Magazines Direct Reviews 810

I haven't actually placed any orders and I'm glad I haven't after reading the reviews.
I went on the website as looking for back copies, but could not reject any of the cookies or deselect adverts/vendors. They only seem to give you the option to accept them all, and I'm not doing that. What a con!

Ordered magazine, didn't turn up. Contacted support and they said they'd send another but still hasn't turned up. Will never order from this place again. (wish i checked them on trust pilot before ordering)

During a check through my bank statement this month I came across a payment taken by Magazines Direct of £29.99. Surprising as I do not have a current subscription with them. Further investigation showed I had overlooked the same payment being taken from my account on the same date in 2022 and 2023. I held previous subscriptions for 2 magazines both terminated in January 2023 and neither for £29.99. I duly contacted customer services on 2.8.24 and was asked to email proof of the payments being taken as they couldn’t find anything on my account that corresponded with these amounts. This was duly done and I received a response addressed to a completely different person using a subscription number that did not pertain to me. I replied pointing this out and received a further inane email acknowledging my payments were taken for the unknown subscription and another unrecognised one and apologies for the inconvenience! I phoned again today, the customer service operator agreed that the subscriptions were not in my name and that the payments should not have been taken. She has promised to escalate this ( I grow weary!!!) and contact me with her solution by the end of this week. I felt obliged to point out that my expectation was for a full refund of £89.97, the only solution for money wrongfully taken from my account. The erroneous use of my bank account is a data breach by this company, in their own terms and conditions such incidents should be reported to the Data Protection Office at Future Publishing. The address can be googled on line, they just send you in circles on the Future Publishing website. I urge anyone who has experienced something similar or who has paid for products they have not received to not give up. It is extremely tiresome pursuing these people for a satisfactory resolution, however, I realised reading these reviews (mostly 1*) that all these amounts of money improperly taken add up to a very considerable amount in the company bank account and an abuse of the customer. Don’t use this company and please discourage anyone who will listen to you not to use this company, it is not properly organised, it is not well run and when things go wrong they suddenly become very inaccessible and so hard to resolve.
As of 9.8.24 I have not received any requests from anyone asking for any further information. The case reference number for the email trail between myself and Magazines Direct customer services was included in the hidden information on my original review and would include all the information the company requires to investigate this matter. In spite of the assurances from the operator I spoke with on 6.8.24 I have heard nothing more.

Awful customer service. I subscribed to period living for years. I finally cancelled after paying for a further 3 copies which never turned up. After numerous emails I managed to receive a further 2 issues but im now losing the will to live to get my final issue. Never Again!!!

I have moved address 4 months ago I informed them of my change of address 3 months ago but they sent the next 2 magazines too my old address I rang and told them this but received no apology for this but was informed I would miss out on the July issue and receive the August issue at my new address as though it's a big favour being done I subscribed so that I would get every issue so I was upset by this and cancelled my subscription only too be hounded by daily e mails asking me too subscribe again the service provided did not match my expectations I would think seriously before you subscribe

Still not received my Gardening magazine chased with no reply nothing but a scam

Awful customer support who rarely reply. I pay for magazines I rarely receive. The online portal doesn't allow me to access my subs to change address, cancel or update payment details. The whole thing is a mess. They are literally killing an already dying industry.

They overcharged my subscription to cyclingnews 3 years in a row. Incompetence at best, fraud at worst.
Do not buy from them.

I think this might be a scam website, none of my orders have yet to arrived.
They do answer via mail, but the answers are like once it was sent we have no idea where it is.

This Company Is A Disgrace, Avoid At All Costs

On 27 Nov 2023 I paid this so-called company £75.72 for a subscription magazine for my grandson’s Christmas present. The company remains in breach of contract. It failed to deliver even a single edition of the magazine and I have tried for 8 months to obtain a refund, but to no avail.
I have recorded well over 30 emails backwards and forwards with this company. They are always so apologetic in their replies and say they will sort the problem as soon as possible. However, sort the problem they do not! They kick the can down the road and hope you will go away! I have discovered that most of their emails are standard copy and paste emails because I have received several lengthy reply emails with exactly the same wording, but sent from different individuals.
I have also phoned them on many occasions to complain, but once again it goes nowhere. I have asked for my complaint to be escalated, that seems to be a no go process. I have asked to speak to a senior manager or director. The response is they are in a meeting, but they will phone me back. But they never do! It is impossible to get beyond the call desk administrators.
I have written and threatened legal action through the Small Claims Court, but it is like water off a duck’s back.
Magazinesdirect.com is owned and operated by Future Publishing Limited, a company registered in England and Wales. This is a £400m turnover company with Operating Profits circa £100m.
I have been desperately frustrated by this company. My grandson was terribly upset by not receiving his magazines which I promised him as a Christmas present. I am a pensioner in my 70s who can ill afford to lose the money I paid. However, I have now given up chasing! This £400m company seems to have a greater need for my £75.72 than I do, it is tantamount to theft, scamming a pensioner!
That’s why I say and repeat, this company is a disgrace, avoid at all costs.
A one-star Trustpilot review is actually too good for Magazinesdirect, it should be MINUS 5!

