Then one morning, just over a month later, I get a collections call. Heck printing on my expensive little home printer is cheaper than that.Boardrooms? Regus has been in business for over 30 years and has an extensive network of locations … Of which I still don't have a copy. There's an entire website called Regus Sucks devoted to people sharing their stories. So our last month with Regus came and went. DF Consulting Inc serves clients coast to coast - read more at www.calgaryrecruiting.com. ", "I have always paid my Regus bills on time. San Francisco, California (PRWEB) … We assume that Regus has decided the argument over $200.00 for a service that they've never even provided isn't worth their time. They put additional, hidden charges on the monthly bill, that require actively opting out. When December came (our 3 month mark) we were so happy to give notice. on-time and without having to keep track of the deadline. Instead, it is something called a "hospitality agreement." Prior to signing of my contract with Regus, Mark Sinclair (General Manager) assured me there would not be any additional fees/hidden fees. When I was unable to make up my mind on the price, citing some other (cheaper) rentals, the sales person said '"but do those rentals include boardrooms, admin support, a stocked kitchen, etc?". Something flexible, but affordable. Office: The promotion applies to any new Equipped Office contract signed … Either they've tacked on about $1100 worth of collection fees, or they've tried to auto-renew us and charge us until spring 2016. You Moved Out Three Weeks Ago And Your Former Landlord... New Regus Billing Blunder Has Customers Terminating Their... "I have been a loyal Regus customer for 10 years. Ouch. They told us sure - $30/month rental fee. Bait-and-switch, hidden fees, fees for services … No copy of our contract is sent. Regus has hidden fees that are never mentioned when you sign the rental agreement...even if you ask point blank -- "Are there any fees I will be charged which you have not told me... Read more Regus is … Anyone who has experienced this will agree that one of the most prudent things you can do when you enter an agreement with Regus is set up procedures to help avoid all of the sneaky fees Regus tries to hit you with. Staying on this point of Regus not sending you reminders of upcoming auto-renewal dates, let's look at the type of agreement you have in place with Regus--because it matters. Technically, Regus is the tenant. This may be an unavoidable situation for Regus … So what you may have to pay for a desk at a Regus office will depend on where you are. How do you respond? They also have been known to increase rent with each new lease your sign. This is why Regus seems to hope that you forget about the auto-renewal deadline, and this is why you might not ever receive a reminder from Regus about this deadline. I pay 1/4 of that at Staples. Your only protection against the Regus automatic renewal clause is putting a procedure in place that ensures your decision to stay or leave Regus at the end of your current term is documented by a written notice you deliver to Regus prior to the auto-renewal deadline. A AlbertBramante Jun 26, 2018. Who won't take my calls. According to a recent class action lawsuit against Regus PLC and its subsidiaries, the company allegedly charged fees … And if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Our stocked kitchen? Automatic renewal, the "business continuity" fee, the beverage fee--whether you are the business owner or the office administrator, if managing your company's Regus contract is your responsibility, then you should be familiar with every type of "hidden" fee for which is Regus infamous. But if the agreement stated otherwise, we would have sucked it up and paid the remaining 2 months. The worst part is the hidden “restoration fee… I will give you my interpretation using a hypothetical example (disclaimer: I am not your attorney and this is not legal advice). 16 reviews of Regus California Downtown Lytton Avenue "Full Disclosure: I considered renting from Regus, toured the office and went through the terms. Second, what does the automatic renewal clause not say? Plus, it will send you automatic reminders leading up to that send date (which you can turn on or off as you wish), and it will let you cancel the notice of termination any time you like. A month goes by. Legal fees will probably cost me more than the $1300.00, but now it's more of setting an example of how you should deal with you customers. Community Manager Interview New York, NY (US) Regus An upset customer approaches your desk to question you about hidden fees on her bill. Sure, their renewal terms were a little crazy - 3 months notice must be given or the lease auto-renews. And--this might surprise you--many of the businesses in the latter bucket are law firms, the people we hire to help us organize around the right procedures for our business, the people who might, for example, advise you to put a reminder on your calendar to make sure that you give sufficient advance notice of termination. View Jobs at Regus. I'm sorry, but no business is going to fork out money just because someone tells them in an email that they need to. If you check out the online community, my lesson learned is just one of thousands (tens of thousands!) A Google search turned up a lot of complaints about hidden fees in their lease agreement. Community Manager Interview New York, NY. This is the law's attempt to protect unsuspecting tenants from unscrupulous landlords who might otherwise bury these kinds of hidden fees in the contract. I didn't feel that was unreasonable. How do you … In other words, administration of that