Complaint Review: Regus - New Orlreans Louisiana

I have been a Regus business gold member for almost three years. It was a complimentary membership assigned to me after I rented from Oakwood housing, which is corporate housing, in Marina del Rey, CA. The use of their business lounge is complimentary with the gold membership. That includes free wifi, use of thinkpods and coffee. Though I received the card, I initially used the membership at a couple of their New York locations. I'm bi-coastal. However, when I used a few of their Los Angeles locations, I sent several complaints to their corporate office and dealt with Aaron Hughes. My complaints were poor customer service at their front desk, borderline discriminatory and harrassing, and inconsistencies in their printing policies. None of the people I complained about were ever fired. I'm an entrepreneur and ended up becoming a member of a co-working space in Santa Monica, Coloft, and had a great experience.

Upon coming to New Orleans for a working vacation, I went to use the business lounge at  the 201 St. Charles location. It was out of date. It looked like a couple of offices I'd worked out of in Los Angeles. In those cases, the office managers offered me an office to work out of, gratis, until they had their lounges remodeled. That happened on both Brentwood locations. However, in New Orleans, they strong-armed me to rent an office. They office manager, Alicia, spent time bad-mouthing all of the co-working spaces in New Orleans, particularly the one I was most interested in, Launch Pad. She told me she didn't like the owner and that I shouldn't go there. So, after asking me for $350, plust a $325 retainer, I grudgingly took it because of the limited time I had to investigate other spaces in New Orleans.

They started me off in a regular sized office, then moved me to one that was the size of a closet. It didn't even have windows. I got into a dispute with my bank, Wells Fargo, regarding some fees they'd charged me that overdrew my account. I informed the office manager that my card might not go through. Instead of cancelling the membership, she agreed to wait. I unfortunately wasn't able to resolve my issue with Well Fargo and won't be able to until I go into a branch. Can't do that until I return to Los Angeles. The issue with them pretty much ruined my trip. But, while this office manager was on vacation, I had issues with their front desk. They were quite rude and unprofessional.

I got a little upset about how they didn't want to print one page for me and one of the girls threatened to call security. What? Is that how you treat a customer? Security came up and I told them what was going on. They pretty much told the front desk they weren't going to get involved, they were on their own. I'd left a piece of luggage in the office manager's office. Didn't know she was going to be gone a week. These front desk girls kept threatening to do something with my luggage if I didn't take it with me. The whole time I was in New Orleans, I was finishing up an assignment where I had to read 300 screenplays online. I was incredibly sleep deprived and having to deal with those ladies, at an office where they were trying to get over $700, seemed really inappropriate.

They have a new location by the Superdome on Poydras that I checked out at one point. It was new and update, but didn't have any customers. I thought it was odd the office manager, who seemed a little slimey, told me that to rent an office there, you had to pay three months ahead of time. I was in the area a second time and decided to see if my account had been blocked. I called the main Regus number and they told me my account was fine. When I went upstairs, one of the girls from the 201 St. Charles location was there. She had a smirk on her face. She took my membership card and said she'd be right back. When she came back the District Manager returned with here. She proceeded to tell me my account was blocked for non-payment. She then tried to suggest that I didn't work for Ice Water Productions.

That is my company name, it has been for two years. I'm not an LLC, but the name is copywritten for my game company. This just made me livid that they would suggest such a thing and then apparently block my account when I was there. I told them they'd be hearing from my attorney. I started looking for one last week. Today I received an email from a collection agency, National Recovery Services, asking me to pay $1500, saying they reduced the bill from $1800. What! I told the rep I'd only rented an office for a month and that I made it clear with the office manager that I was having banking issues at the time. She said, "Can you pay $775 today?"

I said that I couldn't, not until I could resolve my issue with my bank. She asked me when I could pay, and I said I didn't know, and before I could get that out of my mouth she said, "I'll be sure to tell corporate that you had no intention of paying when you signed up." What! That is totally false. I didn't want to give her a date because I'm not sure exactly when I'll have my banking issue resolved, though it will be soon. I told the rep I thought I should have my attorney deal with her, and she said, "Great, have your attorney call me" and hung up on me. I called back, got voicemail. This company is just awful. I should have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau wihen I had issues with them in Los Angeles.