The Spectator Omdömen 

Ridiculous card handling procedures and days even weeks to handle a transaction that others do in an hour.

The magazine is wonderful - I have subscribed for 40 years but the admin is a disgrace.

Sadly the 1 star review Spectator magazine has is justified. Customer support simply never reply.

I had hoped to change subscription options but that's proving impossible.

They keep charging me with no way of me stopping it.

I may actually have to close my bank account as the only way of preventing further charges.

Like others have written, I would be vary cautious about signing up for a subscription. The magazine is great but their subscription service is bordering on fraudulent. I have a chain of emails dating back to August wherein I am requesting the termination of my subscription. They use every trick in the book to avoid doing so. They keep telling me they can’t find me in their system. Then they tell me to contact their US office. Then their US office says they’ve just inherited the subscriptions from another company but they don’t have all the information so I need to contact the UK office and around we go again.

I’m having to contact my credit card company and file a fraudulent charge report. Otherwise, there’s just no way to make it stop. Hours of my life wasted. I would have expected so much more from this magazine.

Poor website, i have been charged various amounts but for what i do not know, it's impossible to fathom, be very wary of any offers, they are complicated and designed to trick you into long term subscriptions you may not want.
I enjoy the magazine but the customer service experience, subscription management and website are way way behind where they should be

I suggest they change the entire management team in"Customer Service". I have had a Kafkaesque experience with several attempts to renew my subscription. Per their web site I tried complaining to the editor, but just got sent back to "Customer Services".

I recently fell into this trap unfortunately, having missed the auto renewal deadline by a few days. £170 annual renewal! I told them I accepted I had made a small admin error but they are refusing to offer any refund. This is the action you would expect from a dodgy double glazing company and the like. I’m absolutely furious with them!!

I took out a subscription and enjoyed reading the articles. I particularly liked the daily round-up by Katy Balls. I never had the problems cancelling my subs, that was straightforward, but reading other experiences I will now check my bank balance!! I do, however, have a problem with how they run their comments sections on the website which are toxic and abusive. This is a real shame because the magazine is a good read. It's a shame they don't realize the trolls on their website are tarnishing their brand and driving readers that want to engage away.

Beware of the auto-renew trap. Asked for the overlooked auto renew to be cancelled but was told it would not be under any circumstances. They are total hypocrites as they recently ran an article about being aware of auto-renew traps. Yet they are very keen to to implement this themselves. They have an extremely poor and arrogant attitude towards potential long-term subscribers.
BEWARE!

Took out a subscription with whisky thrown in - the bottle did not arrive - emailed customer services - they told me they'd look into it - heard no more, then, a week or so later said whisky arrived... one star off because I had to chase it up - otherwise? A cracking offer & thoroughly enjoyed.

Frozen out with 3 weeks of my subscription left. Moral: don’t cancel a subscription until the day before the funds are taken.

Terrible customer service. Signed up for a free three months trial and was immediately charged almost £40 to my credit card. When I queried it I was told that as I had previously had a subscription I would be charged. However, the leaflet explaining the offer said nothing about the offer not being available to previous subscribers. The webpage when I signed up clearly explained the offer and it too had nothing about it not being available to previous subscribers. Clicked to order the subscription and immediately £39.99 was charged to my credit card. Try to get a refund and it was like pulling teeth.

Great magazine. Incompetent, totally appalling customer service.

I signed up for 12 weeks free subscription which included a £20 Amazon gift card. I didn't expect to receive the gift card until after the free trial had finished and I had paid my first subscription.

After paying my first subscription I waited for the gift card but nothing came. I contacted Customer Services and was told that they would investigate but more than a month later I had heard nothing and asked for an update.

I was then told that the gift card email had been sent and opened so there was nothing they could do despite me not receiving it. They also said it was now too late to do anything.

I will not be continuing with my subscription for the next quarter.

I had months of excellent feedback twice daily by email- then suddenly stopped. 3 phone calls, apologies- technical department will sort it immediately- didn't happen x 3! I cancelled and notified them why. They have robbed me of three further payments before finally cancellation agreed. I keep getting offers of free month if I renew. No Way!!! Do their excellent lead writers know? Couldn't one of them spotlight this extortion in an article???

At all costs void the 'Hotel California' style special subscription offers - you won't find it so easy to get out as in. A second sub was extracted from my visa account when I tried to cancel, and I had to battle against a third being taken when again I'd given well over a month's notice of wishing to quit. Given the skew towards a 'more mature in years' Spectator readership, the way the sub offers are handled left a nasty taste. Never again.
Also, if this magazine were a restaurant meal it would be five courses of candyfloss. A bite or two may be amusing but ultimately it's not nourishing and even sickening if you persist. After two (the last one unwilling) successive subscriptions, I found that there was usually only one, maybe two, articles or cartoons in each issue that were worth the time and trouble.

Spectator content is extremely good. Since renewing my subscription I've received the print edition on time. But am having trouble with the new app which won't always open on my android devices. What was the matter with the old app ??
Looking at all the negative comments I suspect a campaign by the usual suspects against a right of centre journal.

I started a trial subscription a few weeks ago and intended to keep it once the trial period was over. However, I did not receive the first print edition until I asked them to send me a replacement. The second edition came more then a week later after the third edition was already out. Will I get the third one by the time the fourth will be in print? I don't know! Either way their print subscription is awful. Shame really, because the content is good.

As there are so many complaining about the print subscription I have to think they intentionally try to keep people away from print and steer them to the digital subscriptions.

Appalling experience with these people. Trying to cancel a subscription online is virtually impossible as you are sent around in circles answering the same account login details but with a ‘dead’ link to the cancellation page. They accept NO responsibility for this and refuse to reimburse any subs paid in the meantime. Avoid at all costs.

Spectator's customer care is very poor. We were double charged. Only partial reversal has been processed. We are still trying to receive the final refund of $3.71 which we have been trying to finalise since last year November 2020. Sent numerous emails, but not reply. Sad.