The College Board

The student's account information was updated on 5/**/16.  We have confirmed with the parent that the student was able to test.  This issue should now be resolved.

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 and the matter has been resolved.
On October *, 2014, I received the 2002 Bulletin and I read the Collegeboard policy.
Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Customer care specialist Colleen M[redacted] spoke with the parent of [redacted] regarding the score sends. She advised her of a delay in sending scores and offered to work
with the colleges. She has contacted the University of [redacted] and will
be emailing the student’s scores to the...

admissions office. The customer seemed very
satisfied with the resolution. The customer was also refunded her for the 3 duplicate orders
that she placed.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:

[Your Answer Here]
 
This company is full of incapable irresponsible people who are set to mess up your life.    They promised to correct info. on my admission card for the test for the first test I was sitting, but did not do so on time so I could not take the test.     They logged it as an issue with a number, and promised a 48 hour response.   It did not get dealt with for weeks - the test came and went.   To reach them - long hold times, explaining the subject again and again and of course, dealing with someone on a different continent, who is mostly reading from a script.    NEXT WHEN THIS ISSUE WAS FINALLY RESOLVED and the date set down, some weeks later - THEY MOVED MY TEST TWO MONTHS, OF THEIR OWN CHOICE, and then WOULD NOT MOVE IT BACK AGAIN.     So, I lost my chance to get to University this year.   A year wasted for my education.   AND THEN they try to shift the blame to me.    This company is badly run, full of people that have no power to do anything, the rot probably goes all the way to the top.    They think someone is not going to swear when they do this to someone?
And now they do not admit their wrong?    In a word [redacted].
 
In order for the Revdex.com to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Customer care specialist, Brandy A[redacted], worked with this customer.  We found that score recipients were added to the college list rather than the registration.  We have made a one time exception to send scores at no charge and educated the customer on the process.

Good Morning,We have confirmed that the student accommodations has been approved and a letter mailed to the address on file.  [redacted] has left a message to discuss the details of the complaint with the customer but has not heard back as of this...

response.Thanks.

I have researched this complaint and found the case that the customer is referring to. The makeup test has now been canceled and the $54.50 refund has been issued.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:
[Your Answer Here]
I resent the fax twice today with a paper presenting what and who it was for
 
 
 
 
In order for the Revdex.com to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

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 and the matter has been resolved.
Sincerely, [redacted]...

Per customer care specialist, [redacted]:
·
font-stretch: normal;">         Consolidation of all SAT® and PSAT® accounts for the student has been completed. Account and Scoring information is viewable under username [redacted].
·         Processed refund of the $15.00 scores  over the phone fee, as the student’s account should have been merged and student would have been able to view the scores at no cost.
·         Called parent and LVM to advise of actions taken.
·         Also emailed parent to advise.

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 and the matter has been resolved.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Good Afternoon,[redacted] was sent a detailed email on 11/**that explains our score reporting policy.  At this time, we have not received a response.  He has also been contacted by phone.  A voicemail was left with the contact information of his case manager.  On other...

attempts to reach him, the phone rang busy.  If [redacted] requires additional assistance, he can contact his case manager directly.  He should contact [redacted] at ###-###-#### or at [redacted].

On [redacted] a copy of the second page of the answer sheet showing which test was bubbled was sent to [redacted] via e-mail. She has been advised that the delay was due to test-taker error and that the College Board would not be issuing reimbursement.As of today, [redacted] has been advised of College Boards final decision regarding her case and the student's scores are now available. We are requesting that this complaint be closed, though we understand that the customer may not agree with the resolution, College Board does not offer the type of reimbursement that she is seeking.

Per Customer Care Specialist Oscar Soto:
I contacted [redacted], and she insisted that she signed up for SAT® months ago in hopes of getting into...

college. However, she was accepted into a school that did not need SAT® scores, and after talking with her a bit, I went to my supervisor for some guidance on this issue. After pushing back a bit more, I went ahead with requesting an acceptance letter, making no guarantees. She submitted the acceptance letter via email, and it was approved by my supervisor. I refunded the registration, and sent an email notifying that the refund was processed.

