(The following is a guest blog by Kevin)
In order to prepare for the MCAT (the admissions test for medical school), I purchased a set of books from a company called Examkrackers. There are 5 books in the set, one each on biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, and verbal reasoning. I also purchased books containing 1000 questions in each of these topics, which are also published by Examkrackers. In the introductory section of every one of these books is the following statement:
"Although we are very careful to be accurate, errata is an occupational hazard of any science book, especially those that are updated regularly as this one is. We maintain that our books have fewer errata than any other prep book. Most of the time what students are certain are errata is the student's error and not an error in the book. So that you can be certain, any errata in this book will be listed as it is discovered at http://www.examkrackers.com/ on the bulletin board. Again, we stress that we have fewer errata than any other prep book on the market. The difference is that we provide a public list of our errata for your benefit."
Last weekend I was working through some of the 1001 problems in physics, when I came across an optics problem that I couldn't seem to solve. After several hours of work and some internet research, I became convinced that the answer in the book was wrong. I decided to swing over to the website to confirm my suspicions. But when I clicked on the "errata" forum, it told me I needed to register. I thought this was strange, since I'm already a registered member of the website. So I called their support line to find out what the problem was. The conversation went something like this:
EK: Examkrackers support, how may I help you?
Kevin: Hi, I'm trying to access the errata on your website and it's telling me I need to register, but I'm already registered.
EK: That's because you need a premier membership to view the errata. Premier memberships can be purchased over the phone or on the website.
Kevin: I need to purchase a membership to see the errata?
EK: Yes, sir.
Kevin: I need to purchase a membership so I can see the errors in the books you sold me?
EK: Yes, sir.
Kevin: I need to pay you more money so that I can see a list of the errors in the books that I've already spent over $200 dollars on?
EK: Yes, sir.
Kevin: How many times do I have to say this before you realize how absurd it is?
EK: Sir?
Kevin: You should really make all of the answers in the book wrong. Then you could charge a lot more for the premier membership.
This was followed by about 10 minutes of me yelling at successively higher levels of Examkrackers management. But in the end, it was to no avail. The membership only costs about $10, but there is no way I'm going to pay it. I guess the moral of this story is; if you're preparing for the MCAT don't use Examkrackers, use The Princeton Review. At least they have the decency to not collect their errata at all.
:( ouch
ReplyDeleteThis is making me feel a lot better about my own educational path though...
K, This is actually meant to introduce you to the world of medical reimbursement. When you finish those 10 grueling years of hard work and sleepless nights, you will get to know and love the payers who will explain to you with the same logic used by krackers that 1)you really didn't do what you billed for, it wasn't pre-authorized, they lost those documents, the rules changed 2)you can't bill for what you did (correct coding initiative they call it) 3)you have to pay to belong to their network in order for them to discount your fees even further 4) you should be happy to actually be paid 20% of what you billed 9 months after you stayed up all weekend/all night to save that limb or heart or life. But cheer up --You will still have the satisfaction of helping people, no one can take that away! And that is mostly why you are doing this anyway.
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