So Much for Excelsior Customer Service!

[marianne202]

So, I emailed EC about my diploma having my degree awarded printed on an angle on my diploma and not being straight and this is the response I received!

Marianne:

If you would like to send your diploma back to us we can issue you another. However, our diplomas are computer generated and we can't guarantee it will look any different than what you have now. You can keep the diploma cover just mail back the diploma to the following address:

Excelsior College
Office of Registration and Records
7 Columbia Circle
Albany, NY 12203-5159

Best wishes,
Ms. Devon Smith
Office of Registration and Records
(518) 608-8222

Ok, so I spent thousands of dollars at their school and they can't even be worried that aren't sending out usable diplomas! This is a sad, sad day for EC, as I always thought they had better customer service than TESC, but now I'm not so sure. It will cost me as much to mail this back as it costs them to print I'm sure, and they can't even be bothered to ensure they send me a suitable replacement. I'm sure my graduation fee should include at least the cost of a usable diploma.

I'm trying to let myself cool down a little before I fire off my response or call someone with more authority. I just think this is wrong on so many levels. How can they not care about their own reputation, customer service or students? This goes against good, basic business practice in my mind. To think I honestly considered possibly doing a grad certificate with them...I think not now!

Just a heads up for anyone else in the same boat with a sloppy looking diploma!

[burbuja0512]

Marianne,

I am so sorry that you got this response! I bet that someone "higher up" would really love to hear about this. Companies spend so much on promotion and marketing and to have this said in a public forum would be horrifying to the people working hard to make EC an attractive school option for prospective students.

Do cool down a little, but don't let this go! Be persistent and speak to someone who cares and has the power to change things.

[TMW2010]

My diploma came out ok, but I got an email message from them today saying that they're taking back my Pell grant and that I owe them $400, how would I like to pay? :p

[bawhitsett]

My diploma came out ok, but I got an email message from them today saying that they're taking back my Pell grant and that I owe them $400, how would I like to pay? :p

Can they do that?

[marianne202]

I'm wondering what is going on with EC. I decided to email the President with my concern. I will let you know if I get any response. I'm not expecting any, but who knows. I'm to hear about the Pell grant money. I know they can take back money, but you would have thought they should have checked their accounting in your account prior to finalizing everything. What a mess. Good luck getting it fixed. Hopefully it was a mistake and if you ask them to investigate it they will find it.

[Maniac Craniac]

I don't see what you are upset about...? They said you can get the diploma replaced, acknowledged that not all diplomas come out perfectly, and warned you that, because of that, it could happen again.

It's like any other mass-produced product, printed or otherwise, in that some imperfect copies will be made since even the slightest corruption of the production line can cause a noticeable difference.

I'd be upset if they were to charge me for the replacement, but it doesn't look like that will be the case for you.

[Maniac Craniac]

My diploma came out ok, but I got an email message from them today saying that they're taking back my Pell grant and that I owe them $400, how would I like to pay? :p

Now, THAT would make me do THIS --->banghead

[alleycat]

Oh Marianne will your problem ever stop with them. Transcript issues, horrible instructors and now this. They could atleast send you a diploma that is straight. It is the least they could do. After they changed the design and made it much more appealing now they can't get the type set straight. Go get them tiger. I'm sure if anyone could get them to fix this problem it would be you.

[marianne202]

Ok first I want to make clear that what upset me was the lack of customer service or pride that they provide a good product. Yes, mistakes can happen, but they could at least apologize and make it right, but to act like it was normal and probably wouldn't be fixed if re-printed is unacceptable given what they charge for graduation not to mention the costs to complete the degree. The school I teach at charges $60 for graduation for a diploma, holder, transcript AND cap and gown. My grad school only charges $100 for graduation. EC charges $495 for graduation so for that money I expect a correct diploma and better quality assurance along with better customer service.

Secondly, I did email the President at EC and received a very prompt response. He was VERY upset by the fact that I received a diploma looking like this in the first place and even more upset by the response from the records office. He said I should not be expected to send back my current diploma and he will have a new one printed correctly and sent to me. He said I have every right to expect better customer service than what I received as they have a higher standard than what I experienced.

This restores my faith in EC.

[TMW2010]

Can they do that?

Once I was 99% done with my degree requirements (basically during the week before my class finals) I updated my FAFSA to have it sent to APU in preparation for starting there Jan 3rd for their Master of Arts in Psychology program.

Apparently this kicked off a verification of my information (at both schools, go figure) where I needed to supply my tax return, and my wife and my own W-2s. Everything went swimmingly (apparently) and I got a response back saying that the validation was complete, everything was good.

Now I get an email saying my EFC was so and so, and that I was ineligible for the Pell Grant so they're giving the money back to the government and I owe them $400. Even better, I had updated my fafsa as soon as I did my 2009 taxes in Feb last year, before starting with them in March. The fact that I got a Pell in July suprised me, since I didn't qualify for one in March when the info was first used, so I shrugged it off to the big sweeping changes that happened in federal governance of student loans that was hidden away in the health care bill.

Guess not... Weee... I knew I should have made sure to get my transcript ordered last week.. ROFL