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My job offer was rescinded today due to a “factually incorrect reference”, despite offer letter.

Since this news I’ve spoken to the person who provided the reference and confirmed that the information was all accurate and that she provided me a good reference. I also provided more than 1 reference to my potential new employer - but my other references have not been contacted. They have made this decision off of this one reference. If it helps, the reference was a tick box form, rather than anything personal and was just listing my previous salary, job role and whether I was a good employee.

The company is refusing to give information at this stage as to the detail on the reference or why it was factually inaccurate. Is this kind of rescinding common or at least not rare? I can't help to wonder/think that there may be another real reason for this, perhaps financial or they found someone else.

I’ve spoken to a few recruiters and HR I know personally, and they have all said it seems a bit suspicious.

I’m obviously disappointed but keen to get to the bottom of the problem, as I’ve turned down two other potential roles. And now I’m stuck without a job and between contracts.

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    VTC - Sadly, the only people who can answer the question is the company themselves. I sympathize with your situation and it sounds suspicious - but aside from that, we cannot really add any clarity Commented Feb 21, 2025 at 0:10
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    A region might help, though even in places with more labour protections you don't get much before you have started a job. I think there is one thing this community can directly help with - the question "Is this kind of rescinding common or at least not rare? Commented Feb 21, 2025 at 0:23
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    @AdamBurke yes, thats why I edited the post, OP is basically wanting to ask that. In some regions, say India and at-will states, things like this can happen and ive read/heard cases. Still, OP should move on and focus on getting another offer as I suggest in my answer Commented Feb 21, 2025 at 0:24
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    What I meant was that either you provided the wrong contact info, or the employer misread it, and therefore ended up contacting someone you did not mean to include as a reference. It seems odd to me that they would rule you out based on the reference prociding something incorrect, as that is out of your hands. Commented Feb 21, 2025 at 15:53
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    So they're saying that the reference lied, not that you lied? Commented Feb 22, 2025 at 0:20

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The company is refusing to give information at this stage as to the detail on the reference or why it was factually inaccurate. Is this kind of rescinding common or at least not rare?

Yes, most companies reserve their comments/info on why an offer or application is rejected/rescinded, mostly to avoid potential legal problems (i.e.: suing them for discrimination or whatever).

Personally I haven't experienced something like this, but here in TWP I have read some cases of this happening and also some people I know IRL have gone through similar cases (like, terminated a day or two after starting for not-so-clear reasons).

Common or not, it happened to you unfortunately, so you should now focus on the next steps.

I’m obviously disappointed but keen to get to the bottom of the problem, as I’ve turned down two other potential roles. And now I’m stuck without a job and between contracts.

I sympathize with you; I'd also feel disappointed. However, I think there's nothing you can gain from "getting to the bottom of the problem".

Offer was rescinded. It's a shame. It's best for you to move on and focus your time and effort on landing another offer. Perhaps you can contact the roles you (just?) turned down to see if it is still available.

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Is this kind of rescinding common or at least not rare?

First I've heard of this. It's indeed strange.

I can't help to wonder/think that there may be another real reason for this, perhaps financial or they found someone else.

That's quite possible but fudging an inaccurate reference would be an unusual way to deal with it (unless there are legally no other options, not sure about the UK here)

Two things might have happened here

  1. Your reference was fine and they lied to your face. In this case "good riddance" . Time to move on. Who wants to work for a bunch of liars anyway
  2. Someone along the way made a mistake. Could have been you, could be the reference, could be someone at the employer. In this case it would be helpful to know what happened, just to avoid recurrence.

The company is refusing to give information at this stage as to the detail on the reference or why it was factually inaccurate.

That's unfortunate and the ship may have sailed. The key here is in HOW to ask. While not everyone's cup of tea, the most chance of success is to be overly understanding and polite. Something like

Thank your for letting me know and I fully respect your decision. I do apologize for any inaccuracies in my references. That was certainly not my intent and to the best of my knowledge the information I provided was correct. If you don't mind, it would be helpful for me to know where you found discrepancy so I can address this for future applications.

