Virgo Business Centers at Grand Central

If you run your own business, do NOT rent office space from VIRGO BUSINESS CENTERS. Please consider my experience, described below:
I had an office with them for 4 years – my first. This past August I inquired if they had something bigger. They eagerly showed me one a floor below, which was a few hundred more a month. The salesperson, Alan, knew I run a psychotherapy practice and that I’d be moving clients to a new space. He also knew I’d be moving new furniture into the office. He also knew that Virgo was likely to lose their lease on the two floors by the end of 2015… and Did. Not. Tell. Me.
So I signed a new lease through the end of the year (which I thought nothing of, since my old lease was for the same.) Paid for September’s rent (a few hundred more than my old office, mind you), as well as an additional few hundred dollars toward the two month deposit.
And I moved, on September 1^st.
On September 3^rd, Virgo rep Alan confirmed that Virgo was indeed losing their lease at the end of 2015…
When I asked for info for Virgo’s legal counsel, Alan directed me to Virgo’s billing rep, Liz, who admitted that she and Alan both knew that it was a possibility that Virgo could lose their lease when they had me sign my new lease. In other words, they were fine with squeezing a few hundred more dollars out of me per month through the end of the year, with no consideration for what a second move would do to me, my clients, and my business.
When I asked Liz for Virgo’s legal counsel, she gave me this email:
. I sent a clear and thorough complaint to that email and received a message back from a Virgo CEO, Joseph, who spoke with my husband and I on the phone shortly after. He did admit that Alan knew it was possible Virgo would lose its lease when he had me sign the new contract, and offered to «discipline» Alan «internally,» but that he would not make any «concessions» for me unless I decided to move to a new Virgo location in January. He said if I had further complaints, I could speak to the other Virgo CEO, Sarah in person. Sarah refused to meet with me. I was forced to send all of the Virgo reps another clear and thorough email, explaining that I would have to take further action since they would not work with me to remedy their failure to disclose crucial information before I signed the new contract with them – resulting in an unnecessary and significant disruption to my business.
On Sept. 30^th I let them know that I had moved out of the office and left them my keys. I reminded them that they had my deposit (which is two months of the NEW monthly rent) in addition to the money that exceeded my original monthly rent, which I paid to them for September. This would be more than the final three months at my original monthly rent, so there was no need for me to pay them another cent. In fact they owed me some money.
However, Virgo is now coming after ME. After refusing to acknowledge any of my emails, and instead sending me notices that my «account» will be «suspended» if I didn’t pay my rent (which makes no sense considering I had already given notice, explaining in great detail why the new lease was not legally binding as they had failed to disclose material info before I signed it), I finally received a call from their collection agent, a Tony at Merrick, Costello, and Walsh.
My husband and I spoke with Tony and explained the situation. We asked him if his agency was a member of the Commercial Collection Agency Association and he said, «Yes.» We have since discovered that the CCAA has no record of Merrick, Costello, and Walsh as a member and understand that the CCAA is in the process of contacting the agency concerning Tony’s statement that the agency is a member of the organization. Tony followed up on this initial call with another call with his «assistant, Kim» who barked at us and demanded we pay a few thousand dollars. Kim admitted that she had no specific documentation or record of my deposit, just that she was told I owed over $ 3,000 and she was there to collect. I’m not sure what Virgo’s relationship is to Merrick, Costello, and Walsh, but it seems vague and less than professional. She finally agreed to contact Virgo to obtain the appropriate records, which she finally acknowledged was the ethical and fair thing to do – this is after barking at me for fifteen minutes, insisting that I owed thousands of dollars… a business strategy…
This was followed up by yet another phone call with Tony and Kim, during which they mentioned no new documentation, and only insisted again that we pay the $ 3,300 or so (they seem to have chosen the number almost at random). They said they had spoken to Liz at Virgo. This time we demanded they put their request for money in writing, so we could be clear about what they thought I owed. They provided an invoice with a different number than they previously stated I owed, and this dispute is still dragging on…