D'Arcy from Winnipeg
Solution Architecture, Business & Entrepreneurship, Microsoft, and Adoption
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Never mind Vista, here's REALLY trusting Microsoft...

Monday, February 19, 2007 12:57 PM

I'm an MCSD. I've passed all the exams. However, when my testing center registered me, they created an entirely new MCP ID for me (WTF?!), so now I have two accounts linked to me, with two sets of exams passed on them. Great. Should be easy to clear it up right?

That's what I thought...until I was told that I had to send in a copy of my birth certificate (just a scan) as proof. Ok, not crazy about that, but whatever (not crazy about the fact that I'm pretty sure they've outsourced the center to India either...again, nothing wrong with Indian people...its more the out-of-country thing. I'd be just as not-crazy if they outsourced to Germany or Japan or wherever).

So I send it away and get a response: Please send a copy of your driver's license.

Ok, now this is getting silly. Luckily Manitob Driver's Licences don't have a tonne of info on the photo ID part (we have an archaic two-piece license that includes a paper piece that holds all the address and other details).

So I'm about to send that away to the black hole that is Microsoft's MCP Help. I'm hoping I'm not going to regret this...

If they ask for a blood sample, I'm drawing the line.

D



Feedback

# re: Never mind Vista, here's REALLY trusting Microsoft...

That sounds downright crazy - I can't imagine why Microsoft would need either of those pieces of info...it would seem that since the testing center goofed in the first place, they should be the ones to set things right...i.e., you can show up in person again and "prove" you are you in person and then they fix it.

There should be no reason to have to send all that personal information out...I sure hope you don't regret that either. I'm guessing that particular group of Microsoft folks don't bother keeping up with Kim Cameron and http://www.identityblog.com/


2/19/2007 1:20 PM | Lou

# re: Never mind Vista, here's REALLY trusting Microsoft...

That has got to be outright identity theft! There should be no reason why any vendor anywhere would need a copy of your birth certificate.

That's like someone who called me and said that they were Chase credit card customer support. To start the call they wanted my account number and SSN. I said, "hey wait, you called me! Why would you need that!" 2/19/2007 3:13 PM | Scott Miller

# re: Never mind Vista, here's REALLY trusting Microsoft...

I've know a couple of people who have gone through this process. It's not pretty and is a pain to deal with. However if you want your MCSD cred then you'll go through this.

But yes, the blood sample goes to far! 2/20/2007 8:33 AM | Jason Row

# re: Never mind Vista, here's REALLY trusting Microsoft...

I think this is required because there have been some cases of forgery, such as unscrupulous companies advertising MCSD certification for $5000, no study or tests involved. Basically they create a fake ID with your name and the picture of some schmoe who has memorized the answers. Then he goes in and takes the tests for you. Talk about low. I wish a slow and painful death for those involved with such two-bit operations.

Anyway, it's best to schedule directly with Prometric or Vue rather than a testing center to avoid these kinds of issues. (Even though Prometic doesn't always have an 100% updated look at availability for all testing centers!)

Hopefully it will be an easy resolution... 2/20/2007 10:07 AM | Lorin Thwaits

# re: Never mind Vista, here's REALLY trusting Microsoft...

Yeah, I figured that's why they required it...I got a response back assuring me that my records would be "kept totally confidential in their database"...which still doesn't ease my mind totally, but I guess it will have to suffice.

The funny thing is that I did schedule directly through Prometric's website and not through the testing center, so why I ended up with a seperate MCP ID is beyond me. It could be that, for whatever reason, my name on one account is all caps and in the other one its all lower case...that's the only difference in my name, but I guess it was enough to flag it.

I've had confirmation that they'll be making the changes in their database to reflect the changes within two business days, so here's hoping...

D 2/20/2007 10:13 AM | D'Arcy from Winnipeg

# re: Never mind Vista, here's REALLY trusting Microsoft...

Have you gotten one of the new Manitoba driver's licenses? I just got mine recently (apparently they'd stopped making the printer cartridges required for the old licenses, and Manitoba had bought all the remaining stock from the suppliers... plus the old ID didn't meet the US RealIdentity Check program (grrrrr) ).

I swear my Uni Student card looks like it's more sophisticated than the new driver's licenses.... (never mind they're ugly as sin... even without the picture... which we're not allowed to smile in :-|, or the ugly-a$$ piece of crap lamination they put on top of it). Compared to what I've seen of Ontario and BC drivers licenses (which was a few years ago) it's a joke. 2/20/2007 2:33 PM | Cameron
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