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H turned down/Background check

My H recently applied for a position and the comprehensive drug test came back fine.  He did the background check and it came back "unhireable."  Now, this is a person with almost sterling credit, no arrests/warrants or anything else on his record.  We cannot think what the problem is.  The hiring manager is calling the main HR to see what happened.  Has anyone had this problem before? 
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Re: H turned down/Background check

  • Haven't heard of that happening before, that sucks! I hope you investigate and find out what happened. I hope they reconsider hiring him!
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  • I believe it's within your rights to ask for a copy of the background check. I would definitely do some investigating. Pull your credit reports, check with the state to run a criminal check. If he really has nothing on his record, I would be very concerned you may have an identity theft situation on your hands.

    Also, definitely talk to the company. I would be totally honest. He should say that there is nothing in his background he believes would make him unreliable, and that he would like time to investigate the problem prior to a decision being made about the job. They should understand that there could potentially be incorrect information due to names/identity theft, etc.

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  • I would ask for a copy of the check and also follow up with the company. Make it clear that you can't think of anything that would cause this and you are very concerned about ID theft, etc. I hope they will cooperate because how nerve-wracking!
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  • What type of job is this?

    Our BG checks come back as unhireable, for instance, if a person has lived outside of the country in the last three years.  It may not be a criminal issue... Just a thought.

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  • It's a position with a dealership.  I am thinking either my H has a secret life or ID theft.  He's never lived outside the country and he's got a clean record, both financially and has never been arrested.  I think he got a speeding ticket like 7 years ago.  We are seriously upset because everything else came back perfectly.  We are waiting to hear from the hiring manager but we are worried we won't hear anything.
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  • Thanks for the advice about the ID theft.  We are seriously concerned now.
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  • imageMeg1979:
    It's a position with a dealership.  I am thinking either my H has a secret life or ID theft.  

    It could be his name.  My friend was denied a job because some felonies came up on "her" record.  Even with her SSN, they pulled up somebody with the same name's record.  

    She fought them on this, knowing her record was clean, and got it cleared up, then offered her the job.  FWIW her name is common-ish so if your H has a name that's not 100% unique it very well could be that. 

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  • imagewise_rita:

    imageMeg1979:
    It's a position with a dealership.  I am thinking either my H has a secret life or ID theft.  

    It could be his name.  My friend was denied a job because some felonies came up on "her" record.  Even with her SSN, they pulled up somebody with the same name's record.  

    She fought them on this, knowing her record was clean, and got it cleared up, then offered her the job.  FWIW her name is common-ish so if your H has a name that's not 100% unique it very well could be that. 

     

    His name isn't totally uncommon.  The person has left today (said he was going to email HR), but we are going to push for this.   The only thing we can think is ID theft at this point.  He just had his credit pulled for something else and everything was correct and fine.  Unless something happened between then and now.

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  • It could also be some kind of administrative mistake.

    DH had trouble with a background check a while back; they swapped his first and last names when they entered it into the computer and it send up all kinds of red flags because now his name didn't match the given SSN.  Fun times (and inspired lots of confidence in the background-checking company).

  • imageMeg1979:
    imagewise_rita:

    imageMeg1979:
    It's a position with a dealership.  I am thinking either my H has a secret life or ID theft.  

    It could be his name.  My friend was denied a job because some felonies came up on "her" record.  Even with her SSN, they pulled up somebody with the same name's record.  

    She fought them on this, knowing her record was clean, and got it cleared up, then offered her the job.  FWIW her name is common-ish so if your H has a name that's not 100% unique it very well could be that. 

     

    His name isn't totally uncommon.  The person has left today (said he was going to email HR), but we are going to push for this.   The only thing we can think is ID theft at this point.  He just had his credit pulled for something else and everything was correct and fine.  Unless something happened between then and now.

    I used to work for a company that did background checks.  I never encountered a time where a criminal record was tied to your social security number.  USUALLY (all states are different) criminal records are tied to names and dates of birth.  Credit reports are tied to your social.  They are two different searches as the credit reports come from databases that get the info from Equifax, TransUnion and Experian.  Criminal records come from either the state or possibly down to a county level.  Depending on the background search company and state, sometimes only the state searches by name.  Different states provide different levels of criminal activity too - some states provide all the way down to traffic violations while others only report conviced felonies.  Also, sometimes the states do not provide an accurate date of birth so if you search Joe Smith then you get 10,000 records because of the way the database was shown.  Additionally, the dates of birth on some states would only provide the month and year and not day of your birth which caused some problems.  Your situation seems to be that maybe someone in the state with a similar or exact name match to your husband has a felony or serious charge.  Also, sometimes criminals have a lot of alternate names which are also searched.  So if Mike Johnson got arrested 10 times and sometimes he went by Joe Smith, that could potentially show up in the data base too.

    Good luck and I hope it all gets straightened out. 

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  • I just read an article on something similar. The woman found out that the person they 'located' and did the check on was 20 something years younger. Do they have the correct information? Granted, you may have given the correct information but was the input of it done correctly.

    I would look into it. Someone recently told me about beenverified.com I don't know how it works or how legit it is, but you can check that out.

