Employment Verification with Walmart

[Stephen Anthony]

I recently tried to verify an applicant's employment information with Walmart and was told by a Walmart manager they have a blanket policy that they will not give out any information whatsoever other than confirming the employee works there. A signed release of information doesn't change their stance on this policy according to the manager I talked to. Has anyone encountered this before?

My backup strategy was giving the applicant an Employment Verification form with a line for a manager name and signature, and asking them to go have their manager/supervisor fill it out and sign it. The applicant has since told me Walmart refused to do that as well. I don't have the details on this refusal or the reason why yet, will be gathering that tomorrow.

Any suggestions on how to verify the applicant's employment information at this point? My only thought is requesting paystubs going back several months.

[Chris Mason]

Originally posted by @Stephen Anthony:

Any suggestions on how to verify the applicant's employment information at this point? My only thought is requesting paystubs going back several months.

 Two solutions that would both pass muster with Fannie Mae:

• Skip the idiot local manager, find who your applicant's corporate HR rep is. I guarantee you that they have a "procedure" involving you filling out this form and that form and bla bla bla and 3 to 5 business days for an answer. I guaran-damn-tee you they have a procedure to fill this exact form out, at the very least. I'm pretty sure Fannie Mae isn't going to sue you for copyright violation, and this is a form/framework that every corporate machine is familiar with completing (the CEO of Walmart needs a mortgage too, so SOMEONE knows how to fill this form out -- because the CEO said so).
• From the applicant, get their most recent paystub, their final late December 2015 paystub, and their final late December 2014 paystub. Because it is currently late December in 2016, this is sufficient for you to calculate a conservative 36 month average. Because this is a tenant applicant and not a mortgage applicant, meaning that you are your own underwriter, you can calculate a most recent 6, 12, 24, or 30 month average to qualify them, if you wish.