Paychex Sucks

I am a current payroll specialist with Paychex. I am not sure who you deal with but obviously you needed to change reps. I personally provide 100% customer service satisfaction and have an A plus rating for my service and skills. I apologize for your disatisfaction but it is not the company that you should refer to. You should refer to the branch & individual that you have dealt with. It is the employers responsibity to provide us with social security numbers for their employers, and I do everything in my power to relay that to my clients. If the employer does not have the ssn, then I will not add to payroll because they, the employer can be fined if they do not have the appropriate documents on file. As far as the 401K subject, I have no idea what you are referring to and the reports are perfect if you know how to read.

LOL At Anonymous. 718-323-3000 is my office number. Anyone who wants to hear how bad Paychex fu**ed over my business the last 9 weeks, give me a call.

Anonymous's attitude is exactly what's wrong with Paychex. They think everything is running smoothly so nothing ever gets better. I don't think they updated their reporting since they started and it really needs improvement. Why am I not able to get a custom reports yet? Why do I have to use your crappy predefined reports? What if I want to know how much I paid to John Doe #1 for January 12-March 31?

And you don't know about 401(k)? Sadly, that doesn't really surprise me.

As an EX employee of this company I can tell you that everything you have written here is right on the money. This company sucks. They under-hire and make lowly payroll specialists with virtually NO training do the job that 4 people should be doing. The managers of the company get bigger bonuses when they fire people and keep their staff down. The 100 best places to work thing every year is a total scam as they hand pick who they are going to send the survey too. Stay away from this place at all costs.

NOT one of the "Best 100 Places to Work". Look HERE: http://eyeonpaychex.blogspot.com

I'm not an account specialist,but I do want to say one thing I do see what they go through to get important information such as social security numbers and many times the employer does not want to be bothered or gets annoyed at the constant phone calls their reps make in regard to this information. They do what they can except come to the company and tell you "give me the information now". Paychex is like any other company where they there are rules and guidelines to insure protecting the company AND client. Before making judgements I think you should look at your own job and deny there are any flaws with it.

I agree with Paychex employee they do their best and theirs just no way to make everyone happy. If you dont like their prices then go elsewhere, its a free country. And it is the employers information to make sure the employee information is correct. Your rep tells you to please check your employees information for errors such as mispelled names or addresses, etc. All information is MANUALLY type in by PEOPLE not a computer so there is room for human error. No one is perfect.

Ok "Paychex employee"...I'm a CPA so when I prepare payroll reports I look and make sure I completed the forms accurately and completely. If anything is missing I would call the client and ask them for the information. I then pass the reports to my partner who also checks them to make sure I didn't miss anything and then we send them to the client to sign and review themselves. We would never release reports with missing REQUIRED information, that would make us look stupid. I'm not sure why Paychex wouldn't do the same. The client is paying to have payroll reports completed in a professional manner. Would a Paychex employee at least try to leave a promising comment? It seems like your all happy with the sub par performance and are not motivated enough to institute any change.

P.S. It's easy to agree with yourself as I see the last two comments came from the same ip address.

We have a small business of 6. Since the beginning there has been issues. One week I called in a 40 hour week for someone and the check came in with 40 hours regular and 40 hours overtime. As you can imagine the check was HUGE. We had to pay to have a rush check sent for our employee and to void out that one. Of course it was OUR fault and not our reps. We just had another issue where checks should have been dated early due to a holiday. We paid for rush delivery. They came on time with the wrong date. They cannot do anything about it and we are responsible for writing our own checks to replace them. Or just use the checks with the Friday date. Even though they admitted it was their fault and they just "don't know what happened". I have a lot of patience as I deal with customers in my company..I know how frustrating it can be. I allow room for human error, miscommunication etc. However, when its over and over small and big mistakes its a little sad. We have now canceled our services.

Horrible experience, I used paychex for my payroll for along time and being a new small business i just wanted to make sure things were done right so i did not get stuck owing taxes. But the fees were so high so i ended the service. This was the best thing i ever did i now use Quick Books it is way cheaper i input the hours in and the take the taxes out and send them in. Now as far as 401 k they are horrible i was told i would have my check in 10-12 business days its been over a month. No one know what is going on everytime i call in someone tells me something different. This is horrible !!! Expecially at christmas in the month of december they were taking out fees of 35.00 unaurthorize caused me huge problems now i cant even end my 401 k for a big company they have major issues!

Paychex business practices are generating lawsuits. Check out http://eyeonpaychex.blogspot.com

First-Paychex does not "fail" in providing SSN on required returns. Paychex is not required to get the SSN of clients employees, it is the employer's responsibility. The employer is at fault if they cannot provide Paychex with a SSN of an employee they have hired. Second-Paychex can export and customize reports. Third-any client can get a report that details how much an employee made for a certain time period. Fourth-Paychex is rated among the best for training its employees and for places to work.

Once Paychex is hired by a client to complete payroll reports it becomes their responsibility to complete the reports fully and correctly. How hard is that to understand, Really? Being a great place to work has nothing to say about the service being offered.

Worst service. They didn;t do anything and just printed 3 checks and federal tax forms. They charged whopping $28 per week and $130 for end of year forms. They didn;t submit forms to any agency. Just print and I mail payments and forms myself. No epay setup. Ridiculous service. They didn't even submit correct forms and when I received a notice to file right forms, I called and they say I don;t have tax service on my payroll. Paying these much money for 3 employee payroll is outrageous. I use intuit for 9.95 month 6 free months to try and everything setup with epay and clear emails for every task on payroll.

Beware of what they are doing when they have access to your bank account. They went into mine and took money that was suuposed to be for taxes and kept it. They say they have a contract that allows them to do this, but they cannot produce it. This company has caused me nothing but serious problems. They completely messed up my FSA, they have screwed up my taxes. They are not at all concerned with complying with laws. When you call with a problem there is no one who will work to solve it for you. I am sure this Paychex will be out of business within the next few years. Just don't let them ruin your business.

I am reading over the new contract. I see that on page 21 (the last page, of course) there is the following clause..." Paychex shall, under no circumstances, be liable for any special, indirect, incidental, or consequential damages which Client may incur as a result of Paychex' breach of the Agreement..." Clause 22 says, "Client shall indemnify, defend, and hold Paychex harmless from any and all claims, actions, liabilities, losses, EFT reissuance charges, costs, attorneys' fees (including in-house counsel fees)..." In short, Client is responsible AND liable for everything, while Paychex is responsible for reporting but NOT liable for ANYTHING including any mistakes on the part of Paychex. Hmmmm???

Paychex has somewhere between five and six hundred thousand payroll clients. OBVIOUSLY there are going to be some unsatisfied customers. As a culture, however, Paychex is not half as bad as other fortune 500 and 1000 companies that are out there.
TJ, I would be very interested in speaking with you because you were definitely set up incorrectly on the 401(k) product. The "Mid Atlantic Trustee" service is an outside company that charges anywhere between $600 - $900 per year. This is completely optional for clients and is NOT a good idea for startup plans, since it can only be charged to the plan assets. The reason it seemed like a 20% asset charge is because your total plan assets were probably pretty low. Diamond Jim, are you a lawyer? That seemed like a pretty loose interpretation of the Paychex agreement. WS, I'm sorry if there was an error with regards to your bank account, but making the statement that Paychex will be out of business in a few years... completely unfounded and shows how little you know about the company. Hopefully Paychex can read these message boards and improve in the areas that are consistantly letting their clients down, since there are obviously areas that can be improved. With that said, I can sincerely say that the majority of Paychex clients are completely happy with the payroll services. There are bad sales reps, and bad service reps in every organization. I am sincerely sorry to anyone who fell victim to one or both. Aside from that, there are also unreasonable clients and business owners with ridiculous expecations. To those people, I sincerely wish your next service provider lots of luck as they will most certainly need it!

