Giantumbrella Reviews 25

My experience with Giant Umbrella Company has been extremely poor and far below what I would expect from a company responsible for handling payroll and expenses.
There has been a clear lack of practical information around how expenses should actually be submitted and processed. This is a basic part of using an umbrella company, yet it has not been explained in any clear or usable way. Instead of being given proper guidance, I was simply directed to their portal and expected to work it out myself.
In relation to mileage, there has been no meaningful support at all. I was not made aware that formal claim forms were required or how the process worked. I have since found out that claims can take up to two weeks to be processed, which is already a significant delay. In a role where I can be doing up to 800 miles a month, this means covering a large amount in fuel costs upfront and then waiting additional weeks to be reimbursed.
Because of the lack of clear guidance, I have ended up paying tax on my mileage. This could have been avoided entirely if the process had been properly explained. What is equally concerning is that there has been no support or clear information provided on how to correct this or recover those losses. Once the issue has happened, you are left to deal with it yourself.
I am also still chasing a sign on bonus that was offered when I joined. It has now been over a month. Every time I contact them, I am told it has been sorted and will be included in the next pay run. Each time that pay run comes and goes, nothing is paid, and I am given exactly the same response again. There is no ownership of the issue, no proper explanation, and no indication that anything is actually being done to resolve it. It feels like being repeatedly fobbed off with empty assurances.
The support structure makes things worse. With other umbrella companies, I have always had a single point of contact who understands my account and can resolve issues properly. With Giant, everything goes through a basic messaging system and you end up dealing with a different person each time. There is no continuity, no accountability, and no sense that anyone is actually responsible for resolving your issue. You are left repeating yourself and getting nowhere.
Looking at other reviews, it is clear this is not a one off experience. There are consistent reports of poor communication, delays, lack of clarity, and people having to chase repeatedly for payments or answers. The pattern is obvious.
Overall, the service has been poor from start to finish. There is a lack of clear information, a lack of accountability, and a failure to follow through on what has been promised. This has caused unnecessary stress, wasted time, and financial impact.
Based on my experience, I would strongly advise anyone considering an umbrella company to avoid Giant and look elsewhere.

Quite unhelpful - I haven’t changed umbrellas for years. I didn’t realise I needed to supply P45 and they blamed it was my own fault when payment was low. The new umbrella I have gone with have far exceeded my expectations, very thorough and easily contactable. It was the new umbrella who advised me about a P45. Little things like that make you realise Giant are not very efficient.

Quick, reliable, professional service, Jana Farah was friendly, informative

Benjamin Silk was most helpful in setting up my new account. Fast, efficient, effective set up. Highly recommend.

Impossible to contact. Nothing ever works - upgrade system and there is not way to use chat or email but no telephone option available. No way to enter timesheet and therefore no way to get paid.

DON'T USE!! They are terrible. Never honest with the money they receive for you. Never pay you on time and keeps blaming agency. Still waiting for my money from May 24, we are in Dec. I know for a fact they have received the money. If I hadn't discovered the missing payment, they would never have given it to me. Left them to Pay stream and amazing service. No issues with my pay. Useless staff, always lying and passing the buck, completely incompetent! With no integrity as a company.

Expenses are a complete shambles. Inept staff that would be put to shame by a kindergarten class. Absolutely useless.

Poor, never know when your going to get paid. Should've been paid today but they've apparently had issues so now tomorrow sometime. Would've been nice if they told me. It's not just this once either,it's regular contacting them to listen to the latest excuse.

AVOID!!!!!!

Claire was great, really helped explained the process really well. Appreciated the onboarding assitance

I've been with them 1 month now and I've found them very good. Easy onboarding, fast payments, fair fee. Great for salary sacrifice of pension.

All in all I'm pleased I went with them.

I recently joined Giant Umbrella, and I must say that my onboarding experience has been nothing short of exceptional. From the moment I expressed interest in becoming a part of the Giant Umbrella community to the completion of the onboarding process, everything has been smooth, efficient, and hassle-free.

One of the standout features of my onboarding was the speed with which the entire process was handled. The team at Giant Umbrella demonstrated a remarkable level of efficiency without compromising the quality of the onboarding experience. I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly I was able to transition from expressing interest to being an active member of the platform.

The onboarding process itself was well-structured and user-friendly. Giant Umbrella has clearly invested time and effort into creating a seamless experience for new members. The steps were clearly outlined, and any potential confusion was minimized through intuitive design and informative resources. The platform's interface is user-centric, making it easy for me to navigate and understand the various components of the onboarding process.

What stood out to me the most was the level of support provided throughout my onboarding journey. The Giant Umbrella team was readily available to answer any questions I had, providing timely and helpful responses. This not only helped me complete the onboarding process with confidence but also reinforced the sense of community that Giant Umbrella fosters.

