!IMPORTANT! MCSE Course Pack - To buy, or not? Need advice quickly!

implexant · January 7th, 2004, 02:45 PM

A guy from Exam Force (http://www.examforce.com/) just called me out of the blue today. He said I had filled out a survey on their site (I did, like 2 years ago). They want me to purchase a life time membership to their entire course offerings (EVERYTHING, MS, Cisco, just plain everything they offer). Comes with free updates. They send you two course packs at a time (like 70-270 and 70-290), after you complete those, you call and they send you the next two you want. There is no limit to how much you can get, and free updates and all that. They offering it to me at a "great deal" because I filled ou the survey.

Basically, I have until Friday to decide whether or not I want it. I can't release a price or whatever because they are supposidly offering this to me at a discount price way below standard industry price. They said they haven't even opened up a life time membership to the public yet. But I can say it is way below $2000 for the lifetime membership for me, at this point.

I was going to wait until after high school and college to go for my MCSE, but this looks like a great deal. Plus, it's lifetime, so I could wait and still have all the stuff + free updates.

Tell me what you think!

-Chris

SeanC · January 7th, 2004, 03:19 PM

Sounds like a VERY sweet deal. If you can get access to all kinds of certification material for less then $2000 for life, go for it.

Did you ask if there is any renewal fees at all? I'd check that VERY carefully, just in case.

If there's not and you can get/have the money go for it.

Sean

implexant · January 7th, 2004, 03:23 PM

Ya, I'm thinking it's a pretty sweet deal. Just asking around. Does anyone happen to have any experience with the company and their course?

-Chris

**EvilRick** · January 7th, 2004, 04:11 PM

I did a little Googling on ExamForce (can't get to their site right now for some reason) and it looks like the might have been called ExamCram (that links seems dead as well).

Anyway, a little further into Google and it looks like if you're on the ExamForce mailing list, you're info is being sold.

Quote:

EXAMFORCE.COM E-MAIL LIST
This is a list of more than 227,516 e-mail addresses of customers of ExamForce.com. A division of Adaptive Learning Systems, this site offers products to help individuals pass their Microsoft, CompTIA, Cisco, Citrix, Oracle, CIW, (ISC)2, and Linux certification exams. Those on the list have a history of purchasing business-to-business offers, software and hardware offers, training and certification offers, networking and communication products, books, and conference and seminar offers.

Cost: $225/M

Contact: Worldata, 561-393-8200 or www.worldata.com

From Catalog AGE

I wouldn't give these guys 1¢. What if you didn't pass any tests after using their stuff? There goes your $ down the drain. Doesn't matter how little it cost, is it worth it if it doesn't work? Tell them you'd like to try one of their courses first, if they really want you, they'll let you have it.

Again, I wouldn't hand over my $ just yet. Dig as hard as you can on them. Call them. If it's legit, they should have no problem talking to you on the phone or letting you wait longer to decide. If it were me, and I had to decide by a deadline, I'd say "No!". That's just a sales technique to get you to buy it. They'll pump you up and try to throw catch-words at you to get you to buy.

So, for right now, I say "No, don't do it."

DVNT1 · January 7th, 2004, 04:25 PM

I agree with EvilRick. If they pressure you to meet that deadline then I would be very concerned. Sales deadlines like that are often used to pressure the purchase before the potential buyer has time to completely figure out what the value really is.

If the amount was of little significance to you then you would not be asking us if you should buy it. Therfore I would suggest keeping your money until you can find someone who can give you an unbiased opinion on that material/service. even then, I would be very skeptical.

$2000 for MCSE can be a fair price, so getting CISCO and others "for life" seems too good to be real. There has to be a catch or otherwise important missing info. Maybe the lifetiem memebrship still requires "annual maintenance fees" or some other way of continuing their income from you.

John Prophet · January 7th, 2004, 04:26 PM

sounds a lil suspect to me. Anything NEAR 2k is a lot of money to be investing.....Id do a lil research first......the whole "we need to know by this Friday" type thing....usually when you hear that, you are best of to tell the person straight up "well, no thanks then, I dont do business under time pressure".....you'll come out way ahead in the long run.

Has the familar smell of "scam" to my nose.

What if they only been around 2 months?
Where can you get some examples of their material?
How often is the material updated?
Why doesnt their website work?
Why dont they have this deal posted where everyone can read it?
Have any "cert" type websites reviewed and gave the thumbs up to them?

$2000?????

shooooooootttttttttt.

Id hold off personally and just invest in ONE cert at a time.

JP

implexant · January 7th, 2004, 04:34 PM

Quote:

it looks like if you're on the ExamForce mailing list, you're info is being sold.

No wonder I've been getting so much spam

Quote:

That's just a sales technique to get you to buy it.

implexant · January 7th, 2004, 05:03 PM

Ok, just called the guy.

1) I asked if they sold their mailing list. He said, no. Then quickly said, well honestly, I don't really know. Then he put me on hold and went and found someone who knows. That guy told him to tell me that the list they sell is an "opt-in" list of people (like me) who go to the website and sign up for their free newsletters. Obviously they have small print that allows them to sell the list.

2) He also clarified, or more or less made clear the "facts" that he wasn't planning on selling me a life time membership by Friday. He was trying to get the software (one title) into my hand so I could evaluate it for two weeks. At that two week time, I could choose to upgrade to a life time membership. They do not offer a refund on their software unless I fail the course twice. The one title he wants to send me is $100 (non-refundable), and to upgrade to the life time membership would be $700. Total of $800. (I guess I spilled the beans, who cares, they never asked me to keep it private anyway)

3) Their company (Adaptive Learning) has been in business for 10 years (since 1994) and has recently changed their name and purchased the rights to Exam Cram's software.

4) They apparently have a big big positive review from Certification Magazine, but he couldn't point me in the right direction to get ahold of the review.

He kept giving me reasons to buy the first title for $100, so I could decide whether or not I liked it. I basically said I don't wanna spend $100 just to see if I like it. He wouldn't shut up, so I told him to call me Friday to see if I had changed my mind.

So whatcha all think?

-Chris

implexant · January 7th, 2004, 05:07 PM

Found this article:

http://www.certmag.com/common/newsce...ay.cfm?id=2334

-Chris

[EDIT]

Also found this article by Ben Ice of Adaptive Learning:

http://www.certmag.com/articles/temp...=549&zoneid=11

implexant · January 7th, 2004, 05:11 PM

Dug up this thread from MCSE World:

http://www.mcseworld.com/showthread/t-10379.html

And this:

http://certification.about.com/cs/alphalist/

(under Exam Force)

-Chris