UPDATE: Supplied requested information after they responded to my review and never heard another thing. Figures I guess.

I’ve been subscribed to magazine for several years through magazines direct. Recently, I received a letter to say that my upcoming direct debit annual subscription fee would be increasing by a considerable amount. This letter only arrived on the day my subscription was due to renew, and the increased amount had already been taken from my bank that day. I could not believe that this was not illegal, it even states in the small print that the bottom of the letter that if there are any increases to the direct debit you will be notified at least three working days before the money is taken.

When I contacted magazines direct regarding this they skirted around the subject and then accidentally admitted that the letter had been posted on the 28th of June. This was the last day I should have received the letter in order to receive three working days notice, and they were only just posting it. How could they possibly expect me to have received it on the same day? I have checked with my bank and they have confirmed with me that it is illegal to increase a direct debit payment like this without notice. Leaving sending out letters this late is clearly a tactic used by magazines direct to increase their profits in an underhand way.

I bought 2 magazine subscriptions and for 6 months , of the supposed 12 issues I should have received , only ONE arrived. One!! At first I gave them the benefit of the doubt and thought maybe there are issues with international delivery so I updated my address to a local UK address and the issue is STILL THE SAME!! How incompetent can you be that you can’t even make local delivery successfully?

The issue persisted for several months and every time I get in touch with them the almost bot like response was always “we have no way to track delivery. We will send you a replacement issue” no tracking number for a shipment in this day and age? Really? Needless to say NONE of the replacement issues arrived.

I have had just about enough of this incompetence so I requested a refund. Their reply? “We will send you a cheque” even though I never payed via cheque and in the 1st place the issue was DELIVERY so how can I expect this magic cheque to arrive?!!

In the end I bypassed them entirely and started ordering the magazine directly through a 3rd party website. Since then I’ve been receiving them with no issues.

It’s a shame though because this scammer company delivers many highly regarded magazines and if you buy subscription they are the ones responsible for delivery.

Stay away from these scammers at ALL COSTS!!

I received an email to renew my subscription so I did.

Turns out it was for a duplicate subscription of the same magazine. I raised this with them but they wont do anything.

They tricked me into have a duplicate subscription so I pay double and receive the same magazine twice (why would I want that?!!)

And all they can do is cancel one but not a refund. So I have paid for nothing.

I strongly feel they tricked me here, and they have been no help at all.

So I wont be continuing with them, and would advise all others to avoid this company.

UPDATE 26/07/24
So after a lot of emails you have now informed me that that duplicate subscription has been cancelled, so that is good.

However I am now getting emails saying I am missing out and need to re-subscribe.
So the very same thing that tricked me into this in the first place appears to be happening again, so after all the conversations you clearly have not taken any of this into account??

So do I no longer have any subscriptions? still have the two duplicate subscriptions?, or something else?

I have no idea what is going on anymore.
As a customer who gave you direct debit details I feel it is critical that you are clear what is being provided, and stop trying to trick customers into duplicate subscriptions.

Really odd behaviour.

Update: MD supports seems to think this is regarding a single purchase. This is my review after dealing with MD since 2012 but specifically with my experience after Future Ltd. took over. I've contacted support and they decided to help after I threatened to leave but this doesn't make up for many years of poor service.

