I was looking for training that would help me pass the Micorosft 70-291 exam. I took the test some time ago and failed. I hoped that additional training would help. I spent a week researching this company before choosing their $50 first month trial. I even read some of the reports in this site. After confirming with the sales guy that all I had to do was submit a ticket to cancel, I thought perhaps these reports were outliers.
I signed up and got access to the material within an hour or so. After a little time figuring outhow to work the site, I started watching videos for the Microsoft 70-291 Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure. I was initially dissappointed because the first things the instructer we into was how important planning a network infrastructure was. He went in depth about general planning. Although important, that isn't covered in the exam.
As I continued to watch the videos, I felt as if the instructer was trying to sell me on the great benefits that Windows Server 2003 provided. If there was a Microsoft bandwagon, he'd be on it shouting at the top of his lungs about how great Microsoft was for giving us this new server, with all it's added features and benefits. Sorry, I'm trying to study for the exam not purchase Windows.
Then the first quiz came up. Half of the questions were so poorly written, they didn't make sense unless you really tried to figure it (the question) out. I wanted to give examples, but that would violate copyright laws.
But the answers don't really match the questions.
See what I mean. Now why aren't I posting a question from the exam that I was studying for? Well, apparently when you sign up for LearnSmart, you're only allowed to study (check-out) two products at a time. If you want to study a third, you have to check one of the programs back in and check-out the third program. That's what I did. After a couple of times, I got an error:
Max Check-outs Reached
You have reached your max number of Check-outs within 0 Days.
Your next Check-out will be available 11/23.
Contact LearnSmart or your Administrator to upgrade.
Hmm, I guess I can't study the 70-291 exam anymore. Anyway, after all of my experiences, I decided LearnSmart wasn't for me. So I submitted a ticket to cancel my trial. That's when people started getting rude.
I received a call from someone asking why I wanted to cancel. I told him I though the training was not "Certification Level" and compared to other products I was using, did not think that the LearnSmart material would help. He said, "Well I'm not calling you a liar, but I hardly believe that. It's the first I've ever heard that.", then he asked why I haven't watched at least 5 hours of the videos. I told him I didn't need to, I've already decided from what I've seen so far that LearnSmart won't work for me. He then told me I had to watch at least 5 hours of training videos to cancel or I owe them 25% of the program price (about $500).
I asked him why. He said that's the deal I agreed to. I asked him again, "Why would you force me to watch 5 hours of videos to make me cancel? Is it a punishment?"
He said he was trying to save me the 25% fee.
That's simply rediculous. I signed up for a trial program so I could see if their training was any good before committing to a full program. But that's not what I signed up for at all. Apparently, the "Trial" is simply a reduced first month payment on the full product.
But I think it's like test driving a car. Once you've driven it for a few minutes, you KNOW that either you like it or not. If the salesman said you had to drive it for at least 5 hours before you could bring it back, would that make you change your mind about the car? No! It just pisses you off because now you can't move on to the next car. You're stuck until you fulfill the terms of their agreement.
Hence, this report.
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