The Work Number review: I hate this service... Customers last 82

Nothing has changed in the last 2 months !...!
The system won't process requests from employees and they don't answer the phone.

Isn't capitalism great, all you need is machine to take money with a credit card and a corporate law department to defend against complaints.

We should have known it was just a money grab when we saw it was owned by Equifax !

I was already turned down for a loan from a local credit union who were unwilling to spend the time & the money to confirm my employment. The system even requires that the BANK give two credit references, with account numbers, to gain access...?

This is absurd. I am in the process of trying to purchase a condo, and need employment and income verification for a number of sources (two mortgage brokers, a real estate broker, and the condo board/s). Each of these people is expected to pay $69 PER MONTH for a subscription to "theworknumber" in order to obtain this information (which of course they only need from me this one time). They are all refusing to do so, and my HR won't help because there is an agreement with this 3rd party vendor that all requests need to go through them.. This is INCREDIBLY annoying! I think I have to 'pretend' to be a verifier rather than an employee, pay their stupid $69 monthly fee (how quickly I can cancel this I don't know yet) and make a bunch of copies of the info so that I don't irritate people I need to work with on this.

Does anyone know how much of the fees from "theworknumber" are given back to their participant companies (which number in the thousands and include many Fortune 500 co's) in kickbacks?

Maybe I am missing something, but this seems like daylight robbery to me -- complete ripoff for something HR departments used to do for free.

Forget trying to get hold of someone on the phone at this company either.

I am currently unemployed and I received a job offer pending my background check results. The Work Number stated they did not have any information on me and requested I fax them my social security card and drivers license. I have faxed it over two weeks ago and when I called they said they are processing it. I asked for the information myself and they claimed they couldn't give it over the phone. What a waste and a monopolistic scam. I hope they do get a class action lawsuit against them.

This website may have cost me a job. I worked for a major retailer MANY years ago and suffered a long stretch of unemployment mainly due to the economy here in Michigan. I finally had the opportunity to go in to interview for my dream job with my dream company, but they wanted to verify my employment with the retailer. No problem...or so I thought. I assumed I could just go into the store and come out with a simple document that outlined my years of service...no. I had to deal with this stupid service, and my interview was to be scheduled with the new company that week contingent upon the receipt of a document detailing my work history with my former employer. To make a long story short, I was unable to gain access to my own report, had to order it ALL VIA TELEPHONE, and was told it would take 15 days. Thanks a lot. I may not have another shot at gainful employment for awhile. WORST SERVICE EVER!

I have wasted the latter half of my morning on HOLD with this company just looking for a code to verify my salary. Absolutely ridiculous. Someone please start a competitive company and knock these guys off the list. I'm borderline enraged.

This company is a complete sham. I work in HR and refuse to even accept references filled out for companies that I know use theworknumber.com. I work for a non-profit agency and we are not going to pay $15+ to verify someone's employment. They claim to have free verifications for social agencies but it took forever to find out how to apply for this status and after wasting time filling out the application I never got a response. I wasted numerous hours trying to talk to a person on the phone and was told they would look into the application but again never heard back from them. Completely useless! Shame on any company that uses this "service".

The worknumber site is useless for employees. Why do they have links that say 'employment and income verification' if they aren't going to give you any such documentation? Speaking with a person whose only response was for me to get back on the site was absolutely infuriating. It's like I don't exist as an employee for University of X...I feel like such a undervalued employee.

If I have two applications, and one is from an employer who uses the work number, I will take the other rather than waste time CHARGING THE EMPLOYEE who turned in the application. Why would I want to pay Equifax for this garbage service, employment verfication is a service you provide for your employees so they can apply for cars, homes and rental houses; if employment verification is a HASSLE and CHARGE then they run the real risk of being assessed the Work number fee or being summarily denied for inability to pay. Boycott the work number.

