Pearson Vue dirty tactics

I tried to sign up for my Cisco exam this morning, only I noticed the test center I have used for 3 years now was no longer there. I called the test center they said Pearson Vue wanted them to buy a security camera system from Pearson Vue to be a valid test center.

This place is immaculate and they already have a security camera system in place! They have had so for 3 years! So they refused to play ball with these low ball tactics.

I understand that Pearson Vue would want access to my test centers cameras from time to time, but the technology exist for them to do that without buying test center supplies from Pearson Vue.

I think this is a part of a desperate attempt of making money for companies that are at risk of facing the wrath of investors since the downturn. Business are going after each other now.

I have to drive 4 hours round trip for a Prometric test as it is. I am not happy with Vue pulling this little stunt and leaving me with a 3 hour round trip now for my Cisco test.

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Comments

NinjaBoy

As I recall it was a stipulation from Cisco, as when I was looking into setting up a Vue testing centre at our place, we had the option to not have camera's but but limited to only exams like Comptia.

It's not so that Vue can link in and see the candiate, it's to cut down on testing via proxy or braindumpers, etc...

-ken

jrmeulemans

jeanathan, I see your in SW Virginia...What Testing center was this?

mbarra

We had the same issue here as a test center. Did not make hardly any money off of tests. Cost for camera and finger print reader for Cisco not worth expense. Pure cost of doing business decision to drop VUE

snadam

jeanathan wrote: »

I tried to sign up for my Cisco exam this morning, only I noticed the test center I have used for 3 years now was no longer there. I called the test center they said Pearson Vue wanted them to buy a security camera system from Pearson Vue to be a valid test center.

This place is immaculate and they already have a security camera system in place! They have had so for 3 years! So they refused to play ball with these low ball tactics.

I understand that Pearson Vue would want access to my test centers cameras from time to time, but the technology exist for them to do that without buying test center supplies from Pearson Vue.

I think this is a part of a desperate attempt of making money for companies that are at risk of facing the wrath of investors since the downturn. Business are going after each other now.

I have to drive 4 hours round trip for a Prometric test as it is. I am not happy with Vue pulling this little stunt and leaving me with a 3 hour round trip now for my Cisco test.

I'm sorry to hear. If it makes the situation any better, I will be on my 5th testing center:
1. Owner died, and closed down

2. A tad 'junky' and did not like it.
3. My favorite; clean, 'secure' and comfortable; Shut down somehow

4. THE WORST BY FAR. An office with 2 rooms and a crate for a front desk...

5. The 5th one I haven't been to, but its a good 45 minutes away. Other members on TE have hailed this one as a good one, AND they do Saturday testing.

While I know how it feels to lose a center you like, I cant say I have driven over an hour to get to one. On the positive, maybe its a good determination factor to study hard so you pass on the first shot and avoid racking up mileage

dynamik

snadam wrote: »

5. The 5th one I haven't been to, but its a good 45 minutes away. Other members on TE have hailed this one as a good one, AND they do Saturday testing.

Well considering you only do an exam or two per year, I don't think that's going to have an enormous impact on your life as a whole. Want us to start a fund-raiser to cover your annual $9 increase in gas?

dmarsh

It appears most test centers struggle to turn a profit.

Given this its not surprising theres hardly any about, you have to drive for at least an hour, they often have ramshakle kit and you end up sitting in the basement next to the boiler, sweating profusely, but not because of exam stress !

Cisco / Pearson Vue wanted to bring in a candidate ID system like you get at immigration I think, its not to do with general security cameras...

Not sure why the dual ID system is not enough, at least in western countries.

jeanathan

I am afraid to say what test center name because I don't want Vue reading this and acting out at the test center.

I see what you guys are saying about this being Cisco only now. Now that I recall I had heard about needing to have my photo taken at Vue test centers in the future and they didn't do that when I went to test last week. I kind of feel like fingerprint/photo ID is overkill, but I could see doing a photograph to ensure different people are not taking under the same name would help make my Cisco certification look better.

