Paychex Sucks

I'm a current Paychex Sr payroll specialist. It's very disheartening to hear all the horror stories that people have posted here, and if you had a bad rep, I'm sorry. Having said that though, I truly believe that our clients for the most part do not totally understand the amount of work that our management team puts on us. I would agree with those that mentioned that management as a whole overloads the payroll specialist with immense work and does not change when they should. To give you all a better understanding of the jobs we have to do, look below:

1) Each specialist has an average client base of around 300 clients. That's not to mention every client that is not assigned to you that calls you to run payroll or fix an issue.

2) We handle a lot of billing issues, dealing with credit adjustments, discounts, etc.

3) We amend all tax returns for our clients. This is a manual process that takes extensive time and effort, a luxury that we unfortunately don't have.

4) We fix data integrity issues within our system. Many times there is a lot of minor system errors and it takes more manual system work to fix it.

5) We handle most penalties a client receives if they are on our tax service. Many times I'm on the phone with either the IRS or a state agency dealing with reps for literally hours trying to correct an issue they may be having.

6) We deal with report requests. Now, I understand clients pay for a service, and with that they should be able to at times call in and request a report. However, for the last few years, we have offered a free online service where clients can obtain many different payroll reports in seconds, yet so many do not utilize this service. Or, if you don't do online, keep the paper reports we send to you organized, at least somewhat. Report requests eat up even more time in our day.

I could go on and on but I think you get my point. It frustrates me when I read posts saying that my specialist doesn't call me back, which more often than not means that the specialist literally didn't have the time to call you back. I'm not saying this is right, but understand that most specialists truly want to get to you, but with all the work we are handed on a daily basis, it is becoming more and more difficult. Not to mention that the current system we are working on has problems on a nearly daily basis.

Only speaking for myself, I believe I work as hard as I can to service my clients and can understand the frustration that clients must feel during many issues. But please don't generalize an entire company based on service from 1 or 2 reps as I can tell you that most of the specialists I've worked with are great at what they do. Also, if you are a current client of Paychex, think of the expectations you are setting and realize that in reality, you may be asking too much and to understand that most specialists are working hard, but just don't have enough time.

Sorry for the long post, but having read many of these posts I needed to say that.

I was recently working for a company that used Paychex. When I got my first check, I took it to safeway and king soopers. Neither would cash it because of an error code that came up stating there was some kind of check fraud involved with the company. My coworker had the same issue and even tried to cash through WalMart. Paychex can suck it!

P.S. It had nothing to do with the MULTI MILLION dollar company I was working for, it was entirely involved within the Paychex system.

Horrible company and when told the problems this is the WONDERFUL response I get from Todd cassell "Sorry to hear all this! My phone numbers have not changed since 2 ½ years ago.
Weird how this is the first I have heard of this, one would think that you would have reached out to the “slick sales man” much earlier than this considering the severity of the situation.

I think ADP is your best bet, good luck. Since the new year is upon us, it will be good timing for you.
Just remember, you will have a call center in the Philippines, won’t have one point of contact (call center) and if you think we have been hard to deal with? We are a dream as far as customer service compared to ADP.
Good luck to you!
Todd" the overcharged my 4 times in 8 months withdrew 3.2k more than was supposed to and they have a response of oops I did not see the sticky note in the file. i have had 4 different reps who all have made mistakes. they have been awful and the sales rep who thinks he is all that should lose business. I am switching to adp.
The salespeople lie and slam the competition, cannot keep a file straight or follow simple directions, and none of them care! Todd will continue to be a salesperson there because the main office just doesnt care, I was too small a business for them. If you have them, CHANGE!!!! if you have an appointment STOP !!!!

I think the best bet, especially for small businesses is to find a local payroll service. Find one close to you, I have found the local services to be better for my needs. More personable, and more flexible should an issue arise.

Used to work for Paychex. I was a top performer and I left do to their complete lack of care for their clients. Paychex cares about one thing, their 10-15 rule.. 10 percent growth with 15 percent reduction in costs. The Paychex stock ticker. What does that tell you? Get a lot of new clients and reduce services to the ones you have. Stay away from this terrible company.

Anybody know of way to reach higher ups at Paychex? I think I am as far up the ladder at the local office as I can get and they do not respond to emails. Included are the Customer Service Supervisor and District Sales Manager. Emails sent with reply receipt, I know they have them. I am trying to get services acknowledged they would do for us

Paychex is about to report increased revenue and profits, I hope that all of you that have had numerous price increases and are experiencing the poor service becuase they have massively cut internal costs or are employees and are being killed are excited that the management team is getting nice bonuses from meeting goals (of increased revenue and profit) while you are paying the price!

I think that many people on this website have a one sided view on this company. I think there there needs to be a differentiation between the corporate aspect of Paychex, and the customer service reps who are trying their best to keep up with their client load. Just as in any other large company, there are going to be a vast majority of complaints and grievances. However, there is not another payroll company of this size that has a personal representative for each client. If you want a call center, call ADP. There have been days where I have spent a week fixing one specific problem for a client, and often it is not something that I myself created. People often ask "what do we pay you people for"? You are paying us to run your payroll. We are not the payroll law enforcement, we pay employees using the information that is given to us from employers. We are not CPA's. We are not trained tax specialists. When someone asks us a question that we cannot answer, they automatically assume that we do not know what we are doing. Granted, some of us don't. But many of us do have a vast deal of knowledge, and truly do care about our clients. That said, we are trained to run PAYROLL, not to know every single updated labor law. It amazes me how little some business owners know about their day to day operations, and it is their responsibility. We are a payroll company, not a one stop shop for every question that you don't want to pay your CPA to figure out for you. I just think that people need to take into consideration the workload that is put upon the payroll specialists, and you cannot take one bad experience and believe that every experience with Paychex will lead to the same result.

