Mistaken Identity Got husband fired!!!

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Man, does this one hit home. :grrr:

husband got instantly canned from the temp job when the day before they were discussing buying out his contract from the temp co. No reason, just don't come back to work. Since it was during the storm, I made husband stay on temp co's tail for a reason in case they'd been telling him not to go to work because of weather instead of firing him. He's been on their butts for almost a week.

We got our answer. The co who wanted to hire him and did the background check sent the reason in the mail. They used one of these background check companies. They got a hit on husband's name in Indiana for the sexual offenders list.

Now when husband sees this he of course blows a gasket. He's never been in jail a day in his life. And certainly not in Indiana.

So I calm him down a bit. I make him give me the background checkers co name. I do a search on it. Oddly enough you have to call them to enlist their service.

Now, I've been doing people searches and such for yrs. It started when stepgfg took off with the grandbabies. I used to spend up to 17 hrs a day doing this sort of thing. Looking them up any way I could think of. (I was in a very bad place in my head then)

husband is about to stroke. I tell him to chill. I'm not done. All sex offender info is free to anyone for anywhere. So I look it up for Indiana and start searching for his name. At first no hit. I look for the long version of his name. (husband has one of those names that is almost always the shortened version of the original, but he doesn't have the original version) I get nothing. So I just type in the last name. Bingo. I get a list of people with our last name and on it is the longer version of husband's name. I click on it. The guys info is incomplete. The height happens to match. (although it wasn't under original search info) But the guy is only 50. husband is 58. The resgistar's info was incomplete cuz this guy doesn't have to register anymore. Also the reason no photo was available. :nonono: :nonono:

So I printed the d@mn info out.

Now husband says that in order for mistakes to be corrected it has to be done via the background checker co. (yeah, right like they'll admit they got it wrong) I told husband to take it/mail it to the co that wanted to hire him, after calling them. And to take his birth certificate to show them his legal name is ---- , not -------- insert last name. But I did tell him he need to call this background checker co in the morning.

We haven't quite figured out why the co that was going to hire him sent us the results of their background check. And they told husband to call them when he got the info on the background check. They DID NOT tell his boss at the temp co why they canned him.

Now I do this stuff all of the time. You can type in any name, age, DOB and get like up to 50 names based on what your doing. They can be from all over the country. And even the really good background checker co's come up with tons of useless info. (I've used them too) Actually I was doing this last night, refining my search on stepgfg.

I understand co's wanting to check out the people who are going to work for them. But these same co's have to realize that these background checkers aren't all that accurate. The really good ones tell you that upfront and don't make you pay when they make a mistake. But it's scarey stuff when you can lose a job due to inaccurate info or mistaken identity. :nonono:

So in the morning husband has to call the HR dept of the co who wanted to hire him. He has to try to convince them the info was wrong, get them to let him show them proof, and keep fingers crossed they give him his job back.

In short, we probably need a miracle.
 

dreamer

New Member
YIKES that stinks! I hope he can get it straightened out!
My husband has a VERY common first name and last name. VERY common. when he was in his 20s in Marines, they came and picked him up on skiping bond for murder charges. Yeesh, he was in Nam at the time of the murder and they had arrested someone, who had posted bond.- and husband was in Nam all that time, too. Thankfully the fingerprints were all on file, the person originally arrested and my dhs and records showed he was in Nam at the times etc.........so they did not keep him long..but it was a mess with his CO while it was being untangled.
Good luck to you! Good thing you knew how to look it all up etc!!!!!!! If husband ever complains now about you being online you can remind him how thats how you were able to figure some of this out!

I am so sory you all have this mess going on.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Lisa...

Amazing how often this happens. Dont know if you remember our fiasco with the traffic lawyer and my husband in SC but he managed to mess it up and say that my husband had a suspended license in Alabama. Well...problem is my husband has never been to alabama, never lived in alabama, doesnt know anyone in alabama! I called alabama up and yes...a man named XXX did have a suspended license but the middle name was different, the date of birth was different, the social security number was different and even the race was different! Obviously they werent the same person. Alabama was astounded someone could get this so wrong.

As far as being given the background check info, when I was turned down for a job based on a background check I was given the information. I guess it was so I could dispute it if I wanted to.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
dreamer - OMG for your husband! Now you'd think a police dept would check into indentity a bit more deeply. sheesh

Janet - I do recall that. Scarey, huh? Really bad part is that it is up to YOU to PROVE the info is wrong. Same with husband. There were no matches with his real info such as full name, DOB, ss#. I only found the one they found by typing in the LAST name. This was because it wasn't truely a match. :faint: But if I wasn't already used to doing it, and to the type of results you get I wouldn't know that.

