Ask HN: Anyone used Gusto? Product and support seem buggy/disorganized

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29937663

by dhruvkar • 5 years ago

13 9 5 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

We're about 35 employees and just switched to Gusto for 2022.

I'm having trouble with just about everything.

I've talked to support 15-20 times so far and they seems to not know answers to much. Everything is upgraded to a "specialist".

When I do get answers, every support person has a different answer.

For example:

Sick hours didn't show up on Jan 1st (like the policy stated). First support person had me experiment with creating multiple policies to triage the issue, eventually telling me I had to enter hours manually.

Second time I called in, the person told me they accrue hours only after the first payroll.

After the first payroll, only SOME of the employees accrued sick time off. Now the issue has been upgraded to a "specialist".

This is only one of a handful of such issues I'm facing.

Curious to see if this experience is common with others? I did trials with BambooHR and Gusto, and now regretting my decision.

druadh• 5 years ago

Company I'm with uses it and has had almost no issues except for a special circumstance when we merged with another small company. That was difficult to clear up, but everything else has been smooth.

My company loves Gusto. And personally, it's the best payroll experience I've had.

Sorry your experience is subpar. Hopefully it clears up

hkhanna• 5 years ago

I can attest to this as well. I used Gusto and have recommended it to all my clients since 2013. The product and support were incredible.

Today, it's a different story. The product is buggy, tax filings get missed and support seems to not know what's going on. When asked to escalate to a manager, support simply closes tickets.

It's not the same, and after evangelizing it for almost a decade, I'm sad to say I won't be able to recommend it in the future.

AlexGoCo2• 5 years ago

Sorry to hear about your experience with Gusto, especially after just signing on with them. I work at a company called GoCo and we are an HRIS platform that specializes in companies your size. We have dedicated client success managers who are assigned to our clients accounts and are available via a direct phone number for support. If you are interested in hearing more about our services and why we are a top rated HRIS platform with payroll capabilities, please feel free to shoot me a DM and I will be more than happy to have an introductory conversation with you!

dhruvkar2• 5 years ago

I've signed up for a trial, I'd be interested in testing it out.

AlexGoCo2• 5 years ago

I'd be more than happy to walk you through a live demo as well. My email is alex@goco.io In the meantime here is a link to our G2 page where you can learn more from our current clients.

https://www.g2.com/products/goco/reviews

anm89• 5 years ago

I ended up finding g that a regular old accountant that would help me run my own payroll for my one person llc was a drastically better deal then getting locked into some recurring revenue scheme.

obviously this could be different at different amounts of employees but it feels like the solve a problem and then extract every ounce of value you might have received so its not really clear what the benefit was after everything is accounted for

6sp• 5 years ago

We’ve encountered various bugs mostly around benefits. We are subscribed to their top-tier support which has generally been pretty good and resolved issues in a reasonable amount of time.

I am a bit disappointed though with the product and think Gusto still leaves a lot of room for improvement. If we weren’t already tied into them I would have considered another option.

hailvectron• 5 years ago

Mine is a small company (smaller than yours) doing billable/consulting type work.

Based on HN comments, we tried Rippling, Zenefits, and Gusto. Of the three, Gusto was the best in our assessments (most matched our desired workflows and policies). We use them for payroll & benefits, and do time tracking outside Gusto.

Sad to say, even with this, Gusto leaves a ton to be desired and the other critical comments ring true. With all these startups trying to be the unified HR/Payroll/Benefits/Timekeeping platforms, it's surprising how bad they all still are.

- Plenty of bugs in their benefits system and terrible communications about upcoming benefits deadlines, etc. For this year, our benefits options were all missing their Statements of Benefits and Coverage ("Coming soon" placeholders or somesuch) at the time open enrollment was set to end. We had to call and have them push it back multiple times. At benefits enrollment time, they generate a bunch of inapplicable forms they want employees to sign - this bugginess has been there at least two years and their answer is basically, "Yeah, that's our system. Don't worry, we won't submit inapplicable forms to the carrier, but you still need to sign them to complete enrollment."

- Poor responsiveness for e-mail help requests, and they don't do much to help you if there are problems communicating with the insurance providers for whom Gusto are the brokers.

- Tax filing issues for one of our out-of-state employees.

- Non-customizable e-mail communications. You can't stop them from blasting notifications to your employees about whatever Gusto thinks appropriate. Even if the employee wants it to stop. Also, I'm not a millennial and find their overly casual, cutesy e-mail tone with emojis and all to be quite cloying.

- Limited integrations with other 401(k) providers. Guideline is OK for a completely bare-bones, limited flexibility offering. If you want more flexibility as an employer, most other major providers are not well-integrated with Gusto.

- Their time-tracking is heavily oriented toward low-skill labor, with clocking in, clocking out, etc. It's really ill-suited for high-skilled consulting types. We have to use an outside timekeeping system.

When I have been able to get them on the phone, I am usually able to get things fixed, done, or worked-around. Pretty disappointing, but it seems like many of the companies in this space are. I can't imagine using Gusto at 15+ people. We are basically kicking the can of getting off them, but know they are not a good long-term fit.

dhruvkar2• 5 years ago

Mann, I see my future.

So you're basically saying, I should be vetting alternatives already.

> Non-customizable e-mail communications

This one bugs the hell out of me as well.

We have never used a platform like this, so didn't know what to expect. I was looking forward to providing a portal to all my employees with everything they need. :(

Ask HN: Anyone used Gusto? Product and support seem buggy/disorganized

Related Stories