Re: Realist

Thank you very much for taking your time to reply. I assume you are an employee of Paychex. It's nice to hear from someone who knows what they are talking about. Is the 401(k) being set up wrong the fault of me or my employer? I do have low contributions but no matter what those fees are outrageous. If you want to send me an email you can reach me at tj855-at-tjshome.com .

It's nothing you did wrong. It is a service that helps reduce the liability of the business owner. Unfortunately, the company Paychex contracts with (Mid Atlantic Trust Company), will only take their fees out of the plan assets. This usually doesn't make sense for your employer to do until the plan has more than $50 or $100 thousand dollars in it since it will take it out pro-rata. If you are putting away more than any other employee, and the plan itself doesn't have very much in assets, you will pay the majority of it. Bring it to your employers attention. They might consider removing the service until the plan gets more assets in it. This would mean that the employer would sign as the plan trustee instead of Mid Atlantic Trust Company.

Also, MATC (Mid Atlantic Trust Company) charges about $850 per year out of total plan assets. For that to equal 20% of your 401(k), I'm guessing this was the first year your firms plan has been in place and the total assets are less than $5,000?

RE: Realist

Yes my is firm is small 3-4 people are currently on the plan. From 6/1/08 - 12/31/08 my contributions were $1,781. The fees totaled $268 for the same period. This comes out to 15%. It looks like it lowered from when I initially did the calculation but again it is still high. Everybody I talk to their 401k fees are less than 5%, if any.

Good news is my boss is looking to move the plan to another provider entirely because of the fees.

TJ. Your boss doesn't have to move the plan. He can just remove the Trustee service. When you say everybody you talk to has 401(k) fees of less than 5%, they are probably talking about the normal operating expense. I agree with you that 15% is ridiculous, but it's not the operating expense. That fee would go away if your boss removed the trustee service. If he changed providers, he would still have to decide whether or not he wanted to sign on as trustee or pay an external company to take on that role. The only downside to the Paychex platform is that he doesn't have the option to pay for it outside the plan, whereas other companies might have the option for him to write a check for the trustee services. I actually used to work for Paychex for 5 years but currently work for ADP. Let me know if your boss wants to talk.

I was a customer of Paychex for nearly a year and they provide the worst service, most annoying billing model, and most frequent “Billing Errors” that I have ever experienced. We signed a contract that laid out a price per payroll however, the price we actually paid was always 40-50% more than that price because of “mysterious charges” that kept appearing on our bill, billing for extra payroll that were never processed, and also all the extra fees and surcharges that Paychex adds on that nickel and dime you to death. Every month we spent hours calling multiple times about the “mysterious charges” or extra charges that somehow would appear on our bill 10 out of 12 months during the year. They would always reverse the charges and claim that the error wouldn’t happen again but it always took 60 days (per their contract) for them to credit our account (which means they have our money during that time), it always took more than 2 calls and the next month there was a different “mysterious charge” that they could not explain that would appear on our next bill. I think this is how they make their money because most people probably don’t check their bill and they always try to hide the charge in something that sounds legitimate. Beware of their scam!
Second, if they want to speak with you for any reason, they have this automated computer call you and tell you to call them back. It doesn’t even give you the option to connect right away so you have to hang up and dial back which I guess is to save them long distance charges. Sorry, guys if you want to talk to me, you will have to have a live person pick up the phone and call.
Third, the reporting is decent but they charge a lot for this service and it uses their own software that you have to install. Again, it’s 2008 and everyone expects online access to data and it should be included in the price of the product. You can tell they build this site in 1998 and it hasn’t changed since then so it costs them less to provide electronic access than to print reports.
In conclusion, Paychex revenue model is to scam you out of your money hopefully without you realizing it. They are a company that seems to still be operating in 1998 with all of their efforts being put into printing paper reports and checks and charging the customer extra for any modern technology that saves them money like online reports and electronic deposit. They choose instead to modernize by purchasing automated calling machines to insulate themselves from their customers.
Stay away, they will take your money, overcharge you repeatedly, hold your money for 60 days, charge you extra for services that save them money, and send their automated calling machine after you.

Paychex is the biggest scam ever! They are a rip-off, my company used them all they do is charge you all these hidden charges and then make it impossible to cancel them. SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM

Paychex is a human owned and ran company. It is providing jobs both entry level and skill required to keep jobs in the united states. Is it perfectly ran? No, but for you small businesses, good luck keeping your businesses up to date and within regulations. We are just trying to help.

I'm glad we can now confirm Paychex is run by humans. I thought it was run by a bunch of wires and automated machines.

I'm a sales rep for an idependent full service provider of payroll. Our market is chicago and milwaukee, and i'd say it's about a 50/50 shot when i speak to Paychex clients. there is really no in between, it's either really bad or really good. Most of our clients come from ADP/paychex and it's usually because of price. Our firm offers market value with perks i wish not to disclose, but what i'm frustrated with is how both ADP and Paychex can devalue payroll just to get in with companies. I mean they cant be making money on some of the rates we've seen, but since they're so huge already, they have the power to do that. It's a cut throat biz, i know, but it seams like thats the only leverage they have. My advice for anyone who is looking is to avoid major market players, at least consider smaller firms.

Pedro,
You are right, Payches and ADP completely dropped their shorts over the last year to maintain market share. Normally I would tell you that the reason they can do this is because of the massive amount of float they make on all the money filtering through their bank accounts, but with how low the interest rates have been, that hasn't been the case.

TJ get over yourself. Every business is in the market to make a profit.

RE: Anonymous "TJ get over yourself. Every business is in the market to make a profit."

I took a loan against 401k, did payments out of check and most it was NOT applied. Now employer who said not his fault & wont give dates & info of EFT's, called paychex and they said since employer took business elsewhere, they can't give me information, even before our company switched, we had a host of problems toward the end including taxes to another state not paid. Now I'm forced to pay a lawyer to get my loan straighted out plus get the overpayment back. This is NOT what a business "to make a profit" should be doing. Word has traveled fast and I know of local guy with a case against them for similar problem like mine.

Changed from a sole-proprietorship to incorporation. They closed out the old account and started the new. The old PAYCHEX account was supposed to close out end of 4th Quarter 2008 and begin the new in the beginning of the 1st QTR of 2009. Well they didn't close out the old account till the end of the 1st QTR of 2009 and ran payroll, submitted taxes, w/h, unemployment...and didn't start the new account until the middle of the 1st QTR 2009. Meanwhile, sending double paychecks to our employees and taking out double the tax. They are a pain in the butt to work with customer service sucks, they give you the run around, the payroll specialists don't want to take responsibility and neither do their supervisors. They lost the paperwork with our CRN on it. Then on top of not wanting to resolve the issue, we get a letter in the mail from the state of Maryland requesting a hearing due to delinquent all of 2008 W/H payments and penalties and interest because of. WTF!? PAYCHEX takes money out of our account to pay and file these things on time. They are worthless. I trust them non. I am going to drop them as soon as these issues are sorted out. The problem is they don't want to take any responsibility. I think I am going to have to get a lawyer involved. Because of them the State and IRS are confused. I wish and hope they get an audit by both because I sure as hell am going to request that they do. Their supervisors never answer the phone or give call backs. The payroll specialists don't want to do anything more then what they normally have to do. I even faxed them all the forms that need to be filled out AND i even filled most of the blanks out of them. They STILL don't have the respectability to fill the rest out or to fax a copy back per my request. Bunch of lazy folks over there, can't fulfill simple requests. In the end if you want more headaches then worth, give PAYCHEX a call at (410) 581-7700!!!!

I'd like to sell you on the company, but truly Paychex is not open to change and treats the employees with little respect. If you're not a manager, your opinion does not matter. You have to remember the founder. The current culture is a reflection of the guy that ran the place for so long. Time to move on. . .

