The Spectator Reviews 133

The articles are generally thought-provoking, whatever your political stripe and the 'below-the-line' comments from readers are often better informed than the article itself.

However

The Spectator have outsourced their BTLComments functionality to an outfit called Disqus and between the two of them, their customer service is absolutely useless.

It has been over a month since I have had no ability to add a comment to any online article. It took The Spectator 3 weeks to point me at Disqus and Disqus have had a week and still not responded to my request for help, much less solved it. 'The Curse Of Outsourcing' with plausible deniability and lack of accountability built into every level of communication.

Never mind 'user-unfriendly'. 'Actively user-hostile' would be a better description.

Best avoided (online, certainly) until this issue / relationship is fixed

One of the few journalist outlets that put effort into their articles and don't resort to outrage bait or poor framing to drive readership. Highly recommend Douglas Murray and Helen Dale in particular.

I took out a one month free trial of their digital edition and the first 'payment date' was given as 14th January even though that payment was zero. I found that there wasn't sufficient content of interest to justify my continuing the subscription. On the morning of 12th February I submitted a cancellation request which was processed the same day. However unbeknownst to me, payment had been taken for the following month on 9th February. In the e-mails I received, no warning had been given about this early payment collection date. This is thoroughly unscrupulous behaviour. I'm very surprised and disappointed.

Argumentative and ill informed staff answering the phones at customer services. Very poor. Even one star is one too many.

THE MOST TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE I'VE EVER HAD ONLINE.

The Spectator Shop is, without a doubt, the most unreliable, unprofessional and downright rude company, I've ever had the misfortune of discovering.

I ordered a book 40 days ago and, apart from a brief confirmation of order received, I heard nothing for the first month - and received no book.

I have tried to get in contact with them several times, but they DO NOT reply to any emails sent to the address they themselves provide. Beyond unprofessional.

I finally made contact through another address. Unfortunately, after emailing back and forth for some time, it has become apparent, that the Spectator staff can't quite grasp this very simple problem: I made a purchase - they have not delivered. Instead I've received a number of strangely worded emails, making in abundantly clear that they don't actually READ emails, but rather just copy and paste some inane nonsense and call it a reply.

I've requested a refund several times, but this too, has been ignored.

My advice: never EVER make a purchase through The Spectator Shop. You will receive neither a book nor a refund.
They just take your money and run.