Hearst Magazines UKArvostelua 

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

I've signed up for the Hearst magazines Good Housekeeping VIP package that included 12 issues + a beauty box and few other small perks. After a while I received an email saying that they run out of the beauty boxes and it will be replaced with... wait for it... more magazines...
They did not give a chance to the client to even choose if they accept such a swap.
I called them to cancel the subscription and demand a refund, the agent promised I will get my £99 back and that I will receive an email with in 24-48 hours. 5 days later, NOTHING! I called again and another agent started promising the same. The 24 - 48 hours are gone and again NOTHING!
They are scammers and liars, there is no other way to put it. I hope that people will read this and will stay away from all HEARST subscriptions, don't be fooled like I was.
Plus I keep being bombarded with daily emails about their partner offers, I keep unsubscribing but it keeps hitting me like a plague!

Further update! They refunded my money. However they completely ignore the GDPR laws. I specifically stressed that I want no communication from them onwards. I explained that I want to receive no calls from them, no emails and never hear their name ever again. Someone from their team called me that same evening to chat... Then there was an email. Then they shipped a parcel to me. And now I got an email from Trustpilot that Hearst is asking for more details on my review. They keep harassing me and ignoring me saying I want to hear nothing about them ever again... I want nothing! no calls, no emails, no gifts and to never hold any of their magazines in my hands. Why is that not clear?

Cancelling a subscription that i have had for 10 years was painful. Rather than accept my decision immediately they offer a discount - ok i kind of get that. When i refused i was told i was going to be given some time to think about cancelling - erm no, that isnt happening. Customer advisor told straight and without doubt to not renew subscription. I will never subscribe again to this outfit.

What poor customer service!! I ordered the GH subscription on 28 October and got confirmation email. Didn’t hear anything further until I got a letter from Hearst on 14 November saying there was a problem with my payment as my bank needed another authorisation. I phoned Hearst on 15 November to sort out the payment problem only to be told the order had been cancelled and could not be reinstated. So disappointing!!
They sent me the order confirmation by email so why not follow it up with another email to say there was a problem? Ridiculous to send a letter that only arrived 2 weeks later and cancel the order in the meantime without telling me??
Don’t understand this approach at all. Poor and very disappointing!

They make it so hard to cancel magazine subscriptions. You have to involve them and send an email, rather than logging into your account and doing it yourself. Messaged 11 days ago and heard nothing. Chased after a week - still nothing. I have a recurring payment due to go out and I’m trying to cancel before that happens. I’ll involve my bank if I get charged as this is unacceptable.

Do not take a subscription.
Trying to cancel prior to renewal with no timely response, funds removed from account without any notification not even a receipt.
Very poor customer service, several emails before a very generic response.
Please do not use, I've canceled my credit card so it can't happen again next year.

Unlawful practices. Pray on those with disabilities. Greedy and immoral conduct.

Following my review, I was contacted by customer support and after a conversation regarding my experience I have had a refund. I’d like to thank this company for listening to my concerns and responding appropriately, of this I am very grateful and will be happy to purchase magazines from them in the future.

Won’t ever be using these ever again, seems like other people have had the same issue with them taking money for renewal early, I had a 12 month subscription and I’d put in my diary what I thought was ample time to cancel-they took my money £54.99 with no prior email to advise me of this, and told me that if I wanted to cancel, I would have had to advise them 8 weeks in advance.

The company took the subscription out of my bank account two months before it was due without any notification to me that they were going to do this. I contacted them to cancel on the day that I saw it was pending in my bank account. They have said that I can't cancel unless it's within two days of the payment being taken. I replied and said that I contacted you by phone and online the same day that payment was pending. They have now come back saying that it was due a week before on the 26th September rather than the 3rd October when it was taken. The subscription wasn't due to renew until December 2025! I have found the whole process of dealing with this company so stressful and I personally feel that they way that they operate, far from being transparent as they have informed me they are by giving customers two days from payment to request a refund, they are very dishonest. I don't know how they are allowed to get away with this.

