Greatmagazines Avis 327

Title: Repetitive and basic—not for the serious gardener
Review:
I subscribed to Garden Answers through Lloyds Bank expecting deep horticultural insights, but I’ve been left underwhelmed. For a magazine that brands itself as a "practical guide," the content feels incredibly surface-level.
Repetitive Topics: It feels like the same "how to prune a rose" or "top 10 spring bulbs" articles are recycled every single year. If you’ve read three issues, you’ve essentially read them all.
Too Much "Fluff": There is a distracting amount of advertising and "lifestyle" content. I wanted technical plant knowledge, but instead, a large portion of the pages are dedicated to gift guides and glossy photos of gardens that offer no real "how-to" substance.
Basic Advice: Many of the tips feel like they were pulled straight from a quick Google search. If you are a complete beginner, you might find it okay, but for anyone who has been gardening for more than a season, there is very little new to learn here.
Verdict: Save your money and stick to The RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) website, Reddit, YouTube or more specialized books. This is more of a "Drs surgery” magazine than a serious gardening tool.

Absolutely appalling. Bought a subscription to Rail Magazine. App simply does not work and wasted my money. Customer services did not understand the problem and had no idea how to resolve the issue. Cancelled my subscription. Avoid

Customer service is awful. Keep quoting Ts&Cs. Ignoring the important fact that the subscribed magazine did not arrive.

We subscribed to Total TV Guide first magazine was late, second arrived on the day it was due to start, third never arrived.

Only subscribed due to offer. Waste of money and time.

Ordered Retro magazine as a gift for my husband and it was automatically renewed through my PayPal account so I contacted Bauer the company behind great magazines to request a cancellation and refund,they replied that they had cancelled my subscription but have a no refund policy!!I emailed and said 'well if im paying £48.99 then ill have the magazines guess what?5 days later and no response.

Signed up for Country Walking. £5 for 3 editions and a free gift which I would get within 28 days. I've not received the gift and they are ignoring all messages including requests to cancel. I've blocked any further payments via my bank account. This company is unprofessional and at best. A scam at worst.

Like many others subscription autorenewed without notification, this was only 4 1/2 months after purchase of inital 6 month subscription and no option to refund. Its such a scam. Avoid at all costs.

Auto renewed subscription for magazine a month before subscription date – and nearly two months before anniversary of first issue received. Unhelpful beyond words. No option on website to cancel. Avoid. Don't even start a subscription with them. They just tell you that the publisher has debited the money and tough, your problem. Terrible way to do business and I will never ever use their service or go near any magazine in their or the publisher's stable ever again. Idiots.

Dont sent , paid for magazine my mum never receives it

Appalling company. Auto-renewal without notice, against the DMCC Act 2024. AVOID!

An decidely average magazine - and there is no way not to have auto renew. Or even cancel your subscription.
They don't tell you they are taking a renewal payment (my fault for not spotting it went out?) so another year of litter tray liner. I have cancelled it through my bank so they won't get any more money from me. However it does seem like a bit of a con, which has cost me £60.
Update: they responded very quickly as you can see below… but their response implies it’s easy to stop them just taking money without warning. It isn’t.
So if you do sign up, be careful. My advice - cancel the annual debit as soon as it is taken .. I’m sure they’ll be very communicative then!
And I’m still stuck with a year’s sub - I’ve handed it to my bank to sort out.

The classic sign you up for a trial and then make it really difficult to cancel scam.. The online 'account management' website doesn't actually let you manage anything other than change your payment method to ensure they don't miss out on getting your money.. So you have to call to cancel a subscription and they try all the usual tricks to suggest you don't cancel yet and they could reduce the price etc.. Feels very much like being sold double-glazing.. I manage to persuade them to stop my autorenewal payment... well... I thought I had, but it turns out they hadn't! I contacted them again and after the same conversations, was assured it was cancelled - I asked for confirmation as my online account still said the subscription was all active website and was told I'd get an email with 24-48 hours and that the website would take a similar length of time to change... Really, what kind of system are they using.. or is it another way or hoping you'll forget in the next day or so.. Just an unpleasant pushy experience, with a difficult exit (if indeed I've escaped...)

