How You Treat Companies During a Pandemic Defines Your Brand: An Open Letter to Make Offices

$14525 or $14550 in office fees. That is how much I have spent with my co-working space, Make Offices over the last 6 years. Today I ended that relationship because Make Offices has decided collecting about 6% of that amount is more important than their long term relationship.

I signed up for Make Offices on January 20, 2014 when the company was called Uber Offices. I remember they said they would never change the name no matter how popular Uber became. Holly, a former community manager, and I would laugh about that all the time. They caved. I knew they would. Holly was long gone by that point.

I built No Blue Creative out of the Tyson's office space. I referred about 20 clients to that office and others and hosted events or asked others to consider hosting events in the space to give the company more publicity. I was a loyal and devoted member.

I moved to Reston during renovations at Tyson and never moved back. Reston was about 45 minutes from my home without traffic, 1 hour and 30 minutes with traffic so I did not spend a lot of time at the office but I loved the space and I enjoyed being a member.

Despite hardly ever using the space, I paid my fees every single month. I think I was late maybe 1-2 times. I complained a couple times about unresponsive community managers and dishes being left out everywhere. At times I cleaned up the space and cleaned dishes. I was not the perfect member at all times but again, despite barely using the office (maybe 15 days at most), I paid regularly and was committed to staying.

I was offered spaces at other locations and each time I went back to Make Offices to let them know the offer and see if they could match it. They could, I stayed. I got a second space closer to my home (10 minutes) this year but kept my Make Offices space because I just loved the space. I loved being a member. I wanted to stay with Make Offices, I never had a desire to cancel.

In March my doctor told me because of medical issues I faced in the past and the fact that I lived with my parents who are over the age of 65, I should not leave the house until about June. The stay at home order came shortly after that. I emailed Make Offices and they froze my account until June. I paid for March despite never using it and only entering the space once to collect my things.

I have not thrived working from home at all. I am distracted by the pandemic and I do not work well at home. I usually do not have a lot of time to spend at my office during the summer, but tutoring is slow during the pandemic and I had plan to make a couple trips in June to Reston just to knock out work.

Unfortunately, COVID. That seems to be how most stories end up nowadays. This week I learned that someone in my community may have COVID or really bad allergies. I also had an entire family of students that I tutor pro-bono go get test for COVID. During that process they may have been accidentally exposed to asymptomatic COVID carriers at the doctor's office. I have done my best to support them while trying to keep myself safe from exposure.

I thought to myself, "now is probably not a good time for me to share a co-working space and risk exposing other members to a disease." I thought about canceling my Make Office membership but again, I LOVE the space. I have been with Make Office for 6 years. Yes, I barely use it but I love the space. I felt part of the community.

I have with Make Office longer than many of the community managers, I am on the third CEO, I have grown my business with Make Office. It holds a special place in my heart.

While I don't have a lot of income coming in, I can afford to maintain 2 office locations. I was committed to stay with the space until summer 2021 when I had it on my calendar to review. COVID did not alter those plans.

I honestly, did not anticipate any problems with asking for further extension. The cost was less than $500 to maintain a relationship that has spanned over 6 years.

I explained the situation and how I thought coming in could possibly compromise others health as I may need to be in contact with individuals or God forbid, make my way to the hospital if permitted. April and May had been covered. I was asking for June and July to be covered. I explicitly stated I wanted to remain a member, I did not want to cancel but could not access the office without risking the health and well-being of other members.

Queue the problems. I was told I could only get 25% percent off my membership fee. I would be responsible for 75%. Again, the only reason I was not able to use the office is because using it would jeopardize other's health and well-being. This was not a safety measure for me. I could have just used the space and risked the lives of my fellow members and not had this issue.

I want to put this in perspective. My current waived months was only 3% of the total of what I have paid for 6 years. Had Make Offices waived 2 more months, then it would be 6%. They would have then collected membership fees for the remainder of the year AND at least 6 months of 2021. I had decided even if this did go into August, I would start paying as I could not ask Make to cover the fees.

It became clear that I was not a member to Make Office, I was a number. I felt lied to and silly. It is difficult to find out that you value a company more than they value you.

I had just reached my emotional limit dropping off groceries for those who needed them and saw this "offer." It was clear that the only consideration Make Office had was for their profit margin and not common sense policies to protect their members or show them that they valued them.

We are not perfect people, especially when those we know and love have their lives in jeopardy. Feeling devalued, I told them exactly what I thought.

I told them to cancel my membership. I asked that the 30 day requirement be waived as we were 25 days in.

I told them that I did not want to be associated with a company that cared more about collecting 75% of 2 months rent than waiving those fees. I told them I was hurt and angry that they did not value me over 6 years. I told them a lot of things. I did not sugar coat any of it. Nor, should I have to apologize. I am looking death in the face right now, I do not need to be nice to individuals who believe that collecting less than $500 for a space that I cannot access due to my commitment to CDC guidelines is the right call.