While I await the results, I am optimistic based on the positive experiences I've had so far. The efficiency and professionalism displayed during onboarding have instilled a sense of trust in the platform. I look forward to the next steps in my journey with Giant Umbrella and anticipate that the results will reflect the same level of commitment to excellence that I've experienced during onboarding.
Overall, my initial experience with Giant Umbrella has been nothing short of impressive. The speed, efficiency, and support provided during the onboarding process have set a high standard for what I can expect from this platform. I am excited about the possibilities that lie ahead and would highly recommend Giant Umbrella to anyone seeking a smooth and rewarding onboarding experience.

Terrible customer service by a lady called Clare. Was interested on joining them but she was clearly very stand offish “well we did try to contact you in September but you failed to return our calls”
Well I didn’t return their calls as I joined another umbrella company as Giant’s take home pay was less.
She then said you are probably not on the right tax code. Wrong! I contacted HMRC and confirmed that I am on the right tax code. Awful awful service and it felt like she didn’t want to help and wanted a fight

Terrible. Forget to pay you when they should. When you ask them to pay you they double charge you. I would not use them again ever.

Dreadful experience: I was reading that a decent honest umbrella company charges around from £15 to £25per week...now Giant charges me £28 PER DAY! Increased from £22.00...still per day of which l was never informed: they simply cut my salary by £6 per day, which is £30 per week, without telling me...disgusting! l can't wait to dump them, for good.

Currently approaching the end of a short contract via Giant. They are very quick to answer queries when you send messages via the Portal. Special mention to Iqra Saeed who is very helpful and prompt to respond.

Payments + deductions accurate - no complaints. I was confused when issued a P45 with zero entries on earnings / tax paid to date - but when i queried it i got the correct advice that as a week 1 tax code person / multiple earnings source person then the P45 has to show that field as blank - apols for wasting your time on that query guys.

Absolutely diabolical umbrella company, utterly unfit for purpose. An umbrella company literally has to calculate your pay and allow you to enter timesheets. Giant fails miserably at both of these and more.

Timesheets should be the easiest thing in the world to enter. Giant’s interface is confusing and broken. You think you’ve entered time but the interface at first glance makes you think you haven’t. So you re-enter time and then realise you’ve already entered it. Then, when you enter time for a period you haven’t entered, for any dates where you then haven’t re-entered time (because you’ve already done it previously) it over-writes what was there before! Seriously, how can you design a simple timesheet application so badly?

When it comes to pay they hold my money for 7 working days from the agency before sending it to me. What on earth are they doing with it for 7 working days?

Giant Advantage. In all the emails this is sold as a company ‘benefit’. What is completely missed other than in the small print of the contract is that this costs £7.50. Per week. That’s far more than most subscription services. I mean, the cost of a service should be obvious, right?

Finally, even the chat transcript is broken. I have never received an emailed copy of my transcript.

As I said, being an umbrella should be easy. It’s money for old rope, let’s face it. But using Giant will cause you more pain than you need. Giant is a giant pain in the backside.

+++ UPDATE +++
Since this review Giant have abandoned their awful timesheet application so now you only need to complete your agency’s timesheets. Never understood the point of completing Giant’s.
Also, they have increased my umbrella fee by more than 100%. Absolutely outrageous, they let you know via a No-Reply email on the Friday afternoon and then justify it by saying they’re within the notice period of the T&Cs. Utterly hopeless umbrella company, do not join, save yourself pain, shysters like this should be shut down, the IR35-inflicted umbrella company industry needs regulating. In fact, they are completely unnecessary as all tax and NI (employer and employee) and App Levy can be deducted using a formula - a total surprise as to why HMRC don’t provide a free service.

Very poor experience with Giant. Margin was double what I was told in advance. Spent 3 months querying it and getting no response from them. Compared with other Umbrella I have used, the cost was much higher and the quality of the communication, online portal, etc was significantly worse

Worked for them for years but when I got cancer and needed their help, they were hopeless. They still owe me about £500 which they cut me off from claiming by closing access to my account. I was too ill at the time to pursue. Beware - this is not an honest company.

I had two separate good experiences working with GIANT on different contracts in 2020 and 2022. The process was complex to set up but the staff were patient and in one instance moved very quickly to enable me to capitalise on an opportunity offered to me at short notice. In the way their site is designed, there's an emphasis on security and correspondence-tracking that is a little dated but I found the staff to be really responsive both on the webchat, which led to a quick call and action I needed taking, then also via the email portal when there were small issues that arose. There were occasional issues with specific time-sheet data entry problems but everything worked out well enough when I got in touch. Generally these were both good experiences though I can see how the complexities of needing to work through an umbrella company can be frustrating to learn and come to terms with until you get used to them.