Sheffield man left stunned after 'signing' £34,000 office contract with one click
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Robin Gibbons, aged 20, says he did not click ‘Accept’ and archived the email. And there were no follow-up emails confirming the deal or giving him a cooling off period.
Five months later in August he was shocked to discover Regus believed it had a contract with him for an office in Sheffield. And despite frantic attempts to cancel it, in September he received an invoice for £5,810.16, for the first two months of a 12-month contract.
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Regus followed that up by demanding payment by September 15.
Robin said an email with a one-click ‘Accept’ button for a huge agreement was a ‘very reckless trading practice’.
He added: “This is causing copious amounts of stress for me and my family. I can’t even afford to make 50 per cent of the first payment.
“I am working so hard to get my business off the ground but I can’t afford lawyers, I’m finding it very hard in this economic climate and this whole ordeal is taking its toll on my mental health, I feel it could take away my business from me.”
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Hide AdRobin set up a GCSE and A-Level tutoring business during lockdown. Two years on, and Latimer Tuition has nearly 50 tutors throughout the UK and overseas.
His complaints went up the ranks at Regus but without success. As the September 15 deadline loomed he contacted The Star.
We contacted Regus - and the contract was cancelled in less than 24 hours.
The firm told us the ‘matter was resolved with the customer’.
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Hide AdIn an email to Robin, operations director Emma Henson at IWG - the new name for Regus - said the contract was cancelled and she apologised.
She wrote: “I have been reviewing in detail with our centre team and sales colleagues the issues that you had experienced with the online agreement.
“I have been advised that due to no fault of your own the agreement had been accepted and this was a mistake.”
She added: “I would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused and thank you for your patience whilst this has been investigated.”