Highlights for Children Reviews 49

I paid for 2 years of the magazine for my special needs child. They are saying because they sent a calander for 2024 that we don't get one for 2025 because they already sent one. They didn't send one for 2025 and are being completely rude. I have been getting my son these magazines for several years never had an issue until this but they will be losing a customer after this year.

Placed an order 10/10/2024 for Christmas Gift.
Highlights Magazine + Brain Play bundle.
Advised would arrive in December and customer service assured me it would deliver before Christmas.
On 11/5/24 email advised it had been shipped.
As of today, 1/2/25, the order has not been received.

I have had my subscription cancelled for 3 months and I continued to be charged. I did everything online to cancel as I should and I still was charged. I called about a month ago and they said I had 3 different subscription and only cancelled 1. When I signed up it was one purchase not 3 separate ones. So now I confirmed it was now all cancelled. Now a month later I get another bill statement I'm charged for and more books are on its way. I called again and an automated machine says they are closed. It's Friday at 2pm, they dont close till 6pm. I just don't understand

I purchased a 1 year subscription for 2 children. I NEVER authorized a reoccurring subscription. I have NEVER received a single email updating any information or offering a renewal. My account was charged for a renewal. When I called I was told that they saw the renewal and would cancel and refund. The refund was for $39 when my account was billed $79. They then asked for more time to review my account. For such an amazing product I cant believe they operate in such a shady way. Beware. They will save your billing information and never communicate.

Customer service very poor. No longer one seems to know anything. Use caution - difficult to cancel subscription. 3 days of emails 3 phone calls 2 supervisors before ever finding account even though I had account number.

I purchased the Highlights Hidden Pictures Horse Puzzle book. It fell apart almost immediately. I was contacted by Ms. Whitson at Highlights Magazine and she sent a complimentary Puzzle Book to my granddaughter.
I would recommend Highlights Magazine and Books for any child.
By the way, my granddaughter has a subscription to the Magazine and looks forward to getting her own mail and loves doing the activities. This is truly a quality company. I highly recommend Highlights products. Thank you so much for your help Ms. Whitson.

This company refuses to respond to me asking for a refund of a product I never received. It has been 3 months since I ordered the product. I ordered the magic Montessori play toolset. This company is awful.

Paid for 2 subcriptions for 2 grand children on 12/15/23 & told 4-6 wks arrival. Now today no magazines, called & told it'll be March?😡 This is not acceptible to take our money & lie about arrival!

I would prefer to leave a zero 0 but that is not an option. This company is a disgrace I am going to call the county government in NY and report this company. They are criminal I wish I had read the reviews about highlights magazine but I never in a million years would have believed that a children’s magazine is so Criminal, in stealing our funds and not mailing the magazine. I received the offer in October 2023 for highlights to be sent to children as Christmas gifts and sent it right back to them with my 2 nieces names they are 7 and 9. I received the invoice to pay 68.00 in early November 2023 and sent the payment by check immediately and requested that the children get the magazines for Christmas. My niece always calls me when the children get a gift from me but it was a week before Christmas and I did not hear from her. I called the contact number of highlights about 5 days before Christmas and the agent told me that they had the names of the girls and their correct address and that the magazines were sent to them that they would get them by Christmas Eve. LIARS. Cheats and criminals. They never got the highlights magazines as a gift for Christmas which was embarrassment to me.
Today Jan 15 2024 I called again and they said the girls magazines were sent to them. Liars on the phone this is a criminal company. They then told me that the subscription was going to be extended but what is the lint when they never for the magazine form 2023.
I am shocked that a company that is suppose to encourage reading and has children as their customers should be this way. Then I go to this review page and I see I was conned and wonder why this company can still exist filing off people and disgraceful to do this to children. GO TO HELL

They send out trick subscription traps and promise to cancel subscriptions, only to send yet another invoice the next month. They are notorious for this, and several of my family members have had the same issues with them. Their magazines are also full of typos and spelling/grammar mistakes. Not a good option.