I have to send in my 2 cents. Not only does Paychex suck as a service to its clients it also sucks as a service to it's employee. I'm a former employee of paychex and they really screwed me over but it was a blessing in disguise. I now make 3x what I made over at paychex. As far as I'm concerned by them letting me go they screwed themselves.

BusinessWeek rated Paychex in the top 50 companies in the nation. Ethisphere Magazine awarded Paychex and its CFO as the most Ethical businesses in the world. Paychex does almost 3 billion in dollars in revenues, generating over 10 million dollars per day. Paychex has zero debt with $2 billion dollars in the back. Paychex is the only payroll company that the IRS recommends. The AICPA (national organization for accounts) only recommends Paychex. I could seriously go on and on.

Why would any of you care about these facts? Obviously you are part of the very few. If Paychex was that bad would they have that much recognition and support.

Paychex has a customer satisfaction rating of over 90% (every business recieves a survey). Paychex client retention is also over 90%.

As for the small/local providers, I have better chance of getting struck by lightning that any of those lasting more 10 years. If Paychex or ADP doesn't by them they go under and it always happens after they swiped your account for payroll (search Google) that last one was LA and handled all the movie industry.

And to the unhappy ex-employees, I would bet my life that you received bad reviews. Yes if you suck at your job you get fired or bullied out. Every company has bad employees.

Go ahead and go to a small payroll company. But you know what 60% of clients that leave Paychex return in 6 months.

RE: Rivo

Your statements you made sound great (at first) except:

1.) Stating Paychex is the only payroll service the IRS recommends is a complete fabrication. See here for a full list.
2.) Businessweek rated Paychex top 50 what? Top 50 in country for poor customer service?
3.) Sorry, I don't trust internal customer satisfaction surveys
4.) Being ethical doesn't necessarily relate to good customer service.
5.) It's great Paychex has high revenue and a lot of money in the bank but maybe this is because they are charging their customers too much? See my comments regarding the ridiculous 401k fees.
6.) Paychex buying the competition or being too large for competition is a very bad thing (this is called a Monopoly). This leads to the ridiculously large fees and low standards of output.

Are you the new Paychex PR representative or something?

MATC is great for companies with OVER 100 employees ... if you have less than 100 employees ... THEN MID ATLANTIC TRUST IS NOT FOR YOU! I work at the corporate office ... CHECK PAGE 2 of your ADP 401 Proposal ... the box titled "Additional Fees" ... then call the Paychex Client Service Center at 800 472 0072 option 2 and then option 2 once again....ask for a cost comparison document to be emailed to you or faxed ... get out a calculater ... and do the math.

Edited by Admin on September 12, 2009 4:37pm| Reason: Stay on topic. This is not advertising space

Rivo's drinking the Koolaid! I was told to say all of those things to clients when I worked at Paychex too! There is no doubt Paychex is doing something right but the "facts" Rivo has thrown out there aren't 100% true. Ethisphere Magazine didn't award Paychex as THE most ethical company in the World... they are merely on the list. I honestly have NO idea where you got the info that the IRS only recomends Paychex?!?! While it is true that Paychex is currently the preferred provider by the AICPA, I would probably have a good chance at that title too if my pockets were deep enough. CUSTOMER SATISFACTION RATING OF 90%?!? I worked there for 5 years and never heard such nonsense. As far as client retention being 90%... again, simply not true. I would really like to see a link, or an article from Paychex stating those stats... it wont happen, because it's not true. All of that being said, I still don't think Paychex is the worst payroll provider out there. Not even by a long shot. I have inside knowledge on numerous payroll operations and I still say Paychex is one of the better ones out there.

I agree that Paychex sucks. The turnover there is horrible and we never know who to talk to because our reps constantly come and go. They have never been able to get our HR Online working properly and it has really been a pretty big hassle.

I went with Paychex 9 months ago. EVERY quarter I receive reports from the state that Paychex has not filed the proper documentation. Everytime I call them and ask them exactly what I am paying them to do. HERE IS THE CRAZY PART; WE PAY NO PAYROLL. I PAY THEM MONTHLY TO FILE ZERO PAY, ZERO WITH HOLDINGS AND EVERY PERIOD THEY SCREW IT UP.

The service is so bad, that you cannot get mad at them, you just feel sorry for them. In their defense, they are very nice when I call to complain. They say they are very sorry. Nevertheless, it takes me 10 times more effort and time than if I just filed all the paperwork myself.

In the past I have seen many companies act like this just before they go bankrupt. We are going to court against them.

THEY ARE THE WORST!!! They cost our company over $6000 in fines due soley to their mistakes. Customer service - a joke!

Anyone who thinks that Paychex 401(k) is expensive, try to leave ADP without their termination charges. Yeah, they woo you upfront with their service center which means you'll never talk to the same person twice. Then, when you're unhappy with their service, it will cost you between 2 and 5,000. Don't worry, if you leave without paying it, they'll take it from the assets of your plan. Keep in mind that Paychex has agreements, not contracts. You will never pay the above fees with them. As far as the mistakes go, anytime a human is involved, there is a chance of error.

Jabber Joe huh? Out of all the names running through your head, you thought Jabber Joe would be the one people would take seriously? In any case, you aren't being 100% accurate about ADP. My guess is that you work for Paychex and are going off of what your manager has told you to help you sell more deals. "Paychex has agreements, not contracts"... ha! That's like saying, "I'm not lying to you, I'm just not telling you the truth". Tomato, Tomahto.

By the way... if anyone actually has an interest in using ADP or Paychex for payroll, or one of their other services (including 401k), let me know. I have contacts at both who can at least give you a good price.

I have been a paychex customer for 5 years and it has been very positive. we sarted with 4 employees and just payroll. We now have over 30 employees and Paychex has asssisted us in setting up our 401k, manages all of our HR tasks, developed and rolled out our employee handbook, and just recently has helped us save 20% on our health insurance!! Sorry all of you have had such a bad experience, but I can not say a bad thing.

Hey TJ, I feel you. I kept on contributing to my 401k without checking my statements, specially with the bad economy, I figured I'd just get depressed if I followed it closely but I think I got screwed worst than you with the Mid-Atlantic Trustee fees. I contributed a total of $1,530 in 6 quarters and the Mid-Atlantic fees totalled $720 for the corresponding period. If I hadn't been so bad about reviewing my statements I could have discovered this fee sooner, instead I just got wind of it and I don't know if there is anything I can do to recoup that money.

The company I worked for spun off a separate entity in which I was the only employee. Employees the larger company do not get charged this fee. The fee is not only charged to ones contributions but it is charged also to the company match. The total fee in my case came out to $1,300. From now on I will always be on the look out for this.

I was thinking about switching over because we have a very nice local rep. from Paychex. I really have no issues with ADP, think I should just stick with them.

PMun, you got hosed! I am not an attorney so please don't take this as official legal advice but, the department of labor speaks directly about plan fees in 401(k) plans and how it is the owner's responsibility to make sure they are not "excessive". Although it is possible that the paychex 401(k) sales rep didn't clearly explain this fee to the owner, he has a fiduciary responsibility to protect you from such ridiculous charges. Bring this to his attention and have him demand that Paychex refund the money... it may not work, but it's worth a little effort. Their internal policy (which is still very loosely spelled out) says reps shouldn't set up Mid Atlantic on any plans with less than $100,000 in assets... That clearly wasn't followed in your case. Give em hell.

Paychex made soooo many mistakes!! It takes us extra time to find their mistake and let them know how bad they are! Be careful, they will withdraw extra money from the bank a/c for payroll tax that they are not supposed to withhold! Paychex is totally sucks and it bring us lots of headache!! Dont even consider to use them!!

