Hearst Magazines UK Reviews 

DO NOT BUY FROM THIS COMPANY! Currently on the phone now, they have taken out two payments of £59, earlier then what was stated and despite me cancelling, now got a extremely rude, unprofessional lady, Divine on the phone implying I am lying and of no help! They also promosed a free gift of a John Lewis voucher, I didnt get and when I chased, they said they have run out and awaiting more. This company is a scam!

I totally agree with other reviewers. My subscription is on auto renew, and it has increased by £5 with no notification or communication. It is really time consuming to find where to cancel or change your subscription. Hearst are not transparent- you can only cancel on the phone (so obviously get subjected to sale techniques!) I was on hold for 30 mins whilst waiting to cancel and was told constantly during that time that I could use the website for my enquiry - but if you do hang up to use the website you will loose your place and you will just be told you need to call. Do not take up a cheap subscription unless you are prepared for a lengthy time on the phone and heavy sale techniques when you want to cancel. If Hearst followed other companies by being more transparent and user friendly I.e emailed you before your subscription is due, explained costs and increases and allowed cancellations via their website, I may have considered staying. I do not like feeling ripped off with no explanation or communication.

As everyone else has already said (wish I’d read the reviews first) ….. absolute scammers! Automatically renewed at double the price without warning. Attempted to cancel, impossible online. Subscription due to restart in Feb 26, unable to cancel in December 25 …… only noticed as money taken from credit card. Disgusting customer service, not interested, no intention of refunding. Avoid at all costs.

Auto renewed with no warning , when viewing my account online it states auto renewal but can't find anywhere where it states the actual date it does so they catch you out by taking it months in advance of the current subscription ending. Can't cancel online either, have to phone. Avoid!

Be very careful, this company takes recurring renewals without giving notification on gift subscriptions. There is also no option to cancel online. I complained and they think it is acceptable to not tell people they are taking a renewal payment, very poor business ethics.

Have tried to cancel subscription now on 4 occasions and not getting any response from them despite completing their designated forms.

Extortionate amount of money charged for automatic renewal! No easy way to cancel. Rude unhelpful staff. In my opinion this company is a disgrace!

Diabolical, there is NO way to cancel a subscription. Their customer service is intentionally appalling. They say Manager will be in touch but no one replies.
They deny there is a 14 cooling off period which is the law. Disgusting company. Avoid at All costs

Pathetic scam of a renewal scheme. Small print says they'll just keep charging you with no notification - refuse all attempts at canceling or refunds even when magazines haven't been sent out.

Avoid these con artists like the plague. Most decent companies write to you to inform you of an upcoming renewal, even if you have selected to auto renew for the next year (this company doesn't give you that choice anyway. Auto renewing is your only option) But not this company. £50 taken from my account for a new subscription I do not want. I've just called them to cancel and they said their terms and conditions state YOU need to contact THEM 8 WEEKS BEFORE the new subscription renews to make changes or cancel. Unless you want a nice surprise of being £50 lighter this time next year, DO NOT BUY from this company. Life is so busy, with this company you can't rely on a friendly reminder. Everything they do is to con you out of money. Absolutely shocking.

Like many others, I have been caught out by their auto-renewal process. I ordered Country Living for my sister for 2025 back in Nov 2024 and paid £29.99. On December 8th this year I saw they had taken £59.99 for another year of the same magazine. I called them, finally spoke to someone who had the air of having this type of call frequently during the day, and said I wanted to cancel the subscription, but was told this wasn't possible because I hadn't alerted them within the two days of the money being taken. Like I sit and stare at my transactions every single day. They re-sent the email I received from Nov 2024 and sure enough, it does state that the ongoing cost will in effect be double what the initial offer was, but who, in these times, will remember to cancel it in a timely fashion? I have had an incredibly busy year and, like many, will have been distracted by life events. Why can't they send an email giving notice to cancel if you so wish? The answer to that is so they can sting you for another payment of double the amount. This leaves an incredibly bad taste in your mouth and I can see from other reviews I am not alone. I will be making an official complaint to the company. I am sure they will say 'well we did send you the T&Cs' but to me that is not good enough. The most the agent offered to do was to cancel the auto-renewal but the damage is done. They need to look at their business model as they will really begin to lose business once people realise that this is how they operate.

