National Student Clearinghouse

October 8th, 2014
Dear [redacted],This is in response to your letter concerning [redacted].The National Student Clearinghouse serves only as the web order management agent of academic institutions but does not process or send transcript orders. Orders are forwarded to the...

institution for fulfillment. Orderers can track the status of their orders on the web. If the order is not delivered within the time expected by the ordered and the web indicates that the order has been filled by the education institution, the orderer is directed to contact the school so that they can work together to complete the process. The Clearinghouse at no time has possession of any transcripts and does not fill transcript orders directly.Our records indicate that [redacted] placed her initial order on 9/5/2014. The transcript was sent to the school on 9/5/14. The transcript is showing as retrieved electronically by the school on 9/18/2014. [redacted] then placed a second order for a transcript on 9/11/14, which was sent to the school the same day. Our records indicate that this order was not retrieved by the school. [redacted] placed a third order on 9/16/2014, which was subsequently cancelled by [redacted] College. As stated in the above paragraph, the Clearinghouse serves only as the web order management of the transcripts. We cannot modify orders after they are placed. In addition, we do not, at any time, have possession or control of the transcript.
In order for [redacted] to receive a refund for her transcript orders, she will need to contact [redacted] College. The Clearinghouse cannot authorize a refund on transcript orders without the school's permission or request.
As our records indicate that the first transcript was received, we will not be providing [redacted] with a refund. We do apologize for any inconvenience and encourage [redacted] to reach out to her institutions in the future regarding the status of the transcripts.
Sincerely,
Grace SSupervisor, Compliance Assurance

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that...

this resolution is satisfactory to me.  You are two months late !
Regards,
[redacted]

Attn: Ms. [redacted]...

[redacted]
Your ID: [redacted]
Dear Ms. [redacted]:
This is in response to your letter concerning [redacted].
As some background regarding how the National Student Clearinghouse works with schools' transcript orders, I am providing you with the following summary. The National Student Clearinghouse serves as the web order management agent of academic institutions but does not process or send transcript orders. The Clearinghouse at no time has possession of any transcripts and does not fill transcript orders directly.
After reviewing Ms. [redacted]'s complaint, we do understand her frustration. We are currently evaluating the wording of our electronic transcript expiration notice that is displayed to our customers when they go to retrieve a transcript. We strive to be consistent and clear in our communications with our customers and appreciate Ms. [redacted]'s feedback.
We will beproviding with Ms. [redacted] a full refund for the transcript in question, order number [redacted].
We look forward to assisting Ms. [redacted] with future requests or questions.
Sincerely,
Grace S[redacted] Supervisor, Compliance Assurance
National Student Clearinghouse

June 26th, 2014
Dear [redacted]:
This is in response to your letter regarding [redacted]'s rejection of our original response regarding his record at [redacted] College.The data the Clearinghouse holds is data provided directly to us by our participating institutions and cannot be completely removed from our systems, as it is not our data and must be retained for audit purposes. We did phone the Registrar's office at [redacted] College and the situation seems to be a bit more complicated than explained in the original complaint. The school requested that [redacted] contact them directly so they can work together to resolve the situation.
lf [redacted] College chooses to make a change to [redacted]'s enrollment, they will need Clearinghouse directly and we can work with them to update the enrollment record.Sincerely,

February 10th, 2015
Dear [redacted]:
This is in response the response letter we received regarding a complaint from [redacted].
The National Student Clearinghouse serves only as the web order management agent of the academic institutions but does not process or send...

transcript orders. Orders are forwarded to the institution for fulfillment.According to our records, a pre-authorization charge for transcript order number [redacted] was temporarily drawn from [redacted]'s account upon ordering the transcript. A hold was then placed on the transcript, by the institution on 1/28/2015. On 1/30/2015 the school canceled the order. If the transcript order is not fulfilled by the institution, the pre-authorization charge is released by the card-issuing financial institution and will be removed in accordance with their own process (if it has not yet already),
In addition, in order to speak with a representative at the Clearinghouse, a customer can call [redacted] and follow the prompts to speak with a representative. This process should prevent the customer from reaching a recording.
Sincerely,Grace S.
Supervisor, Compliance Assurance National Student Clearinghouse

