What do you dislike about Paychex?
Absolutely horrendous. Moving our company to Paychex’s PEO platform was the worst business decision I have ever made.
I originally used Paychex because it previously had an exclusive arrangement with the Florida Workers’ Compensation Joint Underwriting Association for agency billing. Although its payroll system and customer service were already disappointing, our company needed that agency-billing capability. As we grew, a Paychex salesperson persuaded me to “upgrade” to its PEO platform—a decision I deeply regret.
After moving to the PEO, I encountered serious and recurring problems, including:
Failure to properly initiate and process E-Verify cases.
Employees shown in the Paychex system as authorized for employment even though, when I investigated, no corresponding E-Verify case appeared to exist.
Failure to remit workers’ compensation payments properly.
Erroneous fees and apparent overcharges.
Frequent system inconsistencies, errors, and unexplained “bugs.”
An inability or unwillingness to provide a clear, itemized accounting of the services, fees, and rates applied to our account.
Changes to rates and contractual terms during the agreement.
The platform that was sold as a “premier professional” solution immediately created an enormous administrative burden. I began spending approximately 10–15 hours every week identifying errors, reconciling conflicting information, documenting problems, and tracking down people who might be able to correct them.
Paychex appears to operate through numerous siloed departments that do not communicate or integrate effectively. The user interface is inconsistent from user to user, department to department and even company to company. The software is just garbage. Over the course of this experience, I dealt with dozens of employees across multiple departments. Many could explain only a narrow portion of their own process and could not explain how it connected to the other departments their work depended upon. I was repeatedly transferred, redirected, or given conflicting answers, while critical issues remained unresolved.
The most alarming issue involved E-Verify. After discovering that Paychex’s system reflected employees as employment-authorized even though I could not locate evidence that the required E-Verify cases had actually been created, I requested termination of the PEO agreement. Instead of taking responsibility for the severity of the problem and allowing us to leave, Paychex responded by seeking a termination penalty of approximately $25,000.
In my experience, Paychex accepts little meaningful responsibility for the accuracy or functionality of the platform it sells. When its systems, billing, or internal processes fail, the customer is left to identify the problem, prove that it occurred, navigate multiple disconnected departments, and spend hours pursuing a correction. Meanwhile, Paychex continues charging substantial fees for services that are supposed to reduce—not multiply—an employer’s administrative workload and compliance risk.
I would strongly caution any business owner considering Paychex PEO to disqualify the company as a candidate. If you are already unfortunately contracted with this company, demand, in writing, a complete itemized fee schedule; all termination provisions; all workers’ compensation responsibilities; the precise E-Verify workflow; service-level commitments; and restrictions on mid-contract rate or term changes. Carefully audit everything Paychex processes on your behalf. Do not assume that a status displayed in its system means the underlying filing, payment, or compliance action was actually completed.
Based on my experience, I cannot recommend Paychex or its PEO platform. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