My experience with ordering from Highlights has been completely unpleasant and I will never order from them again. 3 months ago I ordered gift subscriptions for my 5 grandkids for Christmas. This was to come with a free puzzle book and calendar. To this date only 3 of the kids have gotten their magizines and noe of the have gotten their puzzle book or calendar. I've had to contact customer service multiple times to try to straighten out the orders and each time have to spend at least 30 minutes to speak with people who only speak English as their 2nd language.

Highlights use to be great magazine but within the last few years has changed what they try to teach our children. They use their political views in the magazine. This was never an issue s few years ago. Also their billing and customer service is terrible. They tried extending a subscription by billing my credit card without my authorization. Thankfully that card had been changed prior to them doing it. Had to call them TWICE to get it corrected, and the last time I had to hang up and call back before I was able to understand the customer service rep. It took 13-17 minutes to get someone to answer the phone. Then they had the nerve to do a sales pitch on me.

This company specifically targets elderly people who have known the Highlights name for generations. My Mother in Law purchased a subscription for my kids. When she responded to one of their promotions for an add on Hidden Pictures, little did she know she was opening another account with them and starting a whole new subscription service. At some point my MIL was paying almost $100 a month for the subscriptions she added them to. When she called to cancel her account she did not know there was another account opened under her name which she continued to be billed for, for months. The Representative should have told her this, but I am sure they are all trained not to in order to keep the money flowing!

I also responded to a promotion that said you can get a free hidden pictures by submitting a postcard that came with one of the subscriptions. I read all the fine print to ensure I would not be charged anything, but of course I get a bill 1 month later! Such a shame, my kids enjoyed the Highlights but I will never ever do business with them again!

BUYER BEWARE

I ordered this for my friends 5 year old son. The first magazine arrived 4 months after my full payment was made to them at the time of the order. The first magazine came with stickers, and fun things... the following 3 months with nothing fun for a 5 year old. What is the point of selecting an age range if the magazines are geared to require an adult for every page and is filled with mostly stories and pictures not activities fun for a child of 5. If they wanted to read their child a story, they have lots of DISNEY BOOKS.

I cannot express how disappointed that I am that this is what Highlights Magazine has become. When my children were 5 years old 25 years ago, Highlights was geared towards children and came with fun stuff each time. My children loved them. GONE is that!!!

I called the 800-962-3661 I was given the option to cancel but they only refunded the 7 books and they 100% guarantee your child will like it or you will get a full refund, not the case! IF I AM BILLED FOR A RENEWAL, I MIGHT GO ATOMIC ON THIS 800-962-3661.

I strongly suggest using a different platform if you wish to engage with your child and Highlights is not that one!

I ordered a year of Highlights Magazine for my small child over 6 months ago. In that time we have only received 2 magazines! Their customer service is only open during business hours M-F so no way to complain or get a refund for working parents. I am very unhappy

My experience is the long wait for the first subscription. At the moment, they claim my first magazine should arrive a month and a half after paying. Not a short wait as advertised. National Geographic took only about 2 weeks. Clearly Highlights does not understand children and making them wait an 'eternity' for their present. Their daily advertising via my email started immediately.

I ordered a magazine for my child in October. It never arrived. I tried to chat, text, email, call... I used every feature they had available online to reach a representative but I could not get through to anyone. I feel so much regret in having made this purchase. It was nostalgia that guided my decision, but whatever resources they had 40 years ago, no longer exists. Do not waste your time, money, and effort with this product. It's a scam.

Not a good experience with Highlights.

I placed a subscription with Highlights to get ALL of the county issues titled Top Secret Adventures.
When i started this subscription, there was no option to buy the complete set outright.
I would have preferred that - to buy the whole set and be done with it.
But no, Highlights forced me into a month by month waiting period to slowly get all the issues for my home school curriculum.
So I had to plan ahead and start the subscription in enough time before I wanted to use them so I could get them all in time then rearrange their order to align with the continent units.
We receive like 18 of the issues no issue except getting the first one on time.
Then they suddenly my subscription was canceled in October saying we got everything and the series had ended (and was never going to be in print again).
HOWEVER, we were missing 8 issues including important countries like China and Brazil.
Highlights refused to provide for me the remaining issues.
That was not fair to me and the reasonable expectation I had when I signed up for this subscription - to receive ALL of the countries offered in the series.

