RADIO TIMES Avis 194

Other reviews say it all really. Pay for a subscription and it arrives half the time. No replies to emails or phone.

Absolute rubbish. Trying to view more details of a programme and a pop up add gives me as choice to register or go back to listings so impossible to see programme details. Worse than a local newspaper site.

I cancelled my subscription last October after the direct debit being taken for a ridiculous amount. They stopped the magazine immediately and said I would get a refund for the issues I would not receive (over £100). When this did not happen I emailed 3 times and did not receive a response. I have called their "Customer Service" over 8 times since Jan and have been told numerous times my refund will come through in x number of days. I wait...then call again when nothing has been received...and the cycle continues again. Customer Service blame the Finance Team and they don't take calls from the public. There is no-one in authority to speak to and I have been promised call backs at least 3 times and that has never happened. There is no complaints procedure so I have no choice but to make another call again. This is shocking customer service and I really don't know what to do!
Update 18/04 - "Can you please respond to our request for more information so we can look into this please" message on my review...I have not received anything asking for more info and the links attached to the emails don't work!
I have however received a reply to my latest email to Radio Times on 31/03 stating I would receive a refund in 10 - 15 days. 11 days have now passed (taking into account the bank holidays)...but I am patiently waiting expecting the refund within the 15 days!

WHERE DID THINGS GO SO WRONG?
I have subscribed to Radio Times for more years than I care to remember but customer service appears to have been totally abandoned.
I have been waiting for a partial refund on my latest subscription since my initial phone call on 18 Feb.
I was assured I would receive a ‘manual refund’ in two weeks maximum.
Since then I have called Customer Service for a second time/emailed Feedback at Radio Times/emailed the Editor at Radio Times. NO ONE HAS BOTHERED TO EVEN ACKNOWLEDGE ME!
I understand the magazine is now owned by Immediate Media - sadly the only thing ‘immediate’ about this company is the speed with which they take the bi-annual subscription from your bank account. After that, any problems and you can whistle.

If I could give a minus score I would. The subscription service have messed us around so much. Failed deliveries on numerous occasions. Gave me an offer when I wanted to cancel. We stupidly accepted and now get an email to say it has been cancelled. Customer service is diabolical.

We took out the 10 issues for £10 subscription last year. There were no problems until we cancelled the direct debit to avoid us automatically then having to pay for a full year's subscription (too expensive) We made it clear at the time that there were still two issues left on our subscription and these should be delivered as usual. The first issue arrived okay but we never did receive the last issue. We phoned and emailed several times and were either told that the issue would be sent or that our subscription had finished and we had cancelled the direct debit. We got the feeling that no one was actually checking the details in our emails, and any assurance that the outstanding issue would be sent could not be believed. We have only lost a £1 but it's the principle that matters and we can longer have any trust in the Radio Times subscription process. Suspect that the call centre may not be in the UK.

After my post "Avoid" of 27th Febuary I was contacted by David Hodges of RT who explained the delivery problems they've been experiencing (Invariably caused by Royal Mail) and apologised for the loss of issues over the preceding few months.
He then offered to cancel our subscription and make a full refund which we accepted and has now been completed.

Despite the recent problems I really cannot complain about the customer service that Mr. Hodges has provided hence the rating.

Just awful. I have been trying to link and manage my gift subscription since the website changed in October last year. It won’t link at all and I’ve been passed from pillar to post with no way to manage or access my subscription online. I have sent many emails and made several phone calls and still the issue is not resolved. Usually my emails are ignored, other times I get AI generated responses that make no sense whatsoever. When I get through to a human they say they have no record of any correspondence. It’s a nightmare dealing with this company and I will definitely NOT be renewing once the annual subscription ends. It’s a shame as the gift recipient loves the magazine but I can’t be dealing with this stress. All I want to do is access and manage my subscription!

Radio Times changed distributors in October 2025. No warning or advisorys sent to subscribers. Since the changes were made the delivery was either very late or the magazine did not arrive at all. Customer Services whilst polite, did nothing to resolve the problems. I had been a RT purchaser since 1977, BUT NO LONGER!!
So not only have RT lost a subscriber but also a customer of long standing. SHAMEFULL!!

I had a problem in November last year when the Radio Times I had been subscribing to for many years stopped arriving and I could not read the digital version. After several phone calls they could not find my account or any record of my payment. After a month I took out another subscription which didn’t arrive until December 24th. So then I had I had two subscriptions because the first one also resumed in December with an apology from the company. I have tried to cancel the second subscription and was promised a refund. It has not arrived. I agree with all the comments. Immediate Media is a dreadful company with poor customer service. I will not renew my subscription again.

If I could give zero stars, I would! I echo all the comments made in Feb 2026 from unhappy Radio Times (would be) subscribers. I live in NL but have happily and successfully made an RT gift subscription for several years to my mum in the UK via buysubscriptions.com. However since it has been taken over by Immediate Media / radiotimes. com or whichever joker it is now, I have been unable to link my existing account or even simply purchase a new subscription. I reach the point of payment and it comes up with a "problem" each time. I give up!! As a Brit living in NL I am already totally cheesed off with the way the BBC has treated "Brits abroad" by blocking us out of listening to BBC radio through the BBC Sounds app ... don't get me started! Anyway, this is the last straw ... they are not worthy of our custom!