This "service" is a rip off and makes obtaining an employment verification unnecessarily impossible. I am in the process of changing jobs and relocating to a new city. I've been struggling with this service for over a week now. I'm trying to get an apartment near my new job but my landlord has been unable to obtain proof that I will have a job upon arrival because my new employer uses the work number and does not provide the needed information through any other means. The Work Number puts you through an automated cobweb of prompts and redirects that can take hours to get you to a real person. Then they charge a fee for the information. And you cannot access your own information. Because my landlord is unwilling to pay the fee and because employees are "unauthorized" to obtain their own information, I am being faced with having to pay up to 6 months rent in advance in order to get into my new home. This is absolutely ridiculous. Reading other people's reports on this failure of a service I see that many other people are also missing out on opportunities (both in financial, rental, and employment opportunities). It makes me wonder how many employment opportunities I too may have missed out on in the past as a result of this. I am disgusted and disturbed that this is being allowed to continue and that so many companies are continuing to use this service. I am also greatly disturbed by the fact that this service has obtained my personal information and will not allow me (the person for whom this information belongs) to obtain it myself. I urge anyone and everyone who has issues with the Work Number and the companies who pay for it's services to file a report against them.
Perhaps we can finally bring this scam down if enough people file reports against it.

The Worknumber records gave a potential employer 7 years less history in company that I worked for. I now appear to be misrepresenting my past employee history to the potential employer...The American Express ( the company) does not have a person who I can clarify the issue ( according to the switchboard) with but refers all inquiries to Worknumber instead. Worknumber informs me that there is nothing that they can do and advises me to contact the company. This is frustrating circle. I do not believe this kind of behaviour is legal and in accordance to any provedural standards. Very Disappointing. Where can I turn for help?

This is one of the worst companies I've ever encountered and the disheartening thing is how many major corporations they happen to represent. What's amazing is that they have the nerve to charge employers who are simply seeking to verify employment years! This is absurd! To everyone complaining on this board wondering what to do about this: Complain to the companies who use this service, let them know how terrible it is, and this ### company will start losing major contracts fast.

Totally agree -- this company sucks. They require you to give your SSN, they had an old address instead of my current, the web site sucks, their phone system sucks -- I hate them. Call center is in Costa Rica -- Grrr...

I cannot agree enough with all the comments above. This is ### service. I cannot believe companies like Deloitte are using this service. It can be a pain to provide employment verification for past employees but this is excruciating. My condo purchase is pending due to this and I am losing it! One darn letter is all I need. It is so difficult to reach a person. he answered the call with "whom do you need to provide the verification to and does it include income?" I said yes and he said "I cant help you"..I said "excus..." and he hung up ABRUPTLY. no matter who u r, u never hang up like that on a customer. I wish these guys go to jail for setting up a business like this...or just rot in hell...

I had a terrible time getting hold of somebody so that I could be assigned a PIN number. My bank found the interface so appalling it refuses to use The Work Number and insisted on a work around. Per the HR people at my job, this happens all the time. My employer needs to ditch The Work Number!

Theworknumber is such a huge scam! It's criminal that they charge companies to use them, and then turn around a charge another company who just wants to verify employment. They really cornered the market on being a useless middleman! I can't believe that UPMC uses them. I recruit for a large Health Care company and theworknumber has stood in the way of many applicants getting employment verifications. Criminal.

This company offered the absolute WORST customer service I have ever encountered! I spent hours yesterday trying to get a hold of someone to obtain a PIN (for MY salary code). I can be patient, but after my 3rd call, I spoke with 'William' and he was arrogant, condescending, and flat out rude. I am trying to get a home loan and needed my salary code. 'William' refused to help me because I did not know the DAY that I started my job (apparently my name, birthdate, SSN, address, job title, AND the month and year of my employment was not enough!). I told him what was on my company website as my start date and because that did not match, he told me I FAILED my security test and he would help me no further. Are you kidding me?! On top of that, I was lectured that I did not have my company code. I told him that I was not at home where I had it written, but I knew that the company code could be searched by company name. That was not good enough for 'William'. He told me to call back when I had the 'correct' info. I told him that if I could look up my company code by company name, he could too. Oh no! He just kept saying that I 'should be prepared when I call him!'. Wow. I have never had such horrible customer service in my life. How does this company stay in business? It is disgusting. Does anyone know of an e-mail address or number for complaints within the company? I could not find any such place on the site. Stay far away if you can!

I can speak as a landlord - this company SUCKS. I will do anything to avoid ever having to deal with them again.

I was trying to verify the income of three possible tenants (all work at the same company). It took me 45 minutes trying to register online because their website kept bombing. It seemed to not work on Firefox, so I had to fire up IE.

