Regus has continuously been commented on to be one of the worst co-working spaces companies in the business with websites like Regus Sucks appearing in 2019, and the overwhelming amount of negative reviews that they have online regarding shady billing practices, unethical and mystifying contracts, unprofessional communication, predatory billing practices and unfair business dealings.
Now as the pandemic approaches it’s year mark and Regus has bankrupted and/or closed several of its locations, customers are flocking from them in drove and sounding the alarm on how shady they are.
Wall Street Reporter wrote on March 25, 2020, ” IWG PLC – Fraudulent billing practices at Regus Offices. Bigger Scam than WeWork?”
also mentioning their acting CEO Mark Dixon and his predatory billing practices and also stated:
“Numerous complaints about fraudulent billing practices have been emerging from Regus offices. It appears the company is desperate for cash.”
Trustpilot shows a plethora of 1 star reviews across all review platforms where clients complain about Regus and its employees being liars, shady, unprofessional, having unethical billing practices, and acting in bad faith in many other ways.
“Shady” things Regus does
- They have seemingly unethical and predatory “service agreements” with confusing and unscrupulous language written into it, which only benefits Regus.
- They misclassify tenants as “licensees,” and thus remove commercial lease protections.
- They force you to pay invoices, correct or not, and only then can you dispute an invoice via their internal disputes process, where they deny any valid dispute and if you file a chargeback with your bank they re-add the invoice to your account and suspend your service (though still charging you for the time they suspend your services and do not render those respective services).
- if you still disagree with your bill and they have denied your valid dispute, they stop responding to you and simply continue to bill you and demand you pay your incorrect invoices, even if they know the invoices are incorrect.
- They will cease all front desk concierge services and disparage you to your clients and inform them of your erroneous billing delinquency and demand your clients contact you directly, when they arrive to see you.
- They do not honor email or text communication you have with them and instead continue to incorrectly bill you and overcharge you, regardless of the communication you have
- Regardless of laws and mandates that stating that they are essential infrastructure and are not required to close, they close early, and offer no credit to tenants/”licensees” for the reduction in services.
- They charge outrageous late fees with interest for any past due invoices
- They invoice you an entire month in advance and require that you pay your month in advance or risk suspension of service AND they will charge late fees on the invoice not paid early
How is Regus Getting Away with this?
- Their service agreements misclassify tenants as “licensees” and thus remove commercial lease protections.
- Commercial leases are governed by their respective leases, which Regus and its counsel ensures only benefits Regus, with tricky wording and one sided clauses.
- They make their tenants/”licensee” go through arbitration, where any attorney a tenant would retain would require a $5,000-$15,000 retainer to arbitrate, which makes arbitration extremely burdensome and impossible from a stand point for most tenants.
- Each Regus location (leased and they sublease to clients) is seemingly under it’s own entity which compartmentalizes things
- The put in their agreement you must pay the bill when due,” regardless of the fact that they bill you one (1) full month in advance.
Conclusion
Stay away from Regus if you can. The internet is full of people stating that they have issues with Regus, their management team, and even their legal counsel (Josh Nicosia). They seem to operate like a gangster mob that manipulates the law to their advantage, regardless of who it harms or how it looks.
They have declared bankruptcy for countless location throughout 2020 and they show no regard for their actions, beyond a disingenuous “we are sorry, please send an email” template response.
If you attempt to dispute bills, you will likely be met with hostility and outright refusal to even resolve things amicably or in an ethical way.
Attorneys themselves allow this type of predatory behavior to continue because all they care about is how much they can bill for and despite Regus’ shady tactics, attorneys typically only want to get paid.
Comments