Crystal Umbrella, www.crystalumbrella.com

A company employee with no concept of respect nor basic professional customer service.

I sought basic information as an individual new to creating their own company only to be met with what can only be described as written abuse.

There was absolutely no understanding of respect, ethics, treating people fairly or simple customer service.

The Senior Management however where efficient to attempt to resolve the issue.

I would not recommend this company.

I have been with Crystal for over 5 years and they have always provided me with a great service. They answer my questions and don't try to fob me off like others. I have used other umbrella companies in the past but they were terrible when it came to service and my pay was delayed or had errors

My account manager was brilliant and I can't recommend her too highly. Some of her colleagues not so much. There were times when I didn't feel like a client, let alone a valued one. The whole process felt unnecessarily bureaucratic and pedantic.

Appalling company! Check out company house! They do not comply with regulations, HMRC has been investigating their previous companies, all they keep doing is changing their name. They have a great sales team, who would be just as good at selling PPI services. I have been with them for a number of years so this review has been created due to my current experiences. Obviously they will provide you with a great service during your time with them, but this is not a difficult thing to do, what you need to consider is what happens when HMRC contacts you and will they be there to support you? The answer is categorically NO!

AVOID AT ALL COST.....

Right from the outset, throughout the duration of my contract, Crystal made me feel at ease, they took care to explain everything fully before I committed to using them, and my account manager was always about when I needed to speak with them. All in all it was a pleasure to have my contract handled by these guys!

CRYSTAL UMBRELLA - BEWARE!!! Looking for an umbrella company? I would suggest you do NOT use this one!

Crystal Umbrella (also trading as Aqua Bubble)

Payments were significantly delayed

They cost me thousands - literally - in overpaid tax on expenses

And when they sent my eP60 in order that I could try and claim back the overpaid tax they got that wrong too!

Whenever you call you NEVER get a straight answer - someone always has to "investigate" first and then it takes weeks for them to get back to you, if at all!

Nobody seems to know what they're doing

Spread the message: This Crystal does not shine - AVOID!!

They seemed pretty helpful at first, and setting up an account was a breeze. But after 2 months of my first contract I'm still awaiting payment and constantly having to chase them up.( I'm not sure what the personal account manager does?)

Secondly, I tried to set up a new contract a few weeks back, but my employer got so annoyed with the amount of admin involved, the contract got cancelled. Thanks!

pretty easy to deal with

They seemed nice people, had (relatively) easy to use templates for handling invoices and expenses and paid regularly (if not always same day).

However,

I have had repeated issues with HMRC based on Crystal Umbrella failing to send documents to them: this included on "surprise tax bill" of over £2,000.

Every time they say they will send a document to HMRC make sure you keep a copy for yourself, because no such letter will ever reach HMRC unless you go out and send it there yourself.

This included my P45 and several years later I am still trying to convince HMRC not to tax me based on my "continued employment" to these people.

The reason to use an umbrella company is to make things easier... these people do not make things easier, they make it harder.

Frankly: avoid.

Crystal Umbrella promise much. However, when you sign on, they dont explain all the deductions they make and this omission has cost me in the region of £5K from them taking employers national insurance on a monthly basis.

The upshot is that there is an 'internal investigation' which I am still to hear the update from and I very much doubt they are going to do anything to help me or reimburse me.

An underhand company with no customer service!