Dear annoyed, business owners have other choices then to work with Paychex who undervalues and overworks their loyal employees than ADP. Smaller Local or Regional Payroll Services are often staffed by Payroll Experts who are up to date and certifified to answer the wage and labor questions for their clients.

I have to comment on the Paychex employees who are mad at people complaining about the poor service, because "the poor Paychex employees are overworked"; if you eat at a restaurant and the food comes out horrible do you not complain because you know that the cheap restaurant owner, even though they are making a huge profit, underhires in the kitchen and overworks the cooks?

Clearly "annoyed" is from the generation who never got nailed in the head by a dodgeball and never learned that life is not fair. Ff you are the least athletic and lose the game you shouldn't get a trophy. If your company overworks you and undertrains you, you will have angry clients complaining about the bad service even if its not your fault!

I am interviewing with Paychex right now... these posts scare me a little. I have been told about the 'heavy' workload and I expect to work hard for my paycheck but the customer service issues scare me more. I love working in an area that allows me to service my customers and make happy clients, it doesnt sound like I would have the time needed to satisfy my clients and I dont like to get complaints from customers paying for my service.... I have some decision to make if actually offered a position! I need a good job and the pay seems right. Not sure I would be able to keep this one long... I'm not good at keeping my mouth shut about bad service! I'll post again here once this unfolds. I think that most of the negative posts are just venting from situations caused by employers not Paychex, but then there are the Paychex employees saying they arent responding to issues because they dont have time, big issues deserve the time! Make it! Stay late to deal with it! But deal. We'll see, I hope it's better then all of this.

I'm not an employee of Paychex, but I do market and industry research on various companies. I can tell you, blogs and websites like this are not uncommon about every large service business. It is outsourced Human Resources with the key word being 'HUMAN'. Mistakes are going to happen. Errors are inevitable. And patience is needed by all involved. I've worked in Outside Sales for 15 years and I have NEVER worked for a company that goes behind an iron curtain and say, "we are really going to screw our customers over and if they don't like it, they can go elsewhere". Instead, what I see are VPs, executives and management scrambling like white mice trying to FIX known issues. And Paychex is not different. I want to reiterate, I am not an employee, a prospective employee or a client. I am just someone who want to be fair about people ripping an American company that was built from $3000 and has grown to be one of the most successful businesses in the country. It's capital enterprise at its finest. Definitely one of my favorite cases to study. Tom Golisano has done an outstanding job building Paychex. I also want to point out that bad service is ten times more likely to be reported than average or even GOOD service. So many of these complaints should be taken tongue in cheek. For every dissatisfied customer on this site, remember there are 10 to 20 who are having no issues or that are very happy.

PayChex holds child support for seven days before they send to the state. This is crap! So my ex changed companied in December and so for the month of December no child support. Merry Christmas to my children NOT

Disgruntled, shouldn't you be using CS payments for the basic daily needs of your children, oh say, for things like food, etc. When you use c/s payments to buy gifts for the children, the the from tag read from: non custodial parent?

Just switched to their Time and Labor platform and use Quickbooks accounting software with business with 100+ employees. Because I upgraded platforms they have no clue how to create the .iif GL files to upload to Quickbooks. T&L is like using MS OFfice 97 version in 2012. We constantly get booted from system with error messages. The system tries to pay employees who have been terminated for months. System pick and chooses when it will allow you to edit employee punch info. This is horrible. Oh, and if you have offsite contractors who use iPads forget about ever having them enter any info. Not iPad compatible.

I've been using Paychex again for a little over a year and I haven't had any issues. I left them in '08 because I was getting charged for things I thought were ridiculous, I didn't like my payroll rep or the specialist, and I was paying thru the nose!! I then switched to ADP and within 6 months I was nearly in tears I was so frustrated! That was an awful experience and not worth the invoice savings. Then I switched to an online only company, which was fine but when I had questions about some law changes, I was charged to talk to someone!!! That's so absurd. I was hesitant to come back to Paychex but I really think the sales rep has alot to do with it. I understood the service charge (I actually got a signed quote this time), I understood the extra charges and why (explain in a second), and I have switched payroll specialists but I now know how to request one. Much better situation and FAR better than the competition.

For the charges, I realized that this company provides a service. What they don't do is replace my responsibility as a biz owner. If I process payroll the day before pay day because I kept putting it off, and my employees are expecting direct deposit, I can't blame Paychex for charging extra to put money in my employees accounts before they pull money from mine! They are essentially loaning me the money so my employees are mad and that justifies a fee.

Basically all I've read above is a bunch of whining from people who've messed up themselves and trying blame their payroll company. Like someone who doesn't pay their cable bill and blames comcast when they shut off the cable.

If anyone needs help with their EEOC claims, I can provide guidance and support to make the most of your initial filing. The first impression is the most important.

I've had no issues with Paychex for the last 5-6 years, then this year my "Payroll Specialist" left the company. I was assigned a new person. In the last month, Paychex mistakenly ran our payroll 2 times one week, and then the following week issued only one check (we have about 100 employees) and to an employee who had been termed for more than a month. When they did run the correct payroll everyone with direct deposits did not have it credited to their accounts for 4 days plus each person was charged a wire transfer fee ranging from $12-$18. And now we are finding out that the week when Paychex mistakenly ran 2 payrolls they voided out the wrong batch. Everyone who was issued a "live" check is having it bounced back; I am waiting to see what else happens, I am guessing with all of these issues in the final 4 weeks of 2011, W-2s will be messed up.