Regus Group New York City Office (regus.com)
Complaint 241652 Details

Regus Real Estate made a mistake to my contract but refused to alter my contract as I agreed with the representative previously.

In January 2011, our startup company found Regus online and started to consider renting a visual office.

I made an appointment via email with a Regus broker called Mark Dillon and visited the site at 312 w 34th st, New York, NY 10001 on Feb 11, 2013 afternoon. His email was [email protected], and his cellphone number was 646-458-1142.

Mark Dillon showed me the 17th floor of the building, gave me a brief presentation to the services of Regus. I told him I wanted to start with a 3-month lease with phone answering and mailing service, and 5 days private office usage and then extend the service month by month if I am satisfied with the service. I stated very clearly that 12 months would be a long commitment; I was not willing to do that at the very beginning. Mark was an old man with silver hair. He seemed very nice and experienced. He even told me he could give me a $500 coupon if I can forward a new client. He also told me I could take a 12 months contract and get one month free. But I insisted that I would like to start with a 3-month lease.

Mark Dillon later sent me a few emails, including different options of service plans. After discussion, I told Mark we want to take a contract for 3 months from the middle or the end of Feb 2013 with phone answering and mailing service, plus 5 days private office usage each month; I may end the contract or extend it month by month after 3 months. Mark emailed me an online service agreement through email.

Before I signed it, I searched the website of Regus and wanted to know about other options. I also discussed with my partner in China, and in the end we decided we did not need the 5 days private office usage then, and wanted to take a 3-months lease with phone answering and mailing services only. I tried to select different options on Regus website and put the order, but before I checked out, I found there’s no place to put Mark Dillon’s name on the page. Because Mark did his job when I visited the site, I wanted to give him the credit. I did not want to sign a new contract without notifying him. I called Mark to let him know that we changed our minds and want a revised contract, and I put a new order on their website but could not put his name there. He said he could help combine these two contracts as I demanded, and would send me a new contract of 3 months lease with phone service and mailing service only. Somehow, he sent me a few new emails with different payment links. I clicked the last one, and paid through my credit card, they charged me $515.46. Mark said the service will start from Feb 22nd and the lump sum charge was for three months.

At the end of March, I received an email from a Regus employee called Suzanne McSwain, email address [email protected], phone number 214-295-2397, saying that I have an over due charge for April. I was shocked and emailed back to tell her that I have paid for the first three months. She emailed the center manager called Richard Murphy, email address [email protected], phone number 212-946-2724, asking him to correct the mistake.
In her email, she replied:

Thank you for bringing the error to our attention. The center manager is currently taking steps to resolve the matter and issue a credit to your account. I have removed the credit card from processing for April invoice.

The email was also copied to Richard Murphy, which never got back to me.

In the middle of April, I got a phone call from Regus saying that I did not pay for April rent, and my payment was overdue, I explained that there were two contracts, and them must have made a mistake, and the person did not call me back again.

At the end of April, my business partner called me from China, saying that the business contract he sent to our company mailbox with Regus was returned to him, saying there was no this person. He sent me the scanned envelop with my name on it. The contract signing was greatly delayed due to the return of mail, which cost our company a loss of $2500 contract. We were very frustrated and complained to Regus, they first said they would not return any mail with my name or our company name on. After I forwarded the scanned envelop from my business partner from China, they replied that they did not return the mail, it was supposed to be the mistake of the USPS. I did not find who caused the mistake yet, but our company did lose a $2500 contract due to the delay.

At the beginning of May, I received emails from Regus again for the rent of May. I emailed back to complain about the returned mail and wanted to end the contract with them after May. In the reply, Regus suddenly said I actually signed a 12 months contract and could not end it before the period fulfilled. I was shocked and started to reason with them via emails because people mostly either did not answer the office phones or forwarded my phone call to some number that no one was answering when they picked up. At first, I tried to find Mark and ask him to clarify the misunderstanding, however, it was impossible to reach him, I searched online, and found him on the LinkedIn website, his job title listed there was Area Sales Manager at Regus. It seems like he left Regus from April 2013. That’s when all the problems started.

I told the center manager Richard Murphy, which claimed to be in charge of the issue, that this was an misunderstanding, and asked him to contact Mark to clarify. But he told me Mark left and I had to pay for the next 9 months.

As I felt trapped, I searched online using the combination of “Regus and scam” and found almost 20,000 related search results.

This is the LinkedIn page of the missing Mark Dillon that I talked to. (www.linkedin.com/pub/mark-dillon/7/2aa/798)

When I first knew Regus and their services, I thought their services were innovative and encouraging for startup companies. When I met first Mark, I respected him and wanted to try my best to build up the relationship with Regus through him. But now I felt trapped. They have failed to deliver the services they promised fundamentally.

From all the facts stated above, the former staff of REGUS (Mark), with his apparent agent authority, promised to me, which should have bear exactly the same authority as from the REGUS Company, that the company would delete the duplicate contract by mistake. However, the company refused to take the action after absence of any communication in terms of this within 2 months and try to take extra charge without knowledge of the client, which is unilateral breach of the contract and the violation of its promise and duty. Its further claim to collect extra money is of no ground whatsoever.