Essex Personnel Agency, Inc.

Review: On July *, 2015 I contacted Essex Temporary Services, in what we believe, is an unethical practice. The fixed statutory rates that was based on documentation provided by Essex miss represents the facts. Through our internal investigation we were able to come up with fixed NJ State Unemployment rate of 3.9%, Federal Unemployment Insurance and Disability Insurance (with our credit) of 0.6% and Worker's Compensation for administrative personnel of .25% and the only correct rate they have is for FICA at 7.65% (Totaling 11.86%). They are charging our company 8.14% over the actual rates (20%). After re-calculating the numbers these are the numbers that I come out to.We are not arguing the service charge of $.25 to cover their costs. How can they over charge statutory rates if they are fixed? This clearly seems to be a deceptive business practice.Desired Settlement: We would like a credit adjustment retoactive from our first payment.

Business

Response:

ESSEX PERSONNEL AGENCY INC HAS PROVIDED STAFFING SERVICES SINCE APRIL 2015 TO BRISAR. DURING THIS TIME ESSEX HAS PAID EMPLOYEES TO PROVIDED SERVICES AT BRISARS LOCATION WITHOUT ANY COMPLAINT BY THE CLIENT. ESSEX HAS ISSUED A TOTAL OF 25 INVOICES TO BRISAR OF WHICH 15 HAVE BEEN PAID IN FULL. IN JULY BRISAR RAISED AN OBJECTION TO THE BILLING RATE, WHICH THEY PAID AT LEAST 15 TIMES PREVIOUSLY, AND REFUSED TO PAY ANY PART UNLESS THE RATE WAS LOWERED. AT NO TIME DID THEY PAY A REDUCED AMOUNT AND WITHHOLD THE DISPUTED AMOUNT. AT THIS BRISAR HAS REFUSED TO PAY $9476 IN INVOICES WHICH ARE FOR SERVICES ALREADY PROVIDED WITHOUT ANY COMPLAINT FROM BRISAR. OUR PRICING STRUCTURE WAS MADE CLEAR BEFORE THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE ASSIGNMENT AND BRISAR HAS DISPLAYED ACCEPTANCE OF THAT PRICING STRUCTURE BY PAYING 15 OF THE 25 INVOICES IN FULL. THIS REFUSAL TO PAY IS SEEN AS A CREDIT ISSUE AND IS SIMPLY AN ATTEMPT BY THIS COMPANY TO ACCEPT OUR SERVICES WITHOUT ANY INTENT TO PAY. ADDITIONALLY IT IS OUR BELIEF THAT THE COMPANY HAS CONVERTED OUR EMPLOYEE TO THEIR OWN FULL TIME EMPLOYEE WHICH VIOLATES OUR CONTRACT WITH THEM. AT THIS TIME THIS MATTER HAS BEEN REFERRED TO OUR ATTORNEY AS A COLLECTIONS ISSUE.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:

August **, 2015 The raised objection rate has to do with their unreasonable and inflated Federal and State Statutory rates which are fixed rates by these institutions. I have the 2015 tax rates which I will be sending along. We also object to James O’C[redacted]’s explanation of “one size fits all” when it comes to billing their clients. An accountant is not going to charge a client the same rate to do a simple 1040EZ tax return as he would a client who has a standard 1040 form but with multiple schedules. Our company and I don’t know what other company, who doesn’t do this, adjusts prices based on their customer’s needs. Once a timecard is sent to me electronically I have no choice but to agree to the terms and conditions otherwise the timecard can’t be submitted. The result will be the Temp to Perm person will not get paid and that is not our intention. Essex Personnel Agency has the ordacity to say we have accepted their services without any intent to pay. On July **, 2015 an email was sent to James O’C[redacted] advising a compromise of 7% less on all of their bills which would mean instead of paying their outrageous 20% in statutory rates we would be paying 13% which we felt was fair and reasonable for both parties. On July **, 2015 James sends me an email with a counter offer of a reduction of 3.5% which I told him I found extremely offensive. In addition he writes how their clients benefit by not paying the temps health insurance or 401K matching contributions. Once again neither of these options applies as we were looking, right from the start and they knew it, to fill a temp to perm position by the end of 90 days. Health Insurance would not be offered until after the 90 days and we have no 401K employer contribution match. On July **, 2015 James emailed me saying I was refusing to pay the bills and I am requesting guidance from our attorney. Again I never said the bills would not be paid and upon guidance that I did receive I have created a detailed spreadsheet of our proposal that is attached. The total fixed statutory rates come out to 11.86%. I have taken the difference of the fictional statutory rate that Essex was charging which is a difference of 8.14%. I had also questioned the fact, in the beginning, with Marilyn as to why the rate is per 35 hours when they will be working 40 hours. This was addressed on March **, 2015. This ends up increasing the rate per hour. What I was told was I just fill in their timecard for whatever hours they worked. I believe sincerely that they are not honest upfront with their clients and with their explanations. I will be more than happy to make the final payment of $7,210.42 immediately. [redacted]

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Sincerely,

Business

Response:

We have spent a considerable amount of time communication with this client in an attempt to reach an understanding over this issue. However, at this point we are unable to see any merit in a complaint from a client who has accepted over $9000 in services over a 10 week period without making any payment at all for those services. These services were provided by two of our employees who worked at their location for almost 400 hours and of course have been paid in full for their time.If this is simply a rate dispute, why is the amount not protested still not paid?The client stopped paying our invoices for services we had already provided and indicated they intended to engage the services of an attorney. In response to their threat to seek counsel we have handed the matter to our attorney. As we have been given no option but to begin litigation, we can no longer comment on the case.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:

They refuse to admit that they overcharged for the fixed statutory rates and for misleading us with regard to the 35 hour (which increased the hourly rate) when Marilyn was told they would be working 40 hours. I have downloaded all correspondence up-to-date and it will now be handled completely by our attorney.

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Sincerely,