My wife and I applied to live at an Apartment complex that uses On-site.com to do credit and background checks. We received a phone call shortly after applying that our application had been denied. The apartment complex gave us the number to on-site.com if we wanted to call to find out the reason's why we had been denied. When I called on-site.com they asked for my social security and looked up my account. To our dismay, my wife and I learned that she had been accepted but I was denied based on a number of criminal offenses that took place in Louisiana and Indiana, one being the most heinous of offenses (sex offense). First off, I've never lived in Louisiana or Indiana. Secondly, I'm not African American, 5'6" or have Brown eyes. After faxing over a copy of my driver's license with my height, weight, and full name, their employee immediately confirmed that I'm not African American. At least he's not color blind, oh wait, I only sent the fax in black and white. That not being enough, he asked me to scan a color copy of my i.D. And email it to him so he could do a comparison match with the sex offender in Indiana. I asked him what this sex-offenders full name, spelling included, height, weight, and eye coloring were and even though they were all different than those on my id, he still needed a color copy because I guess it's easier to read that kind of information in color? After a series of phone calls back and forth, they finally returned to notify me with the good news that I'm not a sex-offender! Gee, thanks for that information. Due to their misinformation, my wife and I were still denied housing. After all, who would want even an alleged sex offender living near them. I know I wouldn't. On-site.com offered absolutely no apologies. They really didn't seem to care. I learned a little about how they do their fact checking. It's not just based on social security, and birth dates alone, but they do name searches through public records. That's right, if you share a name with a serial killer, according to on-site.com you might be a serial killer. At least my last names not a Bundy or Manson. It cost my wife and I $70 dollars for the application fee, and I assume the majority of that fee goes to onsite-com. It's nice to know I paid $70 dollars to have my name completely trashed, and to be associated with a pedophile. A caution to anyone denied on an application, call to find out why. I doubt they would refund. They don't realize the people they are actually servicing is not the Apartments but the people paying for the application wanting to live in the apartment. On-site doesn't seem to really care about libel and slandering someone's name. At least in my case, they really didn't care.
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