Summary
High cost after cancellation (2x monthly rent extra), Intransparent Price-Structure, unreliable contact person, Servcorp was the worst workspace experience I had so far.
Context
I am a small business owner. My membership lasted about 6 months. Before Servcorp I tried out multiple Workspaces in Berlin (Betahaus, WeWork, factory ...) My reasoning for trying out Servcorp was that it was close to my home.
High fees after cancellation
My biggest surprise with Servcorp were the high fees I needed to pay after my membership was over. The fees were two times as high as the monthly rent. The fees included services like "virtual office". Virtual office means that there is someone from servcorp who helps you to answer your calls. Despite never using this service, I paid the full service fee.
Intransparent Price Structure
Over my whole membership time I had a strange feeling about the intransparent price structure at Servcorp. There were multiple incidents which caused me confusion:
- Before signing the contract, my Servcorp contact person told me that they have a special deal. The prices for offices change by daily rate. Maybe this structure has a good reasoning, but it's still very uncommon and appears weird to me.
- My membership is over since half a year and I still haven't received my deposit back yet, despite reaching out multiple times.
- The monthly invoices appear too complex. The invoice amount changes from month to month. On average it's the price we agreed on, but it's still very hard to comprehend single invoices.
Unreliable Contact Person
My contact person was N*. She is the team-leader there. She seems to be nice, but is incompetent. There were a lot of instances which left me confused. Here is one example
Before signing the contract, I asked her whether we could agree on a lower price for the monthly rent. That afternoon I received a letter from her. It included that she has very good news and that she can offer me the rent price XYZ. The rent price XYZ was actually the normal price.
This and other instances made me wonder whether she understood my questions correctly.
More “Show” than reality
I assume that Servcorp tries to position itself as a "fancy"-workspace. Something that you can show "proudly" to your clients. It's a nice idea, but executed poorly due to the inconsistency. Here are just some trivial examples:
- The desks in the offices are very low quality.
- The dishes in the kitchen feel super cheap.
There are a lot more of those trivial examples. It appears irrelevant, but those things annoyed me.
My advice
In Berlin you can find a lot of very good workspaces. But there are also a few bad workspaces and servcorp is one of them. So I warn you not to try out Servcorp. If you still want to try out Servcorp, I highly recommend you to consider this:
- look at the cancellation policy closely, especially at the further fee that you need to pay after your cancellation
- negotiate a test phase so that you can make your own experience first before you decide whether you want to commit to an one year contract
Cenk 2Z
1 out of 5
Watch out for the fees and penalties that you end up paying for this company. Once you gave them your credit card, they will use it even if you tell them not to use it any more. There is always an extra cost on your bills, and they charge you a hefty cancellation fee for contract termination regardless of how long you have been a customer with them.
Soko’cito
4 out of 5
good shared office. well located
Mirco Novotny
5 out of 5
The great service, the speed and what felt like the consistently positive mood rubbed off on me. A great team that always supports you very quickly in German and English and is at your side with every question. Working together is fun.
I'm happy to keep it up