Now I have to go to either ECPI in Roanoke, VA or National Business College in Salem, VA I don't like Interstate 81. Driving on U.S. highway 460 through the mountains was a relaxing experience which helped with test taking.

In any case I hope the test center gets things cleared up with Vue so I can go back there in the future.

Btw, I called Vue tech support and the lady who I talked to didn't know the difference between the word location and name. She kept asking for my test center location finally I realized she meant name. Stuff like this shakes my confidence in Pearson/Vue.

dmarsh

Many people seem to prefer Pearson Vue to Prometric in the UK...

The website is far more professional than Prometrics at the very least.

laidbackfreak

If your sitting Cisco exams then you have no choice but to go to Pearson Vue. Here in the uk most test centres are testing for multiple vendors.
The centers only get £4 for any bookings through pearson vue and given the rules pushed onto them now by cisco, its not surprising that many centers are quiting.

But I do like the fact that they now take your photo to cut out people sitting exams for others.

bwcarty

snadam wrote: »

I'm sorry to hear. If it makes the situation any better, I will be on my 5th testing center:
1. Owner died, and closed down
2. A tad 'junky' and did not like it.
3. My favorite; clean, 'secure' and comfortable; Shut down somehow
4. THE WORST BY FAR. An office with 2 rooms and a crate for a front desk...
5. The 5th one I haven't been to, but its a good 45 minutes away. Other members on TE have hailed this one as a good one, AND they do Saturday testing.

From all the horror stories I've seen on here, I must have found testing utopia by pure luck....I've done all of my exams at one place. They handle Prometric and Pearson Vue, are open 7 days a week (till 10PM weekdays), and I've always been able to walk in without a reservation and get set up.

MentholMoose

dmarsh wrote: »

Given this its not surprising theres hardly any about, you have to drive for at least an hour, they often have ramshakle kit and you end up sitting in the basement next to the boiler, sweating profusely, but not because of exam stress !

No kidding!! This reminds me of a test center near my work... they had ONE testing station that was apparently also used for their Cisco lab since it was IN their Cisco lab room. With 50+ routers/switches/firewalls, most of them powered on, it was hot and noisy, just like an actual boiler room!! Even worse, I was taking a Microsoft beta exam, so it took like 2 hours. I never went back.

dmarsh wrote: »

Many people seem to prefer Pearson Vue to Prometric in the UK...

The website is far more professional than Prometrics at the very least.

That's not hard to do, the Prometric web site is truly terrible due to constant problems with slowness and outages!!

jeanathan

I just tried to schedule my exam with the new test center and I get a message saying National Business College is unable to schedule this exam at this time. I checked and the next two months are unavailable to schedule an exam.

That is two test centers within 60 miles or less that have shut down Cisco testing within the past week.

I did find that ECPI tech in Roanoke, VA 61 miles distance offers Cisco still. I don't like that I have to deal with Vue's drama on top of studying and taking a CCNP exam. If I recall I went through all this a couple of years ago with Pro metric, back when Microsoft went from Vue to Prometric and Cisco to Vue only.

Personally, I would take a boiler and a shack any day if it meant spending less time on the road getting there. If I know what I am doing the distractions don't bother me. Although the very first A+ test I took was in a room with the Air Conditioning unit for the building and it sounded like jet engine running. I still passed that exam though.

arwes

I'm just happy to have a local testing center again after about 5 years of having to drive 100+ miles for any testing. The local Prometric testing place was at the airport, same place where they do pilot license exams (funny being asked all the time how much flight time I've had, I just told them I've logged plenty of hours in simulators...well, exam simulators anyway). They had a dry spell where nobody had come in to take any Prometric exams, and Prometric said that if they wanted to continue to be a testing center they'd have to do a certain number of exams at no cost. Needless to say, they were no longer a Prometric testing center.

exampasser

I have to make a 3+ hour round trip to my nearest test center. The one at my community college closed a few years back due to a lack of profit, then one at another nearby community college closed. There are ones that a a little closer but those are only open 2 or three days in the week.

jeanathan

Exampasser it looks like I shall be joining you at the 3hr+ plus club with my round trip tomorrow. They brought the test center in question back online, but it is no longer able to schedule Cisco exams. So it turns out that Cisco and MS are both long distance trips for me in the future.