And let's be real. Had I said no, if I am paying 100% of the cost of June or even 75% of the cost of June and I will be access the space since I am paying for it, they would not have been okay with that outcome.

What I got back in reply to my message told me I made the right decision to leave Make Offices.

The community manager at Christian told me he was "baffled" because they had been so accommodating throwing the 2 months freeze in the last 6 years in my face. Their regional manager, Jazmin, told me I needed to maintain professionalism.

I kept thinking how funny it was that I was wondering if members of my community and students as well as their family would die alone in a hospital soon but I was being asked to be "professional." I have two students ages 14 and 15 who I have known since they were 6 and 7 possibly exposed to the virus and wondering if they will survive but I was expected to stay professional with two individuals arguing over less than $500 after collecting over 14k from me for the past 6 years.

I cannot be "professional" in the face of death, especially to those creating policies just to preserve profits.

Both Christian and Jazmin, weaponized their past accommodations that lead to a 2 month freeze against me. All the sudden these became favors that I should be grateful for instead of medical accommodations businesses should make to support their members during this time. I wondered, "Would they have preferred I cancel... are they pretending they did not offer me 2 months waived just to ensure I did not cancel."

I could not use a co-working space during a pandemic stay at home order. I could have canceled the membership entirely and owed nothing. I chose to stay but now it was framed as a favor.

I was also told that I owed for June due to the contractual requirement of a 30 day notice. Christian emphasized that it was a contractual term, I agreed to when I signed. Jaszmin also told me that she was doing me a favor by offering me 25% in June, that she was breaking the policy not to discount or freeze any memberships.

What I realized is I was now financially responsible for an entire month of rent because COVID 19 has a 3-4 day window. I did not cancel within the 30 day window because I did not know I had possibly been exposed to COVID or knew people who may have COVID 30 days ago. Had my community members been infected 5 days earlier, Make Office would have no legal basis for keeping my fees as I would not be within the 30 day window.

They both refused to let me speak to someone above them until I threatened to contact their CEO. They referred me to their COO and now we are here.

Maybe Make Office won't care about my open letter, I don't care. They don't seem to care about the bad reviews on other platforms so this should not have an impact.

I have nothing to lose by calling them out. I am already the villain of the story for make.

I wrote this all to say how you treat your customers during a pandemic will define how they view your brand.

Two employees destroyed 6 years of brand loyalty overnight. It is RARE for a co-working space to have a consistent member for 6 years. Members come and go. I know, I have watched it. I stuck in there.

I am hurt and upset that these 2 employees who have spent less time with the company than I have, spoiled my interaction and ended my relationship with Make Offices

I suspect that I have been with this company longer than both of these individuals combined. I suspect that when both of these individuals move on to other companies, they will have spent less time with Make than I would have and yet these two individuals have now spoiled my long standing relationship with an office I love.

I do not feel it was necessarily the "wrong" choice for Make Offices to decide they would force members to pay for fees for space they aren't using. I just do not think it is a choice that puts their members first..

Here is what I expected:

1. A recognition that my value as a customer after 6 years exceeds the value of 4 months rent
2. A decision to accommodate me as I took protective steps to keep their members safe
3. If they could not accommodate me, a conscious choice to keep my needs in the center and not center their feelings or desire for "professionalism" in these communications. I am dreaming about children's coffins, now is not the time for this
4. If they could not accommodate me, then they could have at least not held what they have "done" for me over my head. Especially since what they did prevented me from cancelling my membership
5. To recognize that my circumstances warranted an exception to the 30 day notice or if they choose to hold me to the contract because I missed the window by 5 days a compassionate approach to communicating why they felt justified in forcing me to pay an entire month of fees for an office space they probably would not like for me to use (sorry that COVID didn't present itself for the first 4 days).

While I would not have agreed with the approach to refuse refunds to someone making a decision to avoid the office to keep others safe, I would not have gotten to the point of making a public letter had this been handled differently.

The old adage goes, when people show you who they are believe them. I believe when Brands show you who they are during this pandemic you need to believe them as well.

Make Offices has shown me I am not a member, I am a number, that they believe they have the right to control and dictate how I should react to a pandemic and their behavior, and they do not want my business in the long term. I believe them. I wish I did not, I wish I could believe they were the brand I thought they were just 24 hours ago, but I am now confronted with a truth and it is time for me to believe it.

Update: Finally got a resolution I am happy with from MakeOffices. No response on this, however.

If I am being honest, I wish I had dealt with Josh White, the COO, from the start. I honestly wanted to stay with Make Offices and continue to grow in the space I called home for 6 years. It was clear that Josh was committed to making sure I felt heard and understood. I think the community manager in Reston as well as the Regional Manager, Jaszmin, felt the goal was to retain a portion of my membership cost for the month of June and avoid waivers at all cost.

It is disappointing that I will no longer be a member there, I spent 6 years there because I loved the company and had a special place in my heart for the company after 6 years that avoided me ending the membership even after I secured a space closer to home. However, it became clear that the community and regional manager saw me as a nuisance and I don't want to be in a space where I am not welcomed.