Ask the Test Maker

Hello BTG Community/GMAC,
Last Saturday (Nov 10th) I took the GMAT at the Pearson test center in San Francisco. During my 2nd break, in between Quant and Verbal, I was notified that the system has locked up/crashed and they would not be able to log me back into the system until they fix the issue. I was ready to proceed with the test after my 8 minutes were up but they couldn't let me in. The technical problem was fixed after 25 minutes, but by the time I got to my desk, I only had 50 minutes of time to complete Verbal. I proceeded with the test since I wanted to finish off the whole thing, realizing that I would not be able to complete the Verbal section. I still wanted to generate scores to see my Quant scores but knew that my verbal would take a big hit due to circumstances outside of my control. The staff at the Test Center was helpful and very apologetic and provided me with the GMAC number and filed a report on my behalf.
I have already emailed the GMAC and called in multiple times for my incident report, but I have not had a resolution yet. I will try to call again tomorrow and be more direct, but I should have a pretty good argument that I should be able to retake the test without paying the fee and not wait the 30 window period?
Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. It sounds like you did the right thing in alerting your testing center staff, filing an incident report and completing the exam. At this stage, someone at GMAC is reviewing the incident. Once they have completed the investigation they will contact you. Unfortunately, I cannot guarantee you a specific outcome, but if you do not hear from a GMAC or Pearson Vue staff member in a week, please let me know and I will investigate.

Thank you!

Rebecca

Thank You Rebecca. However, I am unsure if I can wait any longer. As you know, application season is upon us and I urgently need to get this test scheduled ASAP. Every day I lose is vital as I am unable to concentrate on applications until I get this GMAT situation resolved. My incident has been 'escalated' but has been under review for the last three days without any resolution and it is becoming increasingly frustrating. I believe the case I have shouldn't take this long to review as the disruptions I was dealt with was pretty straightforward. Can you please help me in any way?

Thanks.

Hi, Dave. I have put in a call to Pearson Vue to find out the status of your issue. I will let you know as soon as I hear something. Thank you.

The issue has now been resolved and I was able to reschedule.
I know you weren't directly involved with case management Rebecca, but I would like to point out that dealing with this incident and talking with the Pearson VUE customer service team has been more frustrating than actually studying for the GMAT exam. I didn't mind the issue I had on Test Day but having to follow-up everyday for this incident and being on hold for 15+ minutes to receive no updates was one of the worst customer service experiences I have ever been through. I would hope that no other GMAT test takers ever have to go through this grueling, frustrating experience and are able to complete the test in one take.

I am sorry to hear you had this experience and have passed your comments onto our test center manager. We do personally review each incident report, so response time does take a few days. I am sorry for your problems.

Rebecca

Hi there,

I know it has been awhile since this thread was used, but I am experiencing very similar issues. I lost time on my Quant section on my exam taken on Saturday 11/9/13. I was given an incident # and called the GMAT service center on Monday and was told that I would be contacted with a resolution within 2-3 days. This morning I recieved my official scores viz email, but no mention of the incident or it's resolution. I called back and tried to explain, however the service representative, as well as his manager, spoke very poor english and it was very difficult to communicate with them. I think they told me that I need to send an email to GMATCandidateservicesamericas if I want any resolution/free retake etc. Does this seem correct? This process has been much more difficult than is reasonable, and I am burning incredibly valuable time as application deadlines are quickly approaching.

Am I just supposed to wait for a response to my email? What type of notification will I receive? What have other individuals experienced when going through the same process? Do you have to wait the 31 days if you are given a free-retake?

Thank you all in advance for your help! I just want to re-take it ASAP and get on with my life

This happened to me too last Saturday. They originally told me to wait 3~5 business days but now they are asking me to wait more. This has been more frustrating than studying GMAT itself, literally. They are the ones to mess up but we are the ones to be frustrated. Application dates and school classes are coming but I still could not take GMAT... Whenever I call the customer service center, they are very rude and keep telling me to wait more. I hope people will not go through any experience like this, they should be able to take it at once with the money they paid.

Hi jmkang9,


Unfortunately, GMAC doesn't handle test center incidents directly as Pearson VUE is the point of contact for any issue regarding testing incidents. Please reach out to Pearson VUE directly. Once again, I do apologize for any inconvenience.

jmkang9 wrote:This happened to me too last Saturday. They originally told me to wait 3~5 business days but now they are asking me to wait more. This has been more frustrating than studying GMAT itself, literally. They are the ones to mess up but we are the ones to be frustrated. Application dates and school classes are coming but I still could not take GMAT... Whenever I call the customer service center, they are very rude and keep telling me to wait more. I hope people will not go through any experience like this, they should be able to take it at once with the money they paid.

Someone is not telling the truth then, because when my Pearson testing center had a technical issue, they referred me to GMAC. They informed me that they could not reschedule nor refund an exam as this was all in the powers of GMAC and all they could do was confirm the technical issue once GMAC called to confirm. I called GMAC right after I had technical issues, waited on hold for 25 minutes, and once I received technical support, they put me on hold again for another 10 minutes. This was all to come back to alerted me I could not do anything until next week since their supervisor and manager had left for the weekend.

ajlee423 wrote:Someone is not telling the truth then, because when my Pearson testing center had a technical issue, they referred me to GMAC. They informed me that they could not reschedule nor refund an exam as this was all in the powers of GMAC and all they could do was confirm the technical issue once GMAC called to confirm. I called GMAC right after I had technical issues, waited on hold for 25 minutes, and once I received technical support, they put me on hold again for another 10 minutes. This was all to come back to alerted me I could not do anything until next week since their supervisor and manager had left for the weekend.

OfficialGMAT, if you're still monitoring this forum, would you mind answering this Q? Students ask me about it from time to time and I'd love to have the latest official explanation.