World Education Services — Local services in New York

Latest update: I got my transcript after 3 months. In December I ordered a copy to be sent to an email and WHILE ON THE PHONE the guy told me to put the email in there on the order, but to order the duplicate I needed to put an address and I did because it didn’t matter if they also deliver it I just needed the “official email” from them to be sent. One month later I call and the lady tells me that their package takes up to 30 BUSINESS DAYS to be delivered, mind you: it’s an envelope, and the email wouldn’t be sent. I said ok. Last week I called again because it had passed 40 business days and asked them for a free expedited shipping! Ok they told me to use the help chat on the website and as soon as I did he said he sent it to the “responsible team”. Yea right, another week and nothing. Another three months just to get a copy of the transcript…

I can’t express enough how disappointed I am with WES. I started my application on jun 24th. After four weeks without hearing anything from them I gave them a call, two days later they finally reviewed my documents and only then I was told they also needed my diploma. I said ok that’s annoying that they didn’t say that before and waited a full month to respond but let’s get this done, so I immediately started the process to translate my diploma and sent it to them. So we’re now on the 5th week of process, I called them as soon as I sent the diploma expecting them to fix that real quick since somebody (I thought) was already taking care of my case. Nope. I was told to give them some time to receive the new document. Ok. On the 6th week I call, the lady seemed alarmed by the amount of time they were taking to receive the document and said “this is enough time for them” or something to that effect. She told me she “escalated” my case and that I was suppose to have the EVALUATION the following MONDAY AUGUST 12th! I called on the 13th always giving them some extra time. They said they can’t tell me when it would be done but it would be soon. That’s when I started to get anxious. I called again on the 14th, nothing came out of the conversation. I called on the 16th twice and after 13+ minutes the same lady hang up on me. I called the third time, she said they had already escalated the case and there was nothing else they could do. Two days ago I called and the person told me the reason this is happening it’s because they’re changing systems or something. Ok so how come nobody told me anything the other times I called? I call it BS. So tomorrow it will be 2 full months that I’ve been trying to get an evaluation that was supposed to be ready within a week. Yea right. It’s easy to say “7 days after receiving all the documents” and then claiming you didn’t receive the documents yet (even though they’ve been in their system for 3 weeks). I recommend to the new people to try ECE or another company. I’ll talk to the university I got my degree from to rethink their connection with WES because seriously this is an outrage. I hope everyone else has a better luck than I had, I feel very frustrated and sad that they’re taking so long to even confirm they’ve received my documents. 2 months. If you decide to go with them I wish you patience…

UPDATE(1): a week later after I posted this I got an email saying that all my documents were accepted and that my evaluation would be ready September 13h (today), meaning it would take TWO WEEKS instead of ONE WEEK as they advertise to get my evaluation ready after receiving and confirming all the documents. What a saga… but they didn’t stop there. It’s past 6pm EST on the day I’m suppose to get the evaluation and so far I didn’t get any updates. I can only hope for the best at this point.

UPDATE(2): over two weeks and no sign of my evaluation. 3 days passed from the deadline they gave me. Also I was told by the costumer service that the 7 day deadline on the website is no longer valid, even though that was still there when I applied back in June. What a joke! Three months to get an evaluation from these people....

This is the first time I’m taking the time to review something because I feel that taking advantage of foreign students is a very petty thing to do. I’d recommend reading my experience before hiring this service.

First of, I wanted an evaluation only for my bachelor degree, WES said they needed my sealed transcripts from the institution I wanted the evaluation of, only. A week after they received the document, they THEN requested my high school documents which, being 25+ years old, living in the US, and having gone to a high school in the City of God in Rio was pretty much impossible. Needless to say, WES made me loose that semester’s application dates because of their lack of communication with a paying customer, requiring petty documents only after I paid and started their services, instead of being upfront about any extra requirement.

Second, my documents were lost by UPS once, had to send it again, and when WES received it, they claimed to have received 1 document but not the translation attached, which were in the same package - so what they were claiming was impossible to have happened. The only explanation for this obvious lie from them is that they wanted an excuse to buy them more time to do my evaluation, probably from being understaffed or allowing more applications than they could handle. I then sent again the translation they claimed was “missing”. Third time paying for express shipment, more than $40 each. When I called to solve this problem, they told me I had to email them instead (?) because they wouldn’t solve my issue through the phone. After I expressed my concern of time, that all emails I had sent in the past took days to be answered, and that it was obvious they were playing me, they still insisted that only through emails would my problem be solved. Again, took them days to reply to me via email.

So concerning the wait time, they say their evaluation takes 7 business days to be received. What they hide from you is that, after your documents arrives at WES, it takes them 2 business days to even start your evaluation, under “processing” time. On top of that, they will lie saying they are missing documents to buy them more time. Your evaluation that you were promised to get in 7 days? More like 15 days and a lot of headaches, that is, from when they finally admit having received your documents, and not counting with them asking for extra documents in the middle of the process, of past degrees you didn’t even want evaluated, to be sent directly from your school.

Now, as if things couldn’t get any worse, they put an incorrect GPA on my evaluation. Their own GPA calculator shows a different GPA for my grades. They advertise they will correct any mistakes on the evaluation but I sent them an email to correct the evaluation I paid $200+ on, not a single word has been replied to me. More than a month has passed.

Utter and complete disrespect. I’d highly recommend asking the schools you’re applying if they accept evaluations from other NACES members, as WES will give you so many headaches, make you miss your deadlines even though you started your process months in advance, and not even give you the respect of an answer when you’re unhappy with their incorrect evaluations. I’ll try to post this in every review system they have so other students don’t loose their money or their dream schools like I had to.

Update: about a year has passed and no...

WORST Education Services.

WES received my documents on 10/29/13. I am writing this review on 1/7/14 and surprise, surprise, I am STILL awaiting final evaluation of my documents.

My biggest complaint (and there are many) in regard to this 'business' is the piecemeal nature with which they make requests for additional information. Today was the last straw when they asked me to request additional information from my Chartered Accounting Institute in Ireland, having originally asked me for documents from the same Institute on 10/31/13. Why could these clowns not have made the request they sent me today back on 10/31??? Over 2 months ago????

They also pushed back on every piece of information I sent to them. They send automated emails requesting additional documents but the information in the email is unclear at best. The emails cannot be responded to, so you have the joy of calling their customer service hotline and having an absurd conversation with one of their agents about how you need clarification regarding the precise nature of the additional information requested. When the clueless agent just repeats back verbatim the text of the email and you explain you still don't understand, you are further instructed that you cannot speak directly to the person evaluating your documents (i.e. the one person who might actually be able to help you).

Instead, you are reliably assured that the representative will contact the evaluator directly themselves and the evaluator will email you back (probably from another automated email source that can't be replied to) within 2 business days. You wait patiently for this email to arrive and end up as disappointed as the child on Christmas morning who realises the microscope kit is the full extent of their presents.

I paid close on $300 for their services and it has been the worst customer service experience I have ever endured. To date, in return for my $300 outlay, I have received nothing but headaches, unfathomable delays and significant additional processing costs because of all their additional information requests. I have also missed the sitting of the CPA exam I had elected to take because of their utter incompetence.

If you need documents evaluated for any purpose, I beg you, DO NOT USE WES. They are, quite simply,...