Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You're assuming that they won't be pleased to give you a reference. If that were true - if someone gave my name as reference and I wasn't pleased to give them a reference - that would factor into the comments I provide, along the lines of, "Gave me as a reference without even checking with me first."
I'd recommend you do some preemptive damage control.