In the latest adviser complaint about ongoing technical issues with the CII's online examination system, Robert Doogan, chartered financial planner at Cullen Wealth, said it has taken him more than three weeks to even attempt to book an exam.
He said he began trying to book on to the CF8 – Long Term Care Planning exam on April 14 and has still been unable to get booked in.
Clearly the CII exam booking and customer service functions are no longer fit for purpose.DooganSpeaking to FTAdviser, he claimed: “The initial issues stemmed from their website. You would reach the payment page and it would say the ‘transaction was refused’. I tried this, as did other advisers, and so did our firm, using their own credit cards.
“No-one could make a payment.”
Doogan also claimed that he phoned the CII and spent over an hour on hold, only to be told there was no problem with the website and “to check your card provider”.
“Yet more time spent on hold to our banks,” he said. “We all did this and our banks confirmed no issues at all with any of the cards and other transactions were going through, just not the CII.”
Having no success with booking in the traditional method, Doogan said he pursued the alternative option of paying for the examination by bank transfer.
“We requested this online, but the promised email confirming the bank details for the transfer never arrived from the CII.
“Again - further calls and wasted time [in going] to the CII and trying to resolve the issue.
"I finally got through to someone who emailed me the payment details for the bank transfer.”
Following receipt of the details, Cullen Wealth transferred the funds to the CII on April 29, but he said he was still waiting confirmation from the organisation that it has indeed received the funds, and to receive details of the exam voucher that will then allow him to book the exam.
Doogan told FTAdviser that, on May 5, he called the CII to query this but there was an estimated wait time of 38 minutes so he did not hold.
Doogan commented that the CII have been “extremely poor” in terms of customer service and exam bookings.
He added: “Clearly the CII exam booking and customer service functions are no longer fit for purpose. Yet they continue to take subs off members and an urgent review of their resourcing needs to take place as it’s costing individuals and firms significant amounts of time to deal with this.
“They may well blame ‘the pandemic’, however they have had over two years to address this.”
However, the CII said on investigating the complaint, there was no visible issue with its systems.
John Bissell, chief operating officer of the CII, said: “We welcome customer feedback and we acknowledge that a small number of customers have experienced issues, whereby their payment failed on the website due to a new more stringent authentication process which was deployed by all UK banks at the beginning of March.
"While we have investigated the issues around this, our investigation has shown no issue within CII systems, but we will continue to investigate the background to this particular case.”
CII exam troubles remain persistent
Last month, FTAdviser reported that the CII was continuing to face technical issues after an IT glitch prevented individuals from accessing exams at the centre.
Graham Stewart Lockhart, paraplanner trainee at Lockhart Consultancy, said he turned up to a test centre in Glasgow and the invigilator was unable to sign him into the system.
“The invigilator left a message with his contact at the CII who never returned his call. The technical team in the UK were unable to resolve the issue and were referred to the team in California.
“I have since e-mailed a complaint on Friday with no response yet and my employer has phoned twice to no great success.”
Speaking to FTAdviser on April 26, Lockhart said he still had not managed to sit the exam and was waiting for the CII to issue him with a new voucher.
This came after last year, the CII faced exam glitches as candidates having taken exams in the past 48 hours were unable to view their results and certificates online.
During the pandemic, the CII also apologised to candidates for “unacceptable instances” including problems with accessing remote invigilation sessions and technical issues during sittings.
Candidates had experienced a delayed start to a remote invigilated exam in July 2020, followed by some candidates experiencing technical issues with a remote multiple choice exam in August.
Technical issues continued in test centres in October 2020, with candidates claiming their computer system froze or shut down hours into the exam.
These issues continued into 2021. In March, the CII was forced to issue its exam results a day early after it suffered a technical issue, causing confusion among candidates.
Two years or so after remote exams were put in place for advisers and planners, problems with logging on and taking exams still exist.
As recently as last month, advisers cited instances of having issues with accessing their exam remotely and others stated they were unable to book their R06 examination with the Chartered Insurance Institute.
sonia.rach@ft.com
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