The Background Check Got Lost In the Mail

The Con

Even though we live in the digital age of instant gratification, the number one excuse for non-payment remains the check is in/got lost in the mail.  No rent yet?  Opps, check got lost in the mail.  Where’s the mortgage payment?  The check’s in the mail.  Where’s the payment on the dungeon?  I swear I put the check in the mail.  I was forced to use the excuse twice this year because of US Postal cut backs in the Los Angeles area.

For two consecutive months, I was forced to pay 4 days late – well within my grace period but still a pain in rear when fielding neurotic calls from a worried landlord.  After I paid in March, Miriam asked where I posted the mail every month.

“In the post box on the corner of Heliotrope and Oakwood,” I said.

“Oh that’s why.  Don’t use that mail box they stopped collecting from it a long time ago,” she told me.

Although that issue was resolved, the Dead Letter Office remains a mystery that causes much heartache, late fees and – occasionally it seems – employment.

Witness the odd case of Wells Fargo’s now former employee Yolanda Quesada.

(From the New York Daily News.)

A Wisconsin woman lost her job after her employer discovered she was a shoplifter — 40 years ago.

Wells Fargo fired Yolanda Quesada last week after she had been employed at the bank for five years, according to WAVE 3 News.

The crime occurred back when she was fresh out of high school in 1972, the 58-year-old said.

“I just got the FBI report on Saturday in the mail,” Quesada told the Milwaukee Sentinel. “Monday, they said you’re fired. They never let me say what happened, explain myself, nothing.”

A spokesman for Wells Fargo explained that company policy forbids continuing the employment of anyone with a criminal record, the Sentinel reported.

Quesada, who worked in customer service at the bank, hopes she will be able to get her job back.

“I think I should get it back because it’s something I did 40 years ago. I paid for it. I’ve changed my life,” she told WAVE 3 News.

Now Yolanda may have been fired because Wells Fargo has been downsizing and this was the reason they needed to terminate her job with prejudice thus saving on those pesky unemployment insurance charges.  However, I still feel the need to give a quick note to the FBI and Wells Fargo: there is no reason to use snail mail for background checks anymore.

There is this new thing called electronic mail (e-mail).  It takes all of 10 minutes tops to send stuff to people, not five years.  Popular providers of this service are Google’s G-mail, Yahoo! and AOL.  You might want try it out.  It could have saved you a bundle in the nuisance wrongful termination lawsuit that Ms. Quesada will soon file.

That is all.