Further, Highlights never sent a single email notifying me that the Top Adventure Series would be canceled NOR was I given any opportunity to buy overstock or missing issues to complete my set before they were out of stock.
This series has been around for decades and they suddenly canceled it on me without even a single option to make it right to me.
Not even the courtesy of an email.
That shows you how Highlights did not even consider that home school families might want a complete set of all the countries.... nor do they care about how they treat customers.

When I contacted them regarding this issue, they did not seem to care about my having an incomplete set.
They had no issues that I needed on hand to complete my set.
They were not going to print a couple copies for me.
They would not provide a digital file for missing issues either which would have been my expense to print!
All they said was sorry.

This forced me to run around on the internet hoping to find the issues and key chains for 8 different counties with unused workbooks.
I was able to find the South Africa, China, and Mexico new but without key chains - those i now have to buy separate.
I found someone willing to break up a lot to let me buy only South Korea, but again no key chain.
But we still need FOUR to complete our set: Spain, Thailand, Brazil, and Peru.
I found a seller on vacation that should have Spain for me to buy, but I have to wait til they get back.

At the end of this, I really wish we did NOT get a subscription with Highlights.
They don't care about getting you a complete set.
They have poor customer service.
They force you into monthly subscriptions instead of letting you just buy it all at once (which makes sense for geographical material useful for schooling).
The material in the Top Secret Adventures was a bit dated and it cost a lot for what you get.
Highlights clearly does not care about customer service or retention.

I see they put out a USA states subscription and I wanted to do that next, but I am VERY worried they will not get me all the issues, will cost a lot of money, you have to wait like how many months to get all the issues, and what is the point of not having ALL the states in the USA if they cancel it on you and don't care about you completing your set?

I don't recommend the Highlights company to anyone.
I really wonder who is running it now.
I miss what this company was in the 1990s.

On the morning of September 2, 2022, I went online to order the magazine subscription at Highlights.com, but I was unable to log into the account due to Highlights.com requiring an account number to find the account. No you cannot log in using your email and pass only. I did not get an account number, therefore, I had no way to verify my order, nor did I get an email for the order. Therefore, I called the customer number and did a text message, but neither one was available. So I sent an email via the Highlights.com website, to which they sent generic message with a email identifier number, still no account number. On the morning of September 7, 2022 around 9 am est, I called back into the customer number, sadly they asked me my account number and I told them that was the reason I called, and the guy was trying to sale me a Highlights book. I log in the account as I was on the phone with him and tried canceling my order, but it would not cancel, therefore, the customer service representative was supposed to cancel the order. I finally received a response to my missing account number question on the same day at around 3 pm est, which I responded that they account is suppose to be closed. I got another email on September 9, 2022 at 6:18 am est, giving me instructions on how to log into the Highlights.com, which I already knew how to do, but I didn't have the account number the system was asking for. Highlights was once a good company, but I now see that they are part of long list of companies that are incompetent, has extremely poor customer service, and refuse to provide the consumer a level of service that they are paying for. I should not had to wait almost a week for my account number, that should have been provided when I setup the online account or when I placed an order. I should not have to call my credit card company to be a refund because they refuse to cancel the order and issue a refund. NO I DON'T RECOMMEND HIGHLIGHTS.COM they are not worth the $39 for a yearly subscription. I decided to create a magazine for my little one myself, since I've done it before for a few organization, but it time consuming to do. I was just trying to give my little one something that I had when I was a child. I wanted to give her that good feeling of receiving something in the mail with our name on it.

Bought a year subscription. Received the first issue only. It’s now 6 months later. I emailed customer service regarding my subscription and was sent 1 newsletter (in a Manila envelope which was weird). I have not received any since even after email customer service with no response. They took my money without giving me a product.