Good Afternoon,The resolution the customer is requesting will not be provided.  We will address the concerns regarding our call center agents directly to better assist our customers in the future.  When a make up exam is arranged and administered, options are provided are the same for all students.  Make up scores will be made available and can be utilized at that time.  The original set of scores are now considered invalid as a make up exam was taken due to an dirsuption.  A refund will not be issued as testing materials were used and scores will be made available which can be utilized at that time.  We are requesting this complaint be closed at this time.Thanks.

Review: On Saturday Oct *, 2013, my son was denied entrance into the College Board SAT exam testing site at Ansonia High School because the picture on his admission ticket contained another individual including himself. My son, had his school issued ID and his Connecticut issued learner's permit as forms of id but the proctors denied him admission into the testing site. When I called The College Board, I was informed that students were able to upload photos to the website and that instructions were clear as to what were acceptable photos. While this information is true for the website, the printed ticket says nothing about the photo from the website (which is on the admission ticket) would be used as another form of identification. It does state on the admission ticket --that a valid (unexpired, government issued photo ID or school ID are to presented on test day. It further says that the admission ticket 'name' not photo must match the name on the id. Again it does not state that the picture in the photo would be used for any identification purposes. My son assumed the photo was like a gravatar (something used in internet community forum) not for any real identification purposes. The day of the test, the proctors said the decision about whether a student would be admitted lies solely on the policies of The College Board and that they implemented this new stipulation recently (the picture from the website matching their id). However, when I called The College Board today, I was told that ultimately the proctors at the centers make the final decision about who is allowed to enter. Now I feel like my son was profiled and denied admissions without justification. On top of all this The College Board, said they would change his test date, but I would have to pay a 27.50 late registration fee for the next test date. I do not feel I should have to pay for late registration when he had all necessary identification on Oct [redacted] test date.Desired Settlement: I would like to have my son's test date moved to the next test date without paying the $27.50 fee because he was unjustly denied entrance into the test site.

Business

Response:

The parent confirmed and does not deny that her student was turned away on test day due to having multiple people in the photo listed on his admission ticket for the October [redacted] SAT test date. I advised the parent that based on the guidelines and photo examples listed on our website as well as through the registration process her student’s photo was not acceptable.

The parent’s main complaint is that she states nowhere on the admission ticket does it state that the photo listed will be used as a form of identification. The student’s mother confirmed that she did view the guidelines and photo requirements on the website. The parent maintains that the admission ticket is not clear as to what the photo is used for.

I attempted to go over policy in more detail however, the mother continued to talk over me and would not allow for any detailed explanation to be provided. The call ended by the parent stating that she will continue to take the matter higher. She understands that College Board is not willing to waive the test date change fee and is aware that by filing a Revdex.com complaint that does not ensure that her request have this fee waived will occur. She stated that she will determine if she wishes for her son to take the SAT at all and disconnected the call. The test date change fee is valid.

Our photo guidelines can be found here:

Information regarding how we use your photo can be found here:

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:

I think the attitude of The College Board in this matter speaks volume. No more than two minutes, into the conversation, I was told that the Revdex.com could not force them to resolve this matter. While I understood, this even before filing my complaint some things are just good business practice. I generally, wanted to file the complaint because of the ambiguity of the information on their website and the information on the actual admission ticket. As a result of this, I do feel that the there should be a waiver of the fee. I was told by three different representatives of The College Board that this practice (matching the photo uploaded to their website to the students actual government issue id) had recently started in March of this year. While I'm sure The College Board sees how their information is misleading to students it really irks me that 1) they haven't made the process of uploading photos easier nor have they developed their product well enough to detect that students are uploading the correct picture before TEST DATE!. It was a very disappointing day for my son, after he has worked so hard to be rejected and denied entrance because of a photo when he had a government issued id. If The College Board, think their decision is right then I suggest they change their processes of handling SAT registration.

In order for the Revdex.com to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.

Sincerely,

Review: On January **, 20**, I submitted the following formal complaint to the College Board's SAT program.

