Whats happening at Contractor Umbrella?

[davetza]

They seem to have massively messed up their move to a new system over the weekend. I received an update email saying some people did not get paid on Friday due to issues with the move but they would be in over the weekend to sort the issue out but no updates since then. I cannot access the new portal and their phones are not being answered. No message or anything it just rings out There are no status updates on their webpage or twitter feed either. Anyone know what going on.

[McMullet]

I was wondering this too... I'd heard good things about them from lurking on here and tried to call them but was surprised to get no answer.

[Hobosapien]

Received an email from them yesterday evening saying they were still having problems with their new system.

They say they will ensure all contractors have access to a timesheet system by midday today and that any timesheets emailed to them will be on the system at that point.

No mention of outstanding payments.

After all the good rep built up on here (and probably elsewhere) they'll learn that it's not the technical problem that's the issue it's how you deal with it that really matters. Good communication with those affected is the most important aspect of that recovery process.

Hope they get it sorted soon and that they didn't rely on a dodgy supplier that over promised and under delivered.

If they relied on their own 'employees' (i.e. contractors), own up, who's 'little bobby tables'...?

[lucyclarityumbrella]

Dear All

What can I say... well I am, as most of you know me by now, not going to shy away from this..

We had been promised a complete package by a supplier, had tested and ran payroll in conjunction with existing software ensuring we could still offer the pension side of things and were due for a rollout on the 6th April in line with the new financial year.

A "technical issue" was raised at 4pm on Friday by their development team leaving us no time to rectify the payroll issue, we tried to keep the group messages to a minimum to avoid moans of too many messages, but had contact with individual contractors affected by payments that day wherever possible. To ensure that a weekend did not go by the team were in on Saturday and Sunday and all payments to contractors due for payment on the Friday were made by Sunday at the latest.

We are making a decision by midday today as to the next steps, and shortly after this we will issue a message to give contractors access to raise their timesheets. If anyone does need one entering we are doing this manually in the office so please do email us.

In summary... should have found some reliable contractors to do this rather than permies it seems!

Apologies to every affected and rest assured we will get this sorted very soon. As for the phones I will be speaking with staff this morning...

[lucyclarityumbrella]

I was wondering this too... I'd heard good things about them from lurking on here and tried to call them but was surprised to get no answer.

Sorry McMullet if you message me I will call you back personally.

[lucyclarityumbrella]

They seem to have massively messed up their move to a new system over the weekend.

Hold our hands up, so apologies! We are looking for a resolution at around midday today and will update our contractors.

[NotAllThere]

...
In summary... should have found some reliable contractors to do this rather than permies it seems!

Well, make sure you don't make that mistake again!

[lucyclarityumbrella]

Well, make sure you don't make that mistake again!

Consider myself

[lucyclarityumbrella]

UPDATE: our contractors are now all able to access the original timesheet system. The new system has been thrown back to the programmers and we are awaiting further feedback.

[washed up contractor]

Another organisation learning the hard way you cannot skimp on testing and if used 'Developers in Test' that that is complete and utter bollocks. Developers never find all the big defects.