WARNING LENGTHY POST
Basically I was hired buy a health insurance company back in January contingent on a clean background check that was supposed to be in by the start date of February 14, 2022. I ended up putting in my two week notice with my current employer which was a seasonal job anyway. I had checked the status of my background check and it was sitting at 88% the week prior so I figured it was almost finished and I was on track to start on time. I waited until the 14th and when it came I still hadn't received next steps and my background check was sitting idle at 88% complete. I tried reaching out to a recruiter and the hiring manager who eventually got back to me (but it was very difficult to get a hold of someone in the first place). They informed me there was a delay and they would move my start date to the following Monday for each week until my background check came. I figured ok no big deal I can give it a week or two. I ended up having to endure a grueling two months of calling the background check company, emailing the hiring company, all to be told that it was delayed due to an issue with the court (never specified what the issue was) and that they were at the courts mercy. I ended up calling nearly every day for status updates and information for the last week leading up to the final moments my background check was completed (April 15, 2021). This whole time mind you I'm unemployed and applying to other jobs but not turning anything up. I'm driving for Uber to make ends meet. I was so relieved to get the background check results in and I immediately filled out the onboarding paperwork and reached out to the recruiter again telling her I'm ready to start ASAP.
She responds they won't have a start date available until June 06, 2022.
I was so stressed and only stayed active through out this process because I was told we would move my start date to every following Monday until the background check was finished.
I informed the recruiter of this and explained to her that the extensive delay in the background check left me virtually unemployed and that I would appreciate if they honored the original agreement that my start date would be moved to every Monday until the background check came in. She said she would “check” with the hiring manager but couldn't guarantee anything since our training classes were limited. I thanked her and let her know in the event that she's unable to get me a sooner class if I could have the information for an HR supervisor or someone in the corporate office to ensure this doesn't happen to someone else.
I want to make sure that I'm not out of line for asking for that information or insisting they move the start date up? Honestly I feel like they abandoned my application because of how long the courts took (4 months for a basic background check is unheard of) and then moved on to someone else without even informing me I may not have a start date for several months once the background check is completed. In fact they told me the opposite. I feel like the recruiter just used me to fill a quota and has no regard for the position this put me and my family in.