turning down job already accepted

[hamsterloverlover]

four weeks ago i accepted a job, was made redundant so looked fast and this one came up that I got offered. It's pretty low wage but I worried about having no money so took it. They had to do checks on me so they have come through and they now want a start date.

in the meantime i was offered another job which is much better wage and prospects. Have had a conditional offer from them and hopefully all the checks will go through this week.

But what do I do about the first job? They want a start date from me and I feel crappy turning it down after all this time but obviously I have to? what should I do? :(

Phone/email HR or whoever the contact is and explain you are unable to take the position. I had to do this last year for other reasons and just unexplained that my circumstances had changed and unfortunately I was unable to take the position.

Well obviously you need to tell them, and ref sooner you do it the better really.

thanks I call them but they weren't there so emailed. heard nothing back. feel a bit crap about it really and still only have conditional offer but had to let them know i suppose.

I'm in exactly the same position, accepted an offer about four weeks ago and had a start date pending background checks, got a call to put the date back as checks were taking longer than anticipated. In the meantime , I continued job hunting because I was out of work and didn't want to sit around doing absolutely nothing (it motivated me to continue doing research and hone my interviewing answers). I got another offer yesterday which I like better (not financially, but more specialised role) now have to turn original offer down. Feeling very bad about this...but I know I'll regret not taking the second offer if I don't.

I think that's the problem isn't it, the job i went for was interviewed in the middle of July and I kind of expected to start it really quickly it's taken this long to get a call about a start date so in the meantime I just carried on applying for others.