I was contacted by an agent (large company beginning with C - see Private Eye) for an "extremely urgent requirement" within the nuclear industry. By "extremely urgent" they said starting within a week.
Following a telephone interview I was offered the gig.
I was then required by the C-word agent to send originals of personal ID documents for their background checks as part of the nuclear security vetting process.
Naturally I was reluctant to do this (especially since a different branch of the C-Word agency already had this information) but in fairness, these were returned next day by registered post.
The next stage was that the C-word agency requested my Basic Disclosure Certificate so that they could send it to the client's security team, with a warning that the client's vetting process could take up to 4 weeks. This wasn't explained to me when I was offered the "extremely urgent role" and so after some consideration (and the offer of a proper urgent role - "cold call" from agent to starting work took just under 2 weeks) I decided to bin the C-word gig.
Having heard nothing about my certificate I chased it up.
C-word agency won't give me the contact details for the clients security team but tell me that the client say they sent out my certificate by 1st class post at the beginning of March.
I said that I haven't received it yet, C-word agency say that the client said they have proof of postage.
I asked what proof they had and the C-word agency replied with "The only evidence that they have is the book in which the man that takes the post out. When he is taking any mail he will write the name of who the letter is addressed to and the date."
So it seems my certificate is lost and I'm £25 out of pocket.
Not sure what I can do about this - I suspect very little except warn others to insist that agencies take proper care of any original documents that you send to them.
Following a telephone interview I was offered the gig.
I was then required by the C-word agent to send originals of personal ID documents for their background checks as part of the nuclear security vetting process.
Naturally I was reluctant to do this (especially since a different branch of the C-Word agency already had this information) but in fairness, these were returned next day by registered post.
The next stage was that the C-word agency requested my Basic Disclosure Certificate so that they could send it to the client's security team, with a warning that the client's vetting process could take up to 4 weeks. This wasn't explained to me when I was offered the "extremely urgent role" and so after some consideration (and the offer of a proper urgent role - "cold call" from agent to starting work took just under 2 weeks) I decided to bin the C-word gig.
Having heard nothing about my certificate I chased it up.
C-word agency won't give me the contact details for the clients security team but tell me that the client say they sent out my certificate by 1st class post at the beginning of March.
I said that I haven't received it yet, C-word agency say that the client said they have proof of postage.
I asked what proof they had and the C-word agency replied with "The only evidence that they have is the book in which the man that takes the post out. When he is taking any mail he will write the name of who the letter is addressed to and the date."
So it seems my certificate is lost and I'm £25 out of pocket.
Not sure what I can do about this - I suspect very little except warn others to insist that agencies take proper care of any original documents that you send to them.
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