contract is not something you would typically hire a business attorney to do. Under the California Business & … DON"T DO IT! And if Regus had of sent me a bill and copy of my $200.00 invoice they said I owed, I would have just paid it. As a new business, we needed an office space. They didn't give us any grief. How can something be sent to collections when we've never been invoiced for it? "Wait, but I am the tenant, and Regus is my landlord." Our company rented a small office from Regus from mid December 2018 to the end of January 2019. ", "I have recommended Regus to many colleagues. And that when they say statements like "some services may cost extra" find out, in writing, exactly what is and isn't included. I let him know we'd need to first see a copy of this agreement that supposedly extends 2 months beyond our lease (we very well may have signed it, but we don't have any record - but then again, there was so much paperwork signed initially we might have missed it - which is why we asked for a copy) along with an invoice (the only invoice we had was for a $3.00 late charge). However, we do agree to pay 2 months worth of fees, and he agrees verbally to waive the late charge. Regus is one of them. Resolved Regus Group — Hidden Fees. My Regus guy replied back to my email asking why this is in collections, who is your supervisor, where is my invoice, and where is the copy of my contract with, "As you account is in collections Regus may no longer engage in conversation and all dealings with your former account must go through the collections company. LinkedIn recommends the new browser from Microsoft. All he needed to do was send us the paperwork. Regus rents a floor or building from the building owner, and then re-sells the space to Regus customers, and--this is the key point--Regus customers are neither tenants nor sub-tenants. Most of us like to see a little something more - an invoice, a copy of the contract, etc. Regus Sued in Class Action for Alleged Hidden Charges. He tells us that no - we still have an agreement with him lasting another 2 months, and owe an additional 2 months of fees on top of that. When March came around and we decided to no longer continue with Regus … This particular case, filed by San Francisco business law firm Ari Law P.C., claims that Regus failed to adequately disclose hidden charges to the client. Prior to signing of my contract with Regus, Mark Sinclair (General Manager) assured me there would not be any additional fees/hidden fees. It does not say that Regus will send you any reminders of this or any other deadline for opting out of one of Regus's several hidden fees--which seems strange, right? The mail service (both in our office at our mailbox forwarding service from the other address) that we never received a single piece of mail that was apparently sent - we ended up renting a PO Box instead. How does it work? Just because you're told things like boardrooms & kitchens are included (note - you can't opt out of kitchen fees) doesn't mean anything unless you have it in writing. At this point we figured that he was agreeing to close off our account (and not try and keep us looped in for an extra 2 months on top of the 2 we'd already paid). In our current office (4 times as big, way nicer, and in a much better location) we're saving almost 50%! Given the two clauses pictured above, what is the procedure you must follow? Current and future Regus customers are all encouraged to use it for free, and as more people... ...then maybe Regus will suddenly find it less lucrative to try to surprise people with auto-renewal on their way out the door. We also receive a notice of service termination advising us they are no longer sending us mail (not that we had any) followed by an agreement termination, letting us know our agreement has been terminated. Still, in this one case alone, her $43 Veeto membership returned her $4,459 in avoided Regus early termination fees, lease payments, and forfeited deposit fees paid to Regus. Prior to signing of my contract with Regus, Mark Sinclair (General Manager) assured me there would not be any additional fees/hidden fees. When I followed up explaining that I felt this was a mistake and have already disputed it with the collections company, and that either I or them need to be sent a copy of the contract & invoice I was reminded again, to cease contacting Regus and to refer to my client agreement. I've learned some valuable lessons as a small business owner, that's for sure. Regus - hidden charges and inaccessible This company misrepresented themselves completely. Sure, the rent was a bit steep - but it was supposed to include all of these perks. The monthly bill would be huge, and for this reason, even your attorney knows that this is not a good use of your legal budget. January 12, 2014 | Peter S. Lubin and Patrick Austermuehle. Figuring that our rent included all of these great things, we went ahead and signed on. Although renters usually expect to pay through the owner of the property for utilities, they usually only expect to do so if it is specifically included in the lease. Please refrain from any further contact with Regus.". We anticipated (based off our conversations with Regus and our understanding of what we were signing) that we'd end up paying around $20K for the year. We don't hear anything from them. How were we to know there was this separate person in another city we were supposed to give notice to for that? Also, the few hundred it costs to have a lawyer proof a contract can save you far more in the long run. On top of that, I've talked … We just want out. This allows Regus to sidestep any of those landlord obligations that the law imposes, like