Realist, thanks for your thoughts. This totally sucks. The Admin people who set up my plan knew well that the total assets on the account would only be mine, which were less than $2,000 but they clearly didn't make an effort to inform or protect me from these fees. They say they were not aware of how large they were and that the paychex rep never brought it to their attention so you are right, there was no fiduciary responsibility to protect me from such ridiculous charges. I called paychex but they continue to pass the buck and say there's nothing they can do. What's worst is that I left the company 7 months ago in early March but the employee termination paperwork was never submitted to paychex so I'm still considered an active employee, have continued to get charged the $240 quarterly Mid-Atlantic fees, and paychex won't let me withdraw my funds because I'm still an acctive employee. I'm being told it's going to take 10 days to process the terminantion papers and 10 more days to process the distribution. I called the Employee Benefits Security Administration to file a complaint and there's nothing they can do because as you said, verifying the fees were my "the owner's" responsibility. I'm going to contact the rep and ask about this feduciary responsibility on their part. Btw, you said "Their internal policy (which is still very loosely spelled out) says reps shouldn't set up Mid Atlantic on any plans with less than $100,000 in assets..." where/how can I confirm this?
thanks again.

My husband and I have been having a hell time trying to get our money back from the flexible spending account. My hubby has spent a great deal of time talking on the phone with the Paychex employees to make sure that we have the right documentation and WE DID SENT IN THE RIGHT DOCS. They still denied the claims. Anyone had the same experience before? I have a feeling that Paychex just wants to keep our money!! It is being so unreasonable and ridiculous. We have faxed in 50 pages of docs and they still said no. We have used other companies for our FSA before and never had an issue like this. We will continue to fight and will make lots of noises out there including making complains to BBB and make this as public as possible. Anyone who could offer me advice?

Hi there - I would like to say thet I WORK FOR PAYCHEX...not only have I worked for the company for over five years but I left and came back due to the high standards and ethics that the companies backbone is based upon! We all make mistakes as I am sure you have made them too. Our payroll specialists receive over 140 hours of training a year on current and updatetd tax law changes. We are in 50 states and have over 600,000 clients nationwide so we are doing something right...

Our General Ledger Reporting Service is outstatnding (xls format) and we have the EASIEST payroll reports for any business owner, whether they are new to payroll or experienced. This is why more than 30% of our business comes from the accounting community.

Not to mention, I always give the customer the benefit of the doubt!!! ALWAYS...I am in sales; however, when I really dig deep 70% of the time the error is because of non-communication or missing information which shows up on our lovely reports.

The accolades alone says it all:

Recent Accolades
• Among the Nation's Top
401(k) Recordkeepers
• Best Employers for Healthy Lifestyles
• Computerworld "100 Best Places to Work in IT"
• FORTUNE "100 Best Companies to Work For"
• Forbes Global 2000
Ranked number 1,339 on the 2008 Forbes Global list.
• FORTUNE "America's Most Admired Companies"
FORTUNE magazine has recognized Paychex as one of "America's Most Admired Companies" for 2008.
• Best CEO and CFO
Institutional Investor magazine named Paychex CEO Jon Judge and CFO John Morphy among the best in the nation.
• Shareholder Friendly Company
For the third consecutive year, one of America's most shareholder-friendly companies, Institutional Investor magazine.
• Top 125 Training Organization
• "World's Most Ethical Companies"

Taking the time to write this in my busiest time of the year should show you that I care about my clients and my company! I don't even use a microwave...

Bitter X-Paychex employee, that's for sure...Did you get fired? All your banter about salesmen is such a bunch of BS. You have NO IDEA how hard the reps at Paychex work to be successful...I am sure you've seen the turnover in the Sales Department. I am so not "that guy", I get along with operations and work through issues regardless if it's our fault or the clients fault...I work more on this than actually selling. And by the way, bait and switch??? You apparantly don't know what that means...try working in Telecom! I am sure any small business owner will tell you that's a bait and switch industry! How can it be bait and switch when when we don't have contracts??? I can't possibly mislead prospects when my income solely depends on the client staying with our service for three months...I lie and they walk. Get it straight Soapscum, I mean dude!

OMG ! THis company SUCKS ! THe Best is when you leave 3 messages for a "supervisor" James X 3340 and he doesnt call you back! NO customer service ! They make errors ! When they make a tax error they say "you should have told us the rate changed! Well dont you have 50 other companys whos rate changed and you decide not to change mine ! They are the Worst company ever !

I own a small business and had Paychex do the payroll for my employees. This has been the biggest and most costly mistake I made being a business owner. The rep I had was not competent at all. I had some employees that wanted a check card that Paychex offered. They filled out the forms and sent them in multiple times and each time I would get the same answer "we never got them". So for months I paid a carrier and other fees to have these employees checks delivered every week. That is just one example of the problems I have had with them and now it's with our W2's. I just got the feeling she didn't care about my "small" business. I will never use Paychex again or refer anyone to them. If anything I will steer them away.

Paychex is a hard place to work. It is not the place it was back in the good old days. They stopped merit raises. So that means if I get "promoted," all that really means is a lateral transfer with more work.

Secondly, they stopped matching our 401k. Paychex loses qualified people all the time due low wages or terminating them for ridiculous things.

But then again.......not a good time to be out of work, right?

They screwed me up really bad.
I made online changes to my contribution at benefits.paychex.com but it does not reflect on my payroll deduction.
My allocations percentage changes without warning.
My Funds are moving around without my permission and without any warnings..... Not only me, but 1/2 of people here at my company are having same issues. Customer service sucks, some rep has bad attitude with you when you call complaining about the above issues....
DO NOT USE PAYCHEX... STAY OUT OF THAT BUSINESS. i am looking for another one now.

Since there are some paychex employees on here, I have a question for you. I was fired by my employer and he has turned into a real looney toon. I have been told that he hasn't been paying any of his bills and I assume this would include the payroll service. Do you guys still process the W-2 forms for him since you are the ones that have all the records? I would thing that by law you would have to..just a question so I know which direction I need to go with this. It is January 30th right now and there is still no sgn of a W-2 in my mailbox. If I know that he has them then I can go after him but if he doesn't, I know that there is no hope of getting one and will need to contact the IRS.

I am a small business owner. We went from using our accountant for our payroll to having Paychex do it because I was quoted a cheaper price. It was a fight to get two pay periods done on time due to them misplacing the information from one to the next and not bothering to call us untill the clock was running out. We had to keep nagging them to pay our payroll taxes and their only answer to that was if there were any penalties they would pay them. The final straw was when they sent all the payroll information from the month to our business instead of our home after telling them many times not to. This opened a can of worms because now my employees who open the mail all know how much everyone makes. I have nothing good to say about them. Oh,and when I got the bill, it was way over what I was paying my accountant.

Does anyone know what law firm handled the 5.5 million lawsuit for employees that weren't paid overtime?

We used to use Paychex for our restaurant group and were more than dissatisfied with the service. We only have 200 ee's, but we still believe we deserve to be treated like a paying customer. We recently switched to PayDay USA, got our rate lowered and haven't been happier. I would recommend PayDay USA to anyone switching payroll companies, our contact's number is (770)395-6932 - Patrick - he helped us get all set up. Just wanted to throw my two cents in, because I know how much of a nightmare terrible payroll service can be!

Our company just switched to a Paychex 401k and we have the "Mid Atlantic Trustee Fee". Is that a once a year fee or how often does that get charged to the account? Thank you.

