Updated 7/27/26
While CSI Accounting & Payroll has provided comprehensive monthly accounting and payroll services for 60 years, the 500+ reviews you'll see online only date back to 2013. Of those hundreds of reviews, only 14 are bad (1-star or 2-star), and they have a lot in common.
In this article, we'll address these major points to consider when reading CSI's reviews:
- Why our bad reviews don't add up.
- What the bad reviews have in common.
- How there are even more hidden positive reviews to uncover.
Why CSI's Bad Reviews Don't Add Up
If CSI has 14 bad reviews, does that mean they’re from 14 unhappy clients? Nope. They don't quite add up. Here are the three reasons why.
1.) Duplicate Reviews
A couple of former clients have left us reviews on multiple platforms, and one amplified it by making multiple accounts. Thankfully, some have now been removed. This is also known as review spamming and often happens alongside a bad review. In fact, all of the bad reviews we'll mention in this article were posted on more than one site, inflating the total number of bad reviews to look higher than it really is.
2.) Reviews from Non-Clients
A former client had her spouse leave us a bad review, too, despite him never working at her company and never working with us. It's another form of review spamming. Review sites technically don't allow non-clients to leave reviews, but it can slip through the cracks. When this happens, you'll often notice that the reviewers have the same last name or initial, same location, and leave the reviews on the same date.
3.) Reviews That Are Not About Us
When we acquired our Maryland office from Howard, Howard, and Hodges, we saved it from a bad situation. In taking over that office's Yelp listing, we took over its negative review that mentions the prior firm by name. (The date posted was also a year before we acquired that office.)
When we acquired our Maryland office, we were saving it from a bad situation. In taking over that location's Yelp listing, we took over its negative review that specifically mentions the prior firm by name.
That's a great track record, but don't take it from us. Learn more about CSI's reputation by reading and watching real statements from real clients on our Testimonials and Reviews page.
If we take these out of the mix, we would have only 9 bad reviews in our 60 years of service. That makes for a great reputation... but don't take our word for it. Watch the testimonial videos and read the reviews of real clients on our Testimonials and Reviews page.
What the Bad Reviews Have In Common
CSI strives to have zero negative client experiences. After all, most of our clients joined us because they had poor customer service from other providers.
So, where did things go wrong? Most of these reviewers did not make it past onboarding.
We had one or two meetings while trying to get things up and running, but our work stalls out if we’re waiting for clients to send us their financial information. We're happy to help, but we can't access anyone's sensitive data without their initial assistance. Instead, these clients did not respond to our calls and emails, then wanted to get out of their service agreements.
That’s confusing and frustrating for us, too! We want the chance to show the benefits of monthly accounting and payroll services over time, and we always honor our portion of a service agreement unless we’re prevented from doing so.
Hidden 5-Star Reviews
Let’s put that handful of bad reviews to the side and focus on our 500+ positive reviews for a moment. We take that number as a sign that we’re doing something right most of the time!
Plus, for every positive review you see, there are also some that you don’t see. Did you know that some popular review sites initially only show you their “recommended” reviews and hide the rest? Their automated software decides which ones are shown, and the hidden ones aren't even factored into the overall rating.
On Yelp, CSI actually has just as many reviews that aren’t shown as ones that are, and all of our hidden reviews are 5-stars. So, if you’re reading reviews, I welcome you to check those out, too.
The Positives Outweigh the Negatives!
Now that you know why our bad reviews don't equal the number of unhappy clients, most people who left negative reviews never gave us the chance to serve them, and there are even more hidden positive reviews, are you ready to check out monthly accounting with CSI Accounting & Payroll?
To see if we can be a good fit for your business, click the button below for a free consultation:
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