Magazines Direct Avaliações 819

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.

I subscribed and paid for an offer of 12 months subscription to H&H. After launching the App, confirming my login etc successfully I was unable to download current publication… I was only allowed free access to magazines 4 months out of date. I explained all this in detail to Customer Services, and just got generic ‘we will get back to you’ replies… After 2 further complaints from me I was promoted to a Red Alert case number! Then……. NOTHING! I’ve given up with them and phoned to demand my money back. Incompetence is too generous a word to describe this outfit.

So I’ve now received the generic ‘Oh we are so sorry’ email from them following this review! They’ve asked me to provide my customer number which I did on the review above. Just shows they do not give a S**T.

This company keeps emailing me to say that they are having problems with my payment method. When I call them they say everything is ok! They can NEVER transfer you to someone in the UK.. I just had a missed call from them and they still have no clue what they are doing! They are a waste of time..

They said wait 5 weeks, I waited 10 and they sent the wrong thing. I am demanding my money back and they are uncooperative

UPDATE: finally got my refund. Will still never do business with them again.

What can be said that hasn't been said by other hundreds of unhappy customers?
I bought my subscription from magazines.co.uk and they have good reviews on this site, so I thought I had nothing to worry about, but the problem is they use this company for delivery, and it's starting to feel I got scammed.
Like many others, if I could give 0 stars I would.
Just deliver my damn magazines already!

I had a paper magazine subscription with them. I noted they were charing me more that the advertised prices. I spoke to cust service.....No help... so advised to cancel at end of current subscription. The cancelled immediately so had to chase for the last two mags. Eventually arrived together, Late.
They sent me an offer of a discount on an online subscription. I made the mistake of accepting....they acknowledged my order with the correct price but took more from my bank. Tried to sort by email and by phone......no help. Called my bank to get refund of unauthorised payment. I will miss the mag but not the hassle of trying to deal with magazines direct.

This company lost two subscriptions I had had for years. Said I didn't have a subscription at all. Customer service is a waste of time, they couldn't help me on the phone or by email. In fact they have now ignored my emails. When I pointed out they had been taking money from my account by direct debit they didn't have an answer. Do not use this company, if you can find another magazine.

What a shambles - 4 weeks and still no e-gift card - what's difficult about this ? Customer services are useless and the whole organisation is pathetic - avoid at all costs

the order number is 65765880 - placed

If only you could give 0 stars, it would be more appropriate. it is so difficult to stop a subscription, the only way I have found out how to do it is to stop the card; it is literally impossible to log onto the website and get into my account and the phone numbers do not connect. Beware of the great initial price offer!

Not even worth one star. The worst customer experience I've ever had, bar none. Service staff are absolutely clueless. You just go around in circles with them. Incompetence doesn't even cover it.

I've had more than one bad experience with this company. Most recently, I never received the Christmas issue of SFX magazine. I chased it up; they said there had been some kind of technical problem which meant that some subscription copies had not gone out, and they would send a replacement. Replacement never arrived; this time they blamed the post. Here I am in April, still no magazine: I thought the reason people subscribed to a magazine was to make sure they never miss an issue? Going back a little, I ordered several one-shot bookazines from them, but only received a couple. They suggested it might be due to my credit card company rejecting the order, but it later emerged that it was because their computer system could only cope with a maximum of two items per order! (I'm assuming their computer system was Horizon.) Eventually got most of the magazines I ordered - although they generously sent me two copies of some of them, along with a magazine about Slipknot (also sent twice) instead of a magazine about 80s cinema, which I have never received. They have reassured me that I have not been overcharged for all the duplicates, etc., but their track reciord does not exactly inspire trust. What a company. Mind-blowing incompetence.