Pass the buck and say there's nothing they can do. What's worst is that I left the company 7 months ago in early March but the employee termination paperwork was never submitted to paychex so I'm still considered an active employee, have continued to get charged the $240 quarterly Mid-Atlantic fees, and paychex won't let me withdraw my funds because I'm still an acctive employee. I'm being told it's going to take 10 days to process the terminantion papers and 10 more days to process the distribution. I called the Employee Benefits Security Administration to file a complaint and there's nothing they can do because as you said, verifying the fees were my "the owner's" responsibility. I'm going to contact the rep and ask about this feduciary responsibility on their part. Btw, you said "Their internal policy (which is still very loosely spelled out) says reps shouldn't set up Mid Atlantic on any plans with less than $100,000 in assets..." where/how can I confirm this?
thanks again.

Try using their medical flex accounts. You cannot reach a human to help you. They deny EVERY medical claim and then demand proof of the purchase. I spend more time faxing receipts than is necessary. After this year, they are fired.

Paychex is the WORST - incompentent & insulting employees from the phone operators, to payroll specialists, to supervisors, to management. They DO NOT return phone calls. They ignore requests for service. They are negligen t and should not be in the business of servicing companies for the payroll needs. GO anywhere, do it yourself if necessary anything but having PAYCHEX be involved. They are one BIG NIGHTMARE> stupid people >stupid company.

I had an interview with them. I thought I did really well to find out from an email that they are looking further for another candidate. Now you tell me from the person doing the hiring, hands me his business card and says we are interested in you and will be calling you in a couple of days? Very bizzare. Not even a phone call. Seems like they are hiding something. Is it possible to be overqualified for a sales position there? Seems like to be. Maybe I should have walked in smoking a ciger and mumbled something like when can start? lol Can anyone else share their interview experience with them?

I used Paychex for 2 years with on both good and terrible service. I was informed that the sales rep that sold me gets paid a full annualized commision as lond as we processed for 2 months. Once the 2 months ws up things went down hill. Last year I switched to Payroll Systems and have been very happy. 30% savings and I delt with a rep that gets paid on my account as long as I process. Is not the way it should be? The sales rep when needed is always willing to help out and put the corect service people on any issue I have. I would call Andy[at] Payroll Systems at 480-290-0351 if any one would like an alternative avenue to go down for their payroll.

I switched from ADP to Paychex about a year ago. ADP had forced me to set up two company codes, one for W-2's and one for 1099s and incur twice as many processing fees. The Paychex payroll service has been fine. They've made an error or two but took responsibility for it and quickly resolved it. They did raise the price recently though. The 401(k) Retirement Services on the other hand is completely horrid. They bungled the conversion from ADP and then one thing after another. They assigned a broker to the account who doesn't even exist. Also the fees as many have noted are astronomical. You'd think for the money they were charging that you might get a dedicated service rep for the retirement account but no. As a result I find myself in the position of finding a new provider.

Wow this thread has gone out of control. Which just shows the lack of customer satisfactions and proves that paychex has some real issues that they fail to see or correct.

People please calm down on your comments I'd like this to be a place for people to post their experiences with Paychex... but not comments full of mindless offensive rage.

Seriously at my branch there is OT whenever we need it and we make decent money theres a raise at least 3 or 4 times a year. We get a raise with each level that we pass.

Hmmm...interesting opinions here. For a bit of a a different perspective, I worked for Paychex
for 7 years (92-99). I started in a west coast branch as a computer operator making $8.00/hr, but
was pretty quickly promoted to senior, and then lead computer operator. After two years in the
branch I was offered a job at corporate in Rochester as a branch support analyst. Paychex paid
my moving expenses and gave me a tidy little raise (which went a lot further in Roch-cha-cha then
it would in SoCal). Once at corporate, it really was up to each individual as to how far they wanted
to go with the company - I saw many people come in, complain for a year, and then leave, while others
(such as myself) continued to move up in both responsibility as well as salary. By the time I left
I was in the database admin group making about 70K/yr (again - very good salary in an area with such
a low cost of living). Sure - when I was with the company I found things to nitpick, but then again,
no company is perfect. Being able to look back with 10 years of additional experience with other
employers, it really was a pretty special place to work - if personal matters wouldn't have necessitated
my moving back to California, I would have preffered to stay there. What I guess it boils down to is
that an employee/employer or provider/customer relationship is just like any other relationship in
which one may be involved - what works for some won't work for everyone. Chalk it up to experience and
move on - life is far too short to dwell on real or perceived slights.

This has been the worst retirement investing experience. It's funny how wide of a spectrum it is. I have some funds invested with Charles Schwab, which has the best customer service on the planet and are so professional.

Paychex can never solve any issue, the retirement funds aren't traded until TWO WEEKS after they are deducted from your paycheck, and they have never ONCE deducted the right amount!!!! I'm setting all my deductions to 0% because I can't get of this plan. You have to leave the company or the company has to cancel the whole plan.

Outrageous. Stay away.

THE PLACE JUST BLOWS BIG PINK PONY DICK!

I truly love Paychex. It is the best company that I have dealt with...highly recommend them!!!! NOT

I worked for a company that used paychex and they have over $4000 of mine in my 401k and I cannot get it or do anything with it because paychex claims that my ex employer has not confirmed I'm no longer employed there! They are liars and that company needs the feds to shut them down immediately! Everything they do is over the phone and they won't call you back and they are all liars! I called them and they confirmed to me that my employer had faxed them the cancellation form needed to terminate the contract so that I would then have access to "MY" money. Now they say that never happened and they still have me as an active client and still employed by the company that I am no longer working for! They suck harder than anything has ever sucked in this world BELIEVE THAT!

I worked at Paychex for 2 years in their hr dept selling 401k and their prenier hr service program. They are a complete rip off period

Rip off is correct. a $40 charge to rollover a 401k balance is a joke. rolled over several accounts lately and this guys are the only ones that charge a fee to access your own money and move it to another qualified retirement plan.

I love how some of these comments aren't even the fault of Paychex. I guess that's to be expected when people don't understand how things work. Whalerfan - a rollover charge is very common and your employer made the choice to use Paychex knowing that charge existed.

Pmun - Sorry it took so long for me to get back to you. I haven't visited this post for a while. You won't find any official policy on the less than $100,000 in assets thing. It is just a rule of thumb that the 401(k) operations used to tell us sales reps. I don't know what to tell you regarding Paychex jerking you around about getting your money but you can stop the bleeding by having the owner remove the mid atlantic trustee service. It's pretty easy for him to do.

Funny - "Worlds Most Ethical Company" within weeks of loosing another multi-million dollar ($32mm+) lawsuit for what a judge described as "acting reprehensible, stifling competition, incideous behavoir and specifically named Tom Galisano and Paychex as trying to destroy its competition through nefarious means". Paychex has lost and is currently the subject of many other class actions suits for unethical business practices. Paychex does an amazing job with PR and Marketing. They are very good specifically at being less than transparent with their clients, partners and employees about the true culture of "win at all costs" that comes from the top of the organization. I personally wouldn't be so insulted by their behavoir if they were honest about who they were and didn't rush out with 20 meaningless press releases every time they get exposed to push the bad news to the bottom of the list. FYI... The full press release:

LOS ANGELES, March 23 /PRNewswire/ -- On March 18, 2010, Paychex, Inc., Thomas Golisano, and two other defendants paid $32.2 million toward a judgment that was recently affirmed by the California Court of Appeal. On March 9, 2010, the Court affirmed a verdict of a Los Angeles jury that had, in addition to compensatory damages of $15 million, awarded punitive damages totaling $11,000,000 against Paychex (Nasdaq:PAYX - News) and Golisano.
In its decision, the Court wrote that Paychex and the other Defendants acted with "a plan to destroy [the plaintiff] and other competitors' businesses through nefarious means." The Court wrote further:






The totality of the evidence showed that Paychex acquired [its

Rapid Payroll subsidiary] with the covert goal of terminating …

software licenses, leaving licensees unable to perform payroll

processing. Appellants took advantage of the chaos created by the

Cancellation Notice to solicit competitors' disaffected clients.

