Exam failed to load

[icas]

Dear Sir/Madam,

I attended a PearsonVue accredited exam centre last Tuesday (February 4th) to sit my ISC CISSP exam, however there was a technical issue on screen and the exam content failed to load. The exam centre created a case with PearsonVue. I called the customer service helpline several times to be told that the case will take between 3-5 working days to resolve. Upon receiving no further update, I called back into PearsonVue customer service this morning (working day 6 since the original exam date) and the update I received today is that I need to wait 3-5 business working days and once resolved I will receive an email.

This is completely unacceptable. On the day of the exam, I followed all instructions, (brought ID, arrived early, etc.) then when sitting at the exam computer, I was informed there was a technical issue and the exam would not load. I took a day off of work to attend this exam. I am now out of pocket for my travel expenses to the exam centre on the day, I have lost a day's salary for the day that was wasted, and I have paid a full exam fee for an exam that pearson vue was unable to provide. Now I am here, 6 working days after the failure, simply being told by pearsonvue customer care to wait another week, with no clear timeline on resolution. No updates, no idea when I can rebook my exam.

I am so frustrated with the poor customer service from pearsonvue and the lack of acknowledgement for the inconvenience caused. It is a very poor reflection on ISC2 for people like myself who put in a lot of time, effort and money to achieving our professional certification, to be treated in such a poor manner. I feel completely let down by the whole process.

Regards,

Imelda

[dcontesti]

Sorry to hear about your issues.  We here on the Community cannot really do anything except to ask @mariatirado to forward internally to Exam administration to see if they can assist you.

d

[mariatirado]

Just forwarded this to our Exams team. Thanks for tagging me @dcontesti!

[nkeaton]

I have had to deal with Pearson Vue for our folks before.  It is not a good experience.  Since this is just a forum, did you reach out to ISC2 about it?  

[icas]

Thank you for the support and guidance. I will reach out to ISC2 on it also, as the experience is a very poor reflection on ISC2, given that students are directed towards PeasonVue for exams.

Hopefully I will make some progress, crazy to think that it is this difficult just to simply sit the exam after all of the hours of study and cost!

Thanks all.

[icas]

Thank you Maria, appreciate your help.

[nkeaton]

I hope that it works out for you. I can’t imagine how awful that would have been. It sounds like the test center might not have been close and had to take off work. I had to deal with Pearson Vue on behalf of our employees during the pandemic. It is very frustrating to deal with them. Best wishes.

[CBMExamTeam]

@icas Thank you for reaching out via ISC2 Community.

I am truly sorry to hear of your unpleasant experience with your recent exam.

Please understand - there was a software issue on the backend that affected the loading of your exam, and other ISC2 exams globally. This is very much out of the ordinary. Pearson VUE was made aware and resolved the issue as quickly as possible.

I've checked your ISC2 account and see you did contact us about your exam. Your case is with our Exam Administration team and they will reach out to you within the next few days.

Christine
Exam Administration
Exam Security

[icas]

Hi Christine,

thank you for reaching out with your email below. I am still awaiting an update from PearsonVue. Whilst you state below that the issue has been resolved, my case is still in the "under review" status, with no updates from PearsonVue on when it will be resolved. We are now coming up to two weeks since I tried to sit the exam, to me, that is an unacceptable wait for a ticket to be marked as fixed when the underlying global software issue that has since been resolved. In addition to zero updates from Pearson Vue, even to acknowledge that there was an issue. Your note below is the first information I have had to confirm that there was a global issue on the backend.

As per your email, I will continue to wait, for a response from the Exam administration team and Peason Vue to hopefully resolve this terrible, stressful experience.

Regards.

[icas]

@CBMExamTeam @mariatirado 

To update further, this situation has now become farcical. I have never experienced such an unprofessional organisation as Pearson Vue.

I am messaging here as I have also messaged ISC2 exams and am still awaiting a response specific to my case.

Pearson Vue emailed me this morning to say that they are providing me with a voucher to compensate me for the inconvenience caused due to the technical issue (no confirmation that the issue has been resolved).

Currently, they still have my paid exam fee from the original exam, that never happened. This voucher is not "compensation for inconvenience caused", it is an offer for me to reschedule. Pearson Vue still have my  paid fee and are simply allowing me to reschedule the exam. I have asked for a refund and they say they will cancel the voucher if they refund my exam fee.  This is crazy. I am not asking for much. Due to Pearsons Vue technical issue on the exam day (2 weeks ago), I was out of pocket for my travel expenses getting to the exam centre, loss of a days pay for the work day I took off to sit the exam (that didn't happen). Whilst I was prepared to take a day off work and travel to the exam centre, this was acceptable if I had been able to actually sit the exam!

At a minimum, Pearson Vue should be offering to refund the cost of the original exam fee paid and provide me a voucher for the inconvenience caused.

Best part is, I went into the platform this morning to rebook the exam and the portal tells me that because i "failed" the exam, I now can't reschedule until after March 6th!! This is incredible, again I am being penalised for Pearson Vues issues.

ISC2 what can you do about this, because clearly Pearson Vue do not care for customers and I am seriously inconvenienced, out of pocket and no longer in a frame of mind that can countenance an exam resit at this stage. Horrendous experience.