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed as Answered]
 Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:  The explanation appears logical however,  At the beginning of October 2017, a request was made to verify one of my degrees throughhttp://www.[redacted].[redacted]. [redacted] uses the National Student Clearinghouse database in order to verify scholastic records and degrees. ( Albeit 4 year degree of subscribing institutions ). the NSC database does not cover community colleges of other institution that offer degrees requiring less than four years. Attached is the return result from cscse.edu.cn. Please note the date of November 1st, 2017.  Given that my institution is not included in the NSC database and that NSC claims to notify that a lack of records is expediently given to the requesting party( [redacted] is located in Beijing, China P.R ) I find the 30 days lapse a bit contradictory. Again I would encourage NSC to improve their business model through language appropriate disclaimers. It is a paid service business that has a number of limitations on the results it can actually verify. And its customers should be made aware of this limitation at the onset of the process so that they can accurately gauge the value of the results.                   The net result of this as it applies to me, was having to have my degree authenticated through U.S. Department of Education records and then authenticated  by U.S State Department and the Chinese embassy in Washington D.C. to make it suitable as academic evidence for employment purposes. Thank you kindly for your time.                                 Regards,
[redacted]

July 10, 2015
Revdex.com of Metro Washington DC & Eastern...

Pennsylvania
1411 K Street NW, 10th Floor
Washington, DC 20005-3404
Attn: Ms. [redacted]
Your ID: [redacted]
Dear Ms. [redacted]:
This is in response to your July 1st email concerning [redacted].
As some background regarding how the National Student Clearinghouse works with schools transcript orders, I am providing you with the following summary. The National Student Clearinghouse serves as the web order management agent of academic institutions but does not process or send transcript orders. The Clearinghouse at no time has possession of any transcripts and does not fill transcript orders directly.
After reviewing Mr. [redacted]'s complaint, we examined our internal records regarding the transaction. Our internal log shows that the transcript was delivered and either downloaded or viewed at the requested destination. In order to confirm, we reached out to the educational institution and were informed that Mr. [redacted] was not an applicant of their program. We relayed this information to Mr. [redacted] and learned that he was applying to another program at the same institution - however his desired destination was not provided to the Clearinghouse.
After speaking with the school from which the transcript originated, we learned that they were given the incorrect destination by Mr. [redacted] and are unable to initiate another order through the Clearinghouse without Mr. [redacted] paying an additional fee. The Clearinghouse is unable to send a transcript without the involvement of the school and thus advised Mr. [redacted] that he should create a new request with the correct destination selected. Mr. [redacted] acknowledged this advice and ended the call.
The Clearinghouse considers this matter resolved. We look forward to assisting Mr. [redacted] with future requests or questions.
 
Sincerely,
Rome P[redacted]
Legal Counsel
National Student Clearinghouse

Dea[redacted],This is in response to Complaint ID [redacted].In response to the student’s latest message, we would like to clarify the process that the entity verifying his information would have experienced in order to better explain how the Clearinghouse notifies requestors of our service’s coverage limits. The verification requestor placed a request with the Clearinghouse using an incorrect or outdated name for the student’s school. In such a situation, the requestor would have gotten an immediate response through our online portal that the institution was not in our database and therefore that we could not verify the student’s degree and/or education information. No statement as to the existence of such a school would be made by the Clearinghouse, only that the school is not a participant in the Clearinghouse and therefore that we do not verify education information from that school. The Clearinghouse does not verify education information for every higher education institution in the United States. This is because schools must choose to provide us with their education records for purposes of providing verification services by signing a contract authorizing us to do as much. Thus, any response from the Clearinghouse stating that a school is not in our database would not allow a verification requestor to determine the accuracy of a student’s represented education information. It would be the responsibility of the requestor to go back to the student for more information or find another way to complete the verification.  We sincerely appreciate your feedback and are sorry for any inconvenience that you have suffered. Best regards, Vicky E[redacted]Manager, Customer Service

