Bar Exams, Screw-Ups, Technology

ExamSoft Finally Apologizes For Botching The Bar Exam (Refunds Not So Much)

ExamSoft finally apologizes three weeks after the fact. Maybe it was written in July and it's just taken this long for the ExamSoft software to load it up.

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Almost a month after ExamSoft treated us to the biggest bar exam disaster ever, they’ve issued an apology. Well, that’s something. One would have expected this within hours of the debacle that the Internet dubbed #Barghazi. Maybe it was written in July and it’s just taken this long for the ExamSoft software to load it up.

Despite calls that ExamSoft needs to bite the bullet and refund student money over this mishap and pending legal claims, ExamSoft is content to offer a straight-forward “oops, our bad,” and carry on like nothing ever happened.

Is this apology enough? Do the victims of this snafu deserve more?

Are all of you just overreacting?

A tipster directed us to this update on the ExamSoft website:

“Sorry we made some of you all think you were going to fail the most important exam of your life. But you’ll have a hell of a story to tell!” As corporate mea culpas go, this is one of the most tepid. Maybe the fact that they’re getting sued tempered their response, but the gap between the student response and this apology makes the company seem hopelessly out of touch. Muzquiz may as well have just sent out this:

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That said, despite the meltdown over the Internet and fire-breathing that appeared on sites like, well, this one, everyone needs to cool their jets a tad. Emotional distress? Scarring? PTSD? These are actual terms people use when describing ExamSoft’s botched process. One bar exam taker who experienced the meltdown — but maintained a sense of perspective — explained the issue thusly:

Anyone who’d used the Internet before could tell it was a server overload. Probably because that’s exactly what happens when everyone tries to upload something all at once. So I just went to sleep and figured it would work in the morning.

Why was this test-taker so confident this wouldn’t make the test late? “I trusted in the collective neuroticism of my peers.”

So let’s stop acting like this was a traumatic event for anyone but the most committed nervous-nellies. But that doesn’t let ExamSoft off the hook. Even without the histrionics, ExamSoft does need to cough up serious refunds because students paid the company not insignificant money to perform ONE TASK and ExamSoft failed miserably. That alone demands a refund. At least a partial refund. Students paid for timely uploads. Presumably their hundreds of dollars were going to ensure that ExamSoft had the capacity to handle thousands of simultaneous uploads seamlessly. When that didn’t happen, then ExamSoft failed to deliver on what they promised. Case closed.

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But instead of the refund these folks deserve, they got this weak sauce apology. Oh, and a newsletter.

That’s right, rather than cut their losses with an audience of lawyers that not only hate them, but will probably never ever use the service again, ExamSoft decided to keep spamming people with their newsletter.

I wonder who they chose for the “Meet an ExamSoft Employee” feature? Oh, a Software Support Manager. Jesus.

Issue some refunds, ExamSoft. It’s not like you’re spending the money on technology or public relations.

The Biggest Bar Exam Disaster Ever? ExamSoft Makes Everyone’s Life Hard
Would-Be Lawyers Take To Twitter To Scream At ExamSoft Over #Barghazi
Dear ExamSoft: Please Give Kids Their Money Back Before The Internet Murders You
ExamSoft Sued In Illinois

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