Magazines Direct Reviews 810

I took out a subscription to a monthly magazine in January (eleven months ago) and so far I have only received four issues of the magazine. I have phoned and emailed the customer service, and each time I am told that there had been a glitch but that it had been fixed. In fact, all the replies to my emails, signed by different people, used the exact same wording: "We've recently experienced a system error... We can confirm that your account has now been corrected...". These stock phrases are obviously lifted straight out of the "How to reassure and fool our subscribers" handbook. My latest email, sent on December 4th, has so far been unanswered.
What a waste of (my) time and (my) money! Reading the comments below, I realise that my experience is far from being unique... How do Magazines Direct get away with it ???

I have a subscription with this joke of a company for Woman's Weekly as a yearly Christmas gift for my mother. A few weeks ago, I tried to renew the subscription online and there was ZERO facility for me to do this. Not even a box to click on my account page. I contacted customer services who sent me a ridiculous message claiming I could renew online, clearly not reading my email. I decided therefore to renew via the renewal letter this company sent me, so I sent a cheque. The cheque was cashed and the money left my account on the 29th November. Not a word came from this company about them receiving my money. I contacted customer service who claimed they had no record of my cheque and I had to send them a scan of the front and back of the cheque which they said 'you could get from your bank'. I contacted my bank who confirmed the cheque payee was 'Future Publishing' (this company) but they would send me a copy of the cheque at a cost of £4 which I am still waiting on. Out of curiosity, today I checked my magazine account and the renewal has gone though, so they clearly received my cheque and have not had the courtesy or common decency to let me know the magazine sub has renewed. Disgusting company and an abysmal way to do business with a repeat customer. I will not be using this idiotic company again after the 2025 subscription finishes. I will take my custom elsewhere to a company who know what they are doing and do not lose me money.

Took out a 4 issue subscription for £2 with Magazines Direct for Prog Magazine and they have only delivered 2 magazines. Now been told cancelled subscription and probably won't get final 2 issues. I really wanted issue 155 but told now sold out but you can still get it as a standalone issue on their website for £9.99! Complete rip off. Will not touch this magazine again.

I have been chasing problems with my Magazines Direct subscriptions with their team for the last 4 weeks, and disappointingly there is still no resolution.

Late September I received an email from the Magazines Direct Managing Director to confirm that Guitar Player magazine (which I subscribed to) was halting publishing after 58 years.

The Managing Director said I would receive my last issue of Guitar Player December '24 and I would receive an alternate subscription to Guitar World/ receive "another 13 issues of Guitar World which will be covered by the remaining balance on your account.”

I replied to the Managing Director back to confirm I wished to receive Guitar World.

However, when I hadn't received my December copy of Guitar Player I called Magazines Direct subscriptions and they said the December ’24 issue of Guitar Player is now out of stock and I won’t be receiving it.

They also said I didn’t have a subscription to Guitar World!
I said I wanted to raise a complaint with a senior manager at Magazines Direct as they have not delivered what I was promised (by the Managing Director no less!)

Despite calling and emailing Magazines Direct for the last 4 weeks to resolve the issue, and numerous staff suggesting I will receive a call back form the UK senior manager and the complaints team, I have not received any telephone calls from Magazines Direct senior management to resolve this issue - which indicates they are not treating this issue seriously.

I wish Trustpilot would give the option of zero stars as so many customers of Magazines Direct comment.

Looking at the other reviews it's clear that there are serious problems with MD, you should seriously AVOID them.

No magazine recieved, and judging from other reviews hasn't been dispatched, and unlikely to get it.

Tantamount to fraud
I ordered a single issue of a magazine I was unable to find in the shops. My money was taken and I got a confirmation email with an order number. No magazine arrived.
I called a few weeks later to ask what had happened to my order and I was told there was no record of any order so I should send an email with proof of payment etc. I sent an email and heard nothing back.
I then called and I was told the magazine in question was never in stock and that I'd get a refund which of course I never got so I called back again and there was no record of my order or any of the emails or calls I'd made. I was told that there was no order and that I should send over proof that money had been taken from my account. I made a couple of further calls but I was always back on square one.
I am now assuming I'll never get my money back, I'm giving up now because it's simply not worth all the hassle, I've spent nearly three hours on the phone being put on hold.
I wouldn't trust MD at all now, it's a shame because I'd like to subscribe to a few magazines now they're harder to find in the shops. Looking at the other reviews it's clear that there are serious problems with MD, you should seriously AVOID them.

The free gifts are false advertising. I saw a promotion with a free gift, gave it a try. Never got the gift. I've contacted them 4 times over 7 months. Just get "we're waiting for more information". What information?? Reeks of scam.

If I could have given zero I would have. Ordered some back issue magazines and only one was delivered. When I contacted them, they claimed that they hadn't received my money and this was the reason they hadn't been sent. After I provided evidence that the money had gone through they promised that they were looking into it. I've still not received the magazines or a refund. Seems like they like to take your money but not provide the service. Only wish I'd read the previous reviews before I had anything to do with them.

Good service. I ordered the story of arsenal by FourFourFour Two and received it in a couple of days.

For almost a year now I’m trying to have them honour my paid subscription which they cancelled without my agreement or reimbursing me!!!

