Sylvan Prometric

My daughter signed up to take the Praxis I test. She registered over the phone on 12/8/01 for a computer based test given at Sylvan Learning Center on 1/17/02. Sylvan Learning Center administers the test for Prometrics. When my daughter told me about the "entry into all areas" test we questioned the need for it. On Monday I called the state of North Carolina, one of the states she is considering applying to, and they said she did not need the test.
Prometrics in their information booklet is very confusing. The information is so general, they cover so many tests. They make it sound as though you need to take both the Praxis I and II. My complaint is this: If we cancel the registration for the $130 test the most we get back is $60. I don't think this practice should be permitted. I called the credit card company and was told the charge had not even been cleared, yet Prometrics will not cancel the registration without penalty.

I can only imagine how many college students Prometrics refuses to issue full refunds to. There should be some provision for people to change their mind and cancel within hours or days of registering without incurring charges for services not rendered.

I would like to voice my complaint about an experience I had with the professional certification company Sylvan Prometric and the Oracle Certification Program in particular. Recently, I had the opportunity to take the Oracle Certification exam for Application developers. This is not a cheap exam to take. The cost of each exam is $150 and there are five exams that need to be passed in order to receive certification. It takes months to prepare for a single exam. The entire certification process can take over a year.
The Application Developer exam consists of two different tracks, one for each version of the Oracle Developer product. A track is a course of study that will lead to a certification. In this case there are five related tests one must take in order to receive their certification. I completed all of the five tests in the latest developer track. This took me just over a year to complete and countless hours of studying and preparation. The exams were difficult and lengthy and I felt they were not entirely fair in some instances. I ended up repeating two of the exams, which means my total cost for the exams was $1050.
After all of my exams were completed, I waited diligently for three months for my certification. During this time, I received no word from Sylvan Prometric or Oracle. Lucky for me the certification wasnf't too crucial for my career at that point. Finally, I got curious and decided to give the certification center a call. After calling the certification center, they told me that I should wait about three weeks and my certification should be there by then. If it didn't arrive, I should give them a call and try to resolve the situation that way.
Of course the certification did not arrive by the date and I had to make another call. The person who answered my call was nice enough but didn't have any training or any capacity to help me with my problem. He told me that e-mail would be the best way to get the fastest response. He also indicated that my situation would have to be related to a manager and that could take a week. Finally, about a week later, I got a message from one of the managers at the test center. They told me that I had not taken one of the tests in the track. After going through all of my information, I found that indeed one of the tests was wrong. This was due to no fault of my own. All ordering of tests is done through Oracle's test scheduling system over the phone. The test names and codes were taken directly from my study manual and there is no way that I could have made a mistake. Sylvan Prometric made the mistake of giving me the wrong test and haven't done as little as offering me an apology.

After asking politely for some resolution on this matter, they have refused to respond. Financial loss was $1050. There could be considerable potential financial losses related to my career and salary.