  • My brother had an issue like this once. Apparently there is someone with his same name and birthdate who is a multiple felon. He had to prove that he wasn't that guy. Fortunately, he was able to determine that the guy in question was in prison in another state and the company accepted that.
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  • This happened to my husband once for a relatively high profile job on a presidential campaign.

    They ran the background check and then called him into a room and said "you need to tell us about your DUI." He has never had a DUI, nor did he even own a car at that point in time. It was a case of someone with the same name and middle initial and same DOB in another state.

    They cleared it up and he continued in his job. 

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  • imageMeg1979:
    imagewise_rita:

    imageMeg1979:
    It's a position with a dealership.  I am thinking either my H has a secret life or ID theft.  

    It could be his name.  My friend was denied a job because some felonies came up on "her" record.  Even with her SSN, they pulled up somebody with the same name's record.  

    She fought them on this, knowing her record was clean, and got it cleared up, then offered her the job.  FWIW her name is common-ish so if your H has a name that's not 100% unique it very well could be that. 

     

    His name isn't totally uncommon.  The person has left today (said he was going to email HR), but we are going to push for this.   The only thing we can think is ID theft at this point.  He just had his credit pulled for something else and everything was correct and fine.  Unless something happened between then and now.

    There was a news article about this recently.  When background check companies created their databases, they compounded accounts of people with similar names inadvertently.  So some people do not get hired because it is assumed they are the "bad" person.  It is very possible this is the case.  Pursue it. 

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  • It sounds like it may be an internal problem with the company.  He worked for them before, about 10 years ago, and had a good rapport with everyone he worked for.  The possibility of that boss putting down something negative about him, even inadvertently, may be messing up the works.  So, because it's been 10 years or more they may reconsider him.  It's a shame because he did get on very well with everyone and had a very good record there.  
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  • Ok, according to his HR lady this happens all the time in this organization.  The hope is that the job will remain open until it is resolved.  Thank you all so much for the advice!
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  • Definitely check on it. A friend of mine had this happen to him and it turned out, they'd run a check on a guy with the same name that did have a record.
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  • Do you think it could be from reference checks?  Maybe a previous employer didn't give a favorable reference.
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  • Another possibility is that the previous dates of employment/school he provided didn't match up with what those employers provided. In my company, if there is a discrepancy of more than three months, or any discrepancy in salary, the person is unhireable. 
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  • Like the pp have mentioned, the criminal checks are done through names. My college roommate came out of a bar one evening, and I forget why, but an officer asked for his ID. He handed it over, the officer checked his car computer or something and arrested my friend. Evidently the officer had typed his name in, not his licence number, and the name matched the alias of another guy with a warrant. My friend insisted there was a mistake, but they brought him in anyway. When they asked my friend where he worked, he explained he was a grad student at Rice University, and they called him a liar and were very insulting. They were preparing to send my friend to another town several hours away (where the warrant was issued) when they realized my friend didn't have the physical features or tattoo of this guy. Finally they ran some numbers and realized they made a mistake.

    I could easily see a background check company getting names crossed, especially when the name isn't terribly uncommon.

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  • imageMeg1979:
    It sounds like it may be an internal problem with the company.  He worked for them before, about 10 years ago, and had a good rapport with everyone he worked for.  The possibility of that boss putting down something negative about him, even inadvertently, may be messing up the works.  So, because it's been 10 years or more they may reconsider him.  It's a shame because he did get on very well with everyone and had a very good record there.  

    I may have had a little to drink so this may come out as not so much of a coherent thought.   I'd see if I could get some more details from HR since typically I would ask for info if the information didn't match up.  It may be the dates are off based on what he said which can happen if there was a transfer or promotion or what not.  If so, ask if he can provide pay stubs, tax info, offers letter or the like to prove he was there.  If it was just a negative reference (which I have a really hard time believing after 10 years) is there someone else from the  company he could use as a reference?  Does he have performance reviews that he could supply to offset their reference (I know I wouldn't have them from 10 years ago but some people save everything.) If you can provide any information that may help offset the negative review he may have a chance still.

  • imageMeg1979:
    It sounds like it may be an internal problem with the company.  He worked for them before, about 10 years ago, and had a good rapport with everyone he worked for.  The possibility of that boss putting down something negative about him, even inadvertently, may be messing up the works.  So, because it's been 10 years or more they may reconsider him.  It's a shame because he did get on very well with everyone and had a very good record there.  

    I may have had a little to drink so this may come out as not so much of a coherent thought.   I'd see if I could get some more details from HR since typically I would ask for info if the information didn't match up.  It may be the dates are off based on what he said which can happen if there was a transfer or promotion or what not.  If so, ask if he can provide pay stubs, tax info, offers letter or the like to prove he was there.  If it was just a negative reference (which I have a really hard time believing after 10 years) is there someone else from the  company he could use as a reference?  Does he have performance reviews that he could supply to offset their reference (I know I wouldn't have them from 10 years ago but some people save everything.) If you can provide any information that may help offset the negative review he may have a chance still.

     

    Also, if they used a 3rd party to handle the check they MUST provide him with a copy of the results under the FCRA if they use the results in an employment decision.   

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