Good Food Arvostelua 

Pay enough to the BBC for biased content through a TV license used to love the good food aspect not paying disgusting rip off.

Was gifted a print and digital subscription in November which I've been unable to activate. Have spent significant time trying to resolve by email and phone but unsuccessful. Tried email with a formal complaint but they have still not addressed the issue.

Misleading offer & poor customer service.
I subscribed to BBC Good Food on 5th November 2025 after being offered a free slow cooker, which was advertised as arriving within 4–6 weeks. That timeframe has passed and I still haven’t received it.
I’ve contacted customer services repeatedly by email (6th, 11th, 23rd and 29th December) and phone (16th and 31st December), but have been given conflicting information and no resolution. When I asked to raise a complaint, I was told there is no complaints department, which is unacceptable for a UK subscription service. I have since been forced to submit a formal written complaint just to try to get this addressed.
To make matters worse, my first magazine issue was also delayed. It was promised for 3rd December but didn’t arrive until 27th December, meaning I waited around three extra weeks for my first issue.
Overall, this has been a very disappointing experience with poor communication and unfulfilled promotional promises. I would strongly caution others about subscribing based on “free gift” offers.

UPDATE– still unresolved, contact details failing
Following my original review, Immediate Media responded to say the issue had been “escalated” and apologised for the delays. However, when I attempted to reply, the email address provided was invalid. I then tried the same email addresses that previously worked, and those are now also returning “address not found” messages.
This means I currently have no working email contact to respond in writing, despite having an unresolved complaint, a formal complaint already submitted, and a letter before action issued.
The promised free slow cooker has still not been supplied, and the matter remains unresolved. Being unable to contact a subscription company in writing while a dispute is ongoing is extremely concerning.
I will now be proceeding via my bank and consumer protection routes. I would strongly caution others about relying on promotional offers or expecting effective customer service.

UPDATE 18/02/2026
Final Update: Resolved via Chargeback

After several months of chasing, unreturned emails (including server delivery failures), and being told a refund had been processed when it had not, I had no option but to escalate this through my payment provider.
The issue related to a £49.99 BBC Good Food subscription which included a promotional slow cooker that was never supplied. I was later informed that a refund had supposedly been processed on 6 February, however no refund was ever received.
Following a formal chargeback investigation, the claim has now been resolved in my favour.
It is disappointing that this required formal financial dispute action rather than being resolved directly and transparently. Consumers should not have to go through this level of escalation to receive what they are entitled to.
I hope the company improves its communication and refund handling processes going forward.

This website used to be amazing. I would use every week to find new stunning dinners to cook. Now just full of adverts and monetisation strategies. You no longer follow any recipes to cook. Constant adverts are so annoying and no longer use this website. Rest in peace!

Cancelled my subscription as it still has adverts so I've no idea what I actually paid for apart from a piddly little magazine. 4 weeks later and I still haven't had my money back, the managed to credit me and Bill me again in the same day! Just like the BBC, robbing B*****ds

I decided to sign up for the 99p for 3 month subscription offer. There was a note that it would cost £24.99 after this time but my plan was to cancel before this.
When I clicked on the 99p option I was immediately charged £24.99 via Apple Pay.
I contacted them immediately to explain the issue but still no response after 5 days.
I have cancelled the subscription to ensure they can’t auto renew but can’t get a refund.
My bank won’t help - it seems that these companies can just take your money and get away with it.

Even if you accept that this is a commercial arm of the BBC, the intrusiveness of the ads is appalling compared to other recipe sites. It's gone from my go-to site to a never-use

My subscriber number cannot be found, so despite paying money I cannot use my paid app features.

Most deserving of the 1-star however is that the customer service couldn’t get me off the phone quick enough. They didn’t answer my question, promised me an email with details that never happened and they haven’t taken my call since.

Let’s just hope I actually receive my slow cooker and they don’t try to weasel out of that one behind some “payment method exclusive” that’s a secret, like some people have found

This site is not affiliated with the British Broadcasting Corporation UK (BBC) and you should not trust them as such.

Like the other reviews below, I already pay the BBC a license fee and am not paying again to remove cookies or have a supposed public service broadcaster sell my data.

used to use it as a default recipe finder, no more.

Asking to pay to reject cookies and when you check conditions to reject they are soooooo intrusive! Seriously!!!!?

Was good but now nothing to do with the BBC, it is a private company who wants to sell your data to fund itself.

Where to begin: it was working great for the user, when it was not trying to be something other than it is - a webpage with recipes. Then, it would outwardly appear, an overly monetarily ambitious management took over. And they decided they needed a web app - but on the cheap. Slow, unstable, useless software. And started aggressively pushing it onto the customer. But to that point, it could still be avoided, one could choose to use only web. Now, either they want us to pay money for some mass access of bunch of services that have no connection to this one, and therefore it is unlikely that anyone is really going to use them all, or accept a very suspicious, very long list of tracking cookies. Any decent webpage which uses advertisement or subscription model, offers the possibility to refuse or curb personalised ads. This is business in the style of highway robbers. And nobody sane will volunteer to be robbed. Bye-bye

Not the BBC the private company lost all my saved recipes and with promises of rectifying the mistake they never did so after numerous calls and e mails to them. Also now the search engine in the app doesn’t work very well and you have to close the app down and then reboot it every time you search for a new recipe. Very disappointing I asked for my money back and they have ignored me. I won’t re subscribe.

The word of the year in 2023 was 'Enshitification' which basically means the product has deteriorated and continues on this trajectory unabated. Slowly this site will have a paywall, due to a socialist/communist government, one that unapologetically hates the working, middle, and upper classes.

Despite already making money from advertising, they wanted me to pay or allow cookies - bye bye!!!

There are so many great sites out there with so many great recipes that they can literally ‘do one’

They need to make it simple. I don't trust them. Less is more..

First of all, this is not the BBC. It is a private company that pays to use the name. This company has no customer service. Despite having one one year subscription for the app, they stopped access and want me to take a second subscription. No response from their ‘customer service’ which from my experience does not exist. Avoid this company portraying itself as BBC. They are just after your money.

Would love them to change their recipies up more than once a month or less than once a month as they do now. I used to love looking through them. The July one has been up and it’s nearly the end of August

Cannot be viewed unless you sign up and give away your details.