Edit I took the exam today and I don't see what test centers are complaining about. A Logitech webcam and Wacom tablet don't cost that much! Of course with companies pinching pennies I can see how having low volume could discourage them from justifying their expenditures.

Paul Boz

I used to have the privilege of taking exams down town in Baton Rouge. That is, until the testing center was shut down for rampant cheating. The proctors would go to lunch when you were taking an exam and on several occasions I observed people pulling out hard back books on Cisco and Microsoft tests.

Forsaken_GA

I almost feel bad, I have 5 test centers within 10 miles

SephStorm

When I took my Security|5 I had issues with testing centers.

The way EC-Council delivered the exam was through what they called Prime, Prometric Prime if i'm not mistaken. Anyway to make a very long story short, It costs testing centers lots of money for them to get access to PP for the less popular EC-Council exams. I had to end up getting a ride from Jacksonville, NC to Raleigh, NC for a 10 minute exam

NightShade03

I have a ton of testing centers in the area on only 2 do Sat testing which makes it impossible to be book an exam. There used to be more but they were all shutdown.

I also second promtrics site being sucko. Took me an hour to try and book an exam yesterday...

UnixGeek

The two closest testing centers are a computer store 1.25 hours away in Canton and a tech school 1.5 hours away in Chattanooga. The Canton location has a decent testing station, but it's in a closet, so it's not so pleasant once the door gets shut, and the room heats up.

The Chattanooga location has fuzzy, circa-1995 CRT monitors, but at least the room is comfortable. It's a nicer drive out to there too.

Knowing how poorly the testing centers are treated by Prometric and Vue, it's hard to get upset with them. Prometric and Vue need competition. Badly.

Forsaken_GA

UnixGeek wrote: »

The two closest testing centers are a computer store 1.25 hours away in Canton and a tech school 1.5 hours away in Chattanooga. The Canton location has a decent testing station, but it's in a closet, so it's not so pleasant once the door gets shut, and the room heats up.

The Chattanooga location has fuzzy, circa-1995 CRT monitors, but at least the room is comfortable. It's a nicer drive out to there too.

Knowing how poorly the testing centers are treated by Prometric and Vue, it's hard to get upset with them. Prometric and Vue need competition. Badly.

Huh, I didn't realize you were local! You're about the same distance from Canton and Chatt that I am (I'm about 30 miles north of Atlanta, in Gwinnett). I don't know how close you are to Marietta, but there is a Vue testing center there, I think that'd be closer than Canton or Chatt

UnixGeek

Forsaken_GA wrote: »

Huh, I didn't realize you were local! You're about the same distance from Canton and Chatt that I am (I'm about 30 miles north of Atlanta, in Gwinnett). I don't know how close you are to Marietta, but there is a Vue testing center there, I think that'd be closer than Canton or Chatt

Cool, I didn't realize you were in the same area either. I'm up in the Blue Ridge area, so Marietta's an hour and a half or so away. How's the testing center there?

MentholMoose

NightShade03 wrote: »

I also second promtrics site being sucko. Took me an hour to try and book an exam yesterday...

During Prometric business hours you can register by phone. The last exam I took I had to register by phone (required for MS student second shot vouchers), and it was quick and painless.

NightShade03

MentholMoose wrote: »

During Prometric business hours you can register by phone. The last exam I took I had to register by phone (required for MS student second shot vouchers), and it was quick and painless.

Good to know for future use...now just need to find a testing center that has an open Sat!

snadam

dynamik wrote: »

Well considering you only do an exam or two per year, I don't think that's going to have an enormous impact on your life as a whole. Want us to start a fund-raiser to cover your annual $9 increase in gas?

I expect a telethon, and a cheesy cover-band.

Hyper-Me

Ive never liked Pearson-Vue. I hate their website. I took one exam because thats the only provider CompTIA would let people take the Project+ beta through. The one PV testing center near here was an absolute turd.

Our local prometric site is very nice and ive never had a problem out of their website. I also see a lot more Prometric promotions going on.