It was not an isolated incident of wrongdoing, but required

extended deceitful conduct to keep licensees from converting to

new software over the years. Appellants' conduct was sufficiently

reprehensible to justify the imposition of punitive damages.


The Court also wrote that Paychex and the other defendants adopted a "strategy … which included stealing clients from competitors and stifling competition" and "set out to destroy their competitors in an insidious manner."
A complete copy of the decision is available on the Court's website at: http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/nonpub/B206780.PDF.
Paychex and the other defendants made the $32.2 million payment toward the state court judgment and interest accrued since the jury verdict in 2007. However, Paychex and its subsidiary are currently also subject to a decision of a California bankruptcy court that exposes them to additional interest of $5.5-7.8 million. In 2007, the Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California ordered that Paychex's subsidiary, Rapid Payroll, Inc., pay interest from 2003 forward on the claim that is the subject of the judgment.
The case arose from the attempt by Paychex and a subsidiary to terminate software licenses held by approximately 75 payroll processing businesses that competed with Paychex. The plaintiff in the case is Computer Payroll Company, from Palm Desert, California. In 2006, the day before Computer Payroll Company's trial was to begin, Paychex put its subsidiary into a bankruptcy to delay the trial.
The lawyer for the plaintiff, Stephen Wald of the Boston law firm Craig and Macauley, also represented 20 other licensees against Paychex and the other defendants in state and federal courts in Los Angeles, as well as in the bankruptcy case. In 2004, in the first case to reach trial, he obtained a jury verdict of $6,200,000 against the Paychex subsidiary. Following bankruptcy court orders that forced Paychex to guarantee payment of all of its subsidiary's debts, most of the cases against Paychex were favorably settled in February 2007.
With the recent payment, Paychex and its subsidiaries have now spent more than $75 million defending and settling cases related to the Rapid Pay software, according to Paychex's public disclosures during the bankruptcy and other court cases.
Mr. Wald was assisted on Rapid Pay litigation by Jonathan Gordon, a lawyer with the Los Angeles firm Alston+Bird LLP.

Well I know for a fact that my manager prints the time records of our employees then BY HAND goes through the sheet and sends in a blank one filled in with their hand writing of the hours they chooses to give. Half the time the manager makes them up, or chooses to take a couple hours off one persons and give a few extra to another persons. This manager also neglects to give anyone any overtime hours, which I'm pretty sure is illegal especially in the state of Virginia. I find it odd that paychex would allow handwritten hours on the printed sheets to be submitted when the logged hours print out on their own straight from the computer and cannot be fussed around with. It's illegal and unfair that the payrool isn't monitored for staff. I also know that our business also has submitted plenty of people for paychex, however, none of the information for their taxes has been taken into account- I noticed this when not enough of mine had been taken out which I had put down on my W2 and I9 forms. We have also had several people listed that haven't had social security numbers entered as well. None of this seems to be monitored by paychex, and if you can't go to your employer about their mishaps, then how can you go to Paychex if they don't seem to monitor it?

Email this guy. He's the man behind the Paychex "curtain".

"Clark, Steven S" <sclark[at]paychex.com>

I was told by the salesman (Jason Rush) that paychex would handle everything,after signing up I never even got a follow up call. The first payroll paychex reported the tax I owed but did'nt take it out of my account and pay the tax as promised by my salesman. I had no idea this happened until 18 months latter the tax comm. informed me of the infraction.Paychex promised to fix the problem if it was there mistake. 6 months later the tax comm. is intending to file a tax warrant for back taxes and a large fine,thanks paychex.

Right now I'm so disgusted with Paychex I could scream. We have employees in both Maryland and Delaware and just found out that due to a huge error on Paychex part they have been paying 99% of Delaware's unemployment contribution to the wrong state (even though the state taxes have gone to the correct state) Naturally, the wrong state's rate is much higher than Delaware would have been. Prior to hiring Paychex to do payroll, we did it ourselves for over 30 years with no errors, but thought Paychex would be much easier and save us time. This error by Paychex even caused us to have our Unemployment account in Delaware to be dropped due to no activity (an account we've had since the early 70's). This error has caused us over $5,000 and all Paychex tells us is that it's up to us to catch these errors and let them know. Isn't this what we hired them for? We didn't have the time or employees trained to do payroll or check for errors. Now.. how can we be sure this will not happen again.. I've lost my confidence in this company. They didn't even apologize for making this costly error. What do they care !!! Thanks paychex !!

Words cannot even describe how much this company sucks. Been a nightmare from day 1, when the salesperson flat out lied to me. No one cares, no one wants to give you answers. Stay away from this company unless you want to feel pain from them.

Anyone up for a good class action against Paychex? Any hungry attorneys out there? I have recorded phone conversations and videotaped meetings with these people that would make your head spin with disbelief.

My Employer provided Paychex with a garnishment order for student loans. Paychex misinterpreted the order and garnished my wages in excess of the order by $5212.00. Everyone is pointing fingers.Considering the negligence of Paychex, who is libel? Paychex or the Employer?

I worked for paychex for almost 4 years. i have to say the training program is extensive and most people that are hired have no accounting background. unless you live in a metro area the starting rate is 12 (14 for NYC, LA, and other expensive areas). Most reps dont fully understand what they are doing. I had no experience in payroll and paychex taught me alot, I was probably one of the best reps in the company (for paychex ee's reading this i was best of the best 2 years in a row made sr in 7 months and pss 8 after that) I handled every issue completely and accurately. (believed every client was mine and deserved the best) when the economy went down ee's started dropping like flies as did clients. the ee's were replaced with less knowledgeable ones. The managers pushed the harder clients on the expereinced reps. with 345 calls weekly and a short staff management pushed us to the limit (we went through 2 branch managers in 1 year, both were fired) the new mangement didn't care how good you were and went on a firing spree. at the time i was putting 50- 60 hour weeks at year end to make sure everything was done (i had to manually produce about 1000 w-2s at year end because the updated system couldn't handle it). so after busting my hump for 4 years i was denied a promotion because of a facebook status i put up that had nothing to do with paychex, even though i was the most qualified. (i think they didn't want to loose me on the floor and my CS skills) low and behold when i complained about the bureaucracy I was fired for being "8 minutes late" I was at my desk and logged in at 9:02. Paychex on a whole is a good company to work for and i enjoyed my time there, however the branch specifics can lead to a general distaste for the company on a whole. Corporate america has destroyed human compassion and this industrialized world cares about numbers not individuals. Paychex reports payroll, thats it. they are supposed to put in what you, the employer or cleint, gives them. Paychex reps arent psychic and don't know your employees SSN nor can they ask. if you have a rep worth their salt they should ask to avoid errors later. however a new rep wont know what to ask if they have never experienced one. If you have an issue you should call your rep if they dont know ask for a Sr rep if they dont know ask for a CSS supervisor, if they dont know or wont help you go to another company or branch... it will save you alot of headaches in the end. Because paychex fired me they lost almost triple my salary in revenue from clients who left because Bari was gone... of well their loss.

Paychex has done a great job of hiring sales people who are way more interested in getting praise from their managers then being honest with their prospects/clients and selling the client what they need. They look for zombies who buy into the company line then send them to indoctrination camp where they drill into their head how lucky they are to work for such a great company and they are far from transparent about their true motivation which is to increase revenue and report good news to Wallstreet. Why would a company doing a greater than 20% net after tax profit pass on a price increase to their clients, mostly small businesses who are struggling in this economy. Its to hide the poor performance in lost business by making the loyal clients, or those who do not have time to shop around pay more. In the industry Paychex is famous for using the worst sales tactics and blindly overselling products to their clients (most of their clients come from CPA referals and aren't shopping around because their CPA told them to use Paychex)that they do not need. CPA's who exclusively refer to Paychex because of the pretty sales reps or gifts that they receive should be ashamed of themselves.