To whom it may concern;

My name is [redacted] and I am the College Counselor for [redacted], in [redacted] State of the FSM. I am responsible for 35 senior class students and 25 junior level students. Our senior class recently registered for and took the November * SAT, and it was the worst experience I have ever had working with any organization in my time as a College Counselor. I would like to lodge a formal complaint with The College Board and SAT Program to make sure that nothing like this happens again.

Because there is very limited internet here in [redacted], we register by paper for all of our students. This not only takes more time, but it also complicates working through any problems that arise.

On September **, 2015, I sent an envelope with 36 registrations for the November * SAT. In that envelope was a cover letter, asking for the cooperation of the SAT Program in regards to helping our students. The first thing I requested was for all admissions tickets to be sent to me at [link removed] (the email address on all of their registration forms, where they did fill in the bubble requesting an electronic copy of their ticket). This request was never acknowledged, and was not honored. I also requested assistance in sending the paper admissions tickets with expedited shipping to [redacted]. These tickets arrived on November **, 2014, 5 days after the SAT test date.

Because we did not have admissions tickets or confirmation emails for a majority of our students in the week leading up to the test, I repeatedly called and emailed SAT asking for assistance. I spoke with the Help Center in Durant, OK, with Elizabeth and Kim, as well as a supervisor named Brittany. I do not have their employee identification numbers. They were very friendly on the phone, but ultimately did not help the situation, and because of that, I still did not have a single admission ticket on November *, the day before the test. They filed multiple escalation requests, which were completely ineffective. I spent hours on the phone with SAT, finally receiving the tickets at 6:00am the morning of the test.

Furthermore, one of our students was unable to take the test because of a mistake on the part of the SAT. For a reason unknown to me, I received an email saying his registration arrived too late to be processed, even when the remaining registration forms arrived on time. His was in the envelope with all of the other registration forms, and when it was returned to him, I checked it multiple times, and there was absolutely no reason for his registration to be canceled. Because of this, and the fact that the only testing center in [redacted] is only open once in November and once in May, my student was unable to retake his test before college deadlines, which is absolutely unacceptable.

To make matters even worse, I received an email yesterday from the College Board regarding a delinquent account for one of our students, [redacted]. It said she owes the College Board $54.50, often the result of a declined credit card. The problem is, [redacted] sent in a fee waiver with her registration form, and that was never returned to us as incomplete or invalid. I want to make this very clear: [redacted] owes the College Board nothing, and she cannot afford to and will not pay the College Board any money.

The reason I write all of this is because I expect a change to the way I interact with the College Board in the future, especially as we begin to register the current juniors for the May SAT. I am requesting a contact for an actual SAT/College Board representative that I can work with throughout this semester should any problems arise. Spending hours on the phone trying to fix the College Board’s mistakes is not acceptable, and takes me away from my job supporting the students here at my school. Emailing [link removed] and not getting a timely response, or receiving no response at all, is not acceptable.

I truly hope College Board will actively look into this matter and will find a suitable remedy to this problem. You provide a necessary service for our students; however, it should be much less painful and time-consuming for students and counselors alike to work with the SAT.

--

The complaint was registered on January **, with a response saying my email was received and I would receive a response from the College Board within two days.

On February *, I emailed the College Board again, replying to the original thread and asking why I still had not received a response. I have not received a response from that email.

Over the past month, I have taken to Twitter to express my frustrations at the College Board. I have tweeted 4 times at the College Board's official account, twice on February * and twice on February **.

On February *, I received a response asking for more details over direct message from The College Board. I provided the case number and a synopsis. I also emailed The College Board one more time on February *. I received a twitter response saying I would hear back "soon" on February **. I messaged them again on February ** after I heard nothing regarding my complaint. I was reassured I would hear soon, and to message them again if I did not hear anything by the next day. Because I heard nothing, I messaged them again on February **, to which I received no response. I messaged again after the weekend on February **, and tweeted to the official College Board account twice on February **. I received a response on February ** saying they have requested an update. I received another message on February ** saying "Educator Services are still reviewing your concerns and our Bulk Transmittal Policy." I was once again assured I would hear back "very soon." I responded on February ** and again on February ** after hearing nothing. I just sent one last message asking for a response.Desired Settlement: I desire three specific outcomes, the last two being contingent on the first.