I paid one of the highly reputable one's to find stepgfg for me. They gave me a 92 yr old woman with the same name in St. Louis and tried to tell me it was accurate. Til I reminded them she was born in 1980. I stopped paying for the services after that.

Makes me wonder if there were any other jobs he didn't get because they came back with inaccurate background info.
 

Suz

(the future) MRS. GERE
Oh, I believe it, Lisa. My married name is so common that I have to always give my birthdate. Fortunately my namesakes don't share my same birthday.

I sure hope you can get this straightened out!

Hugs,
Suz
 

Lothlorien

Active Member
Wow, that is scarey that the background checker didn't really compare the notes. That is really poor work. I would definitely complain and I would expect an apology in writing.

I sure hope that your husband didn't lose out on the job. If they hired someone else, I would think you might have a case for at least loss of wages, not to mention a slew of other things. If husband can't get his job back, I think I might seek out a lawyer. I'm really not big on suing, but I think I would, in this instance.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
What is really pitiful is that names can be fairly generic. I mean if you have a fairly common last name like Gibson (which is not my last name...lol) and a first name like Mary Jane, can you imagine how many folks out there have the same exact name? Heck someone may actually be born on the same day as you!

For a background check, they really should do it with finger prints and ID and be much more careful.
 

DazedandConfused

Well-Known Member
I'm appalled that the background checker didn't DOUBLE CHECK /TRIPLE CHECK their information. Especially, for an offense that is so serious. My first name is not a common name, but other people do have it. It's the spelling of it that is so uncommon (Or so I thought). then, I did a national search....

Lo and behold..there are some others out there...
and not far from my birthday either.

I would be on a mission to get this straighten out.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Thanks Mstang. I already got the info.

Okay, here's the situation as best as I understand it.

husband called the co that wanted to hire him this morning. Person at co said that they didn't believe the original report because the first names didn't match. They ordered another one. husband got copies of both, as did the co. (by the way they look exactly the same, and has less detail than what I got) Co still doesn't believe it because name doesn't match what is on husband's birth certificate. Co told husband to file a dispute and send it in and gave him the fax # so he could. Now another one can be ordered, supposedly checked and rechecked with vital statistics.

Reason....corporate won't use another company or accept proof from outside source. Has to be thru background checker co. This co also does their payroll, by the way. So unless background checker co is honest and admits it is wrong........ Who knows?

Even the co that wants to hire husband thinks this is unfair. (pretty bad huh?) But corporate refuses to consider using someone else's service til it is proven these guys made a mistake that caused an applicant not to be hired. (they're getting charged out the @ss for the background checks, but think they're getting a bargain)

So co is holding the job for husband. Co said they never had anyone dispute the background check before. Co will send husband all info they get from husband, if husband doesn't mind sending all info he gets from the background checkers to them. Co is actually trying to still get husband hired. Person in HR told husband the background checker co wants the co to pay out an additional 1500.00 fee to get the vital statistic info. (which would prove it isn't husband) Hr person said she's been waiting for husband to call. He was supposed to have gotten his paperwork the same time they did. And his paperwork said for him to call the co. But we didn't get ours for an extra week.

I guess now we have to hope that someone along the lines has some common sense along with the HR person. husband would have no reason to dispute something that they could "prove" to be true if it was. That the background checker co is honest enough to admit they were wrong. (I'm not holding my breath)

:grrr: :grrr:

Co is doing their best to help husband get this cleared up so they can get him hired. But what a freakin mess just because someone or their freaking program didn't click an extra button to get a bit more info than just a name. Oh, and this background checker used their own database. So what they probably did was what's known as a drunkard's walk type thing. Typed in the last name and waited to see if something popped up. Then when the first name was similar (longer version of husband's real name) they decided it was a "match".

When I was doing my own searches, I had the worst luck with these types of set ups. Their findings were the most inaccurate. :nonono: (at least the one's I delt with)

Guess we should be glad co is trying to help get this cleared up. But honestly, I think we can use lots of prayers, bead rattling, and body crossing.

We REALLY need husband to get this job. :frown:
 

DazedandConfused

Well-Known Member
That the background checker co is honest enough to admit they were wrong. (I'm not holding my breath)

That has lawsuit written all over it.

You have any lawyer friends that could write a letter explaining to the Background people they better recheck their information? Not thinking you should do it yet, but just in case.

My goodness..what a mess.

Turning myself into a pretzel that all is straightened out to your favor.
 

Ephchap

Active Member
Lisa,

What a mess! OMG. I hope that the searcher company fesses up to their error.

Sending good thoughts your way for husband!
Hugs,
Deb
 
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