Dishonest and Sly Business Practices. Review on Regus

I was scouting options to quickly set up an office in Mumbai when I first came upon Regus. I looked at atleast 10-12 options before I finally settled for Regus Andheri Office. Being a no-nonsense person, my reasons for selecting Regus were

1. The decor and hospitality

   
   




2. Central location

   
   




3. The offer was comparatively lower to similar players.

   
   

As in the case of most competitive supplier negotiations, I had shared my preference and reasons with other suppliers. They all clearly warned me that there were a lot of hidden charges and traps. Since the contract with Regus appeared clean, I discounted these as competitor frustrations and chose to go ahead with Regus.

The Tsunami first struck when the first month's invoice arrived. The services component was half as much as the monthly rent that was negotiated. We hadn't used any other service (including beverages and secretarial) other than those decided during the sign-up. Basically they attached an atrocious set-up cost to anything and everything. This was never revealed in the initial discussions. This is despite paying equivalent of an annual cost of each of these services as a monthly recurring cost.

The second Tsunami hit when the topic was brought up. The BD guys suddenly turned from respectable gentlemen to a bunch of thugs. The basically told us that we were stuck and we better pay or they shall deduct from the deposit.

And we were stuck by then. We took care to avoid these these traps then on a daily basis. But the damage was done. They had already recovered more than what their competitor's were offering.

We decided not to go ahead with them after the current term expired. There was a 2 month notice for extension built into the contract if we wanted to continue and an auto renewal mechanism at the expiry of the term of contract. Ten days before the notice period ran out, they sent an email to our CEO in Belgium asking him to renew, which was forwarded to me.

Since I was traveling, I responded to the email in clear terms that we were not interested in continuing with the service before the notice period ran out. There was no response. A second email on the same terms was ignored as well. I sent a third one as well which was after the due date, because there wasn't much gap anyway. They responded then saying that since the notice period had passed, they auto-renewed the agreement. I sent my lawyers' comments which clearly stated that the contract did not allow them to do an auto renewal until the end of the contract and that it was basically a measure to ensure that contracts do not lapse. Notwithstanding, the fact that the emails sent before the notice period asking for the termination was ignored. This email was ignored as well along with a few dozen emails which were sent later.

On the trails of that, they sent us invoices of the next month with a 50% price increase, while the contract allows only 4% increase. Well, they do not care about the contract anyway.

It is very clear that this organization is operated in a manner that violates any standards of ethics or morals and believe that people and business can be arm-twisted and blackmailed to submission. I have lost my 2 months of deposit and invoices still continue to pile up although we have stopped using the office.

They are misusing the benefits of professional branding, decor and the web to lure unsuspecting customers into a trap. I would advise even my foe to stay miles away.

I can be contacted for any comment or information on this matter. I would not like anyone else to have the same experience.

Cheers,

Sandeep