When I finally succeeded in registering, they sent me an email saying they couldn't validate my account, so I had to call them. There was NO OPTION in the phone menus to do what I needed to do even though this was the number they themselves provided for this purpose. So after 5 minutes on hold for the wrong service, I got someone who forwarded me to the correct number. After another 25 minutes on hold listening to insanity-producing muzak and some guy telling me to hang up and go to the website to register, I get a human. The human tells me that he will not verify the account because my email is associated with a company that is not known to do property management. It's my email, and it's my company, but the rental property is personal, so they wouldn't "let me" use this email address. WTF!?

Right about then, I get an email saying the account is verified, so I hung up, thankful that I could cut my losses.

So I started the process of verifying the tenants I had to input PINs obtained by the three possible tenants and given to me. All three were invalid. In speaking with the three tenants, they said each of them had a similar nightmare experience of more than 20 minutes on the phone talking to people who could hardly understand them.

What scares me about this company is their level of incompetence combined with the power of the information they hold.

Thankfully, I lost patience with this company long before giving them any personal information or being prompted for payment. I'm a hiring officer trying to do standard employment verifications for candidates, and find it frustrating to have this obstacle to getting basic information. This is one more reason that candidates should stay in personal contact with past supervisors, so they can be contacted directly.

TWN_ex-employee, you are a ### and a scam artist. Listen to what you are saying, NO ONE should EVER have to pay to verify employment. I doubt you are an ex-employee, but rather a paid current employee of this scam-laden company. Of course an employer is going to throw aside an application that is going to cost them money when they can verify other employees with a simple FREE phone call. Fact is, theworknumber is unconstitutional and illegal. You will eventually be brought down, probably through a class action law suit and I will be there.

Hey STUPID it don't cost anything to verify with the IRS on a 4506.

Apparently the EX TWN employee is outnumbered by the complaints and problems of this scam of a company. Hey I have an idea and maybe you can actually understand and agree if you were on the outside looking in. Go to the work number website and try registering and getting info on something as simple as basic verification and OH don't forget your credit card! You have alot of nerve defending something that is so over the top and in your face BS SCAM of a company you use to work for and probably still do. Fact is your EX Employeer TWN is a scam and you know it. Pay for a service that only requires basic info? REALLY? Miss me with that nonsense and bless your heart for sticking up for them.

I'm trying to verify my income for my student loan repayment plan and it's ###ING IMPOSSIBLE ON THIS WEBSITE.

I thought I was the only one upset about this process. I was appalled to find out that my company has outsourced to another company, my personal info. I do not know these people and why are they making money off of me? Is this even legal? How do people start a petition to rid this service? With all the identity theft going on in the world, a service like this should be against the law. It's bad enough people who do identity theft cannot be tracked down in a lot of cases. At least if you are working somewhere, and someone who works in your company do or does anything illegal with your info, they can be tracked down. A company tries to save money but this is only going to backfire because a lot of people do not want to pay(and should not have to pay) just to get info that should be given from the human resources dept for free. People should be very irate that someone is making money off of you..I still don't see how this is legal. smh.

http://redtape.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/30/16762661-exclusive-your-employer-may-share-your-salary-and-equifax-might-sell-that-data?lite

January 2013 NBC report on The Work Number.

Notify your current Union Rep and advise others to do the same. Being turned down for an auto/home loan, rental application, etc. leads to stress, work absence, and poor job performance. Note: Equifax advises employers to respond to employee concerns about lenders not paying the fee/membership with, 'millions of others do, they should join the club.'

Rip-off company that provides what an HR person can do. They make the employee and the verifier jump through ridiculous hoops... this company is a total waste of time.

This is an awful service. The website does not work properly, even as an experienced user, having to deal with it a lot in my job, I can never get the information through the website. Usually, I would call to get the information I need, but just recently my calls have been disconnected before I could even get ahold of a representative. I would not recommend any employer use these services. They are virtually impossible to use, simply because it is a flawed system through both the website and contact phone numbers. It is very frustrating. I hope that employees share their difficulties of the site with their employers to encourage them to switch systems. It is absolutely AWFUL.