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved]
 Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:
The reluctant offers to refund my money were only as a result of my threatening them (twice) with filing a Revdex.com claim. That does not seem like a good business practice, and their rating of A- is undeserved. The amount of time I have spent convincing them that their system was flawed, and the frustration of losing insurance for my daughter because of their system is easily 100 times the actual cost that they are just barely consenting to refund. In fact, I actually suggested an improvement to them, where the site would show the actual date that they actually knoew that the data would be correct. So, I've actually consulted for them for free. And their last comment, "We are unable to provide [redacted] with a free enrollment verification at this time" matches precisely the language they used when they first said, "we are unable to refund your money at this time": a bunch of words with no explanation. "Unable to provide" indicates that there is something preventing them; "will not provide" would be less disingenuous.
Regards,
[redacted]

To whom it may concern:
This is in response to your January 11th letter regarding a complaint from a user of our Transcript Ordering Service.
As some background regarding how the National Student Clearinghouse works with schools' transcript orders, I am...

providing you with the following summary. The National Student Clearinghouse serves as the web order management agent of academic institutions but does not process or sent transcript orders. The Clearinghouse at no time has possession of any transcripts and does not fill transcript orders directly.
The Clearinghouse has investigated this issue and discovered that, subsequent to the complaint being submitted to the Revdex.com, the transcript recipient has successfully received the student's transcript. We consider this order to have been fulfilled and that the student's desired settlement was satisfied.
Sincerely,
Rome P[redacted]
Legal Counsel
National Student Clearinghouse

Dear Ms. [redacted]:
This is in response to your August 27 email concerning a complaint from a student user of our Transcript Ordering...

service.
As some background regarding how the National
Student Clearinghouse works with schools transcript orders, I am providing you
with the following summary.  The National
Student Clearinghouse serves as the web order management agent of academic
institutions but does not process or send transcript orders.  The Clearinghouse at no time has possession
of any transcripts and does not fill transcript orders directly.
The Clearinghouse has worked with both the student and the respective school to resolve the complaint in a satisfactory manner. The resulting outcome is that the school will be re-sending the student a (paper) copy of his transcript for his records. The school has also been made aware that it does not appropriately disclose the rights management window to its student users and has suggested that it will remedy this in the future to prevent further miscommunication.
The School is current re-evaluating the appropriate length, if any, for a transcripts to remain accessible. This should also serve to mitigate any future issues.
We appreciate this feedback and will be reviewing ways to improve this process in the future.
Sincerely,
Rome P[redacted]
Legal Counsel
National Student Clearinghouse

May 9th 2014
Dear [redacted],This is in response to your letter concerning [redacted].The National Student Clearinghouse serves only as the web order management agent of academic institutions but does not process or send transcript orders. Orders are forwarded to the...

institution for fulfillment. Orderers can track the status of their orders on the web. If the order is not delivered within the time expected by the ordered and the web indicates that the order has been filled by the education institution, the orderer is directed to contact the school so that they can work together to complete the process. The Clearinghouse at no time has possession of any transcripts and does not fill transcript orders directly.Our records indicate that [redacted] placed the order on March , 2014, and that the order remained in processing” until March 12, 2014. The transcript was then uploaded By [redacted]s previous institution) and received by University of Arkansas, [redacted], on March 12, 2014. As stated in the above paragraph, the Clearinghouse serves only as the web order management of the transcripts. We do not, at any time, have possession or control of the transcript.As the transcript was received, we will not be providing [redacted] with a refund. We do apologize for any inconvenience and encourage [redacted] to reach out to her institutions in the future regarding the status of the transcripts.Sincerely,

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved]
 Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:
There is nothing to accept in this response. They are thanking me for my help in suggesting improvements to their web site and service.
Regards,
[redacted]