I first and foremost would like a response to my complaint, as it has been over a month since I submitted it with multiple attempts to contact the company in order to resolve the situation.

Second, I would like the charges on my student's account to be dropped. She mailed in a fee waiver, and if it was not valid, we should have received it back in the mail, which did not happen.

Third, I would like to establish a customer service representative that specifically works with my school so that situations like this do not happen again. I will be starting the registration process for our junior class in the coming weeks, and I need the cooperation of the College Board to make this process successful.

Business

Response:

From Customer Care Specalist, [redacted]’s fee waiver was rejected due to the grade level being processed incorrectly on her registration. The grade level was updated, the fee waiver applied, and finance removed the balance from the student’s account. I emailed [redacted] to notify and provided my direct contact information for further questions or concerns in the future. I also addressed the issue with getting admission tickets to him directly due to limited email access and unreliable mail. Per my discussion with Jen, I recommended that he work with the student’s to have them come to him to print off their admission tickets from their accounts, call Alorica to have the admission tickets emailed to him, and reiterated that he has my direct contact information if he still needs assistance with receiving the admission tickets.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me and the matter has been resolved.

Sincerely,

Review: My son [redacted] was registered to take the College Board SAT exam on November *, 2015 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The College Board cancelled this test and reschedule it to November **. My son is unable to take the November ** exam and he has already paid for the December * exam. After the December * test, he does not need to take other exams. Therefore, we are requesting The College Board to refund the amount paid for the November * exam, but they are refusing to give us a full refund. They offered US$ 10,00 as a refund. It is absolutely unacceptable, since they are the ones that cancelled the November exam!Desired Settlement: I want to receive a full refund for the amount paid for the November *, 2015 SAT exam which the College Board cancelled.

Business

Response:

I have issued a full refund and notified the parent by phone this afternoon. This is an exception that we offer for refunds and I will follow up with our call center regarding why it was not offered from the beginning. I provided my direct contact information in the event of further questions or issues.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me and the matter has been resolved.

Sincerely,

Review: I purchased a CLEP exam online from the College Board in December but delayed scheduling the exam until now. As background, test takers purchase the exam with the College Board, which is the registration step, and then test takers schedule a time to take the exam with a local partner, often a university.

I just logged in to the College Board get the registration # so that I could schedule the exam for September, and I now see that my registration has expired.

There is nowhere on my receipt email that I received, to indicate the exam has an expiration date. There is no expiration showing in my "Order Details" online. College Board did not send me any notification to alert me that exam was to expire soon and I should schedule it or lose my $80.

I spoke with customer service and was told:

- That the expiration period was disclosed in the confirmation page when I ordered my exam. I just went through the steps today as if I was going to purchase an exam again, and I did see that it's on the last page of the 5 or so pages a customer sees when ordering a CLEP exam. Showing the customer that detail once, on a web page that we only see once during purchase but never see again, is not sufficient communication.

- That the expiration date shows on the registration ticket when the customer prints the ticket. This may be true, but a customer only prints the ticket when they are scheduling the exam with the local test-administering partner, so if the customer doesn't schedule the exam within 6 months, we don't see that note until it is too late. Because mine has already expired, I cannot view it to confirm that expiration date is there, although I have no reason to doubt it.

- She also said that they send email notifications before the exam expires. I received no such notification. In case I somehow missed it, I have done a search in my email for both College Board and CLEP and, while it returns the email confirmation of my order, there is no expiration notification in my email.

- She also said it's in the FAQ, but I had no reason to read the FAQ on this simple purchase - the customer shouldn't have to read an FAQ to get information about the expiration of a purchase.

