We have all had horrific customer “support” experiences: AI chatbots that churn out irrelevant responses, a labyrinth of dropdown menus and links that make it hard to connect with a live person, a live person who pastes pre-written responses that don’t address your problem, unfulfilled promises that someone will get back to you, wasted hours and days trying to get help… the list is as endless as the frustration it causes. But something much worse than annoyance is at risk when inept customer service blocks students from taking exams or fulfilling steps they need in order to gain admittance to universities en route to a rewarding career and life.
I recently spent three weeks trying to help my daughter’s friend register for an exam that many universities still require of students applying for admission. She needs this test to get into the university she wants to attend and has done everything correctly, on her end, to complete the required steps for entry to that college. I sat between her and my daughter as they each registered for this exam on their laptops, but a technical glitch stopped my daughter’s friend’s registration, and when we went back to try again, the website forced her registration into the following year’s test date, even though her chosen test time was still available. It would be a simple fix to correct her test date, but one that required the help of the company that oversees the assessment.
No problem, right? Just reach out to the testing company, explain the error, and ask that they change the registration date to the correct year? Wrong.
When Dysfunction Equals Discrimination
What followed was a three-week battle to get this assistance. I called regularly, sent over 30 emails that rendered unhelpful responses, and waited fruitlessly when I was told someone would get back to me. Each attempt at help got me either (a) no response at all, (b) a promise that a supervisor would get back to me (but then no one actually would), or (c) a reply that was so detached from what I had asked that it seemed the customer support rep had not actually read what I had written. It took me reaching out to the company’s Board members and trustees on social media for me to finally get a response from someone who addressed my request: merely fixing the teen’s SAT registration date.
My daughter’s friend was thus able to take her exam, but what about less fortunate students? This experience sparked two crucial questions:
- If it was this hard for me to get help (an adult with an advanced degree in Education, who has worked in the Education field and overseen assessment and student data, who speaks English as my first language, who is highly familiar with this test, etc.), then how are students or parents who lack a similar background supposed to get any help when a testing company fails them?
- If universities require such tests for entry (or for other perks, like providing college credits for AP scores), then what happens to students who are not able to take required tests (or are not able to access their scores) due to unresponsive customer support?
It is easy to see how this setup puts students from historically marginalized groups, such as those facing poverty or language issues, at an unfair disadvantage. Students who are blocked from taking required tests cannot get into the colleges that require these assessments. This makes testing companies unfortunate gatekeepers, blocking students from their dreams when these companies fail to function properly. When it comes to blocking students’ pathways to further education and socioeconomic advancement, poor customer service can equal discrimination, as it is likely to be worse for students in historically marginalized groups who do not necessarily have parents with the language skills, education, or time to navigate dysfunctional Customer Support departments and advocate (repeatedly) for help.