Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/30/2024

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  The company’s website claims that using their software is completely free. They generate revenue through advertisements shown to users each time the program is used. However, I was charged $40 without receiving any services.
  
  An employee, Judy, was professional and explained how to use the program and answered all my questions. While it is possible that I missed information about a $40 fee for choosing the direct deposit option (since English is not my first language), the business did NOT perform any transactions. Moreover, their website explicitly states that direct deposit is a free option. What did I pay for? I personally handled all payments to the IRS, as well as the direct deposit setup and quarterly reports. Additionally, I still see advertisements every time I use the software.
  
  Therefore, I insist on a refund of the $40.

  Business Response

  Date: 03/05/2025

  
  Dear Clients,
  
  I understand your frustrations regarding the penalties and appreciate you bringing these matters to our attention.
  
  Unfortunately, Payroll4Free has been undergoing a challenging transition due to the illness and passing of our President and founder, along with other unforeseen departures of critical personnel. These events have occurred within the last half year, and I have recently volunteered all of my time in an effort to assist clients and help the company recover.
  
  As I work to balance the needs of all clients while attempting to bring the company back to stability, we are facing limited resources and many challenges: the company's financial position, the lack of service and support personnel, and the extra work of looking back and figuring out what has been or hasn't been done for each client account over the last half year. The overwhelming amount of tasks to fix known issues, compounded by the discovery of additional problems, is further complicated by the complexities of individual state and local tax systems, the lack of senior staff to guide us on how to best handle each situation, and the conflicting guidance we have received from both government bodies and outside professionals.
  
  I want to assure you that the majority of our clients were not impacted, and neither was the filing of federal taxes. The issues centered primarily on a few states due to their particular tax systems: NY, OH, VA, and NC. If you are in any of these states, I encourage you to respond yourself immediately to any notification from the state or local municipality, and suggest that you consider using a different payroll service for state and local taxes for the time being.
  
  I apologize that individual responses to each inquiry or issue are not happening quickly. The nature of the situation requires us to prioritize actions that will have the most positive impact on the largest number of clients.
  
  Here is what we are doing:
  * We are training new staff to both service clients going forward and rectify issues from the previous quarters.
  * We are in conversation with other companies to possibly take over responsibility for the tax filings.
  * We are taking a serious look at the viability of the tax service department as a whole, and for each state individually.
  * We are actively in contact with state and local tax departments to waive penalties.
  
  As we stabilize the situation, I will be exploring other ways to rectify issues for clients who have been impacted by the company's recent challenges. However, this will take some time.
  
  Billing errors on terminated accounts will be reimbursed as quickly as possible.
  
  Thank you for your understanding.
  
  Sincerely,
  Chaim
  

  
  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 03/05/2025

  [A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
  
  
  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. 
  
  
  
  Regards,
  
  
  
  ********** *********
  
  
  
  
  

• Initial Complaint

  Date:10/15/2024

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  ** ************ *** ( a company I own) had been contracted with this company to do payroll.
  KR Enterprises closed its business, informed the payroll service in writing that the contract would be cancelled after the 2024 2nd quarter reports and withholding deposits due by July 30th were completed by the company.
  
  On 8/30/2024 I received a delinquency notice from the state of NJ indicating nothing had been filed. I contacted the Payroll company via phone calls and e-mails. I did not hear back. Thankfully I was familiar with payroll reporting and had all the logins. To mitigate damages and penalties I personally did the filings.
  
  I eventually was called by customer service with an apology and was instructed to send the penalty notice to the tax department for reimbursement which I promptly did.
  
  The penalty was $127.91. The company had filed the federal reports but neglected to file the state. I have repeatedly tried to contact the company and have not been given the courtesy of a response nor have I seen reimbursement.
  This company has made numerous mistakes over the years that I have contracted them. I do not believe they are qualified to handle NJ payroll. Because I know how to do payroll, I have had to correct numerous mistakes.
  
  They do not have direct phone lines and do not respond to e-mails.
  
  When handling wages, it is very important to know each states rules which vary greatly. This company has a lot of incompetence at least in NJ

  Business Response

  Date: 03/05/2025

  Dear Clients,
  
  I understand your frustrations regarding the penalties and appreciate you bringing these matters to our attention.
  
  Unfortunately, Payroll4Free has been undergoing a challenging transition due to the illness and passing of our President and founder, along with other unforeseen departures of critical personnel. These events have occurred within the last half year, and I have recently volunteered all of my time in an effort to assist clients and help the company recover.
  
