[Phone rings]
Ann: “Cutting Edge, this is Ann.”
Customer: “You think you’re so smart.”
Ann: [Thinks about all stuff she doesn’t know. Feels dizzy and sits down]. “What do you mean? Like I can drive a stick shift?.”
Customer: “Do you ever get anything wrong?”
Ann: [Takes glasses off and rubs her eyes]. “Do you mean do we ever make mistakes in our background checks?”
Customer: “Yeah! Like that!”
Once in a great while (and I truly mean that) I will have an applicant call and explain that we were wrong—we had the wrong guy.
It can happen, everyone is human.
Two weeks ago I got a call from an applicant that was turned down for a job. We reported his domestic abuse case, a DUI case, and petty theft convictions. He was really nice on the phone, which made me suspicious. I know—I tell my clients all the time, don’t listen to your gut but he was really lacking a certain indignation I think I would have if someone goofed up and reported three fairly serious misdemeanors in my name.
He was super helpful, too, emailing me copies the cases and showing me where they were dismissed. Unfortunately, the dismissals were for three cases that were different from the ones we reported—which were the convictions. When I pointed that out, he wasn’t quite so nice, informed me it would take $3,000 to get those cases expunged and that’s really hard to do in New Mexico.
*Sigh*
A year ago (I told you this doesn’t happen often) an applicant told my client the case we reported wasn’t him. He had a fairly common name, and it’s possible there were two people with that name born on the same date. So I called the court. They were very nice and confirmed his street address as found in the records. You can’t tell me there are two of him living at that same address. O_o
Quality Assurance.
We have a really serious, soup-to-nuts quality assurance program. Every report gets two pairs of eyes, and most criminal searches get a second review, just to be sure. Once in a while an employer will get a second phone call to confirm information.
I have an amazing staff, and we think background checking is the best job ever. And we all sleep well at night, knowing we’ve done our best for our clients, the applicants and each other.
Do you want to sleep as well as we do, knowing your background checks are top-notch? Give us a call at (714) 587-9166 or drop an email to Info@CEBackgroundChecks. You know we’d love to hear from you.