I've tried to distill my experience with Magazines Direct since Future Publishing Ltd. absorbed it. Support with Imagine Publishing was quite good but just stay away now. I only stuck with them till now since I love Retro Gamer magazine and can't get it elsewhere:
-Upped my subscription rate when I replaced an expired credit card
-Mystery charge to my credit card that took me 8(!!!) months via two tickets to resolve via customer support
-charging me inflated subscription rates instead of the agreed upon rates
-gave me Retro Gamer for free by mistake (I really enjoyed this egregious mistake :)
-many, many failed purchases that went through on their website including MFA verification because they manually process the transaction incorrectly *after* the website purchase.
-many hours wasted with my credit card support since they just confirmed there was no reason for purchases to fail
-sending me *toll* numbers to call for support ad nauseam and in bad faith after I repeatedly tell them they don't make financial sense for to call.
-polite but scripted email responses with very little content
-no way to track customer service tickets except via email
-customer service tickets are resolved by simply stopping communication. No agent has asked me if a ticket has been resolved except maybe over the phone (see comment about toll numbers)
-no way to track purchases on their website (subscriptions get listed but no purchase date or cost. No bookazines etc.)
-no receipt when purchasing on their website.
-a red click crack team that doesn't assist.
-feedback through Feefo which I can't use despite months of back and forth with MD and Feefo support.
-different agents respond to each individual communication
-Weeks between responses even though they "aim" for two day response time.
-agents who don't read the ticket history and return me to square one.

Just avoid this publisher or be prepared to run the gauntlet.

Its a bit sad really, they keep advertising my mag Tour de France premium which they have not delivered. Ordered 2 weeks ago, order MD-1130757. So they clearly do not have it but keep trying to get more buyers?
I have contacted them on their contact email but they have not responded either.
Very disapointing and time wasting.

for most of the last month I have been receiving 1-3 emails every day from magazinesdirect DOT com - WHY as I have never asked them to email me?

I have tried multiple times to Unsubscribe from these Emails - all I get is a page of html (I tried to paste it below but TrustPilot doesn't allow this).

I cancelled a subscription that was being paid by direct.
Tried to set up a new subscription but they failed to sort it out and I missed out on a special offer.
Four months later I set up a new subscription for the digital version, only to find that they ILLEGALLY used my credit card to pay for the direct debit on the cancelled subscription. I have an email from them stating the subscription was cancelled.
They have broken data protection laws and are no better than crooks. I will be reporting them to the information commissioners office.
Still waiting for a refund.

Like many others have said in their reviews, I wish I had read the reviews before ordering with Magazines Direct. If you do want to place an order with them, DO NOT USE DIRECT DEBIT!! We had 3 magazines with them which we stopped receiving last year. But they continued to take our money by DD. I have been trying to resolve this issue with their Customer Service team since May by phone and email. Every time I contact them I get different answers but no one is resolving the issue. We are not getting the magazines but we are being charged. Why do they not understand this? Every time I deal with Customer Service I get a different agent. This is a call centre at its absolute worst. I don't even want to give them one star as they don't deserve it. Going nowhere. Really frustrated. Someone in their UK office needs to get a grip and sort out their abysmal service. Oh, and please sort out my issue too. Waiting to hear from you ...

UPDATE: So, the response via TrustPilot on 25th June was to respond to their email with the information requested. This I did on 26th June. Today (15th July) I received a reply to my email requesting the same information again, even though they already have the details (and ironically it was in the email they sent back to me, directly below their latest email). They owe us over £150. But no one at this company seems to be concerned about all their rubbish reviews or the abysmal "service". Surely someone in their UK office should be concerned that their helpdesk is unable to provide anything resembling customer care?? The agents are polite but either don't have the right systems to be able to help or they just don't understand what they need to do ... or both. Please, UK office, get in touch and resolve this issue.

UPDATE 22/07/24 (in response to yet another formulaic Trustpilot response from Magazines Direct): I am tired of providing the details to this company. I checked with our bank today and they confirmed that they can see all the payments to Magazines Direct which allegedly Magazines Direct say they haven't received. I am still waiting for someone from the UK office of Magazines Direct to take some interest rather than letting this matter drift on with the overseas Customer Service Team. Incidentally, the bank suggested I contact Action Fraud as my next step.

I ordered 2 trial subscriptions from them for Metal Hammer and Classic Rock magazines and both FAILED to be delivered despite ordering nearly 6 months ago. When I emailed, just got the typical BLAH BLAH BLAH generic BS replies so Ive asked for a refund. Do yourselves a massive favour folks and dont bother your hole ordering from this bunch of amateurs. They dont deserve your custom!

Wish I'd seen Trust Pilot reviews before ordering. If you want a magazine order it through your local newsagents NOT this company. Pursuing claim through my credit card company.