I dealt with Lucy, who seemed ok in the beginning to set my contract up then disappeared. My agency chased her, then my agency asked me if I heard from her as they never got an answer. I emailed her asking what was going on, she continued to ignore both the agency and me. Two days later I copied in his boss, Robert, in the emails, suddenly she emailed saying she didn't know I hadn't received the contract and she would sort it ASAP. Obviously she didn't do anything again. I emailed again, she got back to me saying that there was a cyber attack and their systems were switched off (apparently for the past two weeks) and asked if I was aware. Guess what, I wasn't!! Because you were dishonest about it when I asked if there were any issues when I first chased you! Extremely unprofessional bunch, I asked my agency to send the contract to another umbrella. I wouldn't recommend Brookson to anyone.

So here we are again, Giant hanging on to my money, the payment was made last week along with an advice note, yet it takes 5 days and counting to pay out. Another thing to be aware of is that they cannot invoice in any currency than GBP. Even if their invoices have an exchange rate box! Very unhappy.......

Used the Parasol Chat today, Parasol will not give a date when payment will be made. Contacted my Agency to ensure no further payments are made to Parasol until Parasol resolve their problems. Catastrophic reputational damage.

I will be leaving Parasol the second I can. No payments for a week, appalling - literally diabolical, terrible, hideously awful - customer service. I'm afraid they are also terrible liars. There is absolutely nothing good about this company. They have literally ONE JOB to do which is pay the people who are forced into signing up with companies like them since IR35. Their systems were so feeble they clearly collapsed in the face of problems : of course they should have had back up systems available since their systems are their only asset. They should be avoided at absolutely ALL COSTS

Waiting on 3 payments having finally been able to submit timesheets. Never had an issue but the poor response and resolution to this Cyber attack (which should have been mitigated) has left me with no option but to leave. Hold on, you can’t leave until the end of your current assignment..! I’m the process of moving to Paystream and thankfully my current assignment is nearly done. You had 1 job to do and you failed, 1 week of pain I would have understood and accepted; but this sorry state of affairs and poor communication from you to your CUSTOMERS was a step too far.

Where is our money?!!! Apparently the systems are back up and running yet we have still not been paid. Live chat are hopeless individuals that ask for your name about 4 times, confirm you’ll be added on some priority list since mortgage payments and bills need to be paid yet still waiting for payments to be made!! I will be leaving parasol immediately, they have failed again and again to reach the minimum standards of customer service, quality and a decent payroll representative..we pay fees blindly to not get paid on time. It’s outrageous!

The buck stops at the CEO. Numerous contractors haven't been paid due to "internal system issues" I.e. website got hacked. Doug Crawford keeps sending emails telling people everything is sorted but portal is still not working and payments aren't being made. Do us all a favour Doug and resign. You are not fit to be a CEO of a parking lot.

First and foremost Parasol are a payroll processor - despite the contract of "employment" which should really be a services contract. Parasol, like the Agency who approached you about a contract, are in business for money and you, the contractor, bring in that money. Payroll slip - never seen a breakdown like it, until I started using an umbrella. Why do we need a minimum wage line item. The MyParasol functionality is limited, it doesn't show the assignment details in full i.e if you want to give notice on an assignment you have to email them, Parasol respond by saying they will check with the agency - pointless I can speak to the Agency. Main contact with Parasol is arms length through email - they put every barrier possible to stop you being able to call someone. Regulation in the Umbrella payroll sector is well overdue and the ills have been exacerbated by Off Payroll implementations. The current cyber hacks on brands of the Optionis parent company, shine a light on poor practices within the Umbrella payroll sector, the accreditation is pointless as it is awarded by a body (FCSA) that Parasol is one of three founders of, the focus is on profit only (check involvement of Private Equity firms in sector and lack of IT security), communication is poor (during the cyber attack Parasol just closed down comments on social media) and contractors are just bodies/resources that generate income with limited employment rights (common across the Umbrella sector). Parasol heavily pushed by the Agency.

I handed in my notice with OG and specifically stated the last timesheet date. They decided to issue my P45 a week before. I then had to ask them to redo the P45 to include the last timesheet which they couldn't do and then had to generate me as a new employee. I still to this day don't know if they included that in my P60, as essentially I was two employees.

Where's my money? 2 weeks and counting, no food on the table tonight because of these conmen. Not even sure if I'm ever getting paid at this rate

Dear Manager, You have managed my payslips between 13 Oct 20 till January 21. Pls let me have a link to my P60. Best regards, William Amaee.

JSA have been my umbrella for 11 months, every month has been paid on time, payslips are emailed and easy to understand, the support is great and always get a response to enquiries within 24 hours. No complaints from me

I haven't been paid for nearly two months. They never did do anything about chasing agency / client late payments, but now it's worse. Contractors can't live on fresh air. Their 'restored' website just goes round in circles.

I've been using Parasol for years, and in fairness this is the first major crisis I've seen. However, their service has declined steadily in recent years. They spend more time e-mailing you to send in good TrustPilot ratings than they do helping you chase your agency / client for late payments, and there is no continuity of care - no named individual to deal with. Like everybody else I'm unable to enter timesheets and have not been paid for over a month. Once sorted, I'm off, and will not use them again.

Hacked and down. Blocked everybody from accessing the MyParasol portal which allows us to submit timesheets. Shameful ! Where is my salary? I have bills to pay, it has been two weeks since the attack, c'mon what's wrong with you people?

This stinks of data breach..over a week and still no service..strange they have turned comments of on fb and linkedin....they need to tell the truth

11 DAYS AND STILL NOT WORKING?

System was hacked over a week. Can’t submit any timesheets or check payslips. Landline is off and chatroom staff doesn't know when everything will be back to normal and when our salary will be process. I received last week half of my salary, but my landlord doesn't accept that I pay half of my rent . . . . This is unacceptable ! ! ! ! This company should go down as well as the umbrella companies out there.

Messing up all the time, avoid them

A week and a half without being able to sign in and to submit timesheets. Portal is down, my agency doesn't pay them anything and they did a random payment to me (half of what I own by the way). Disorganised and bad. They never listen to their client needs, they don't pay on time and I have to chase them every week to get my money, poor costumer service as well. Bad as bad as it can be. Companies like this shouldn't even exist!!

Could not explain the amount paid, cannot pay expenses or pension contributions until further notice. Told my tax position won’t be impacted…. Simple job to do but…….

Pay on time, good, helpful team, any issues are resolved quickly

When I joined Parasol last year in order to avoid the risk of non-compliance with the "off-payroll" IR35 rules, I had no idea just how one-sided the relationship would be. As it turns out, my Contract of Employment is full of the obligations I have to Parasol, and says practically nothing about their responsibilities to me as an employee. The contract even forbids me from resigning until my assignment end date, meaning the only way I can get out of this mess is to ask my end client to terminate. I've been contracting for over 20 years and have never been in this position before. It just goes to show how broken the contractor industry has become after the Government's disastrous IR35 interventions in the private (and public) sectors. Just to be clear - I am now going to lose my job because Parasol didn't have adequate security on their IT systems, and lose a significant sum of money in the process. Please bear this in mind if you are considering signing up with them in the future.

Terrible. Their system has been hacked and down for over 10 days. There is no chance to sign in and submit timesheets or even resign. Unacceptable. I have bills to pay and I haven't seen any money for two weeks. They don't invoice my agency at all and they are careless. Just waiting for their portal to be back up and running and to resign!!

Was due to be paid and its been a week and still waiting. They are really poor at communicating the problem. You cant speak to anyone over the phone and can only have a conversation on live chat where they dont have access to your information so can just fob you off with more excuses.