So I am posting the below because I am finding the whole experience so incredible that I just couldn't have made it up.
N.B. My understanding is that the below is fair comment and not is in breach of the click-through NDA which I agreed to when I took the RHCSA exam or describes any specifics about the exam itself. Red Hat have not however supplied me with a copy of the NDA text or made it available online that I can find so it's not possible for me to double check. If someone in a position of authority takes issue and can show me differently then I will consider amending this post.
So I have been studying by myself to take the RHCSA exam. I am based in the UK and don't currently work in the IT field. Back in February I felt ready to book my exam.
First issue - losing emails:
The exam booking system is not very user friendly- you must purchase a voucher with Red Hat and then register and book with a third party. I chose an individual kiosk based exam because it would be difficult for me to get to a classroom centre for an 09:00 start (which is when all the classroom exams are). There is only one kiosk location in the UK- RH UK office but you still have to book via the third party, which I tried to do. I had some questions about the times offered and emailed the given RH address for help. I got an automated customer service trouble ticket, and that was that... After a couple of days I phoned RH UK and after spending 1/2 hour on the phone was given the email address of an RH employee in the USA who was able to resolve my to my query after a couple of days. I use a vanilla gmail account and check my spam folder etc. I never received a follow-up response to my trouble ticket email.
Second issue - hosting software:
So I arrived for my exam. There seemed to be some confusion about who should deal with me but no biggie and the room with the exam kiosk was ok. Red Hat describe the kiosk online e.g. in this video and the setup I was presented with was essentially identical to this. If you go to 2 minutes in in that video you'll see the presenter say that the kiosk exam shows off RH software. It's easy to miss the blue title and taskbars in the video but, yes, you've guessed it. The kiosk session is hosted in Windows. In my case my start time was delayed because I was getting an error that it was too early for me to start my exam, a Windows 7 error prompt. I found the performance of the exam software to be very slow indeed, far worse than say the teamviewer remote desktopping I had done from UK to Italy a couple of weeks beforehand. I won't speculate as to why but Windows? Here? Really? I wouldn't claim that it makes the difference between pass and fail but it was very frustrating. I presume that the equipment is double dutied for video conferencing because I did have some RH staff blunder into the exam room whilst I was under test before quickly apologising and leaving.
I did not pass the exam on this first attempt. I am not blaming the equipment or RH for this. Amongst other things I developed acute bronchitis a few days before the exam which surely did not help and my illness continued for 2 weeks following.
Third issue- booking a resit:
So I am now more or less over my illness and wish to book a retake. RH have put the price up by 10% in the interim and also decided that VAT is now chargeable at the Irish rate of 23% when none was applied before- I am not aware of any change to Irish tax rules between February and March 2016 but it's not like I have much choice in the matter. As I try to use the voucher I have purchased I am getting the error 'You are already enrolled in this course'. I phone Red Hat UK and am told that 'the system used does not permit retakes' and that I should:
- Create a new Red Hat user account (presumably in turn requiring a new email address to do so)
- Then use the enrolment key from the first account to book an exam using the second account
- Should I then pass I then contact RH certification to have my certification transferred back to my original account.
I'll be honest, I have seen children's nurseries with better software provision than this.
Before I do this I should like to be quite clear and have it in writing that this is the stipulated procedure as I do not want to lose my money or be accused of impersonating someone else or have any certificate awarded under another identity. I am told that 'it is not possible' to speak directly to the certification team and that I can only be supplied with a link to a web form. So I have made my query on the form and got a trouble ticket. Fingers crossed that they respond in the advised 3 US business days.
TL;DR
Red Hat, a supposed market leader in IT:
- Are demonstrably unable to respond effectively to email queries from individuals already registered as account holders with them.
- Host what one would have thought to be show-piece software on a competitor's platform and let it run like swimming in treacle
- Use a booking system that can't handle exam resits with the workaround that you create a new identity if you need to do so and then hope that you can contact them (via web form) to get it sorted out afterwards
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