If you (insert word of choice) spent this much effort running your business instead of writing pointless blogs about how Paychex screwed you over, your bank accounts might actually be in the positive. Your probably just blaming paychex because your business went under and Paychex Fired YOU!

I received a call from them for an interview and after a few minutes I was about to hang up. The HR person was so rude and abrasive, demeaning at times. Sounds like they have an internal culture of assholes working there and I am glad I was able to learn first hand what a pure joke this company appears to be.

I am truely shocked at how unrealistic people are. Has anyone dealt with a sales person at a dealership? And if so, do you really think they cared about you or the commission they made? It's life people and we live in a ME generation. Sales people are a kind of their own.
Operations is hit or miss when you deal with Reps. Sometimes good and sometimes bad. We all work with people like this, correct? Everyone believes that they-themself are the best worker in the company. I agree that some of you probably got that short end of the stick and are a bit bitter. Although alot of time this happens either due to wanting to be "hands off" (which most employers are) or not trained and educated on the subject. Not pointing fingers or calling anyone out, cuz we all know, sometimes nothing is right no matter how it's done. But in the scheme of life how many big companies have horrible customer service? Almost all of them. It's a sign of the times. It's sad that we deal with bad customer service, since it's the norm and good service is surprising. It's all a luck of the draw.
But I do agree, specialists are hit or miss. You either get a good one or a bad one. Hopefully you've built a reputation with yours so that they truely care about your well being. I'd go way farther for a client that I built a relationship with than some run-by-night person that could care less who I am anyway.
Everything in life comes done to a pshycological head game.

HEY TELEMARKETER>>> How's your quest for medicrity going?
Go annoy another caller at dinnertime and Shut The Hell UP!!!

Paychex is by far the worst payroll services I have ever worked with in my 20+ year career. My recent company (the 3rd one I've kicked paychex out of) probably suffered the worst because of their unbelievable mistakes and complete disregard for us as a customer. Here are just a few of the horrifying problems we encountered over the last year:

1) Paychex miscalculated, thus mis-filed our 2009 YE payroll taxes
2)Paychex corrected the miscalculations, refiled our 2009 payroll taxes, but then, somehow messed up a social security #...Our controller is beside himself...
3) They failed to file our taxes in a certain state, causing us to receive a "Failed to File" notice subject to penalties of course
4)It took them literally months to correct this(and we only have 1 employee in that state), and then, to top it off, when they finally did file, the left a portion of the filing blank and had to go back and fix it (or at least that's what their suppose to do).
5) Their "system", which must have been designed by Flinstone & Rubble, randomly paid a terminated employee, and they couldn't explain how this happened.
6) Their 401(k) service - equally horrible and one of the most expensive around - We were out of compliance in the testing twice because no one monitors or advises on anything.

And I dare you to call the 401(k) side and ask for help. Generally the person you talk to will refuse to give their last name (in case your trying to keep track of where all of the misinformation is coming from), and whatever they tell you, if you call back and get a new person they will likely tell you something completely different. And go ahead and ask for manager - good luck getting a call back.

7) Do I need to talk about their awful report generating capabilities? And, heaven forbid if you can get the data you want, try to covert it to Excel - Not Possible.

8) The software freeze up several times a day.

I could go on for days about the nightmares I've expderienced with them. I am relieved we finally got rid of them - replaced them with a new service provider at literally 1/2 the cost and now have a fully integrated system with robust reporting capabilities.

I wonder what paychex is going to do in 2011 when they are forced to disclose all of the fees on their 401k? Currently they charge a reasonable admin fee but there are a ton of hidden fees, not the least of which is the fees in the employee's investments. As best as I have been able to figure out these fees are as high as 380 basis points 3.8%, that is nearly double what I have seen as the average fees. If I lost a ton of money in my retirement funds only to find out that Fidelity and Paychex are robbing my funds every year I would sue my employer as they are the responsible party, who should sue paychex becuase it is impossible to figure out these fees and they don't disclose them anywhere.

I am a rep at ADP and have switched over 125 people from paychex in my 4 years. If you are interested in saving money while getting a better product and service, please email me at dominic_bellfield[at]adp.com

I was a payroll sales rep at Paychex for about three years and you definitely get blue kool-aid water-boarding daily. Don't get me wrong there are some great people who work there, but a majority of the management are completely worthless. Dinosaurs from an era when Payxhex could grow money on trees and reps could sell purely on direct deposit. Cheap and accurate online payroll is the doom of Paychex, not to mention CLEAR disclosure of their fees in 2011 due to the recent financial reforms. Our online payroll product was comparably horrible and the call-in customer service you have to deal with was/is truly embarrassing. You set up a client on payroll, well have him get ready for the Paychex cold calling avalanche. Every department... 401k, HR, workers comp, health insurance, general insurance... are all just waiting on the run list to attack. Felt great to be reviewing first run payroll reports with a customer when in the course of 20 minutes three different sales reps would call from Paychex trying to up-sell them on products that they already told you they had ZERO interest in. The best part has to be when you are flat out encouraged and/or instructed to mislead customers to make sales, observe coworkers literally scam customers, or directed to steal deals from your co-workers in the name of your manager making quota. Nothing is free at Paychex, except maybe open liability when a Paychex rep says how great it is to change payroll companies in the middle of a quarter. When your Paychex office has the nations highest sales rep turnover-rate you must have some truly inspiring leaders running the place. While working there it was obviously clear that it was never the manager’s fault, it was always the reps, just bad hires not bad managers. When a district sales manager gets so toasted at a work function that he literally has to be carried out of the establishment, then proceeds to urinate in his pants in front of everyone, that sure does motivate you to sell payroll for him. He was obviously drinking way to much of the blue kool-aid. Any reason why you would not ask yourself why their CEO just quit while on vacation? Maybe he got so tired of the unethical culture so ingrained there. Just one example... this year a three-judge California appeals court panel unanimously affirmed that the actual founder (aka Chairman of the Board) of Paychex, and the former Senior Vice President of Sales were liable for $32.2 million in compensatory damages to a former competitor for using inside information to squeeze them out of business. My advice to Paychex, salvage the customers you still have by changing your entire corporate culture, or keep playing your violin as the city burns.

Looks like there are changes coming from the top down. The newest VP of sales hooked up with a new DSM from the Oregon office ( can you say career suicide ). This company needs to change their leadership quickly otherwise it will never get back to the industry leader it was.

Nothing will ever truely change while Golisano is in charge. It really is time for him to truly retire.

Rumor is they demoted the VP of sales ( West Coast). This company is out of control with their VP's and directors. There are no true champions of this company anymore and that's unfortunate. Watch the number of reps that leave very shortly.

For all of you complaining about Paychex being a horrible company. Then why the hell do you stay with them. Go to ADP or Checkpoint, guarantee you will be running back to Paychex as I see many do. By the way I do alot of the data entry for our branch and if you think you can enter the data faster and more accurate I dare you to put it to the test. I would love to see you enter the information 100% accurate and in a rush as clients love to do all the time. If clients gave their information on time like they agreed to do with the sales and account reps then a third, fourth or even fifth audit could be done! And for the social security numbers how they hell would we be able to input it into the system if the reps have to ask a million times for the information! What you think we magically know what they are?!! If you do your part and put in the effort that the employees at Paychex are trying to do then you would be happier with the company.

