Family Handyman Reviews 17

I ordered a two year subscription and in one year of this, I have received only 3 issues. I tried to cancel but was told I have to contact the subscription service I ordered from. I ordered direct from them online. Beside all of this the new format of the magazine sucks. The editor should be fired.

Watch out for this Family Handyman scam: they will send a box that you did NOT order with "Open Now. . . Free Gift Enclosed!" Once you open it -- when you're obligated to pay for it -- you will see a $21 bill for the enclosed book. And it's a pain to return the book.

The magazine no loner exists. It went to a once a month email. This month discuses what is wrong with Costco's hours and tai chi walking that you need to subscribe and pay for. I paid for 2 years and no magazine just this garbage. The offer of the magazine on Facebook is a joke there is no magazine

TRUST BETRAYED: Unauthorized $39.95 Charge, 300% Price Hike & 4 Failed Refund Promises by Family Handyman
Publisher: Trusted Media Brands, Inc. Product: Family Handyman Magazine Disputed Amount: $39.95 USD (PayPal) Date of Complaint: 11/21/2025

I. Deceptive Financial Practices
Trusted Media Brands committed a severe failure of trust and transparency:

Surprise, Inflated Withdrawal: A renewal fee of $39.95 was unexpectedly deducted via PayPal one month early, with zero notification. This charge is a staggering 300% increase over the previous year's subscription rate.

Targeting Loyal Customers: This practice—an early, inflated withdrawal—appears designed to exploit previously loyal subscribers. In this specific case, the unauthorized transaction impacted a disabled American Veteran residing at my address.

II. Breach of Editorial Mission
The magazine's content no longer supports the company's mission to provide "trusted, empowering, and uplifting content."

The print product has been stripped of its essential value: tool reviews, build projects with plans, and critical tool safety guidelines are all gone.

The publication no longer aligns with the value proposition used to attract and retain subscribers, constituting a clear misrepresentation of the product being sold for $39.95.

III. Egregious Customer Service Failure
Despite my consistent and clear efforts to resolve the issue, Customer Service has been dismissive and non-responsive.

Zero Accountability: I called Customer Service twice and was never connected to a representative, nor were my calls returned.

Four False Refund Promises: Since 10/27/2025, I have received the identical generic email four separate times (via "Hailey") stating the refund would be processed in "1-3 weeks." As of 11/21/2025, the full refund has not been issued.

Insulting Offer: Upon cancellation, the company offered an unacceptable and arbitrary $8 refund against the $39.95 charge.

DEMAND: I demand an immediate and complete refund of $39.95 credited back to my PayPal account. The failure to honor refund commitments and the predatory billing practices demonstrate why consumer trust in Trusted Media Brands is dissolving.

Sadly, Family Handyman still hasn't addressed my request for a full refund as of today, 11/3/2025. Instead, I keep receiving the same generic response: "Thank you for contacting Family Handyman. We are more than happy to help! Your payment will be refunded to your original form of payment within the next 1-3 weeks." (I paid via PayPal). I've now received this message four times, but there's still no refund.

This is now day 4 and I’m waiting for a call back from customer service as Family Handyman charged my card without any notification, the withdrawal was a month ahead of schedule, plus the charge was $39.95.
After being on hold today for 23 minutes, I was disconnected, so I went to their website to cancel my subscription and contacted customer service to cancel as well.
"Hi, I canceled my subscription and noticed that I will only receive an $8.00 refund, despite being charged a renewal fee of $39.95 one month earlier than expected. This is a 300% increase from what I paid last year, and I believe it would have been courteous and aligned with your commitment to excellent customer service to notify me before the $39.95 was deducted. Please address this $8.00 refund discrepancy promptly and rebuild my trust in your magazine and customer service by crediting my account the full $39.95."

I once enjoyed Family Handyman but no longer find it useful. Worse than that, they keep attempting to access my account without my consent for membership. If I were them I would hire some old fart who knows his trade and what people actually need and practical advice. Stop hiring people who probably never were good at the trades and finds advising easier

I've been reading Family Handyman for 20+ years. Something changed in the last year or two. I rarely find any content or projects that interests me. When I do find an interesting subject, the information is vague and mostly fluff. The content providers in the past were experts in their field and provided more insightful detailed information. I really miss the old Family Handyman and I won't be renewing my subscription.

I used to love FH magazine. However, in the last year or so I have seen a complete change obviously geared toward female readers. I have no interest in articles about decorating, dust bunnies, displaying my fav art or reorganizing my pantry, etc. Please just change the name to Family Handywoman. I tossed my subscription renewal form in the trash.

