Radio Times Massive Hidden Subscription Increases

peterdodds

I have just received from Radio Times a letter dated 25/02/2020 stating my new half yearly subscription will be £85.80 wef 24/03/2020 payable by direct debit.

I have raised an official complaint and written as follows:

"Your letter did not say what I was paying before but on checking my bank statement I was shocked to find it was only £24.00 quarterly payable by direct debit! 

Hiding increases like this (78%) and then saying it provides an 11% reduction on the basic annual rate of £96.50, as the letter goes on to state, is an absolute disgrace and you should be thoroughly ashamed of yourselves for trying it on. 

What really concerns me is that I’m lucky enough to have a few grey cells left in working order and I spotted what you were up to but many people, especially older ones, will not realise what is happening and just allow the money to be taken out of their accounts being none the wiser. 

When I queried the increase I was offered a lower 6 monthly rate of £75.40 – big deal!

When I said that was still ridiculous I was offered a rate of £27.30 a quarter but by then I had lost all faith in your ability to treat your customers fairly so cancelled my subscription and decided to raise this complaint formally. 

I now insist you review what you are doing, amend your policy and apologise to all those loyal customers who have trusted you for years and who have received these letters withdrawing these absurd hidden unjustifiable increases".

 

[Deleted User]

I think your insistence will go unactioned.

Morbier

Thank you for that information - I have a Radio Times subscription, so I'll keep my eye out for the renewal letter.

EssexExile

If you were paying £24 a quarter you must've been on some special deal, it's been £26 a month for some time.

LABMAN

EssexExile said:

If you were paying £24 a quarter you must've been on some special deal, it's been £26 a month for some time.

Where?

Ectophile

EssexExile said:

If you were paying £24 a quarter you must've been on some special deal, it's been £26 a month for some time.

You can get it for £60 for 6 months on their web site https://www.radiotimes.com/magazine-subscription/

[Deleted User]

EssexExile said:

If you were paying £24 a quarter you must've been on some special deal, it's been £26 a month for some time.

Surely that would make the weekly cost of what is essentially just a  listings magazine a whopping £6.50 for each issue!!!!

That can't be correct can it? 

The same listings are published in most weekend newspapers..

coachman12

Hello Peter and welcome to the forum.
Our family has subscribed to Radio Times for very many years, and the magazine is well-known for offering super deals , always advertised as temporary, and then replaced with huge increase ( eg you, Peter, have been paying £12 less than I have over the same period and very large £62 lower than the RRP per weekly issue). Our current price is £60 per 6 months ( a deal which has remained the same for a couple of years, as longstanding customers( a saving of nearly £26 over the RRP ). You either like Radio Times ( as a magazine with high quality articles ) that much  OR , especially if you just want radio/TV programme listings, you look at listings online or buy a cheapo listing magazine such as TV Choice ( which shows main listings but is a crumby "magazine").
Personally I feel that Radio Times, the largest of the listing magazines with up to 150 whopping pages of great articles and all TV/Radio listings including all satellite and freeview listings, is ----
as far as the price of magazines of any sort go today----- a reasonable price at £3.30 per weekly issue, especially as it never amounts to that price when bought as a 6-12 month package.
You must surely have seen when you first subscribed that you were being given an introductory offer. If not, Radio Times has acted out of character; however, they have written to give you warning at the end of the 6 months trial and not attempted to take a much higher D/D payment from you. Now you alone can decide whether to carry on , having benefited from a special offer, or not.
I do not see that Radio Times has done anything wrong except to give you a 6 months bargain.
The only thing I don't like about them is that are real "hagglers" and offer different prices when customers argue with them, so none of us ever seem to be paying the same as  someone else ----
as their letter to you and subsequent decreased offer highlight. Otherwise, I am a satisfied customer with a really superior magazine with many interesting articles and quizzes and adverts, as well as everything to watch or listen to on TV/Radio.

peterdodds

I have been paying £24 or some very similar amount for years. So, if I was on a special deal originally it was an awfully long time ago. Maybe I was just lucky and left on it. 
I'm not saying the RT isn't a good magazine but "best practice" these days is to always show what you were paying before because that makes any increase up front and doesn't disguise it as RT have done.  The fact they were prepared to drop the price so radically when challenged makes it look very underhand to me and I really object to the fact that for many people, especially the older and less savey, will be paying a lot more without realising it. 
Sorry, but for me it is unacceptable behaviour from a former trusted stalwart of the entertainment industry.
PS I too doubt they will do anything about my complaint because they can get away with doing nothing.

Takmon

peterdodds said:

I have been paying £24 or some very similar amount for years. So, if I was on a special deal originally it was an awfully long time ago. Maybe I was just lucky and left on it. 
I'm not saying the RT isn't a good magazine but "best practice" these days is to always show what you were paying before because that makes any increase up front and doesn't disguise it as RT have done.  The fact they were prepared to drop the price so radically when challenged makes it look very underhand to me and I really object to the fact that for many people, especially the older and less savey, will be paying a lot more without realising it. 
Sorry, but for me it is unacceptable behaviour from a former trusted stalwart of the entertainment industry.
PS I too doubt they will do anything about my complaint because they can get away with doing nothing.

I really don't see the problem, in a free market they are allowed to set their prices at whatever they wish and they have decided to increase them. They have sent a physical letter which is the same method as the magazine is sent so the customer is likely to receive it and read it and it give you plenty of warning before the increased direct debit is taken. 
It may be nice to show the previous price for people who are a bit slack with keeping track of their outgoings but it's certainly not hiding it by not showing it because this is something people should already know if they are subscribed. 
The fact they are happy to drop the price when asked is part of their customer retention methods which is exactly what products like Insurance, Telecoms and other subscriptions do all the time to keep customers. This is nothing special and certainly not underhand. If you are surprised that companies do this then when your broadband, mobile contacts etc next come to an end ring them up before automatically renewing and you will also be equally surprised at the deals they will offer you. 

[Deleted User]

peterdodds said: it is unacceptable behaviour from a former trusted stalwart of the entertainment industry.

You do realise that the BBC no longer owns nor runs the magazine?

 Since 2011, it hasn't been produced "in house" by the BBC and since 2017 has been wholly owned by the German media group Hubert Burda

The latest circulation figure (January 2018 – January 2019) for the Radio Times is 622,000, which is a far cry from the 8.8 million it sold during the 1950s.