SurePayroll Cynthia Brown Sent a sneaky disguised e-mail to tell me they were drafting my account and then charged me $650! Glenview, Illinois *EDitor's Suggestions on how to get your money back into your bank account when someone wrongfully takes it from you!

Mr. Brandt,

To clarify this issue, I would like to offer you the following information:

1.  In processing my first payroll with SurePayroll, I mis-entered my transfer into the payroll bank account by 9 cents.  It was my mistake, I did not challenge it with SurePayroll, and I paid dearly for my mistake.  I did not bring this up in my original post on this website because it was outside the scope of my complaint.  I see that you did reference it, which is a further testament to your professionalism.

2.  I am aware that I signed up for an online service and received many emails from SurePayroll to which I responded as necessary.  My issue was with this one specific e-mail that came from a completely different sending address; I have not received any other e-mails from your company from this address either prior to or after this specific one.  I wonder why your company chooses to send such an important email from a completely unique sender.  Specifically, SurePayroll does not request a receipt confirmation nor a response to indicate that this email has been received and that your customer knows that you intend to withdraw funds from their bank account independent from regular payroll processing.  Perhaps if the consequences of missing this e-mail were yours to bear instead of the customer's, you would not take such a cavalier attitude toward it's receipt.

3.  When, on December 30th, I had an enormously frustrating exchange with Cynthia Brown, I finally conceded in order to get my quarterly reports filed and paid and to get my W-2's delivered.  I informed her that I would wire the payroll amount, the year-end processing amount, and the NSF fee, and then I would begin searching for a new payroll company.  I asked if there was anything else I would be charged for.  Wiring funds is not free.  I received no response to this direct question.  Twice.  The only response she had was to have a customer service representative send me a cancellation form.  Ms. Brown clearly did not want us as a customer.

4.  The very next business day, Jan 3rd, I received an email from SurePayroll charging me for the year-end processing again and the associated NSF fee.  In your rebuttal, you state that I was not charged the NSF fee for the year-end work.  It was only by the grace of your customer service representative (Sherry), that this fee was waived.  Cynthia Brown was certainly not willing to even discuss it.  Nor was Laura Paliotte.  I forwarded her the e-mail of 1/3 and asked that she escalate it based on our conversation on 12/30.  I did not even receive a response from her.  Again, poor customer service.

5.  I never once said that SurePayroll did anything fraudulent.  I said that your business practices were sneaky and slimy.  I also have e-mails and documentation to prove all these points.  You can cling to the notion that SurePayroll did nothing wrong -- I only see that you did nothing illegal.  Your business practices were deceptive in this instance, your employees (except Sherry) were horribly callous in dealing with a new customer, and finally, when this complaint reached your desk, you didn't call to ask me what happened -- from a customer perspective; your only response is to claim that you were not fraudulent.   If you'd committed fraud, I'd have filed legal action, not reported you on a public website.  Just because it's legal, Mr. Brandt, does not make it right.

Dear sir/madam,

This company/person ran their first payroll with us in November of 2011 and that payroll was returned for insufficient funds.

We were notified of the return and the client wire transferred the money including the nsf fee.  About one week later, we sent an email to the client with the charges for their W2s and that we would debit the account on about 2 weeks later.  We received notification that the charge was returned for insufficient funds.  We did not charge an nsf fee for the W2 fee.  The client ran their third payroll wand the charge was returned for insufficient funds.  The client then wired the money to our account on for the payroll nsf and W2 nsf.  She called our customer service today and talked with a rep around the time this report was filed. 

Our business has detailed records and proof of what occurred (with specific times, dates, amounts, etc.), and would never, never take a client's funds without permission and authority to do so. In addition, this client signed up for an online service and failed to open our email communications - which was clearly explained as how we communicate with our clients - from the moment we spoke with them.

There was absolutely no fraudulent activity that occurred.

We have a fully staffed customer service team that is always available to speak with clients, as well as return messages when our clients reach out to us. In fact, we spoke with this particular client regarding this incident to explain what had occurred.

The report filed on this site is inaccurate, and if someone from www.ripoffreport.com would like to contact me, I'm happy to share more information. However, we are unable to share any specific information related to this client, as we will always protect our client's confidential information.

I can be reached at 847-676-8420, ext 7280.

Sincerely,
Scott Brandt
Vice President, Marketing
SurePayroll, Inc.

I figured I could prepare my own W-2's for less than the $400 fee they were trying to charge, but I needed to be sure they'd filed my 4th quarter reports.  I called customer service and explained the situation to a very nice woman named Sherry.  She understood my frustration, she waived the fees, and released my W2's. 

I'm still not staying with this company, but I feel a little better about my most recent interaction with them.