Veritasly Ironic

The MBA application process is by no means a simple and easy one. It takes months of planning and implementation. Applicants have to repackage themselves with an updated resume, current professional recommendations, past transcripts, applications, and their best GMAT score.

Planning out the resumes, recommendations, transcripts, and application are all pretty cut and dry procedures that I have allotted plenty of time for. To say that my undergraduate degree has some holes in it is being polite. A more accurate assessment would be, a giant funnel sized hole. My choice of funneling as a routine activity might have something to do with the exceptionally average undergraduate record.

Knowing this gaping and very important hole exists in my resume I have decided to take the past two months to study my ass off for the GMAT. After working slavishly at my computer for 8-10 hours a day sending email, (yes I send email, no I am not a spammer, and no email marketing is not the same as sending your friends porn and jokes in hotmail) I get to return home to study for the GMAT for 2 hours. The worst part of studying for this test is the humiliation I have had to accept, I have eaten enough humble pie in the past two months for two lifetimes. At this point I have worked my way up to being as well verse in quantitative and verbal issues as I was in 9th grade.

Like a lot of average business school applicants, I have recognized my weakness and decided to outsource the help. There are several companies that are willing to help individuals just like me bring their GMAT score up to snuff. After researching a few of them I decided on Veritas. Veritas comes highly recommended by past participants, and business schools. After all the word veritas means truth in Latin. So I bit the $1200 bullett to sign up for the weekend crash course. The weekend crash course is 72 hours of in-class instruction spread over two weekends.


That was two months ago. This upcoming weekend 2/24 - 2/25, I was (note the was) scheduled to take the first day of the 72 hours of courses. Much to my surprise, I received an email from Veritas this morning 2/22 that the course had been canceled due to a lack of participation. This is information that would have been helpful 2 weeks prior to the start date, not 2 days. As an alternative I was informed that I could attend a different weekend course the same weekend. Sounds good, one problem that course is in another state more than two hours away. The other option was to take a course that was scheduled after the date I am taking the GMAT.

Veritas is a service company that provides GMAT testing solutions for business school applicants. Their clientele is America's future MBA students and eventually the business leaders of tomorrow. To give two days notice of cancellation is poor customer service in any industry, multiply that with their service is at a premium, combined with their client base, and you have a major business boner.

I responded to the "Urgent" notice with my concerns and frustrations. In addition I have called twice and left a voicemail. Apparently the "Urgency" is not in getting back in touch with the same customers they left in the lurch.