July 10, 2015Revdex.com of Metro Washington DC & Eastern Pennsylvania1411 K Street NW, 10th FloorWashington, DC 20005-3404Attn: Ms. [redacted]Your ID: [redacted]Dear Ms. [redacted]:This is in response to your July 1st email concerning [redacted].As some background regarding how...

the National Student Clearinghouse works with schools transcript orders, I am providing you with the following summary. The National Student Clearinghouse serves as the web order management agent of academic institutions but does not process or send transcript orders. The Clearinghouse at no time has possession of any transcripts and does not fill transcript orders directly.After reviewing Mr. [redacted]'s complaint, we examined our internal records regarding the transaction. Our internal log shows that the transcript was delivered and either downloaded or viewed at the requested destination. In order to confirm, we reached out to the educational institution and were informed that Mr. [redacted] was not an applicant of their program. We relayed this information to Mr. [redacted] and learned that he was applying to another program at the same institution - however his desired destination was not provided to the Clearinghouse.After speaking with the school from which the transcript originated, we learned that they were given the incorrect destination by Mr. [redacted] and are unable to initiate another order through the Clearinghouse without Mr. [redacted] paying an additional fee. The Clearinghouse is unable to send a transcript without the involvement of the school and thus advised Mr. [redacted] that he should create a new request with the correct destination selected. Mr. [redacted] acknowledged this advice and ended the call.The Clearinghouse considers this matter resolved. We look forward to assisting Mr. [redacted] with future requests or questions. Sincerely,Rome P[redacted]Legal CounselNational Student Clearinghouse

Hello [redacted],On 9/10/17, the customer asked for assistance in retrieving their transcript and instructions were provided via email.  A week later, the customer advised Clearinghouse they were unsuccessful and requested a refund.   An offer of additional assistance was declined by...

the customer and a request to expedite a refund to the customer's account was submitted to our finance department.  On 9/25/17, when the refund request finished processing, a copy of the Refund Transaction Record authorizing the refund was emailed to the customer by finance.  The customer was concerned as they did not see an immediate credit to their account and requested clarification as to when they would actually receive the funds back into their account.   On 9/27/17 I sent a follow-up email to the customer that included my apologies for this inconvenience, the same Refund Transaction Record and a brief explanation that the Clearinghouse cannot predict how long it will take the customer’s card company to deposit the funds back into their account.  I suggested they could provide the Refund Transaction Record to their card company to assist in the expediting of their in-house refund process.   On 9/28/17 I received an email from the customer thanking me for the follow-up and my assistance. Sincerely, Vicky E[redacted]National Student Clearinghouse.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.  I received email correspondence from both National Student Clearinghouse and from the Registrar of the college in question, who has, indeed, provided me with a non-expiring electronic copy of my transcript for my own reference. I was not aware of National Student Clearinghouse's role in providing the original transcript with respect to who exactly set the digital rights expiration window on the transcript provided, which seems to be controlled by the issuing school. 
I am satisfied with the proposed re-evaluation of any digital rights expiration settings on student transcripts by the college in question, and, I trust, by any other schools that may use National Student Clearinghouse for provisioning transcripts. It is my belief that if money changes hands for 'purchase' of a student transcript, that official digital copy of the student's transcript becomes his or her property and should have no expiration or otherwise become unusable for the purpose for which it was originally obtained. If this is not the case, there needs to be a very clear disclaimer indicating that the student is merely renting a copy of the transcript for the specified period of time configured in any digital rights expiration settings. 
Regards,
[redacted]

This company has horrible customer service. I have ordered a transcript from this company twice with no results. The first time I ordered I attempted to resolve the matter by email. After attempting to communicate by e-mail and waiting so long for an e-mail response my order expired and I was forced to order another transcript. Someone finally returned my e-mail (2 weeks later) stating how "sorry" they were they did not contact me earlier. Now, my second request for a transcript has yielded, yet again, no results because the receiving school's e-mail address has www in front of it and National Student Clearinghouse recommends that I just order another one, even though I have yet to receive my transcript the first two times I have ordered. I spoke with a phone representative as well as their superior and they both appear to be reading from the same script. What happened to customer service? This company is the worst! How do I know my transcript will be sent this time?