sending a certain number of auto-renewal reminders, in a certain way, a certain number of days in advance of the deadline. Don't leave this to the attorneys. I couldn't drink that much coffee if my life depended on it. I was informed by a competitor that Regus had hidden fees … We just sent you an email. In most jurisdictions in the US, there are statutes that obligate landlords to give tenants these kinds of important reminders--in some cases, even multiple reminders. They put additional, hidden charges on the monthly bill, that require actively opting out. I kept forgetting, so I built a tool to automatically send Regus notice of termination prior to the deadline. The BBB gives it an F rating for failing to respond to four complaints filed by Regus customers. One of Several Sneaky Fees Automatic renewal, the "business continuity" fee, the beverage fee--whether you are the business owner or the office administrator, if managing your company's Regus contract is your responsibility, then you should be familiar with every type of "hidden" fee for which is Regus … I couldn't stress more based on my experience - if you're a small business, look around at other options. Besides the internet. Regus’ unsavory and often legally fraudulent practices are well-documented and they have lost many court cases due to their policies. I was informed by a competitor that Regus had hidden fees … They've never even received or sent us a piece of mail in the year we've been paying them. When searching for your first office, know that there are much better options out there. What if you decide not to terminate after all? In any case, even if you decide to stay, giving Regus this valid notice termination should give you way more leverage to negotiate a much better renewal rate rather than the vague "prevailing market rate" that the contract describes--whatever that means. After doing some research we decided to go with Regus. Her Veeto membership cost $42.95, and that membership allows her to Veeto any purchase from any company, not just this Regus lease agreement. Offer expires 08/31/2014. Prior to signing of my contract with Regus, Mark Sinclair (General Manager) assured me there would not be any additional fees/hidden fees. If you've used Regus before, what was your experience like? "Can't I just put a reminder on my calendar?". We of course disagree. As we all know, Regus can be tough to deal with sometimes, which is why I am happy to offer this tool for free. I built this tool to automate sending a notice of termination to Regus to prevent surprise auto-renewals, and I am opening it up for others who share my pain. I was informed by a competitor that Regus had hidden fees … There's no other possible way to get from a $200.00 bill (that was never invoiced to us in the first place) to a $1300.00 bill. We told our Calgary account person that we were done with Regus. Please click the link in the email to confirm your subscription! I was informed by a competitor that Regus had … … The most frequent complaints? So it turns out absolutely nothing is included for your rent. Yep but the cost is astronomical (the rental cost was so high to borrow a boardroom in the facility that not once did I see anyone use either of the 2 rooms). So given that we are opening this up to others to use for free, there really is no good reason to not use it and risk being inadvertently auto-renewed. Bottom line: since your business will be the one most affected by the sneaky fees Regus imposes, then advice from lawyers should be just that: advice, not the final word, and not a replacement for having procedures in place to ensure that the contract is properly managed and that its details and deadlines are thoroughly understood. Online complaints are primarily centered on hidden fees that are listed in their contract. Regus has so many hidden extra costs that it ends up costing you far more in the long run than what you anticipate. I was informed by a competitor that Regus had hidden fees and … $40/month/person. The reason for this is simply pragmatic: if your business maintains 10-20 contracts with various vendors at any given time, then imagine what your ongoing fee would be if you were to hire your attorney to "manage" each of those contracts on an ongoing basis. Regus sounds like the perfect solution, but I'm getting a distinctly oily vibe from them. 7 Reviews ... A lot of hidden fees … Well, no they didn't. How can the amount of $200.00 that was originally told to us but never invoiced balloon into $1300? Get a quote today. We also remind him that we have the written notice we gave our key contact (that also signed us up for the mailbox) and that we don't feel we should continue to pay 2 months beyond our lease, as our original terms were only supposed to match the lease (we thought). We didn't even set up phones in our office due to the high costs - we just used our cell phones. Therefore, if we can slip several sneaky clauses into our contracts, then we can maximize our opportunities to bill business 2-3 more times even after they have ceased using our services and regardless of whether they have already fulfilled all of their face-value obligations of the contract, like having made 24 lease payments for a 24-month contract. The class action seeks relief, including injunctive relief from Regus for unfair business practices based on claims of hidden and unreasonable fees. In other words, I only care about forcing as many businesses as possible to pay us at least one more time, regardless of whether we are exchanging value or not. Verified customer My rental agreement is up at the end of the … We got our security deposit back thanks to the admin lady (again, she was the only