have bought Pilot for my son for a few years now and the last issue was February. Called your company twice and it was a waste of time. The first time took my bank details and received a letter last week (dated 19th Jan) saying the payment had been returned unpaid by the Credit card company. Don’t make sense as there is enough in my account. Got the same girl today and she was useless. Tried on line and won’t accept the promotion code. Should I just forget it?
Margaret Hughes.

Totally agree with previous reviewer. We also took out subscription for our son and daughter in law realised 21/2 years later we had been paying for 3 years when they did not even live at this address anymore. Seems a good gift idea but be very careful.

I bought a 12 month gift subscription for my father in 2019 and with no notification they have taken another 12 months payment out of my bank.
I am livid, as most companies will at least inform you before they renew so that you can expect payment or cancel something you did not expect to renew.
Have contacted their call centre and been told no you signed up to this!
I will never buy from this company again.

If I could give a zero star I would
Archant - France Calendar - 110000429126 Job Ref: 02811308
6 Calenders Ordered 19th Nov 2020 4 for UK and 2 for France expected delivery 3rd Dec 2020
To date 1 calender received in France nothing else.
3 emails sent with responses from 3 different people (possibly computer generated) all promising to sort out the non delivery
1 phone call 16 Dec promising replacements in 7 - 10 working days
Final email by myself 5th Jan complaining again to date no response
Have organised new calenders from different manufacturer at extra expense
Let down badly by Archant and now applying for refund from Paypal.

Ordered insurance though the air gunner magazine which gove you
One full year insurance, 12 air gunner magazine and a Jack pyke rucksack.
Ordered 29/10/2020
18th December no rucksack called customer service informed me they ran out and have no other items to give....
Not impressed that I had to contact them...
Will not be using archant again
Did they ever have the rucksack......

Have been ordering subscriptions for a few years now and had no problems, until this year.
Ordered a gift subscription for my mum for xmas in October. I realised that the first issue to arrive would be the December one and I wanted it to start in January so emailed and asked for them to chnage it.
Got a reply that it was amended a couple of days later. Brilliant I thought!
Except then the December issue turned up. So I emailed again and the reply I got was that the system had rejected it 24hrs after theyd told me it had been done and that the issues are preprinted.
I replied and asked for someone senior to explain why I hadnt been told of the problem back in October when it could have been sorted then but suddenly its all gone quiet and a week later no reply.
Will be cancelling my subscription when it finishes and not renewing. Theyve now lost a regular customer all because of poor communication.
Updated: subscription has been extended and direct debit amended.

I bought a subscription for my mother in 2018 at Christmas (paid annually as a one off, or so I thought)

Only just seen that it's been renewed for two years! I don't receive the magazines personally so wasn't able to check last year but no email mentioning renewal or correspondence from them.

Emailed to get a refund for this year (payment taken overnight), for them to say, tough!

Took an offer for a subscription for Living France magazine in July where they offered a number of editions for £5 then an ongoing discounted subscriptions. Received a copy of France magazine that I already had a subscription for as Living France wasn't available then nothing. Discovered on the website that they had cancelled the subscription as they could no longer supply but couldn't be bothered to inform me and didn't refund the £5. Chased them by phone, their query system and email and claimed they hadn't taken any money so didnt owe me anything then had to prove by sending bank statements proving they had taken money, kept getting told it was with Finance who would resolve. As its been 4 months I've given up I've cancelled my subscription for my other magazine as can't trust them and now will start a claim in small claims court to recover the money they've taken. Advice to any one thinking of taking a subscription with archant is don't they don't value you as a customer are slow to respond and clearly don't care.

Not happy that I hired Archant to build me a new website but they put the work out to a company in New York. 😞

Received subscription renewal reminder, very surprised they don’t reply to my emails but manage to send an email when they want the business. Terrible company, took out subscription last year with gift card promotion, what a con, 4 telephone calls and 3 emails still never received voucher code. Do not use this company.

UPDATE - Very pleased with response from Alice, I would use this company again

Having given a one star review earlier this month, my complaint was picked up by Archant and resolved in a few days. I am happy to give 5 stars now as the manner in which I was dealt with was courteous and efficient and resulted in a very satisfactory outcome. As the payment for my gift subscription has been taken from my account I have now cancelled my Direct Debit. Past experience has taught me that it is normal practice for the Direct Debit to be drawn down annually unless it is cancelled. It is not a scam as other reviews have suggested.

Signed up for 5 magazines for £5. They have kept my payment details and taken further money 6 months later. Got put through to a foreign call centre with terrible rude staff. I did not sign up to my money being taken again. No communication. No warning or correspondence. This is a scam. I have reported to my bank.