Set to auto renew at double the cost which they don't make CLEAR and then hope you forget about it til a year later they take your money without warning - it costs nothing to send an email!
Tell you to login to cancel but when I set up an account and logged in it told me to call a number or use a contact form which 3 days later I'm still yet to hear back from.
Took £50 from me just before Christmas time which I was spending on the kids' presents :(
Awful company. I like their magazine but not willing to deal with this organisation ever again!

Following their response, where they questioned whether I was genuine, these facts remain...
1. You can not cancel subscriptions via an account option
2. You can not cancel your account and delete all your details via an account option
3. You can not opt out of emails via an account option.
Scroll back through the reviews and tell me how far back you went to find one of the 36% five star reviews!
I still have an account I would delete NOW, if I could.
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
They intentionally restrict any reasonable account actions, such as subscription cancellations, emails and even account closure.
Anything meaningful requires going through their help page.
A travesty of a company, trying to claw itself out of the inevitable pit of demise.

The worst company I think I have ever purchased from. Ordered a beauty advent calendar a week or so before the start of advent. Order confirmation received then silence. Numerous emails and follow up calls revealed on the 1st that it was an internal error that payment failed from their end. No update for this. I have then agreed for payment to be retaken the following day and received an email confirming it’s completed again and it’s now on its way to me. 9th of December, due date. Contacted customer service again, 40 minute phone call later, payment was never taken, item has never been shipped, they couldn’t even tell me if it was in stock. So the email was admitted to basically be a lie.

Simply the worst experience I have ever had with any company.

DO NOT USE.

Conned like most other reviewers. Bought a 12months subscription as a gift and they lifted another years from my card without informing me. When I complained they brazenly told me it was not their policy to inform customers about auto renewal. I cancelled before the magazine was sent and they still won't refund me.

Avoid!!! Requested cancellation of auto-renew only to have £60 automatically taken out. No answer from telephone number or email.

Do not buy any magazine subscriptions from them as you’ll automatically get stuck in a renewal membership!

Cannot retrieve anything on the site, my account, my orders, even had to reset another password. Never been satisfied with this company. They like to steal money though if you aren't careful and don't refund! Look at other reviews - useless company.
Just received a reply to my trust pilot review from Hurst. There you go folks another company that's doesn't care - seems epidemic now! Sorry doesn't wash as I've have this with them 3 years ago!

Ordered an advent calendar. Didn't arrive. No details supplied to me that it was being shipped by Yodel. No tracking number, no reply to multiple messages to their customer service team. Got through by phone eventually and they referred me back to Yodel who had already returned the parcel. If they had given me information up front that it was being shipped by Yodel along with a tracking number, the parcel would have been received OK - as I could have managed the delivery via the Yodel website, but all I got was radio silence. A shame, as Hearst have now been put to a lot of extra admin (as I have) over a simple communication omission.

Added: I have emailed you the email trail ....the re-delivered parcel went to my home address, not the specified delivery address. What a disaster!

Subscription was fine. Zero response to messages sent via their communications portal when it came to cancellation (14 days ago). I had to manually cancel the direct debit myself via my bank. This company is only interested in taking your subscription money with no customer service after that. They finally responded to me 17 days after my original contact (and only after this review). Upgraded to 2 stars from 1.

Last year I bought a years subscription to Good Housekeeping, this morning I looked into my bank account and foud £59.99 has been taken for a further year I contacted Hearst and was told that this cannot be stopped and the money refunded as this is there policy, Hearst should be ashamed of themselves and this should not be allowed to happen I am a pensioner and i am now out of pocket by £59.99 which will make life that bit harder under the present financial climate. Recomend that anyone purchaseing a subscription for Christmas check about auto renewel