*Please be aware that Hearst magazines have replied to Trustpilot with reference to other reviews requesting further information,details and claim that they have had no response from Trustpilot. They have also requesting customers contact them directly. My understanding of the reviews that I have read is that reviewers have contacted them directly and haven't got any where with them, that they are really frustrating angry, hence the poor reviews which reflect this. That's the case with myself. Only this morning I have replied to their email directly as I have done frequently since they took my money. I believe that asking customers to contact them directly is like an additional slap in the face. They know that they have already been contacted directly and they know how arrogant and dismissive they have been.

They took payment for an annual subscription early with no warning or notification. Email's and phone calls were ignored. Not sure how a company can operate with this little care for its customers or statutory consumer rights.

I ordered a special offer subscription of their Good Housekeeping but then Hearst Magazines took £59.99 out of my bank without notifying me 2 months before the subscription was due to expire. I didn't realise that it was an auto-renew subscription. Two emails were sent to them with no reply. I then rang their customer service and the lady told me that because I hadn't cancelled within 2 working days I would not receive a refund. This sounds illegal, surely the online 14 day cooling off period would apply. I will now wait 15 days and see if my bank can sort them out. This company should be on Watchdog for their dodgy business practices. My advice is to avoid them like the plague.

Won’t ever be using these ever again, seems like other people have had the same issue with them taking money for renewal early, I had a 12 month subscription and when I phoned to cancel it they told me I couldn’t as they have already taken £49 out of my account 2 months before the end date.Obviously a problem if it’s happening to others.

A renewal automatically came out of my credit card a month too soon. It should've come out in November it came out in October. There was no alert that an automatic renewal was about to be requested. I was going to cancel anyway. I rang them as well as used their contact webpage. When I finally got through the adviser was trying to sell me more products was not listening to what I was saying. She was basically saying it was my fault - which it wasn't because the monies were taken a month early and I had been trying to cancel. I do not think Hearst Magazines are honest or transparent. I would not recommend them at all.

14 Oct 2025 - still waiting for refund. - Reply to my first email re country living Autumn special was that it was out of stock and I hadn't been charged for it. So checked PayPal and my credit card this morning only to find that I have been charged £15 - I ordered the Christmas special as well and received it. Am now awaiting Reply to my 2nd email requesting £7.50 refund.

Biggest bunch of robbing, cheating, duplicitous b-stards. Absolute disgrace of a company. Taken £50 out of my account, which they accept they have done erroneously, but noone is sorting it out. Like being trapped in a Kafka nightmare. Without question, the worst company I've ever dealt. Just look at the reviews on here. Absolutely shameless. Criminal company.

Edit: customer service did eventually respond and I received my box!

Terrible customer service!

I ordered a beauty box on 25th August - the order never arrived and I rang the Hearst helpline and was advised that it had been returned to them by the courier (delivery was never attempted).

The lack of updates and level of customer service is not good.

I STILL have not received my beauty box despite the £78 being taken from my account.

I signed up to Prima magazine at the NEC Birmingham and paid £40. They now tell me I don't have a subscription and have not received the payment despite me having sent them a screenshot of the bank transaction. My bank are now attempting a charge back. Be aware - this is not a standing order or direct debit but a recurring payment that ONLY they can stop. Avoid avoid avoid

I purchased the Elle beauty advent calendar on 4th September. On 10th September I had a notification on my Apple Pay that the transaction was declined. Turns out, Hearst did not actually have any stock of the calendar so just declined the transaction. I had no correspondence of this from Hearst so actually rang my bank to enquire. On emailing Hearst customer services, the response was that they don’t have the calendar in stock yet but are due a delivery at unknown time, so they declined the transaction (SIX days after purchase). They then suggested I have to keep checking their website to see when it might be back in stock. Turns out the website still shows it for sale, I can add it to my basket etc, yet they have no stock in their warehouse? Why can’t they just not decline my transaction but send me the product when it arrives to their warehouse? Their customer services response was consistently that I have to continue to check their website, which is impossible when the calendar is shown as “in stock” when this is not true. I also bought at a lower “intro” price than the calendar is now showing.
Awful service in so many ways!!