I'm sure you do a great job and work very hard, you're probably right that small business owners do not do payroll on time, don't check the information that they give in when doing payroll or look at the payroll when they receive it to verify like they should. Guess what... the owners of the small businesses with 10 employees that use Paychex are doing everything that they can to keep their business afloat, managing their employees, starting they day at 6:00am prepping the kitchen, then cooking all day, servicing their clients, ordering supplies, keeping track of inventory and mopping the floors before they go home at 11:00 at night to lay awake worrying how they are going to pay their bills and make payroll. The sooner you stop blaming those people if they get upset when you make a mistake or get another job because you are pissed off at those whiners the better. Your job is to get the payroll right and keep those clients happy. Oh, by the way I'm also sorry that you work for a company where the people at the top and most of the management are calculating self serving bastards who care alot more about their own asses then their employees or clients. Really, stop whining you moron!

I love that someone who is one of 10,000 employees that only needs to worry about data entry speed and accuracy has the nerve to whine about the fact that small business owners (their clients) don't do more to help them do their job correctly. Paychex with all of its resources could verify SSN's for accuracy, they would just need to match up the name, birth date and SSN with the government database that is freely available and notify the client if their is a made a mistake. The fact that this person would critisize their own clients who have so much more to worry about then being ready and available during the 10 minute window they are scheduled for payroll says so much about the culture at paychex. The Paychex employees are brainwashed into thinking that they work at the best company in the world and that everyone else it beneath them. Well I got news for you, those small business owners who risk everything and work so hard are deserving of better and the fact that Paychex has lost 100,000 clients in the last 12 months probably means that the business community is getting tired of being treated like a 2nd class citizen by some data entry clerk that is just barely a step above a clerk at the DMV.

I freely admit that I can't do Data Entry as quickly or as accurately as "Pissed off at whinners!" THAT'S WHAT I PAY YOU FOR!!! I also can't do my lawn as well as my gardener or fix my own car, but if I pay someone else to do it, I expect them to do it right.

I am tired of my patients having the nerve to complain about me drilling holes in the wrong tooth!!! I drill alot of holes in teeth and if any of you idiots thinks you can do a better job I dare you to meet my challange. Stupid patients see the Xrays and know that I am supposed to be drilling into their 2nd molar, so when I start drilling into the wrong molar, they have every chance to stop me! if they are unhappy they should just find another Dentist and stop whinning!!!

If you want custom reporting from Paychex you need to make the switch to Paychex Major Market Services. You get full control over your payroll plus you can make any report you want and it exports to a csv file. I understand not everyone is perfect but let me clear up a couple things, Paychex does huge training on their reps, then send them to NY for 2 weeks of constant training and homework and if you don't past the final test you don't have a job anymore. Then you continue to get weekly training too. I've been with the company for 9+ years and there are reps like any other job that don't care about their job or customer service as much as others but it's hard to judge the entire company on that basis.

I am sure that there are a maany very good people who are very well trained at Paychex, "Paychex Dedicated" is probably one of them. The issue that if something does go wrong their rep is not very likely to be able to resolve the issue and as one of more than 510,000 clients you are just not important to people as you go up the chain of command. At the top of the organization Golisano is too far removed from the day to day and it is clear through the numerous losses in the courts and the specifics of those verdicts that he is more interested in what makes money short term and positive press release to Wall Street then in taking the high road and long term prospective of taking care of the clients first. All of that training is about mitigating liability, to get a press release about being "Training Magazines top 100 businesses" and to make the employees feel like the company really cares so that they are engaged and they reduce turnover. Paychex has been very successful and has a great story but they "jumped the shark" several years ago with the Rapid Pay deal when they made a decision to go after the $$ at the cost of their ethics. The fact is that Paychex is almost less deserving of their employee's dedication then they are of their client's. I hope that Golisano finds a suitable CEO and let's him/her do their job and retires.

Speaking of the Rapid Pay fallout it sure must make Paychex employees feel valued to realize that Paychex management spent at least $75 million (or what they reported in case documents, but you think that includes legal fees, public relations smoke screens, etc) defending and settling cases related to the Rapid Pay software fallout at the same time they stopped Paychex employee pay raises and 401k matches. Does anyone think something is wrong when Paychex is recognized as one of the most ethical companies in the world as they are settling lawsuit after lawsuit for their dishonorable business practices? What do you think that says about other accolades Paychex has received, aka “Best Place to Work”? You know what happens when you continually promote sales managers purely on sales numbers and not leadership capabilities? Managers who care less about the customer and more about just making sales, which hits at the core of business ethics, and now after years of Paychex sales promotion practices you have a company with the moral fiber of Wall Street “greed is good”, and sadly not the business started with $5,000 and a dream. Paychex lost what made it an industry leader years ago and the downfall just continues...

What is the salary for a sales rep

{{NAMES REMOVED}} are absolute liars and lie on a continuous basis to clients......Being able to observe the bartering that goes on with clients over issues such as (getting penalties from the IRS)....claiming everything gets handled in an expedient fashion....NO....the Truth is that there are so many penalties that are assessed to clients for Paychex mistakes that they cant address them in any timliness. THE CLASSIC BAIT AND SWITCH is what they do with new clients who Praise them in the beginning and by the end of the quarter nothing gets done as they say.... ITS A PAYROLL CHOPSHOP!!!!!! STAY AWAY!!!

Comments edited by moderator | Reason: Please keep specific names from your comments as it should not be necessary to get a point across.

Mingalinga, what office you referring too. I was a client for several years before all the nightmares especially all the telemarketing calls from their morons up at corporate. Whoever runs that telemarketing chop-shop should get fired immediately.

I am an IT manager at a company that just deployed Paychex. Unfortunately we were not involved. The Tima and Labor Online has to be one of the worst applications I have ever had the displeasure to use. I wish someone had checked out this blog prior to purchasing the software.

[at]Golisano. you obviously don't know all the facts or choose not to present them. Last March Paychex made a decision to suspend merit raises and 401k match in an effort to temporarily curb spending in a down economy. Both have since been reinstated. While other companies were laying thousands of people off during this same period, Paychex management chose to make a tough, unpopular decision in order to prevent having to lay people off. Was I disappointed that I wouldn't be getting a merit raise that year? Of course, but I was very happy to still have a job when people around me were losing theirs. Does Paychex have issues? Of course. Every company does, but as commented by several people in this thread, they are by far one of the better ones.

To those who are maybe aren't happy with some of the software offerings at Paychex, I can say, as a software developer at Paychex, that they do recognize many of their shortcomings and are pouring a lot of resources into fixing them, but with a company this size, it takes time and I would think you would want us to get it right instead of rushing to market with something that doesn't meet the mark and sends you back to this thread logging more complaints.

By the way, if you do a search in bing/google/search engine of your choice for "ADP Sucks" you will find just as many, if not more sites dedicated to the subject of ADP failures as you do Paychex... or Microsoft, or IBM or Apple or ... fill in the blank. Our society generally has unrealistic expectations of their fellow human beings.

Why would Paychex have to do anything that would hurt their employees or clients, they are still doing a 20%+ after tax profit and are sitting on tons of cash. They have no reason to increase prices to their clients or decrease benefits to their employees. They have used the downturn in the economy as an excuse and taken advantage of you. I'm very sorry that you are so loyal to a management team that would sell you or their own mothers into slavery if they could make a buck. They don't deserve your loyalty.

I don't work nor never have for ADP or Paychex, I do know several high level managers at both organizations and have worked for in the industry for 24+ years. I can truely say that my vast experience with both giant organizations has been very different. Paychex will lie cheat and steal as an organization on the sales side, they have some very good people, mostly on the operations side of the business but they are mean spirited and as an organization corrupt. For example, Paychex management issues information to the field from the corporate office about its competitors so that their sales team can use it in the field, very often that information is untrue. ADP on the other hand is much more ethical and professional, and although they have some bad apples, as an organization I have nothing bad to say. In terms of Operations, ADP service is not close to Paychex, it is rare that you ever deal with the same person twice and often you are calling into a phone room for support.