Review: This service uses outdated information, yet claims to be able to produce a "certificate" that shows that a student is enrolled full time in a school. This is necessary for insurance companies to verify eligibility. However, since the service uses outdated information and does not admit that, several days after my daughter registered for classes they said she was not enrolled (at a cost of $2.50 to find out -- they do not let you know the outcome before forcing you to pay to generate a certificate that says "not enrolled??), and then, after giving them the benefit of the doubt, and waiting a week for the school to update records perhaps, I tried again. And again, they said she wasn't enrolled (at another cost of $2.50). When I emailed them asking about this and asking for a refund, they said they wouldn't get the registration records from [redacted] until the 10th of October! So, they knew that they had outdated information for a school, yet happily accepted my money! This is fraud. Here's the letter I received from them:

"Good afternoon,

Thank you for your email. We reviewed your request for a refund, and a refund will not be issued at this time. The results you received were inclusive of all information available as of 09/22.

[redacted] College isn’t scheduled to send us their Fall 2014 enrollment information until approximately 10/10/2014. If you prefer, you may contact us to confirm that the enrollment information has been posted by the school prior to processing your request online.

Best regards,

……………………………………………………………………�...⇄ />
Heather W[redacted], Client Support Representative I, National Student Clearinghouse

[redacted], VA 20171

f [redacted] | http://www.studentclearinghouse.org

Excellence in Work-Life Balance Award Winner

"Desired Settlement: $5.00 refund and a certificate showing my daughter enrolled full time at [redacted].

Business

Response:

October 15th, 2014Dear [redacted]:This is in response to your letter concerning [redacted].The National Student Clearinghouse serves as an institution's authorized agent to perform compliance reporting and verification services on their behalf. The data held in our system is dependent upon submissions of data from our participating schools.At the time [redacted] requested enrollment information from [redacted] University, the school had not yet transmitted their fall 2014 enrollment information. Schools typically do not send new term information until their class add/drop period is complete. [redacted] initially contacted our customer service department on September 30th, 2014, and after a review of his transaction history, we responded on October 2nd, 2014, advising that we would provide a refund of $2.50 for his initial inquiry, as we still had not received the school's fall enrollment information.Per [redacted]'s complaint, we also provided an additional refund of $2.50 for his second request for enrollment information. We started processing his additional refund today, October 15th, 2014.We are unable to provide [redacted] with a free enrollment verification at this time. We do apologize for any inconvenience caused and are discussing how to improve our enrollment verifications in the future.SincerelyGrace SSupervisor, Compliance Assurance

Consumer

Response:

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved]

Review: [redacted]

I am rejecting this response because:

The reluctant offers to refund my money were only as a result of my threatening them (twice) with filing a Revdex.com claim. That does not seem like a good business practice, and their rating of A- is undeserved. The amount of time I have spent convincing them that their system was flawed, and the frustration of losing insurance for my daughter because of their system is easily 100 times the actual cost that they are just barely consenting to refund. In fact, I actually suggested an improvement to them, where the site would show the actual date that they actually knoew that the data would be correct. So, I've actually consulted for them for free. And their last comment, "We are unable to provide [redacted] with a free enrollment verification at this time" matches precisely the language they used when they first said, "we are unable to refund your money at this time": a bunch of words with no explanation. "Unable to provide" indicates that there is something preventing them; "will not provide" would be less disingenuous.Regards,

Business

Response:

[redacted]

Grace S[redacted]

Hi [redacted], I received a letter this afternoon advising that you have st...

Oct 30

Yes we recieved your response, but the consumer is not satisfied, so we sent ...

Nov 11 (9 days ago)

Nov 13 (7 days ago)

to me

Hi [redacted],

Below is our response. I’ve also mailed a copy directly to you at the Revdex.com.

