Employer lost all my identification documents, and have now ceased contacting me

[norzify]

Had an interview at a well known sports shop, was offered the job, and had to provide proof of identification. I had to apply for my full birth certificate as part of this as I don't have a passport. Due to the fortnight I had to wait for it to be delivered, the original copies of this, my part birth certificate, paper part of my driving license, and my p45 were all handed into store to send off as this is what they asked me to do. I have now received a letter to say that they have not received this, I have already contacted the store about this, and the manager tells me that I am one of a few who this is happening to with them. He said that he would investigate and let me know what is going on, that was 10 days ago, still no word. I still haven't had a start date, or confirmation that I still have a job there, I have no idea how to go about this, and have been told that I am now at risk of having my identity stolen, any suggestions or advice would be greatly received.

Before anyone gets clever and says I should have given copies, I realise that, I did not have the means at the time, and was told that if it was not received by them soon, employment would be terminated, which wasn't an option for me at the time.

[andydd]

Have you got any sort of acknowledgment that you did indeed hand in the documents, preferably written ?

 

Have you contacted them again ?

 

Have you actually been offered the job ?, and signed a contract, etc ?

 

Andy

[lbruk]

Yikes, to be honest i would contact the ICO for potential advice and contact the Police as well after you have spoken to the Information Commissioners Office.

[norzify]

I didn't receive any proof of handing it over, I do have my copy of the signed contract, but I managed to contact them. The basic run down is that they acknowledge that either they, or the postal service had lost the documents, have agreed not to terminate employment, and are starting the process again. They also said that I will have to buy another birth certificate to provide, and that they will reimburse it if I send them the receipt, and a letter explaining what has gone on, which baffles me as it's all on file. No mention of my paper license, and I've not yet been able to go and speak with someone in the post office... or the ICO. I did stress to them that if they hadn't asked me to let them send it off, I would have had recorded delivery, and also asked why they hadn't made copies to send themselves if it's such a problem to have the originals. But they seem uninterested as I figured they would be. Thank you for the advice, I'll have to go and speak to someone in the post office before anything else, but if no joy, hopefully the ICO can guide me.

[andydd]

Well..Firstly you should of sent docs like that by recorded or special delivery...although from the comments above it would appear the company did receive them and then lost them.

 

Its difficult to say what to do, there is no point going after the company to recover costs involved in getting new docs if its the post office at fault, if it is indeed the fault of the PO they can do nothing if you just used standard post.

 

I dont really see what the ICO can do as its not clear where the fault lies.

 

Andy

[Feebee_71]

The way I read the OP's thread they took the documents into the branch of the company they were offered the job with and that company then sent the original documents off to their head office using standard Royal Mail services rather than confirming the documents, copying them and then sending off the copies or, failing that, sending the original documents by a tracked method.

 

Feebee_71

[stevo7790]

I agree with Feebee, it sounds like the store has lost them or misplaced them after they were handed in.