Very disappointed! I have had a subscription to the Radio Times for many years now and although ,over the years there were sometimes postal problems the previous customer service always replied promptly and were very helpful . Having the digital version as well as the paper was a great help too if the post failed.
Now ..the big change ,after two months of trying I still can’t put my subscription number in my account so I do as asked and contact the customer service. It says they are “dedicated “ ,to what I wonder ,definitely not to solving customers problems .I have emailed for help and when they eventually reply, (well ,Africa is a long way away after all ) they are not able to solve the problem so I can write my subscription number in place and renew my subscription….The suggestion to phone is not a good one and I can’t see how that can be better in this case .Stuck in a queue to speak to someone in Africa won’t solve my problem.
The Radio Times subscription is coming to an end now, I wrote again but no reply so I cannot renew and here in Netherland they are not available in the shops so it’s a sad end to an enjoyable magazine. I can subscribe to the digital version via apple but it’s not the same ; I don’t have a smart phone so it is on my IPad and I will have to copy down the listings of what I want to watch every day and the puzzel pages although possible, are more difficult to do digitally. Reading other reviews, it looks as if making a new ,recurring type subscription looks very risky indeed. The trustworthiness has gone.

Never had an issue with buysubscriptions.com but now it has moved to radiotimes.com I can't see any of my subscription details, and despite contacting them via the help page I'm still waiting for a response. Tried calling them but you just wait on the line for someone to answer so eventually gave up. Previously buysubscriptions.com answered the calls within minutes. What has gone so wrong? I'm due to renew my subscription in May but if nothing improves I won't bother.

I have subscribed to this magazine for well over 30 years. I was brought up on it as the go to magazine, even before it merged with TVTimes magazine. No problems with it until Immediate Media took over last year. I was charged a double direct debit in Feb then March. I was refunded, but it happened again in Aug & Sept! Since then i had been attempting to obtain the refund with no success. They agreed immediately that I should & would have a refund within 7 working days, but even after numerous calls to chase (each time being told it would be escalated), numerous contacts using email & their web contact box (all of which never got past the automatic response stage) & a formal complaint in writing & by email to the CEO (which got a sincere apology response & assurance it would be dealt with swiftly) I still hadn't received my refund. Finally I went to my bank and through their assistance got my refund within 5 days of contacting them as it was clear that there was no dispute about my entitlement yo a refund.
One month later I still hadn't received any contact from RT customer services, until I contacted them this week to say that I have cancelled my direct debit and that I wished to cancel future subscriptions because of their appalling untrustworthy services. I got an apologetic reply within 2 days saying how sad they were & confirming i would receive copies until my current subscription ended! Enough said!

Total TV Guide is half the price to buy in the shops & will give me what I need. Quids in!

Disgraceful lack of customer service. I took out an annual subscription and approx 20% of issues did not arrive. The Radio Times call centre was appalling - I
made so many calls with no resolution. Finally I contacted my credit card company. They logged the details snd asked me to email full details. It can be cumbersome but it is worth keeping details of missing issues and call centre conversations. I received a refund from the credit card company a few days later. As the cost was over £100, they processed a Section 75 refund. The credit card company can do a recharge if under £100.
My recommendation is that don’t deal with the ridiculous behaviour of Radio Times call centre staff but go to your card provider. I would always pay by credit card for the extra protection. Also if you have an iPad or similar, many libraries offer it for free on their book/magazine app. You can also set up a subscription to notify you weekly about the latest issue.
I just had enough of Immediate Media. Don’t let them wear you down!
Never again! They lost a long-standing customer as they have no customer service.

Have been a customer for over 10 years when it was managed by Buysubscriptions. Deliveries to France were sometimes late, but a quick phone call and an extra issue was added to my subscription. Now they won't answer the phone and rarely reply to emails. I was missing 4 issues, and have eventually been offered a credit in sterling not euros. As I have no intention of renewing this is worthless. A good, reliable service has been totally ruined! DO NOT SIGN UP !

Not delivered AGAIN. Speaking to the subscription service is useless and, believe me, I've tried.

My mother had a subscription, which we had to cancel due to blindness from cataracts. On 23rd December we were promised a refund of £113.25, that would be in her account within 10 days. This never happened, despite numerous attempts to contact them, they are now ignoring our emails. My mother is elderly & disabled and has to pay for care, she has been a loyal reader of the Radio Times for over 40 years & this is an awful way to treat her.

Utterly abysmal website that doesn’t work.
The old website for subscribing to Radio Times magazine - buysubscription.com - wasn’t great, but at least it worked. Renewing my subscription was simple and easy.
Since that was abandoned by Immediate Media and my account moved to radiotimes.com, my subscription is in limbo. The website will not display any details.
I have repeatedly tried linking my subscription, but it never works. And asking for help via customer service is no use. If they even bother to reply, which often they don’t, the replies are many days later and offer no help whatsoever, usually just explaining how to link my subscription, which I have told them over and over again doesn’t work.
They have admitted occasionally that there are problems with the website, but will offer no timescale for when it will be fixed (it’s been broken for months now), then revert back to denying there are problems and blaming me for not knowing how to log in.
Last time I logged in the subscription page was a mixture of random upper and lower case letters, as if the programmers were having trouble with their caps lock key. Not exactly reassuring.
My subscription is nearing renewal time, but until the website is fixed I won’t be renewing even by phone because I can’t trust them. And even then, I will be wary...

Also, the magazine is rarely delivered on time. Used to regularly arrive on Tuesday. Now we’re lucky to get it on Friday or Saturday. Two issues this year did not arrive until after the listings had finished, rendering the magazine useless. This is because of poor delivery by Royal Mail though, not the magazine’s fault.

I have had Radio Times on subscription for several years, with only the occasional missing copy (when an extra week would be added to my account). But since November 2025, I have missed 3 issues. Last week's was the Winter Olympics special, which I particularly wanted. No reply to my query so I had to buy it from the Radio Times online shop. This week's was delivered by Yodel! I'll stick it out until my subscription finishes if possible, but I can't log in to cancel as it won't recognise my sub number! So I'll just cancel the direct debit through my bank