This e-mail is in reference to complaint [redacted] from **. [redacted].

We do listen to and value our customers’ feedback. Embedded in our core values is delivering exceptional customer service. Even though [redacted] may have not received an immediate resolution, his comments made initially in September 2014 have been noted and we have referenced his input along with other customers’ feedback to implement continued improvements to our services.

Our intention is to provide exceptional customer service to all of our customers. We are truly sorry [redacted] was dissatisfied with the verification experience and our level of customer service. We do recognize that our customers have a choice of whether to use our services or not. As [redacted] requests, we do continue to evaluate and improve our services to ensure a positive customer experience.

We thank [redacted] for his valuable feedback and hope that he will contact us with any other concerns he may have.

Thank you,

Grace S[redacted]

………………

Consumer

Response:

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved]

Review: [redacted]

I am rejecting this response because:

Review: I ordered a Enrollment Transcript on 18 Sept 2014 and my Credit Card was charged and as of 25 Sept 2014, I have not received anything. There is no way to speak to someone to track this and they have designed the website to where you cannot email any of the leadership at all. My information is below: [redacted]; You forwarded this message on 9/25/2014 8:43 AM. National Student Clearinghouse (http://www.studentclearinghouse.org)National Student Clearinghouse___________________________________________________________________...⇄ Thank you for your order! Keep a copy of this in a safe place - it may be your only record of this transaction. If you have questions, please contact our Customer Service at ###-###-####, or e-mail us at [email protected]. ORDER INFORMATION ______________________________________________________________________ Verification Services Order ID..............: [redacted] Credit Card Transaction ID..................:[redacted] Order number................................: [redacted] Authorization Code..........................: 507374 Transaction Date............................: 09/18/2014 3:08 PM ET Transaction Amount..........................: $9.95 BILL-TO INFORMATION ______________________________________________________________________ Name..............: [redacted] Address...........: [redacted] # * City..............: [redacted] State.............: KY ZIP Code..........: [redacted] E-mail............: [redacted] ______________________________________________________________________ Contact Phone.....: ###-###-####I want my Credit Card REFUNDED since I did not receive the Product!Desired Settlement: I want my Credit Card REFUNDED !

Consumer

Response:

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response. If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. You are two months late !

Regards,

Review: I am filing this complaint on National student Clearinghouse , because they have charged me a fee of 5 dollars to my credit card for electronically sending transcripts to the University of [redacted] in [redacted] , AR. I was under the impression that this process would be delivered to the University with-in the same day, but the transcript didn't arrive to the University until six days later and that was to late to be accepted by the dead line for enrollment into this session at UA of [redacted]. I have contacted the company , but have not had any luck with any representative reaching out to explain and/or resolve the issue that is in questioning.Desired Settlement: I am asking that my credit card be refunded and that the representative party tell me how to avoid any misfortune in the future. Thank you!

Business

Response:

May 9th 2014Dear [redacted],This is in response to your letter concerning [redacted].The National Student Clearinghouse serves only as the web order management agent of academic institutions but does not process or send transcript orders. Orders are forwarded to the institution for fulfillment. Orderers can track the status of their orders on the web. If the order is not delivered within the time expected by the ordered and the web indicates that the order has been filled by the education institution, the orderer is directed to contact the school so that they can work together to complete the process. The Clearinghouse at no time has possession of any transcripts and does not fill transcript orders directly.Our records indicate that [redacted] placed the order on March , 2014, and that the order remained in processing” until March 12, 2014. The transcript was then uploaded By [redacted]s previous institution) and received by University of Arkansas, [redacted], on March 12, 2014. As stated in the above paragraph, the Clearinghouse serves only as the web order management of the transcripts. We do not, at any time, have possession or control of the transcript.As the transcript was received, we will not be providing [redacted] with a refund. We do apologize for any inconvenience and encourage [redacted] to reach out to her institutions in the future regarding the status of the transcripts.Sincerely,