I am no longer an MCSE because MS erased me?!?!

After 6 years of maintaining MCSE certifications, I suddenly find that my ID
is no longer valid and that my records have all been merged to some other
guys account. Only because I kept all my exams was I able to prove that I had
passed an exam were they even able to figure out that I wasn't making it up
that I really have an ID.

So, after proving that I had passed by faxing in 20+ pieces of paper, I was
told it would take 7-10 business days, then 5 more, then 5 more and now 10
more. No one is telling me anything. I have to keep calling and emailing each
time the promised date slips by and all I get is first level support replying
to me with form letters saying keep waiting.

Who can I talk to to get some more traction on this. I can't believe that
after investing so much money and time in the MS cert program and
recommending it to my co workers, that I can just be shuffled off like this.
I currently work with many techs who have not completed their cert levels and
get the same job I have - I have to wonder - Should I stick with MS if this
is the way I get treated?

William
MCSE (Even if MS says it's not valid)

William Gandolph

On Tue, 20 Nov 2007 18:08:01 -0800, William Gandolph <William
> wrote:

>After 6 years of maintaining MCSE certifications, I suddenly find that my ID
>is no longer valid and that my records have all been merged to some other
>guys account. Only because I kept all my exams was I able to prove that I had
>passed an exam were they even able to figure out that I wasn't making it up
>that I really have an ID.
>
>So, after proving that I had passed by faxing in 20+ pieces of paper, I was
>told it would take 7-10 business days, then 5 more, then 5 more and now 10
>more. No one is telling me anything. I have to keep calling and emailing each
>time the promised date slips by and all I get is first level support replying
>to me with form letters saying keep waiting.
>
>Who can I talk to to get some more traction on this. I can't believe that
>after investing so much money and time in the MS cert program and
>recommending it to my co workers, that I can just be shuffled off like this.
>I currently work with many techs who have not completed their cert levels and
>get the same job I have - I have to wonder - Should I stick with MS if this
>is the way I get treated?

Personally, I think you stick two fingers up to them.
Keep contacting them, demanding they fix it and demand to be compensated
for your time spent on this.

PAJ

William Gandolph wrote:
> After 6 years of maintaining MCSE certifications, I suddenly find that my ID
> is no longer valid and that my records have all been merged to some other
> guys account. Only because I kept all my exams was I able to prove that I had
> passed an exam were they even able to figure out that I wasn't making it up
> that I really have an ID.
>
> So, after proving that I had passed by faxing in 20+ pieces of paper, I was
> told it would take 7-10 business days, then 5 more, then 5 more and now 10
> more. No one is telling me anything. I have to keep calling and emailing each
> time the promised date slips by and all I get is first level support replying
> to me with form letters saying keep waiting.
>
> Who can I talk to to get some more traction on this. I can't believe that
> after investing so much money and time in the MS cert program and
> recommending it to my co workers, that I can just be shuffled off like this.
> I currently work with many techs who have not completed their cert levels and
> get the same job I have - I have to wonder - Should I stick with MS if this
> is the way I get treated?
>
> William
> MCSE (Even if MS says it's not valid)

Good grief, that sounds like a nightmare.

Have you tried getting first level support to transfer you to their
supervisor, then get the supervisor to transfer you to their manager
(repeat until you find yourself talking to someone vaguely intelligent
and helpful, who can give you their name and a direct number or email
address... this is probably harder than it sounds...)

--
Chris M.

Remove pants to email me.

Chris M

So far, my requests to be bumped up a level have failed. They say the back
office is working on it and I have to wait. Which was reasonable the first
time, but after hearing four more times, it is hardly a satisfactory answer.

I was hoping to catch the eye of one of the MS folks who watch the newsgroup
and see if they knew an alternate contact to get me some better answers...sigh

William

"Chris M" wrote:

> William Gandolph wrote:
> > After 6 years of maintaining MCSE certifications, I suddenly find that my ID
> > is no longer valid and that my records have all been merged to some other
> > guys account. Only because I kept all my exams was I able to prove that I had
> > passed an exam were they even able to figure out that I wasn't making it up
> > that I really have an ID.
> >
> > So, after proving that I had passed by faxing in 20+ pieces of paper, I was
> > told it would take 7-10 business days, then 5 more, then 5 more and now 10
> > more. No one is telling me anything. I have to keep calling and emailing each
> > time the promised date slips by and all I get is first level support replying
> > to me with form letters saying keep waiting.
> >
> > Who can I talk to to get some more traction on this. I can't believe that
> > after investing so much money and time in the MS cert program and
> > recommending it to my co workers, that I can just be shuffled off like this.
> > I currently work with many techs who have not completed their cert levels and
> > get the same job I have - I have to wonder - Should I stick with MS if this
> > is the way I get treated?
> >
> > William
> > MCSE (Even if MS says it's not valid)
>
> Good grief, that sounds like a nightmare.
>
> Have you tried getting first level support to transfer you to their
> supervisor, then get the supervisor to transfer you to their manager
> (repeat until you find yourself talking to someone vaguely intelligent
> and helpful, who can give you their name and a direct number or email
> address... this is probably harder than it sounds...)
>
> --
> Chris M.
>
> Remove pants to email me.
>

William Gandolph

At this point, I don't seem to have much leverage. So I can demand all I want
but they pretty much are ignoring me and doing what they want on their own
time line.

