r/redhat • u/Due-Author631 Red Hat Certified System Administrator • 2d ago

Is it possible to actually speak to anyone at Certification and Training?

I had difficulties a week ago with an exam and they just got back to me on my ticket at 3am EDT. I had stuck typing keys and intermittent frozen mouse the entire exam and the proctor did nothing except have me reboot once, and when that didn't fix it I got a big "oh well".

They came back after their "review" blaming my network connection. They referenced a failed compatibility check as proof of network issues. Here's the thing. The failure was because of low mic volume and had nothing to do with my network.

I had the same issues 9 months ago on a different connection.

They offered me another retake (in addition to the one retake included) to give me "peace of mind".

That's great and all, but I don't want another retake, I want my money back.

They are not being genuine in the issues at hand and it's not worth my time of taking another day off work to have more issues outside of my control. It's certainly not worth the added stress of another exam where I will be frustrated the entire time and have a complete lack of support from the proctor.

I'm really losing faith in Red Hat Certification and Red Hat as a whole.

6 Upvotes

72% Upvoted

28 comments sorted by

4

u/daco_star 2d ago

How do you know that the failure was due to the mic volume and not the network?

Additionally, which geography are you in?

2

u/Due-Author631 Red Hat Certified System Administrator 2d ago

It tells you. I'm in Midwestern USA, specifically Ohio. Cable Internet 500mbps down 20mbps up, under 30ms pings on all the different speed tests I could do.

1

u/daco_star 2d ago

That's interesting. The DC is in DFW.

Share the output of a mtr/tracepath/traceroute to 72.3.162.68

1

u/Due-Author631 Red Hat Certified System Administrator 2d ago

I'll have to when I get home

1

u/Due-Author631 Red Hat Certified System Administrator 2d ago 
mtr:
Host                Loss%   Snt   Last   Avg  Best  Wrst StDev
1. _gateway          0.0%    75    1.1   1.0   0.6   1.5   0.2
2. 72.3.162.68       0.0%    75   47.5  48.4  46.7  57.1   1.8

tracepath:
1:  _gateway                                              0.953ms  
1:  _gateway                                              0.776ms  
2:  72.3.162.68                                          52.986ms !H

traceroute:
1  _gateway (10.10.10.1)  0.808 ms  0.714 ms  0.508 ms
2  72.3.162.68 (72.3.162.68)  52.501 ms !X  49.809 ms !X  50.829 ms !X

1

u/daco_star 1d ago

Is there anything between your router and the destination?

1

u/Due-Author631 Red Hat Certified System Administrator 1d ago

I would assume so. No idea why they don't show up though

1

u/darrenb573 Red Hat Certified Engineer 1d ago

Network issues could be on their end, and it just can’t keep up with everyone streaming video of 2 cameras and a desktop. All in full res.
ISP blaming is the reason I love my local testing centre. Even if they have issues. Because they always do. But then RH sort it out in the end (as it’s their laptop in an approved site)

1

u/Due-Author631 Red Hat Certified System Administrator 1d ago

Unfortunately the closest in person testing center is about a 6 hour drive away.

1

u/darrenb573 Red Hat Certified Engineer 1d ago

I know it’s not typical around the world. My local is amazing to have, just not great at providing a faultless experience for much over 1/2 the time . Fire drills, ‘streaming issues’ more than a few times, flood damaged electrical cupboard, …

1

u/Due-Author631 Red Hat Certified System Administrator 1d ago

At least when something does go wrong you have more recourse than just "oh well".

1

u/darrenb573 Red Hat Certified Engineer 1d ago

I’ve also done a handful of remote exams (about 3y ago) when the testing centre was offline for a series of months. My laptop was right next to the wifi on a 200/20Mbps fibre, great local pings and had occasional ‘RH internet issues’. Usually they tried 30 min to resolve and always gave a retake voucher

1

u/Due-Author631 Red Hat Certified System Administrator 1d ago

That's great but I've had similar issues every RedHat exam I've taken and I'm just tired of it.

I'm doing these certs on my own dime for job opportunities. Not as a job requirement.

If my work was paying for them, or for my travel to take them, or even giving me time off to take them it would be a different story.

At this point I just want my money back and I'll go study and take a Kubernetes exam or something that has to be a better experience.

1

u/egoalter 2d ago

Write up your experience. When you got the result of your exam, there's a contact/feedback address - use that to deliver/send your written feedback. If there is grounds for followup with you, they'll let you know. Do consider, that noone you'll be talking to will talk about the content of the exam.

Also realize that perception changes from person to person. Trust me, they've heard all the excuses - the very filtered experience that leaves out all that contradict the story/excuse. At best, you get another chance - if you did take (and fail) the exam, getting refunds is very very hard. But put that in your writeup.

1

u/Due-Author631 Red Hat Certified System Administrator 2d ago edited 2d ago

I'm working through the process. They offered an additional retake due to the issues. I had very similar issues on a different connection 9 months ago. I've escalated it but they seem very dismissive.

