Have you SmartCertify? 3

[Rinnt]

Hello all,

I would be interested to know if any of you have had recent experience with Smartcertify.com. Has it been good or bad?

What would be an alternative to studying for MCSE? I've traditionally used a book and home network but that does take some time. Another alternative I've considered is taking a cert class locally (very pricy however). Are there any online (maybe cbts?) you can recommend?

Specifically, I have had these two places with the following rep recommended to me by our service vendor:

http://www.knowledgenet.com

- more cert/boot camp oriented

http://www.globalknowledge.com

- more engineering based
Any experience with these

I recently received a call from smart certify... The whole experience this far has been quite nerve-racking. It started out with a call from a lady rep yesterday. I bascially told her I've had bad experiences with CBT. The funnies part was I think some guy was actually telling her what to say! I could hear a guy say what she said before she did... for example:

ME: So you can help me get my MCSE
*Some faint guys voice*: ummmm...
HER: ummmm...
*Some faint guys voice*: so is that something you're interested in?
HER: So is that something you're interested in?

haha, anyway, to make a long story short she put me thru to her "account manager" which I believe was actually the faint voice I heard... He told me that for $4,400 ($3,300 if I ordered that day - last week promo extended) I would get the MCSE course AND full access to their ENTIRE IT Library for 2 years! Not to mention I would have a 24/7 mentor and they'd guaruntee I get my mcse within 2 tries or I get a full refund. Does this sound to good to be true or what?

Well, I'm afraid it may be...

Go to groups.google.com and type in SmartCertify. You will see that there is nothing good said about them, but about 900 bad hits. I found ONE good post out of many bad ones. The horror stories are enough to deter me!

Please, if any of you can recommend any online training and your experiences I would love to hear! Additionally, any that you have had a BAD experience would be useful as well. Thanks!!!!

 

[CharlieJax]

You poor thing... they will call you every 3 months for the rest of your life.

Anyway, I belive SmartCertify makes a lot of the stuff you can get from other companies... infact I am about half way through my MCSE and so far I found very little diffrence between diffrent CBTs, I would go with the cheapest one (if you plan to go that way... I haven't really used my CBT because I am not that happy with them (They are from TestOut and I also did use another company... but I can't remember who they are).

SmartCertify is suppose to be a good company, but the testing information is the same no matter what CBT you get. I have been working off the ExamCram books, Cramsessions, other free resources online, and experence.

I say get the numbers of a couple diffrent CBT companies, call them all up at the same time and let them fight it out.

Seriously though, SmartCertify allows you to try out their CBTs, go to their website and test them out, if you like them go with them... other companies should allow you a free trial as well so you can compare.

CJ
- Jr. Rocket Man

 

[Rob999]

Sadly, I did go with Smart Certify.

I chose their MCSD program because at the time I was light on straight VB experience. This was last November. Having gotten the product it was NOT exam specific at all - in fact, the ONE time I ever heard from an "advisor" they recommended Transcender, books, braindumps, etc. to get ready for the test.

Having used the 1st 2 cd's (VB desktop and distributed) it's clearly aimed at beginners - not people who are prepared to sit for a certification exam. I only spent about 1,900 (another 'sale' that was ending that week) and would be very ticked, but fortunately for me I ended up having to learn a whole bunch fast to complete a number of projects at work, have now passed the VB175 (the hardest), VB176 and VB100 exams to date. I'm taking the 70-229 SQL exam in about 6 weeks and I'll have my MCSD, but Smart Certify was NO help.

 

[Rinnt]

I'm sorry to hear about your experience.

It makes me wonder how a business can stay active like this... Anyway, I didn't go with SmartCertify. Besides "just not sounding right", and all the negative feedback from people I went away. I also emailed abuse@smartcertify.com and told them I wanted NOTHING to do with them and to remove all my phone, email, and address info from their databases immediately. I have had little trouble from them since then. Occationally I'll receive an email from them, but it's because I forgot to unsubscribe that address.

Instead, I did some quick research on knowledgenet (

http://www.knowledgenet.com)

and was pleased with the feed back. I ordered their MCSA course and have found it very effective so far. The true proof will be shown when I take the test howerver! So far I can honestly recommend knowledgenet. One thing to be careful of: If you order the MCSA course it only covers THREE of the FOUR tests... It's not obvious on the website and even the account manager that set me up initially thought it included the forth test. Disappointing but not enough to affect my view of them.

 

[michaelhensel]

I signed up in August with SamrtCertify Direct and I am extremely unhappy with thair product and services.

I am trying to get me money back, any recomenadtions?

I am looking for posting/comments about exeriences with Smart Certify, in case I have to take them to court.

Please advise,

Michael

 

[sdibias]

All I can say is that they called me for two years after trying a practice course from them... Visit www.netwerkin.com
MCSE 2000, MCSA, MCP, A+

 

[Rinnt]

michaelhensel,

Sorry to hear you have run into problems with SmartCertify, but hopefully we can all learn from your painful mistake. If you wish to have more stories about simular cases, I would suggest you do what I did: do a search for SmartCertify on groups.google.com ...I do recall there was one particular person on the lists that were broght up by that search who was intending to bring them to court. Good luck and let us know how it turns out!

 

[michaelhensel]

That person was me , Thanks anyway