An employment and income verification can be provided to a requesting party in many ways, i.e., Pay stubs, Employee copy of Tax Returns, IRS Tax Transcripts and Letters of Reference from a Supervisor or Direct Manager which are all free and legal forms of verification. If you are unable to provide verification in this manner or the requesting party will not except these types of verifications you will need to use TWN service. If you need an employment verification and your verifying party is not willing to pay for the verification you can call your employer and ask them to provide you with a 'coupon code'. This coupon code will allow the verifying party access to the verification at no cost. The alternative would be to request your EDR or Employment Data Report. Your EDR is a very detailed employment report containing all the employment information your Employer has on file. An EDR provides detailed employment data such as/but not limited to; Your name, SSN, Job Title, Hire date, End date (if you are no longer employed), Total time with employer, Base Pay, Gross Earnings per pay period and may even contain Health Insurance information and 401(k) information . Please Note: The EDR, Employment Data Report is for your own personal use and is NOT indicative of what is provided to a verifying party though a basic Employment/Income Verification. Your EDR or Employment Data Report is watermarked on each page "For Employee Use Only" and is NOT an Official Verification. The information provided in the EDR packet is an unofficial copy and is not intended to serve as verification for a third party. To access your EDR, go to www.theworknumber.com and click on "I am am Employee" then click 'Enter Site'. You will need the Employer Name or 5 digit Employer code and your SSN/user ID to log into your Employee account. If you do not have the information you can contact your Employer or get assistance from TWN to help you retrieve your login information. After you are logged in you can request your EDR either for instant download and print or to have it mailed to you. Hope this helps assist those who are having difficulties with TWN.

I have lost employment opportunities because perspective employers don't want the hassle nor spend the money to check my work reference. They don't allow you to send your information directly to an employer via the mail. Don't work for a company that uses this service. They don't about the employee's future career.

The Work Number has cost me job opportunities because with the large pool of candidates, they are not going to hassle with this company nor sit through their tutorials. Their customer service is awful and I can barely understand the accent.

I am a landlord for federally subsidized housing. Tenant rent is dependent on receiving each tenants specific income information. We do not charge any application fees to obtain apartments and I do not think we should have to pay to receive information. The work number absolutely sucks! and makes my job more difficult than necessary. After acting like I wanted to set-up a contract with this people, I was contacted by Sarah Detweiler whose happy tone quickly turned sour once she found out my true intention. She basically stated that this is a fee based service and the only way around any fees is to have the company who has the contract with them to send the request on my behalf and then they ate obligated to provide me with the information FREE of charge. The only problem with this is for major corporations like Walmart -who can I get in contact with? Although I have tried to get Ms. Detweiler to put this in writing he I have never heard from her again. Maybe you can contact her for yourself and have better luck... her email Sarah Detweiler at sarah.detweiler@equifax.com.

TheWorkNumber sucks. I spent hours and hours on the phone with their customer services as well as their supervisors, and got nothing. They cannot do anything. Totally waste of time. I don't know why we have to put up with this type of service. I wish theworknumber go out of business soon. Their services are not required.

This service makes it impossible to check a prospective employee's references without incurring huge fees. As a hiring manager
I cannot pay to check every potential employee's references through The Work Number. The above comment from The Work Number is incorrect and studpid. You don't decide to hire someone and THEN check their references. There are always more than one applicant for a job. The one that doesn't get chosen could be because they lied about past employment. I don't doubt that many fine people did not get the jobs they applied for because hiring managers were unable to pay The Work number's excessive fees! And to add insult to injury this is the employee's own information the are Paying The Work Number $65 for.

I'm sorry, but not a chance. We do a LOT of hiring for PRN staff. These folks may work all the time, they may work once... they may never work. There's no way I can pay $24.95 every time I have an applicant we're trying to get into compliance.

And here's the kicker... now we're getting verification requests from The Work Number. Maybe we should start sending them an invoice for each one and requiring payment before the data is released. I think $24.95 per would cover the cost of me filling out the form and faxing it. Sounds fair enough, right?

This is totally false that TWN is not responsible for insuring accuracy. It is classified as a Specialty Consumer Reporting Agency by the Federal Trade Commission, and must abide by the Fair Credit Reporting Act. This federal law mandates that a consumer reporting agency report information that is fully accurate. If TWN is not reporting information accurately, a consumer has the right to dispute the information. If the TWN does not correct the information, the consumer can file a complaint directly with the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau.

TWN must abide by the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The FTC says the agency must report information that is fully accurate. A consumer can dispute what is reported. If they fail to correct, a complaint may be filed with the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau.

I needed 2012 w2 please

Is it illegal to charge $25.00 to verify past employment? If it isn't, it should be. All companies should be required to provide a FREE way to verify the dates of employment and job title of a former employee. I believe this is an unethical service and should be banned.