Complaint Review: First Priority Pay Payroll

I have been a client of First Priority Pay for about two years. During the later half of 2009, I started getting lots of notices from the IRS. I reported them by email to First Priority Pay and thought the issue was done. However, notices kept coming so I had to call in and speak with somebody (took a while). Eventually, *some* of the notices were handled including penalties. At one point, they advised me to move over to ADP and didn't really specify why. It looked fishy, but I had just enough of them and decided to make the move to a big and well known company. In February 2010, I got a letter from the CEO, Jerry Carter, stating that there has been some embezzlement within the company and they are working to fix the situation. After doing lots of phone calls with various tax authorities, I concluded that about $11,000 were withdrawn from my account for tax payment but never made their way to the tax authorities. I tried calling, emailing but to no avail. Jerry Carter is unavailable. After speaking with the Hoboken police department, I was referred to his lawyer and the Hudson County Prosecutor Office. After all of that, i was finally able to get through to Jerry Carter and actually met with him in person. I was hoping to gain a better understanding of the situation and hopefully resolve it without lawyers. The meeting did not make me optimistic, especially after he said that he'll handle around $850 which is due to the state of California (is it actually more like $1,100). He said to me he'll handle this today or tomorrow TWICE (once actually stating that somebody in the office is working on it right away). The payment has not been made.

I advise you to:
* contact the Hudson Country Prosecutor Office - (201) 795-6400. Tell them that you have a compalint about "First Priority Pay" and ask to speak with someone. Send them your information so they'll have you in the system and in the formal police report.
* Contact FPP's lawyer: Carlin & Ward - (973) 377-3350
* Call the tax authorities (state, IRS, whatever) and verify what payments have been done and if there are any missing forms which weren't filed. Find out EXACTLY how much you're missing.
* Search around this board and internet - there are more than a few people with problems with this company and some of them have phone numbers.

I assume that for most people, hiring a lawyer and doing it solo is going to cost much more money than what is actually being owed, not to mention stress and lost time. My hope is that by getting enough people together, we can hire an attorney together and even if we don't get all our money back, get some of it.

My phone number is (((ROR redacted))) and email address is (((ROR redacted))). Feel free to call me up to 2am EST.