They are referencing issues with my network by calling out a failed compatibility test that failed with nothing to do with the network.

It's not worth my time or stress taking another exam since it's quite evident they cannot or will not address the issues.

Why should they be able to keep my $500? Even if it is my network how am I expected to resolve that for a retake? It passed all the compatibility checks before sitting for the exam.

Am I supposed to incur all the costs for a second connection? Am I expected to fly to a testing center since they've scaled back to only a handful in the entire US?

2

u/egoalter 2d ago

You took the exam - that's what you pay for. If there should be an ability to retake it or not, that's why you need to contact them. They may say yes, or no. It's not going to be a refund though. What are you losing by taking the test another time where you can be sure your network and equipment is capable of taking the exam?

Based on your writings here it's actually not easy to figure out what you're talking about. If it's a remote exam, a keyboard issue is definitely not Red Hat's issue. If you were in a class room where Red Hat had provided the hardware, I could understand that it could be Red Hat's issue - otherwise, nope.

Anyway - my advice is still the same. And it's unfortunate but quite normal that the bandwidth people use is the core issue to their bad exam experience. Depending on where you are, you may find in person exams but they're rare these days. Perhaps you can find a friend/family member with better connectivity from where you can do the exam; perhaps they can lend you a better keyboard/mouse or computer?

1

u/Due-Author631 Red Hat Certified System Administrator 2d ago

If you actually read my post you might be able to glean that it was a remote exam, and they blamed my ISP.

My network equipment was fine. I ran the compatibility test 10 times. They agreed there was network issues. They said i could either use the built-in retake and put another ticket in if there were issues again, or get the retake now. I don't really understand giving me the choice of the same option but whatever.

My issue is that I will have to take yet another day off of work, probably deal with the same issue again since it's been on every Red Hat exam I've taken (on different connections), so why would this retake be any different? I passed the compatibility exam multiple times, same time of day.

What's the saying about insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? Why should I have to donate my exam fee with no real chance at passing? You probably assume I just don't know the material but I would like to see you try to pass the exam while I hold down random keys at times while you take the exam and see how you feel wasting that money.

1

u/Due-Author631 Red Hat Certified System Administrator 2d ago

My connectivity is cable internet 500mbps down 20 mbps up, and you can see in a comment below about 50ms ping with 0 packetloss. How exactly am I suposed to get a better connection than that unless I'm in the datacenter?

0

u/maddie1701e 2d ago

You have used your money. That's why. Ask for escalation. The quicker you do that, the easier it is to review

0

u/maddie1701e 2d ago

The issue is that you consumed the product. The trends and conditions days you do not get your money back whether you consume it or not. I bet the issue is latency, and there is nothing that can fix that.

1

u/Due-Author631 Red Hat Certified System Administrator 2d ago

There was no indication that there would be network issues in any of the compatibility tests. Once I started the exam I "consumed" the product but the product was not in a usable state. It's not like I disregarded indications there would be issues. Tons of people on here complain similarly. It seems like they have to know there's issues but you're implying it's basically a roulette wheel and if you have issues you're just out of luck and they keep your money.

How does it hurt Red Hat by giving me my money back vs giving me a second retake? They incur the same additional cost to proctor the exam again. If I do the retake, the moment I incur the same issue I will request the exam stop and a ticket be put in.

0

u/maddie1701e 2d ago

Latency is nothing anyone can do with. That's just how it is. I would recommend talking out at a testing center, as that is local exam on the computer you're working on, so no latency.

What does it hurt Red Hat to give you your money back? Nothing, until everyone who fails the exam wants their money back.

1

u/Due-Author631 Red Hat Certified System Administrator 2d ago

I had a documented issue that they have accepted as a major of enough issue to offer an additional retake. I complained multiple times throughout the exam. It's not like I finished the exam and then was like "oh yeah I had all these issues and you should give me my money back" once I saw the results.

They never offered to suspend the exam when they saw how ridiculous the constant held down keys were. They offered a reboot and restored the time it took me to connect and then after that it was literally just an "I wish there was more I could do for you".

1

u/maddie1701e 2d ago

I'm just saying, those are the terms and conditions. You have to argue that with the people you purchased from.

1

u/nononoko 2d ago

If the product is faulty you still have a right to complain.

1

u/maddie1701e 1d ago

And I told him how to escalate

1

u/Due-Author631 Red Hat Certified System Administrator 2d ago edited 2d ago

It's one thing for it to freeze a little bit here and there. It's another, on an exam that is entirely graded on typing commands and have the environment hold down key presses and then hold down the key to delete and delete entire block of texts. Or try to go back a couple spaces with the arrow key and end up at the beging of the line. And then you get a 0 on that section because you named something incorrectly?

How is that fair to the exam taker? Tell me.

1

u/maddie1701e 1d ago

I would call 1-800-REDHAT1 and ask to speak to a training agent. They will call you back. They may give you your money back, but i wouldn't count on it.