Zenefits - Not Zen. Lack of customer service and expensive issues.
July 06, 2020
Zenefits - Not Zen. Lack of customer service and expensive issues.
Score 3 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Zenefits
Zenefits is used by our entire organization. I decided to move to them after our asset sale which reduced our number of employees who moved with the sale. This seemed like a good move in order to integrate HR with payroll and insurance.
- Integration of HR, payroll, and insurance.
- These integrations are becoming commonplace, and are necessary for smaller companies to compete.
- Cost is always a factor with growing companies and Zenefits is affordable.
- CUSTOMER SERVICE - Zenefits needs significant improvements in customer service. Most of the serious issues we experience would be solved with well trained people who are experienced in the payroll space and are available to clients like us.
- TAX DEPARTMENT - The tax payments dept. is severely backed up (months for a relevant response). Tax payments to States income tax and unemployment tax is not something I ever want to worry about, or get late or non-filing fees for.
- PAYROLL ISSUES REQUIRE IMMEDIATE RESPONSE - Many issues in payroll require immediate high-level response and our company (and I) will accept no less. We waited for hours, days, and even in a couple instances a month or more, and in a few instances never received a response. I was trained by Zenefits not to trust them, and quickly learned to take the issue in my own hands and begin to find a workaround.
- CONNECTION ISSUES - Again, this gets extremely frustrating when there is an issue. Doesn't it always seem to happen at the worst time, exacerbating issues and turning a problem into a full-blown emergency? If only someone were available I could call for support.
- INSURANCE - This one hit us on two levels: our brokers and our ROI. We have a long-term relationship with our insurance brokers who have helped our employees directly with finding health professionals, navigating claims, fighting for us (me included). It costs extra to add them. Additionally, as a "small group" we did not receive the seamless application process I was expecting ("sold on" is maybe more accurate). It was much more complicated. Thankfully our insurance brokers patiently and effectively created workarounds despite my insistence that they use the "system" (which ended up being the problem). Shame on me for that. Our brokers were, and still are, brilliant.
- Hidden costs to some companies. No system does everything. Adding 401(k) was costly in both time and dollars.
- Spent over $1,200 dollars on wire transfer fees after Zenefits wanted to push a payroll past a holiday. Full disclosure we were 2 minutes late on our submission. That said they took our money for payroll and taxes the next day, 2 days before the payroll should have been paid to our employees. They would have had our money for 6 days before paying employees for a 2 minute late submission.
- Other internal costs - Increases in time our people needed to translate reports and added work to utilize reports for internal accounting.
- W2's were not released until the very last minute, lacking EITC notifications, we had over 60 people who our team had to develop PDF W2's (they were not in Zenefits, because they were part of an asset sale so they did not receive W2's from Zen). Yet Zenefit's response (after at least 2 weeks), was "We don't have an obligation to release W2's before January 31st." That, of course, was not enough time for us to develop, add EITC and CA notice regulations, and get them postmarked. This was a unique situation that most businesses will only experience in the first year, but be aware.
- Adding our long-term insurance brokers (who directly intervene for our employees and are there to help us navigate claims). Zenefits charges an extra $5/employee to use your own broker. Additionally, as a "small group" insurance company we did not get the seamless application process promised to larger groups. There is ample evidence of their own brokers and insurance issues in the past and this continues to be a problem.
- Finally, after an unexpectedly expensive and problematic year, we are moving to another solution. Change is costly in terms of time, buy-in learning new systems, integration, training, and finance. I'm very disappointed in the outcome of this experience.
The original reasoning around moving to Zenefits - recommendation from a colleague, cost and the reduction of workforce, app availability, and integrations were the main reasons for the initial change. That said, the issues we have experienced are deal breakers.
Do you think TriNet HR Platform delivers good value for the price?
No
Are you happy with TriNet HR Platform's feature set?
Yes
Did TriNet HR Platform live up to sales and marketing promises?
No
Did implementation of TriNet HR Platform go as expected?
No
Would you buy TriNet HR Platform again?
No