Paychex Sucks

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.