  As I work to balance the needs of all clients while attempting to bring the company back to stability, we are facing limited resources and many challenges: the company's financial position, the lack of service and support personnel, and the extra work of looking back and figuring out what has been or hasn't been done for each client account over the last half year. The overwhelming amount of tasks to fix known issues, compounded by the discovery of additional problems, is further complicated by the complexities of individual state and local tax systems, the lack of senior staff to guide us on how to best handle each situation, and the conflicting guidance we have received from both government bodies and outside professionals.
  
  I want to assure you that the majority of our clients were not impacted, and neither was the filing of federal taxes. The issues centered primarily on a few states due to their particular tax systems: NY, OH, VA, and NC. If you are in any of these states, I encourage you to respond yourself immediately to any notification from the state or local municipality, and suggest that you consider using a different payroll service for state and local taxes for the time being.
  
  I apologize that individual responses to each inquiry or issue are not happening quickly. The nature of the situation requires us to prioritize actions that will have the most positive impact on the largest number of clients.
  
  Here is what we are doing:
  * We are training new staff to both service clients going forward and rectify issues from the previous quarters.
  * We are in conversation with other companies to possibly take over responsibility for the tax filings.
  * We are taking a serious look at the viability of the tax service department as a whole, and for each state individually.
  * We are actively in contact with state and local tax departments to waive penalties.
  
  As we stabilize the situation, I will be exploring other ways to rectify issues for clients who have been impacted by the company's recent challenges. However, this will take some time.
  
  Billing errors on terminated accounts will be reimbursed as quickly as possible.
  
  Thank you for your understanding.
  
  Sincerely,
  Chaim

• Initial Complaint

  Date:01/22/2024

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I signed up to work with this company to do our payroll. It started out fine and relatively smoothly. However, what I didn't know was that they neglected to file some tax returns, claiming that my tax account with the gov was closed -- but Payroll4Free did not communicate that to me, nor did they take any pro active action to resolve the issue. It wasn't until months later when I received notices from the gov that taxes hadn't been filed. It was only then that Payroll4 Free actually filed the taxes, but late fees and penalties ensued. I didn't think that was a problem given Payroll4Free "guarantees" that if there's any fees or penalties, they'll pay them. Well, their CEO **** ********* specifically wrote me that he will not honor it. So, now I'm stuck with late fees and penalties because Payroll4Free didn't do their job, nor did they honor their guarantee. I also previously spoke with **** when he was trying to solicit me to invest in his company before they plan to go public. I declined because of my concerns, but it seems they are more focused on building up revenues instead of customer service, keeping their commitments, and establishing a solid reputation. I'd strongly discourage anyone from working with this company.

  Business Response

  Date: 02/06/2024

  This client opened his payroll account with us in October of 2022, but did not authorize our tax department to access his VA tax accounts until May of 2023 (his tax account was actually closed since 2016 and he needed to reopen it). In the meantime, we could not submit his tax filings. We were in constant communication with the client and advised him that he may incur tax penalties and interest unless he files any tax forms due on his own. Once access has been granted to our tax team, we filed his outstanding tax filings (as he did not do so), and asked if he wanted us to pay the penalties and interest that he was assessed by VA, but he indicated not to. All of those fines are his responsibility, as we had no ability to access his VA tax accounts when those returns were due. We have all of the communication in writing to support this, and the state of VA can attest to the timing Payroll4Free.com was granted access.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 02/21/2024

  RECEIVED VIA EMAIL BY BBB STAFF MEMBER:

  Here’s my response:
  
  I vehemently disagree with the business’ representation.  Information and authorization for my tax accounts were provided immediately upon request, but they never notified me of any difficulty they had in accessing those accounts, and I had no idea one of the accounts was closed.  I also had no idea that Payroll4Free hadn’t paid my taxes – the money was there and available for them to use to pay my taxes per their service agreement with me.  It wasn’t until I received notices from the tax department that I enquired with Payroll4Free about why taxes hadn’t been paid.  That’s the first they mentioned to me that they could not access my account due to it having been closed.  I immediately contacted the tax department and opened the account again, and provided that info to Payroll4Free.  I also have all communications regarding this issue – including where I had to query Payroll4Free reps multiple times to get a response -- and an objective observer would conclude that this company is flaky and ill equipped to handle the volume of business they’ve taken on.  They respond sometimes, but not other times.  They do the job they promise sometimes, but not other times.  They aren’t reliable, and the worst part, they don’t keep the commitments they make when they drop the ball… my guess is because they can’t afford to.  They don’t have the funds (their CEO tried to get me to invest in them, so I know a bit more about their business than the average customer). This is not a reliable payroll company  and I’d strongly advise against working with them (if other reviews echoing my experience aren’t evidence enough).  They aren’t ready for prime time, and can’t responsibly handle what business they do have.