I figure if I can spread my story a little bit, I may stumble on some one
who knows a little more or maybe find others who this has happened too and
how they got fixed. I can't believe that I am an only case.

The flip side, is that if this is common, that news could be leverage in
itself as the PR for the program can't be good. Who would go for
certiification if you can't trust that the company giving it will back you
up?

William

"PAJ" wrote:

> On Tue, 20 Nov 2007 18:08:01 -0800, William Gandolph <William
> > wrote:
>
> >After 6 years of maintaining MCSE certifications, I suddenly find that my ID
> >is no longer valid and that my records have all been merged to some other
> >guys account. Only because I kept all my exams was I able to prove that I had
> >passed an exam were they even able to figure out that I wasn't making it up
> >that I really have an ID.
> >
> >So, after proving that I had passed by faxing in 20+ pieces of paper, I was
> >told it would take 7-10 business days, then 5 more, then 5 more and now 10
> >more. No one is telling me anything. I have to keep calling and emailing each
> >time the promised date slips by and all I get is first level support replying
> >to me with form letters saying keep waiting.
> >
> >Who can I talk to to get some more traction on this. I can't believe that
> >after investing so much money and time in the MS cert program and
> >recommending it to my co workers, that I can just be shuffled off like this.
> >I currently work with many techs who have not completed their cert levels and
> >get the same job I have - I have to wonder - Should I stick with MS if this
> >is the way I get treated?
>
> Personally, I think you stick two fingers up to them.
> Keep contacting them, demanding they fix it and demand to be compensated
> for your time spent on this.
>

William Gandolph

William Gandolph wrote:
> So far, my requests to be bumped up a level have failed. They say the back
> office is working on it and I have to wait. Which was reasonable the first
> time, but after hearing four more times, it is hardly a satisfactory answer.
>
> I was hoping to catch the eye of one of the MS folks who watch the newsgroup
> and see if they knew an alternate contact to get me some better answers...sigh

I would perhaps try some other groups (windows server ones, for
example). MS representatives rarely post in this group, but they do
watch and post in the server groups.

Cheers,


--
Chris M.

Remove pants to email me.

Chris M

"William Gandolph" <> wrote in
message news:99D2DFDB-663F-42A8-81E1-...
> So far, my requests to be bumped up a level have failed. They say the back
> office is working on it and I have to wait. Which was reasonable the first
> time, but after hearing four more times, it is hardly a satisfactory
> answer.
>
> I was hoping to catch the eye of one of the MS folks who watch the
> newsgroup
> and see if they knew an alternate contact to get me some better
> answers...sigh

I understand one Ben Smith can be bribe^H^H^H^H^Hpersuaded to help.

Being his agent, I get a cut, too.

Frisbee®

On Wed, 21 Nov 2007 08:03:04 -0800, William Gandolph
<> wrote:

>I figure if I can spread my story a little bit, I may stumble on some one
>who knows a little more or maybe find others who this has happened too and
>how they got fixed. I can't believe that I am an only case.

I have not heard of this happening to this extent before.
I have come across reports of 'passed exams' or certifications
disappearing but not the MCP ID being erased.

I have been getting a bit fed up with the whole certification process,
what with Pearson VUE being dumped.
Hearing of your problems is putting me close to ditching the whole
certification process. If I had not invested so much time and money I
already would have.

There are posters in here who state they have 'contacts' in MS.
Now is there chance to put them to the test.

PAJ

"PAJ" <MBLOSSOMpaj-> wrote in message
news:...
>
> I have not heard of this happening to this extent before.
> I have come across reports of 'passed exams' or certifications
> disappearing but not the MCP ID being erased.
>

There was some sort of update that was run on the certification database on
October 18th that caused some of these issues. My MCSE disappeared,
although all of the supporting tests were still there. A quick call to the
RSC got the issue resolved in a few days. Fortunately, it was not my
employer or a potential employer that found my problem, I was showing a
co-worker the transcript sharing feature and that was when I discovered it.
I have to admit however, that I check it weekly now.

I wonder if the same issue is what caused the OPs problem?

Everyone should follow the OPs procedure of saving each and every test
report for just such an occasion.

John R

John R

"John R" wrote:

>
> "PAJ" <MBLOSSOMpaj-> wrote in message
> news:...
> >
> > I have not heard of this happening to this extent before.
> > I have come across reports of 'passed exams' or certifications
> > disappearing but not the MCP ID being erased.
> >
>
> There was some sort of update that was run on the certification database on
> October 18th that caused some of these issues. My MCSE disappeared,
> although all of the supporting tests were still there. A quick call to the
> RSC got the issue resolved in a few days. Fortunately, it was not my
> employer or a potential employer that found my problem, I was showing a
> co-worker the transcript sharing feature and that was when I discovered it.
> I have to admit however, that I check it weekly now.
>
> I wonder if the same issue is what caused the OPs problem?
>
> Everyone should follow the OPs procedure of saving each and every test
> report for just such an occasion.
>
> John R
>
>
>

My employer found the issue because their Small Business status disappeared
one day and when they checked it was because all my certs where no longer
applied. After the support person found the record for me she said it was
merged back in January! They have my ID and exams, the ID I was merged with
and notes in the other ID saying that mine was merged to it. Now I am stuck
waiting in limbo with no word. On one of my calls where I was told to wait, I
even got a call back from a 3rd party survey group to ask if I was satisfied
with the resolution of my call!

William

William Gandolph