This is a formal complaint re: customer service for the QBO Payroll Module. I have been trying to solve an issue with the way QBO Payroll handles withdrawal of taxes and other fees and charges from payroll submissions.
Background: I have been a QBDesktop/Assisted Payroll customer for 10 years and grew to have lots of confidence in that module. QBD computes everything correctly, creates a “split” QB transaction showing details, and debits my bank account automatically for the total amount. QBO does the computing correctly, creates a transaction for the Net Pay amount, but apparently DOES NOT deduct the taxes and fees until end of a given quarter.
Yesterday’s Experience: I spoke to EIGHT different support persons today to get someone to explain this discrepancy to me, and if it’s working-as-intended or a bug. No one could do it. Nothing resolved after eight attempts, although “Trina” did work with me and is supposed to resume work today to resolve the issue. Of the eight calls, I experienced one deliberate hang-up, two calls where the support person put me on hold and never came back, one person, “Robin”, who actually did look at my account but then told me that it was working as designed, i.e. that funds would be deducted at Quarters’ end as opposed to at the point f submission. She obviously had no familiarity with how Assisted Payroll works although it seems as if this would be a essential skill as QB encourages migration to QBO. (This is a problem for me this quarter because funds HAVE been deducted from my account for all 2nd Q transactions except the last. In other words, QBD/Assisted Payroll has some of the funds, and some are still waiting to be debited from my bank account at end of quarter. QBO shows the entire obligation due on July 17, even though 80% was already taken by QBD. I think I’m going to end up paying this obligation twice).
The first agent, Colleen, told me it was MY fault for not doing core setup right. When I said no one had explained the need to do a core setup either when I converted from QBD or when I set up the first payroll online. When I pressured her about HOW to do this, she hung up. The second person, Robin, did look at a few transactions with me, but then told me it was “just the way it works now” (as well as implied it was just the way it has always worked). I wasn’t convinced so I went back and compared QB Desktop transactions against my bank records and determined that the tax obligation funds as wells as payroll service fees were ALWAYS deducted at the point of submission. The third and fourth persons, whose names I didn’t get, put me on hold, and never came back. The fifth person, actually tried to help while escalating to experts, but the call dropped after 15 minutes. The next call to “Faith” seemed promising at first, but then she told me that QBO Core Payroll did not process the tax payment and that I had to do it myself. I enquired if there were plans similar to Assisted Payroll and at first she said “no”, then said yes, there was Premium and Elite, and sent me a link to compare them. The link didn’t work. As I looked for another link, I realized “Faith” was just googling all my questions, and I came across word-for-word explanations from 2018 that explained e=payments. These are not even available in the module I have. She obviously had no clue.
Summary: It’s clear after these experiences that NONE of the individuals I spoke understand the accounting principles underlying a payroll service, or even know much more than basic commands in the QBO payroll module itself. Their answers are either scripted or they frantically google trying to find answers. They will not transfer you to another level of expertise, and only begrudgingly interface with experts while the customer is on hold. I am sympathetic with these individuals if the software itself is buggy, but if this is the case, they need to be able to acknowledge this and get customers connected with agents or experts who can help. If it’s more the case that they are not trained to explain how the Payroll Module works/how if differs from QBD, then they need much, much better training. I can google support answers on my own and I expected more from “experts” who actually work for QB.
This whole experience was very disappointing.