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    Thank you for your answer! I did take this advice annd queried the reason for the factual inaccurate reference with the employer and was ignored. The employer instead went back to the recruiter telling us both the matter was closed in a particularly cold email, which seemed out of character from the person I interviewed with. As I am in the UK, I have requested a Subject Access Request. I understand I still might not know more after this, but as I might also have to request a reference in the future from this same reference, I would like to know more, if possible! Commented Feb 23, 2025 at 17:29
  • @amartin222, In the US, employment lawyers will hire third party reference checkers to check if a reference is good or not. You may want to do the same yourself, hire a third party reference checker. If the reference they receive is bad, or just lukewarm (which is not good either), then you know to stop using that reference. Also, check your other references as well, if the company left multiple messages with them, and no one called back, then it's a potential red flag as well. Commented Feb 23, 2025 at 19:27
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    @amartin222 Respectfully, I think you might be going a bit far on this. I mean, making an SAR? It's a little overboard IMO, you aren't getting this job and I'm not sure putting your energy here is worth it. Commented Feb 25, 2025 at 17:48
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    @motosubatsu The purpose of the SAR would presumably be to determine how things went sideways, to ensure that the same thing didn't happen next time. I'm not sure if it's the strategy I would use, but it doesn't strike me as an unreasonable use of their "energy". Commented Feb 26, 2025 at 10:20
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    As @Sneftel has said, it’s to identify what went wrong, and whether the referee actually gave me a reference that could be deemed positive - if so, I can use them again. If not, it gives me clarity and means I wouldn’t use them anymore. Additionally if they gave me a positive reference, than the potential employer has not been truthful in their reasons to not employ me (as my offer letter said hiring on receipt of satisfactory references). I probably won’t take it any further, but for me, knowing provides me clarity - so is not a waste of energy. Commented Feb 26, 2025 at 18:45
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  1. They could have made a mistake, mistakes happen. They could have called the wrong person for you or whatever.

  2. It is also likely that your referee did not give you as glowing a reference as they are leading you to believe. Most people do not want to lie on someone else's behalf. They may not deliberately give you a bad reference, but at the same time, they may not be positive on their own.

  3. They are using it as an excuse to not proceed. Either because the position is no longer available or because they don't know how to say not yo you any other way.

Cut your losses and move on. Why stress over someone who clearly does not want your expertise.

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Something similar happened to someone I know. I hope that my description of their experience may help.

The job seeker (J hereafter) had offers or near-offers with several firms (F1, F2...), ended up choosing F1, and telling F2, F3, very politely - sorry, I chose a different offer, thank you very much, please give my thanks to everyone who interviewed me, will keep you in mind in the future.

A few days after starting at F1, J was fired! According to J, F1's HR said: J's resume stated that, some years ago, J was a student intern doing "X", and according to F1's HR, student interns don't normally do X. The point of mentioning this on the resume was that J was trusted to do something student interns don't normally do. This was easily confirmable by J's intern supervisor. This was hardly relevant anyway.

A little research revealed the real reason: F1 was having financial difficulties, instituted a hiring freeze, was laying people off, but believed that if F1 simply rescinded the offer given to J because of F1's financial difficulties, then J would sue F1. Thus, F1 solidified their reputation as not good people to deal with in any capacity.

How to proceed

J reasoned that a) in the U.S. suing F1 would not likely be worth the effort b) trying to convince F1 not to fire J might get J's job back for a short while, but clearly not long term. Therefore J contacted F2, F3... again, letting them know that J's still interested, received multiple offers again, picked F2, was happy with this choice.

My advice is to try to do what J did - pursue other opportunities, starting with the ones you recently turned down for this.

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My job offer was rescinded today due to a “factually incorrect reference”, despite offer letter.

I'm going to disagree with most of the answers here and say you are entitled to know exactly what the issue is - this is a serious accusation they have made.

I would take the suggestion from @hilmar and ask nicely initially but you need to get to the bottom of this up to and including legal action if neccesary.

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    I did take this advice annd queried the reason for the factual inaccurate reference with the employer and was ignored. The employer instead went back to the recruiter telling us both the matter was closed in a particular cold email, which seemed out of character from the person I interviewed with. As I am in the UK, I have requested a Subject Access Request. I understand I still might not know more after this, but as I might also have to request a reference in the future from this same reference, I would like to know more, if possible! Commented Feb 23, 2025 at 17:07
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Sounds like they may be copping out of expressing a real reason and hiding behind this excuse. Count yourself lucky to not work for a company that would do this and move on.

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    That s conjecture and a tad negative Commented Feb 23, 2025 at 9:20
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    OP suggested more than one piece of evidence that something “suspicious” or otherwise unknown was going on; yet clearly the hiring company was not revealing what it might be. Could you, in good conscience, advise this person to pursue any further? Perhaps it’s more than a tad realistic. Commented Feb 24, 2025 at 2:25

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