Good magazine, but any company that makes it as difficult as possible to cancel automatically loses 2 stars. Fortunately I paid on PayPal so I just cancelled the automatic payment on there. Job done 🖕😁😂

-------------Update 4/4/25-------------
Saw the reply below... just lip service..... as I have contacted customer service who said they wouldn't refund and seemed not to care.

It's their business model to:

Auto-renew
Not tell you
Not notify you they are taking money
The name that appears on your bank statement is different from the company you paid

In the online billing world, it's an old trick, and they have even given it a name : "The Golden Roll Over"

SCAMMERS - SCAMMERS - SCAMMERS

-----------------------------------------------------
It seems I'm having the same issues with this company as everyone else.

I bought your subscription as a 1-year present, but you auto-renewed and I didn’t know as I wasn’t getting the magazine as it was being sent to a friend.

I've unintentionally paid this company several years’ subscriptions. Enough is enough, please refund me this year's payment and cancel the subscription.

I do not want another year's subscription, I would like a refund for the money you took out of my bank account a few days ago. I’ve not received any magazines yet!

I hadn’t realised you had been taking funds from my account, and never received any email notifications from you, that you were about to take funds out of my account again.

And it looks Like I'm not the only one with a rating of 1 star on Trust Pilot

Yep just to join the rest of these reviews. Beware of their subscription policy. No stops on accidental repeats even though they have not sent anything out yet and have been notified. I guess they generate a fair bit of income from these situations.

Out right thieves!

My partner has been a loyal subscriber for about 5 years now receiving Trail magazine as a gift for my brother in law. this year it autorenewed in January (not due until March 24 - so 2 months early! (direct Debit for a subscription that starts with the March issue. He immediately rang and cancelled as intended to cancel this year anyway to be told that he couldn't get a refund for my coming years subscription March 25 to March 26! After seeking advice from Martin Lewis I was advised he only needs to give them a months notice.. which he did and they still won’t refund. He has asked a number of different ways for a refund for the coming 12 months to be told no way.... surely this cannot be in the spirit of treating a customer well and also not what the law stipulates!

We want to warn anyone out there who is considering subscribing or renewing please do not do so using direct debit. They are unfair and punitive terms and i would not do business with these guys on this basis.

Currently incensed. I have been loyal subscriber for about 5 years now receiving Trail magazine as a gift for my brother in law. this year it autorenewed in January on direct Debit for a subscription that starts with the March issue. I immediately rang and cancelled as i was going to cancel this year anyway to be told that i couldn't get a refund for my coming years subscription March 25 to March 26 as i had signed up for direct debit in 2024 and their T&C's allow them to take an autorenewal. I have asked a number of different ways for a refund for the coming 12 months to be told no way.... surely this cannot be in the spirit of treating a loyal customer fairly. I really do want to warn anyone out there who is considering subscribing or renewing please do not do so using direct debit. They are unfair and punitive terms and i would not do business with these guys on this basis.

I think am in the same boat as everybody else. Tv magazine turns up once a month. I keep phoning them they add a week.
This subscription will last 30 years at this rate

Very poor quality paper. If you are going to print out, please ensure that paper is at least acceptable quality. This is not ok. I already know your response to this - sustainability, caring for environment, recycling. I will deal with this for a year as I subscribed, but I am not planning to renew after.

Never received my magazine, chased a few times and live chat told me it had been despatched and to wait a bit longer due to Christmas. Eventually had to chase again for a refund as magazine is now out of stock.

Despite having an active subscription I can never access grazia online. Always have to reset my account password, then prompted to pay and subscribe even though I already am. When I click log in again the link doesn’t work. The user experience is absolutely rubbish and clunky. So frustrating to have this happen time and time again, given the expense. After 8 years of loyalty I am seriously considering cancelling my subscription as I no longer want to pay for the unreliability and the ongoing hassle.