Gusto review: Gusto payroll & benefits 1

Last year, I decided to switch my benefits from one broker to have Gusto manage my medical, dental and vision benefits. A major incentive for this was that I wanted to streamline the deductions through our payroll provider AND I wanted to be able to offer additional perks to our growing employee base (i.e. 401K, Commuter benefits, etc.).

The process of switching Broker of Record (BOR) is simple. We sign a document that has our insurance carrier information on it. Within a few days, a representative (named Shawna Wilkerson, no license number provided) who presented themselves as a benefits broker began asking me questions to verify our benefits as well as the deductions. Starting small, so we understand the process was my main goal because soon we will offer benefits to our entire team.

Here's the kicker -- My wife is my only full time employee and I (along with my children) are her dependents.Therefore, I'm intimately familiar with how I manage payments directly to our Carrier - Anthem BCBS. Now that the pandemic is over and our company is growing, we anticipate a great amount of growth and want to be competitive in the benefits packages we offer. We are offering Executive Level Team Members 90% coverage across the board. Other employees will get the same coverage except their dependents wont be included. Oh! I should add that I used to be a licensed life and health insurance broker offering benefits as well.

After explaining this, in detail, to Shawna (the benefits broker), we were assured that everything was set to go. Then, the first payroll with benefits went through and we immediately saw that something was wrong. The entire premium was paid out of my wife's payroll versus the 90/10 (ER/EE) split that I explained to Shawna. I called into Gusto and waited on hold for over 30 minutes. I called again and was advised that they're experiencing a great amount of calls and that someone would call me back. No one did. I emailed my concerns and my ticket #[protected] was added December 15th. Four days later, I was advised via email that Anthem monitored the contributions and that they couldn't make the change. This was never the case before and it was always explained to me that Gusto was able to manage the deductions and contribution amounts. I was forced to work around this issue by making the reimbursement to the employee for the incorrect deduction.

It wasn't until after I called and spoke with Donya (at Gusto) in January that I heard back from Jade (at Gusto) on the 17th. This is over a month later and continued incorrect deductions. No effort to expedite and/or rectify the issue. It was as if no one cared that this was resolved at all even though I continued to reach out for help.

Instead of offering to assist, the representatives escalated and already frustrated issue by attempting to reprimand me with a straw-man attack. I expressed concern that the representatives answering the phone and attempting to advise me about medical benefits told me they were out of the states. I requested that someone familiar with the medical benefits of America take a look at my account and I was well within my right to make such a request. Instead, Jade and Alison took the path of telling me about discriminatory practices. Their position was greatly offensive and added zero value to the solution that I needed. This is not what I signed up for.

I've been a fan of Gusto and have referred many of my business friends. However, it seems as if changes in business, after the pandemic, has greatly impacted the customer services.