*And I’m still waiting for magazine direct‘s answer via trust pilot - why don’t they contact me directly? They have my details

Tried a number of times to set up a subscription but always experience a difficulty. On one ocasion when I thought it had gone through, a few days later received an email telling me to reapply as the transaction had not gone through.
I had previously cancelled a subscription owing to intermittent non arrival of magazines but thought I'd give it another go as actual like the ComputerActive magazine. However looks like service has not changed and along with other Trustpilot reviews it seems this is not a company to trust.
Would recommend the company reads one of their magazine to discover how to set up a customer friendly and workable web site!

FINAL EDIT: Changing the rating to 4/5. The issue came, finally, and judging by the stamps on the package Magazines Direct had nothing to do with such long delivery. It took 10 business days for the magazine to arrive in Poland and then it took almost the whole month for the Polish Post Service to deliver it. Still, I cannot put 5/5 anyway due to the lack of ability to track your package and no customer account for single orders.

EDIT #3: 29 business days after creating my order - and nothing arrived. No contact from the company. Will never order from them again and I highly advise others not do it. Burning your hard-earned money would make more sense than buying magazines here.

EDIT #2: 19 business days after creating my order I still haven't received the magazine. Will continue to wait and will update this review if it ever arrives. If I knew it would be like this I would just buy it from my local retailer for a higher price instead of missing on the issue completely.

EDIT #1: the day after review was posted I got the answer to my email. Support told me that the issue was already shipped and I should allow 10-15 days since order placement for it to come. We'll see. Still strange that I haven't gotten any order confirmation email, though.

Well, I've tried. I really like Retro Gamer magazine and wanted to subscribe to it, but after reading reviews here I thought that I should try to order a single issue first, see how it will be handled. After all, 10 euro is not 150.

Of course, nothing good came out of it.

First of all, they have the possibility to track your subscription, ok, but there is no way to track your orders of single issues. You get an email with your order number and that's it. With any other question you have to contact them directly, as their store has no customer profile feature. In 2024. No customer profile.

Anyway, I've placed my order on November 2nd and all I got was the email with my order number, which was NOT even the order confirmation email. It just said that I should wait for the order confirmation email to come with delivery details. This second email still haven't arrived two weeks later.

I've written to support - with no response after two days.

Naturally, I won't bother to ask for a refund and I don't expect this magazine to ever be delivered. If it comes - I will update this review. If you don't see the update it means this day never came.

Completely incompetent business. How they stay afloat in 2024 is a big question, unless it's the conscious scam.

Tried it out and
1) had to chase down my print subscription and after doing that got one issue with an email that said “no longer in print”. They did offer a credit and changed to another magazine but not what I wanted
2) tried to order a single issue which wasn’t received. After chasing iot down told “ lost in the mail”

All in all just a poor experience

Absolutely terrible
I signed up for the 442 magazine and my money was taken.
No issues received so I contacted MD. I was told that they were sent out etc etc.
I wrote an email to magazines direct who told me that “ sorry” your magazines were never sent out , we can re issue if still available or send out further issues,
One of the staff member is lying and that is the service they provide.
I do have the email I sent and the reply I received.
Do not order form these incompetent people . They will take your money and then make excuses.

I was concerned about my ability to cancel a subscription based on the poor reviews I saw here. But my experience was just the opposite. Within an hour of my sending a cancelation request, I had confirmation that my subscription was cancelled.
Excellent customer service!

I’m fuming. I’ve been getting a cycling magazine sent to my address literally every week for months. The address is correct and the surname but it says Mr Harriet Bray and we don’t have any Mr Harriet’s. I have never ordered and we don’t cycle. I’ve rung and sent loads of emails and they said the can’t cancel as I’m not the person that ordered it and I can’t give credit card details as I haven’t paid! I’ve returned the last 5 saying return to sender not know! Who is the omnibusman or something similar to speak to to stop this!!

Terrible customer service. Ordered a book that was in stock 10 days ago and received an email 7 days later to say it had been posted and would be with me in 5-10. Clearly they posted it from Australia. To make matters worse I then had an email today asking for a review. Please avoid this company as their service is shocking. Wish I had never bothered.

Absolutely horrible customer service to say the least and staff who lies to its consumers. Ordered from them early October , got a email saying to check my email for tracking ( got zero updates or tracking )

Oct 27th sent them an email asking what’s going on with my order.

The reply I got was pretty poor and was told my order was sent and was asked to confirm my address

My next email from them (Oct 28) was that they “ canceled and refunded my order “ on October 21st ( yet I got zero update about this either ) or was there ever a refund.

My refund came on the 28th after I told them I was going to open a claim on them

Funny , told me it shipped when it never did

Told me the refund happened on the 21st , never came and I’m sure it never would have at all unless I emailed

Did the offer any form of resolution ? Nope.

10/10 the worst customer service.

Unable to give 0 Stars, but this is all the company deserve. I have held two subscriptions with this company for years, last month I was informed by email that they were to cancel my subscription, as my magazine was no longer financially viable. As a loyalty bonus I received a &10 gift voucher, after many attempts to use my voucher online (Magazinesdirect.com) I am unable to find anywhere to enter my voucher code, they are wanting me to subscribe to another publication, and use the voucher the reduce the costs, something I do not want to do. After receiving the voucher on 2 October, various emails, and three telephone calls to a call centre offshore, I am no further forward,
below is the automated response
(This is an automated acknowledgment of your enquiry and we aim to reply within 2 days)
Dont waste your time with this company.....

don't expect to receive any items you buy from here.