An amateur player in the co-working industry
I am a transplant from the East Coast to Colorado, and so was looking for a good space to accommodate meetings with clients, and also to have a professional place to occasionally rent an office so I could focus. I have my wife and toddler at home, so a co-working company seemed like a good solution. Well sadly, I was horribly mistaken.
I was aware that there are bigger names in the co-working industry, like Regus and WeWork. I suppose I was just trying to support small business with my decision to patronize Office Evolution. To make a long story short, I signed up with their DTC/ Greenwood Village office in Denver, Colorado. All I needed was occasional access to an office (usually their day office) and the conference rooms.
Wow, talk about substandard service! Usually at co-working spaces, there is a Business Center Manager present, or at the very least, a receptionist. There was never anyone at the front desk, the entire time I was a member. Luckily, I was only there for two months, but I should have left long before then. The internet was down quite a bit, which was ridiculous. Starbucks would have been a better bet for a decent wireless connection. I attempted to call OE headquarters about this issue, but there were only two techs there who never answered. I found a general support email address, and received an incredibly poorly written email from a silly girl who clearly could not spell her own name. Here is the gist of what she wrote: “We can defiantly help you with that! And we'll summit a support ticket right away. Thank you for your patients." Clearly, the best spell checker in the universe could not help her. She helped me make the decision to ultimately cancel my membership.
There are indications that Office Evolution is expanding and doing ok, more or less. What I want to know is, if that's the case, why was I under the impression I was dealing with Ma and Pa Kettle? Where is the professionalism? Why don't corporate staff there know how to SPELL for Chrissakes?!! I have held several high profile jobs as an Editor, so it bothers me no end.
I met another member at the DTC office who had a Business Address plan with Office Evolution, and he believes that service is a scam as well. He explained that what they won’t tell you is if you want to change your address once you leave, you will not be able to do it the normal way through the post office. There is a general suite number that the post office will refuse to redirect your mail from. And at least with Office Evolution, you’ll have to pay a fee to have them forward your mail to you.
Oh, but there’s free coffee! Big deal. I can more than afford my own darn coffee, thank you very much. As a result of my experience with Office Evolution, I am writing off the entire co-working industry. I don't have the time or patience for such shenanigans. Good luck to them all, but my guess is that it's just a passing trend...