silver lining in the entire experience). Free for Regus customers only. I'm still waiting on the collections company to send me a breakdown, but I'm guessing it's either 1 of 2 things. Interview Question. Regus / Office Rental. Enter your contract start date and end date, and the tool will automatically schedule your written notice of termination to be sent to Regus prior to your renewal date. Admin support - you bet, but they tell you after the fact you'll be billed $35/hour. But I haven't rented from them (explanation … Interview Question. ", "And certainly Regus would not want to ignore all of those good things I have done for their business by trying to shake me down when I eventually decide to leave.". I of course followed up with Regus as well, thinking (in good faith) that a mistake has been made. I refuse however, to fork out $1300.00 for a service that cost me $1200 per year with an organization that couldn't even sent me an invoice or attempt to explain the charges to me. The Regus Automatic Renewal Clause (and How To Avoid It), A former Regus customer built a free tool for avoiding automatic renewal. Regus has so many hidden extra costs that it ends up costing you far more in the long run than what you anticipate. Shilo Burt is the founder and CEO of DF Consulting Inc, a recruiting & HR Consulting company headquartered in Calgary AB. Regus has office locations across 900 cities and their rates from vary from location to location. Why then is Regus able to get away with this so widely? This fee included...well, that's pretty much it. And we didn't use ANY of the extra services. Get EVERYTHING in writing, because what you're told verbally never seems to actually be the case. So in essence, once the notice of termination is scheduled, it turns renewal into an opt-in decision rather than an opt-out decision, which is how I think it should have been to begin with. Frankly, I think this is the type of "stand up to Regus" activity we need to see more of. And in the specific case of the Regus auto-renewal clause, that means scheduling an automatic notice of termination to be sent to Regus prior to the renewal deadline. Sure, you could ask your attorney to review your Regus contract and identify any potential pitfalls. We hear nothing further, until I reply back that 'we accept your notice of termination' at which point we are told he's retracting it and has decided we do owe the extra 2 months after all. I was informed by a competitor that Regus had hidden fees and … Nobody seems to take over my complaint that started as soon as I … Regus - California, Gardena - Gardena 879 West 190th Street Suite 400 Gardena CA 90248. They're an international company that apparently caters primarily to small and start up businesses. Technically, in most cases, the agreement you sign with Regus is not a lease agreement. Regus is the biggest mistake I have ever made for my business. Last thing: this is a nationwide effort, so feel free to pass this on to others in your network. A week (or two) later, we get in an invoice for a $3.00 late charge. This review was posted by a verified customer. In the event of any question relating to this Site, please email us at webmaster@regus.com GROUP DETAILS Pathway IP Sàrl is registered in Luxembourg with company number B144147 and its … Let's say that you are in a 24-month agreement with Regus and that you wish to terminate the contract at the end of the term. ", "Certainly Regus would want to preserve that customer-provider goodwill that we have both cultivated over time. Not technically. You're not allowed to have your own printer, but you can use the Regus printer. No invoice is sent. It depends on your perspective. Our internet costs -$100/month/person. Here is a screenshot of the Regus automatic renewal clause (and, for context, the cancellation clause that immediately follows it). 86 reviews for Regus, 1.1 stars: 'What company doesn't allow for some flexibility under the current COVID-19 situation? The entire ordeal cost over 6,000.00 dollars including mis-billing and incorrect late fees… And be prepared for a battle when your contract finally comes to an end. Know that there is a deadline for giving written notice of termination. At first they were going to hold basically our entire security deposit (of over $3000) for some 'forwarding service' where they forward our mail and calls, but the admin lady at our location was fabulous. We asked about getting a whiteboard in the office (all office furniture has to be Regus owned). I estimate that around 27% of churning Regus customers get stung with some form of inadvertent auto-renewal, which, if you are on a 24-month agreement, could mean an extra $10,000 to $20,000 expense, that you were not planning to pay, for something you were not planning to use. This company misrepresented themselves completely. (source: just Google "regus auto-renewal"). How can something go from "please send us a copy of our contract that stipulates we owe this, along with an invoice" to 45 days later a collections issue? If you are going to go with Regus, I'd recommend bringing your contract … If interested, simply click the button below and sign up. For $0.40/sheet. Printing? But we just marked that date in our calendar. out there. It also receives a TrustScore of 3.8 out of 5 based on 4,414 reviews and a Facebook rating of 2.7 out of 5 based on 937 ratings. View Jobs at Regus. Start at the contract's end date (which you can typically find on the Online Office Agreement document under the Service Provision section), and count back three months. Prior to signing of my contract with Regus, Mark Sinclair (General Manager) assured me there would not be any additional fees/hidden fees.