Sterling, A First Advantage Company Reviews 3,920

I've been trying to get hold of someone at Sterling for days now.

The first time I used the call back approach. No one called me.

The next two times I waited on hold for over 30 mins each time. With no answer. I could hear someone clicking a button to keep putting me on hold every 10ish mins.

Personally I would never use this service if I was a business owner.

Date of experience: July 04, 2025

Receive the application to fill out the forms for my background check. No password was provided when I created a password it was rejected by the system. I had to reset three times before it finally worked. While filling out my information for the application the software was very slow lagged very hard and constantly asked me to fill up the same thing repeatedly without indicating what. I have gaps in employment and when I tried to indicate those gaps it constantly rejected the way that I try to enter them. Then when trying to reach out to the staff regarding the issues with the software there was a whole convoluted way of reaching them through contact us or you could call them and I hate calling people unless I'm getting paid for it! worst company ever!

Date of experience: June 13, 2025

I'm not sure where Sterling's workers are based but they had trouble understanding some of my employment history. I worked in Northern Ireland for a branch of an Irish company, but they flagged as a mismatch that it was a UK address and P60 tax summary provided. Northern Ireland is part of the UK so there is no issue with this documentation, and the employer was structured on an all-island basis so was an Ireland registered employer. This wouldn't be confusing to someone with local knowledge but is tedious to have to respond to as a candidate (and the way their email was worded would have been seen insensitive by some).

Date of experience: June 10, 2025

It appears Sterling has operational issues. They asked for the same information twice as their system seemed to have "lost" it. First time I did it on my computer but they only did half of the background checks they were supposed to, but apparently "lost" the rest of my sensitive personal information, and tried to tell me they hadn't actually collected it. I filled in the form, so I know what was provided.

They asked me to do the exact same online form a second time. I tried to complete it using my phone as by then I was travelling and without a computer. The form would not allow me to enter a street address on my phone and thus advance through the screens. I had other folks in my group also try thinking maybe it was just me. It was not.

Sitting with folks having dinner in a restaurant when they called. I offered to give them the info needed to complete the background check over the phone but they wouldn't or couldn't do this.

Date of experience: June 05, 2025

After reading some bad reviews I was anxious but then I had a good experience as a new hire. In 2 days and half I was cleared. Even after the first day I chatted with them to check the status and they told me exactly what is remaining. I however uploaded everything during my consent to expedite it, paystubs from previous jobs, 1040 form, college degree, so I think that helped somehow

Date of experience: June 03, 2025

As a job candidate, I dealt with Sterling in 2018 and now dealing with them in 2025. They were super slow in 2018 and still slow today. Background check submitted in April and I’m still waiting. I immediately sent them all the education credentials and W-2’s they requested. They’re just super slow and will constantly change your ETA date of completion. At this point I got another job offer, but when I saw they also use Sterling I’m still job hunting. At this point, it’s best to get hired by a company that does not use Sterling.

Date of experience: June 04, 2025

I would rate this zero stars as all it does is lie to you, they take your money and say they will be 12 to 15 days when it has been over 2 months these frauds have cost me 2 jobs and taking myoney for nothing.

Date of experience: June 02, 2025

Calls are recorded for quality services. Well, service is absolutely crap. No person answers, all automated. If you know your parties extension press, etc I was never provided an extension number or a comprehensive report on my back ground screening. I was left with a lot of guesswork work. My SSN screening came back "unperformable" without any reason why this was.
Navigating the phone prompts was a nuisance and so was the online bot service. (I understand this is a new trend for non person interaction).
I did get a voicemail after endless calls to their directory; a challenging tone, questioning why I would give a zero star. You qualify for a zero star because trafficking people's info for profit" and then not satisfying the consumer needs is a Zero!!

Date of experience: May 23, 2025

Hopeless. They contacted me about a former employee by phone. So far so good - I provided them with my e-mail adress and double checked they had written it down correctly. Next thing they e-mail the company's generic e-mail account (rather than me). I respond - it bounces back. I try responding from a different account - it bounces back again. I call them and they give me a different e-mail address to use. Then I get another e-mail to the company's generic e-mail account. I am not going to reply again.

