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.) You are wrong to say that Paychex is the only provider IRS recommends.
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.