New Statesman Reviews 

I had a frustrating experience with a New Statesman digital subscription.
I believed I had selected a Summer Sale offer of 2 months for £2, followed by £8.99 per month. However, New Statesman's records showed that I had subscribed to an offer of £1 for the first month, followed by £8.99.
I queried this because I did not recall selecting the £1 offer and asked New Statesman to check their contemporaneous checkout records. The matter was eventually escalated to senior management.
After several weeks, I was told that they did not have a completed checkout record for my order and could only establish from the order code received by their payment gateway that the £1 offer had been attached to it. They also said there had been an earlier unsuccessful attempt involving the same offer.
The subscription has now been cancelled and I have been assured that no further payments will be taken.
I appreciate that they did eventually investigate the matter, but I found the process unnecessarily prolonged and was disappointed that the underlying discrepancy could not ultimately be explained by reference to the actual checkout record.

This is purely about user experience and not a review on NS quality of journalism. I need to echo the complaints about digital editions not appearing in the app after they are released, which is literally why I am paying for the service. Why can't NS update their app when a new edition is released? Is that not the most basic function of a digital subscription?

In the last 2 months the digital edition has not appeared in the App when the printed edition is available. The help desk is subcontracted so New Statesman keep them selves at a distance from knowing or resolving the problem. I often get my subscription extended when I complain but it doesn’t solve the repeated issue. Why can’t they be like the Spectator or Guardian that don’t have issues making digital versions available. Unfortunately no one at the New Statesman will see this and do anything to permanently resolve this issue

I've been a subscriber since 2024 and enjoy the journal, so on Jan 31st I bought a gift digital subscription for a friend. 5 wks later I discovered she had received nothing. I phoned NS(answered immediately), and a charming person said she would e-mail my friend straight away, copy to me. 4 days later - no email. Phoned again to-day - anther charming person promised to email my friend, copy to me within the next 5 mins. Phoned again 2 hours later - swore she had sent the email as promised, but I have received nothing. I requested a refund which she immediately agreed to and confirmation email arrived to confirm that. Very strange behaviour from what I had always considered a reputable magazine.

Biggest scam ever! They take bribes from anyone and write anything about anyone. No control within themselves, run by uneducated politicians.

Reporting absolute lies! Should be closed down!

I have complained before. Now like so many others I cannot cancel my credit card auto renewal by requesting it from the New Statesman. I have to cancel my credit card. Please don’t make the same mistake. I wish I had read the reviews first.

It looks like I'm about to join the one star group, but it's early days yet. Last week's copy never came, and so far this week no sign of it. Ominous! I did ask them a while back to put me on to a 'senior citizens' subs rate, but nothing happened. They do read (and publish) letters to the editor, perhaps that's the way to go . . .

Utter shambles with truly appalling customer service. Weeks after my money was taken I had no magazines received, no access to the digital subscription and no response to several emails. And to top it off the phone number in their receipt didn't work!

Only after raising it as a disputed payment with my bank did they care to respond saying they had some technical issues with systems switching over.

I will never read this magazine again! Avoid like the plague unless you want to see your money wash down the drain.

It's impossible to unsubscribe.
I told them to cancel my subscription in November, and despite numberous emails saying they had cancelled the subscription they are still taking money from my account 4 months later.
I've threatened them with legal action but it makes no difference.
They are spectacularly incompetent.

A follow up review to my earlier one.
Repeated emails telling me they will contact me. Never have.
Then it looked good. My grandson got one copy of NS which he enjoyed. So they DO have all necessary details.
But no more deliveries have been made. So where are the other 5 NS.
And do you even care.? Do you have staff?

How can it be impossible to cancel a subscription online? They give you a phone number which takes you to a call centre. And guess what? Yes, all of their agents are busy! So you subscribe for your online subscription but when it's time for you to get irritated with the monthly fee you have to get even more irritated ringing them up.

My complaint is it seems impossible to actually unsubscribe from newsletters. They just start up again and again. Who knows what spyware and sneaky cookies are deployed. Block and Report as SPAM.

I have been a reader of the New Statesmen for decades and a subscriber to the print copy for over five years.For three years I have experienced endless problems with the delivery of my print copies.They invariable arrive late,on occaision I inexplicably receive two or even three copies of the same edition. NS Customer Services are deplorable,non-responsive and totally ineffective. A great publication is being destroyed by poor customer service and delivery.I will not be taking the NS again at the close of my current subscription period.

If you sign up for the google digital edition of the magazine you will regularly lose pages. For quite some time it regularly lost the last couple of pages

So I found another company offering (legitimately) the digital edition

Regardless of whom you choose, your subscription will not be linked to the NS database meaning every year when your subscription ends you will have to chase up the subscriptions department to be added to their database to add to the website

But I gave up with the website, fed up with having to keep logging in because the website forgets my id

Now the NS is just something I don't bother with and won't renew next time the subscription comes along

I too have had appalling issues with non delivery of print issues and lack of access to digital content despite a subscription. Emails outlining the problem go unanswered, the helpline is not helpful, The elusive William Host never answers his phone and i am doubting his existence. I spend more time chasing my copies than reading content! Am considering cancelling after being a loyal reader for some years

Great magazine, but shame about the terrible service from the digital subscriptions team. They cancelled my direct debit without letting me know, so my access just stopped, and when I contacted them, I got unhelpful emails. I signed up again, and it said I got a month free, but they charged me immediately, and when I emailed about this, there was no response.
Message to New Statement management if you read this, pay for subscription team more pay, hire more people!

I have subscribed to NS for years, with no problems until this year, when deliveries suddenly stopped. On ringing their helpline and explaining the problem each week, they posted out the issue, just a week late. After 4 weeks I was told they would escalate the issue, but the problems carried on. After 7 weeks I was given William Hoste’s number, but it is never answered nor does it go to voicemail.

Although I enjoy the editorial, Subscriptions is a mess. I bought a friend a subscription in March 2023 and paid £99. When I asked if she would like it again she told me she had never received it so I emailed NS subscription and received an auto response that someone would get back to me in 3 days. After a week I sent another email still nothing and then another email yet still no reply. A month later I called NS sub and spoke to Anna Scott who said she couldn't do anything and I needed to call William Host at NS on 0207 406 6718. I asked her to get him to call me, he didn't. 10 days later I called multiple times and no one answer. I called the general subscriptions number again and this time discovered that the people who answer are telemarketers working for BCC Telemarketing ie not customer services, they sell, they don't help customers. I was directed back to the NS subs email and yes you guessed it William Host, the man who doesn't answer his phone or emails. In fact no one in his team replies to emails. NS has effectively stolen £99 from me and will not explain why. It's a sham and if NS wants to survive they need to clean up the mess.

In November, I added a subscription for my son to my existing New Statesman subscription. Since then, almost no copies of the magazine have been delivered to either him or me. Repeated attempts since late November to deal with this through their customer services have failed. At the end of February, I spoke to a member of the team, and was assured that it had now been escalated. Nothing happened. Today, I spoke to them again, and was told that I should get in touch with William Hoste, the senior person in charge. I was given his phone number. Repeated attempts to contact him by phone have failed - the number simply rings out, and there is no means of leaving a voicemail. I am about to give up the New Statesman, very reluctantly, in view of the abysmal service.