Date of experience: May 23, 2025

They have been processing my background check for a month. It’s still not ready to this day. They allowed me to come into America because I was promised that an express tag would be applied to my check which would ensure that is ready by time I got to the United States. However I’ve been here for 4 days now, I have to be staying in a hotel as I can’t move into company housing without a clear background check and they are asking me for all the documents that were previously submitted and accepted. If you want to be stressed out and taken for a fool, use Sterling, that’s the only thing this company guarantees. I’ve never come across a business and a set of associates so unprofessional. They lack empathy and integrity.

Date of experience: May 14, 2025

Repeatedly didn't read or lost emails and accused me of not sending them. Or didn't even bother telling me that had lost them and just held up the process, and told someone else I hadn't sent them.

Date of experience: May 13, 2025

They used to be efficient, but ever since they got acquired by Sterling, their service started becoming lame and disorganized. very disappointed to them now.

Date of experience: April 29, 2025

1. Their form is a joke, they can't even specify properly which documents are mandatory and which are optional

2. They then keep spamming you with emails for the so called "optional" documents which suddenly became mandatory

3. Most incapable and poorly trained employees I had to deal with, probably ever, they do "background checks" in countries where they don't even know the simplest rules and regulations and ask for the most absurd things and don't have the capacity to understand that not all countries are the same in terms of laws and regulations

An absolute nightmare to deal with them!

Date of experience: May 08, 2025

Horrible platform, horrible customer service. You will never be able to contact them. In addition to making several mistakes, it is impossible to resolve issues.

Date of experience: May 01, 2025

Date of experience: April 27, 2025

Sterling background check had me jump through hoops, waiting over a month for results. Claimed 7 days. Meanwhile, my potential employer planned a start date. Sterling requested employment verification on a background check! Employment from 7 years ago in another state! I gave exact information and they never checked any of it. They made my background check ten times worse than anything I've ever experienced. I waited a month for their fraudulent dates, charges etc from 15 years ago! They didn't even try to verify. I know because I speak to my previous boss in South Carolina EVERY DAY. Meanwhile, I put in my 2 weeks at my current (now previous) job... Thinking I'd be working soon. Regardless, they've more or less starved a family of 5. Beyond upset. Their customer service claims a day to respond to emails. It takes at LEAST 7. Just heartbreaking and I don't want others to have this experience. Sterling is not a good company. Nor does it employ any good caring people.

Thank you for your time.

Date of experience: April 14, 2025

Sterling is the worst background check company I’ve ever encountered with. A job I used them to do my background and they send the job back completely wrong information that prevented me from getting the job. It’s even took them a whole 30 days to complete a dispute case. It’s was no apology or anything. I’ve just completely lost out because of the bogus company!

Date of experience: April 24, 2025

I have no felonies. No charges ever. I gave them the paperwork on my name change with exact dates. Start mid March. Now turn around says end of April. Extended date 3 times now. I need to work and make money. Not keep waiting on something I could google and have done in 5 minutes for a dollar. I told my employer if I don't get an answer from them or notice that it's done I will leave for another company and its all Sterlings fault.

Date of experience: April 16, 2025

Wasted 40 hours over a few weeks time on website trying to enter past addresses & employment. Finally Sterling told me that no info you input is saved & you have to enter all your info within 15 mins or you get logged out. (with no message telling you what happened) Horrible website. Don't bother wasting your time like I did:(

Date of experience: April 11, 2025

Anytime I apply at a company that utilizes Sterling I give it a week and move onto another job. If you have lived in numerous states I suggest doing the same as I have had Sterling get back to me more than two months later! Ive had other companies perform higher Tier NATIONWIDE Background Checks in less than 60 seconds so take that into account as anyone using Sterling is attempting to save money, not saving money and doesn’t care whatsoever about your well being as a job candidate. Background checks are useless to begin with. Some people have spotless background checks and still are let’s say, the worst of the worse kinds of people.

Date of experience: March 30, 2025