Worse part of Certification

SuperCoder · Guest

Although, this post might not be directly related to MCAD/MCSD, but it is to
make aware of the delay/issues in receiving the certificate or welcome kit.

==========

I guess the worse part of getting certified is receiving the certificate.

The customer support by email is very bad, Prometric, Microsoft [in some
region] and Oracle [from my personal experience]

Can you imagine, it's been more than 2-3 months, but still I haven't
received any certificate. Currently I'm OCP and MCP, but didn't receive
anything. Every time I contact them, they say they're going to reship them.
Although after so many months I did receive OCA certificate.

Well, the worst part is that, when you send an email to Prometric, they take
ages to reply, usually 6-10 days. And suppose if you miss out something [for
e.g mentioning your id, that could happen to any newcomer] you have to wait
another 6-10 days for the reply.

So if a professional is waiting for the certificate, and his/her job is
pending because of that, then it would be really tough.

Has anyone had this experience? Or is it only me? Share your experience.

Simon Hart · Guest

I must admit I receive mine within 4-6 weeks every time. But mine come from
Singapore. Not sure if the offices at Singapore is more efficient but do
bear in mind they have to manufacture material with your name on.

You can always share out your transcript ID so your employers can see which
exams you have passed on the internet.

Regards
Simon.

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CaffieneRush · Guest

Bad service is not unique to certification services.
I have to cover the sys admins on rare occasions and had to call D**l
for server service on 3 occasions and lets just say I rather go to the
dentist. D**l treats us this way even though we have gold service 4
hour response contracts on all our critical servers plus our company is
a FTSE 250 company. I feel sorry the sys admins that have to do this
part of their job for a living. Furthurmore, I wonder what happens to
those with a service level that is less than gold?
BTW. A tip to get excellent service after a long runaround is to get or
threaten to get the account manager involved. Excellent service means
frequent phone calls/emails from the D**l rep updating you on every
minutia of the movement of the required part and the timetable of the
engineer being sent on site. But don't use this option lightly or it
might lose its effectiveness.

Back to certification services, I've had fairly good service by phone
from Vue and Microsoft when the original MCP welcome kit was late.
Once my details were in the system, there was no furthur problems with
getting MCAD and MCSD welcome kits.

The paper cert is nice to have in hand, but you do know that the
transcripts on the MCP site gets updated almost right away (~2/3 days).
Just provide your prospective employer with the MCP transcript url,
your transcript id and transcript sharing code and they can go and
check your transcript for themselves.

Andy

SuperCoder wrote:

SuperCoder · Guest

I havnt checked out the Prometric's phone service.

Anyways, in my opinion nothing could be worse than prometric. I wanted to
change my address in the profile, and I couldnt change the address, some
error it was giving, and instructing me to contact the webmaster.

Now, finding an email address is a challenge itself, but once i did, i sent
an email about the error, and still they've not replied.

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SuperCoder · Guest

Yes online transcript is good, but suppose certification which doesnt have
online transcript like Oracle, What would a person do then?

But from my personal experience, Microsoft support was really good if you
compare it to Oracle. Oracle is worse, and as I've said, if you miss the
tiny detail which they want, you have to wait for 5-10 days more. And
there's no guarantee. First time they send your certificate by Global Mail,
and it usually takes around 30-40 days to arrive, and suppose if you dont
get it, then you have to wait another 1 months.

So for all the people, please do appreciate MS service, its really good
compared to other vendors

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SuperCoder · Guest

I'd say, Japan's regional service's response is excellent. But middle east,
Africa or some other place are handled by Germany, and you have to wait for
10-20 days, just to get a reply. Its so bad.

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CaffieneRush · Guest

It is best to follow up with your provider in writing or by phone if
the problem is unsual or complicated. Rightly or wrongly, email queries
tend to imply that customer considers the problem not to be urgent,
however 6-10 day turnaround for answering email queries is still
inexcusable.

SuperCoder wrote:

SuperCoder · Guest

Joseph Bittman MVP MCSD · Guest

July 11, 2006

I haven't read through all the posts in this thread... but MSFT has told me
that if someone calls in with an MCP ID# and the person's name, then they
will let them know whether they have passed certain certifications. In this
way, an employer could verify your credentials.

Also, I would hope other certification companies would have this same
"phone-in" verification for employers and potential employees.

:-)

--
Joseph Bittman
Microsoft Certified Solution Developer
Microsoft Most Valuable Professional -- DPM

Web Site/Blog: http://CactiDevelopers.ResDev.Net/

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