It would be my expectation that the College Board would make the important detail of the 6 month expiration more clear to customers. The expiration detail is not disclosed in the many places a customer would expect to see it, especially in the email receipt of the order. Instead it's shown one time during the purchase and otherwise hidden. I have to log into the site to find any information about it, and there's no reason for me to log into the site except to retrieve my registration so again, when I saw this detail it was already too late. This strikes me as careless and negligent at best, as they're not disclosing important purchase information in a reasonable way to make sure customers are aware. At worst, it's potentially even willfully deceptive as a way for the College Board to take a customer's money without ever having to deliver the service they've purchased.Desired Settlement: I'm seeking a refund of the $80 purchase fee or else the renewal of my registration, either outcome would be an equally acceptable resolution.

I would also like to see the College Board add the expiration date to the email receipts, and to follow through on their claim to send email notifications in advance of the registration expiration, so that other customers don't experience this same issue and lose their registration money.

Thank you for any assistance you can provide with my complaint!

Business

Response:

Good Afternoon [redacted],A CLEP Customer Servicerepresentative will be in touch with you within the next 24-48 hours to speakwith you about a CLEP Voucher/the renewal of your CLEP registration. When your order was placed, theordering terms and conditions and the expiration policy were included (1) inthe ordering FAQ and (2) on the right-hand side of the ordering screen. Over the past few months, the CLEP Program has made several major enhancements,which include expiring ticket email reminders and more prominent expirationmessaging. We do apologize that the messagingwas not as prominent when you placed your order and look forward to workingwith you to renew your lapsed registration at no additional cost.

Review: Unfortunately, after 4 phones calls, two emails, and numerous hours, our son's account information is still not fixed and his university has not received his scores.

Specifically:

Problem 1: His account states “[redacted]. He is a homeschooler. He used code [redacted] for [redacted] on his exam. His exam proctor checked and verified this code as the school adamantly does not want to “count” homeschooled scores with their own. The school checked his name and birthdate entered on his exam as well. They ran a strict, controlled test process.

This Colorado Home School code, [redacted], is filled in on his “AP Student Pack 2015.” He had ensured repeatedly that his College Board profile reflected this under “My Account.” Anthony at College Board, on July ** at 9 a.m. MT said this would be fixed; [redacted] (College Board ID #[redacted] on Wednesday July [redacted] stated that this would be fixed; Tonya ID#[redacted] also said this would be fixed.

This has not been fixed. Instead, College Board has incorrectly edited our son's “My Account” profile information to state “[redacted]” rather than “[redacted].”

Our son did not attend [redacted]. He attended, for 13 years as documented with the State of Colorado, and graduated from the [redacted] (5/**/2015 graduation date.)

Our son was hosted by [redacted] located at [redacted] on May *, 2015 for the purposes of taking the AP Calculus AB exam.

Problem #2: Our son's scores have not been received by his university[redacted], code [redacted] despite them being sent 3 times according to “Score Send Order History.” The score report, requested at the time of test taking, and sent, according to College Board on 6/**/2015, was not received. Two other “rush scores” for which we paid $25 each and were sent, according to College Board, on 8/*/2015 and 8/*/2015, were also not received.

We have spent 15-19 hours trying to remedy this customer service situation with College Board and also working with our son's university, [redacted]. We would appreciate if you would please:

1.) Fix our son's account to clearly reflect his attended and graduated school, [redacted] code [redacted].) Send our son'suniversity, code [redacted], his official score report.

We have kept a detailed phone transaction transcription of all phone calls and can provide them if needed.Desired Settlement: 1.) Fix our son's "AP Score report" to accurately reflect his high school, code [redacted].) Send the report, for which we paid, to his university, code [redacted]. (Credit us for the unsent reports.)

Business

Response:

We have been in contact with the customer. A refund for one of the score send orders was processed. The parent understands that she will be contacted by AP services to resolve the issue with attending institution. We have also contacted the designated institution to confirm that they have received the scores.

Consumer

Response:

Issue with wrong information on account has not yet been resolved. The AP agent has not called though "Oscar" said that a call would be coming sometime soon. It is premature to say that this is resolved as it is not resolved. It is waiting for the AP agent to complete and call.

Business

Response:

The update was made 8/**/15. A message was left today by James M[redacted] AP to confirm this information.