I’ve subscribed for years and cancelled at the end of 2024. The magazine has become very feminine. The projects have turned from building additions, to “selecting the right paint color for fall”. All grit is gone and I’m pretty certain every issue comes with a participation ribbon.

Was a subscriber for couple decades. Magazine has drastically changed in 2024, completely irrelevant content, in addition of much smaller size. If i wanted to get "Better Home & Garden" I would subscribe for it...

My husband has been getting this magazine decades. We retired about five years ago and built a new home near our grandkids. We didn’t get it for a couple years then our grands were selling magazines for school. What happened to it? It’s not even good projects. I see a woman is now editor and that’s fine. But the magazine has shrunk in size and pages. Nothing is modern it looks like projects from the 90’s. Even the printing looks old. Will not renew unless I see some changes.

This magazine has evolved into a Woke Home & Garden magazine. None of the great DIY editors are there anymore. The articles are like how to decorate a room & what flowers to plant. Most of the editors are now women but not the DIY type, the pretty house type. i've seen this transformation over the last year and it keeps getting worse so i am canceling my subscription which i have had for 20 years. Apparently the magazine was sold to some Woke owners!

Your fresh new look is a joke. I have subscribed to this magazine for 15 years and overnight it turned into a home decorators magazine. The June addition featured a step by step build of an enchanted arbor highlighted by a gay couples wedding centerpiece, how to pollinate a garden, how to make your own bird house and how to buy a garden hose. No thanks. I will be canceling my subscription immediately.

In one fell swoop the magazine changed from a true men's magazine on how to repair the house and vehicle to a woman's magazine on how to build a playhouse and what flowers to put on the kitchen table ie page 30
July/August. I had a subscription for three years ahead. Please reimburse me for those years. And cancel my subscription.

I have been an avid reader since the late 90's and always looked forward to the articles, plans and handy hints and then something changed. For the past year or so I've noticed changes to the magazine that wasn't my familiar friend and after thumbing through the current issue I figured it out. Out of the 18 people that make up the editorial staff 12 of them are women, now don't get me wrong I have no problems with women I'm actually married to one and there are some women out there who are great DIYers but you can tell the magazine is trying to get in touch with its feminine side. If you are trying to attract women to your magazine then keep up the work but I bet my bottom dollar men are jumping ship. Lets face it , The Family Handyman was a magazine geared to men, and now it is not. To keep the original name is doing a great disservice to all diy men everywhere. The Family Handyperson or Handywomen might be more suitable. It really is sad that it has come to this and I don't see it improving and if it keeps going the way it is going it will soon just be a memory. I guess I can always read my back issues.

Should change their name to the Family GirlyMan. Was a subscriber for 20 years. If I want to read about hiking boots, I can look elsewhere. Even the truck companies won't advertise here anymore. Go Woke, Go Broke.

I relied on information on their webpage re how long battery back up units will run a home wifi network. The site is labelled “family handyman” and doesn’t seem to have any of the standard ‘contact us’ links that I could find to contact the author about my issues with their test of battery back ups. I felt compelled to post something since the results were so outrageously off and I bought a unit based on their test results and the information regarding the underlying specs to base assumptions on the performance of similar products. It proved to be utterly useless! The author states: “UPS units are rated by volt-amps and watts, which is a power limit and a rough estimate of how long the battery will last…A 350-VA unit costs about $50 and should power a router for almost two hours, depending on the router’s wattage.” The three units they tested (Amazon Basics 600VA, APC 600VA, and Cyberpower 600VA) were 600VA and ran from 4 hours to 5.5 hours. So, I bought an APC 1,000VAC unit assuming by extension of the information provided that it should run my Xfinity gateway for far longer — employing simple math roughly 8+ hours. I set mine up according to the instructions in the user manual charging it initially for just over 12 hours in preparation for our planned 9 hour power outage. When our power went out I turned the backup on and the display indicated an initial runtime of 120 mins. It fluctuated quite a bit for approximated 10 minutes and settled on just over 2 hours. Two hours! After 15 minutes of operation 40% of the battery life was gone based on the display indicator. This is FAR from even what the600VA test units provided in the test reported on the website. At this point I don’t know if I have a defective BU or whether the test results and accompanying information in the handyman story are grossly misleading and/or inaccurate. I also fault Comcast/xfinity for not providing basic information on their router/modem/gateways about their units’ energy consumption (presumably in watts) to inform customers. I searched the web and tried calling only to come up empty.
As an aside, I find it pretty crazy that this 15 pound battery back up was so feeble and incapable of providing power to a simple cable modem/router for at least 6-8 hours when my built-in apple laptop battery can run a computer and display for 18 hours and wi-fi.