Retainer refund confirmed but never paid - two months, six representatives, no answer
I ended my agreement at a Regus centre in Manila (Net Lima Global City) on 31 May 2026. The office passed inspection and my final invoice was paid in full. All that remained was the return of my retainer.
The online refund form cannot accept Japanese bank account numbers. Its validation requires the first of seven digits to indicate the account type - a convention that does not exist in Japan, where all seven digits are the account number itself. Every attempt returns an "Invalid format" error. I have screenshots of this.
What followed was two and a half months of this:
- I was directed back to the same broken online form at least five or six times, by different representatives, each apparently unaware of the previous correspondence.
- A manual refund form was eventually provided. I completed and submitted it on 30 May. Receipt was acknowledged.
- On 8 June I was told in writing that the refund had been "successfully processed and is scheduled for payment with a value date of 2 July 2026."
- I was then told the funds would arrive by 10 July.
- Both dates passed. No funds arrived.
- No one has ever been able to confirm the single most basic fact: whether the remittance was actually executed at all. The local centre confirmed in writing that it cannot verify this, as it is handled by a finance team that customers cannot contact. The helpdesk ticket was closed, so emails to it bounce back as undelivered.
- I escalated in writing to IWG head office twice. Neither escalation received a personal reply. The matter was simply pushed back to the same helpdesk.
- Today, 16 July, I received yet another message saying my query has been "further escalated" and checks are "still" being carried out. This is the same reply I have now had repeatedly, from a sixth different representative.
I have also been sent a charge for PHP 0.07 on a closed account, which I assume is a system artefact, but which nobody has withdrawn.
I have been patient and polite throughout. I am posting publicly because private channels have produced nothing in two and a half months, and because I have found many other reviews here describing the identical pattern: a refund confirmed but not paid, no reachable finance function, and endless "still processing" replies. If this is systemic, other customers should know before they sign.
I am happy to provide my account number and the payment voucher reference to Regus privately, and I have kept the full correspondence and screenshots. All I have ever asked for is one factual answer: was the money actually sent, and if so, on what date and with what transfer reference?
