Lesson Learned

 Last night Meg called Doug to find out how long to bake her chicken in the oven and at what temperature.  As soon as he hung up I got a call as well.  Mine was a little more concerning.  Meg had erroneously signed up for a program that had cost her $120 through Pearson education.  She had contacted them right away to let them know about the error and they promised a refund.  She was relieved to hear that, but unfortunately, the website would not let her delete her account and sign in correctly.  She decided to try again after Bible study, but she still wasn't able to log in to the statistics course.  I talked to her before I went to bed and she was in tears.  She had tried to contact someone and I had given her a few suggestions, but overall nothing helped.  She had worked on the problem for hours and finally decided at midnight to go to bed and call again in the morning.  I told her not to worry about it and that it would get fixed.  She said that she wouldn't, but I knew that the issue would keep her up from a restful night's sleep.

I talked to Meg first thing this morning and the person that she got ahold of at Pearson was of no help.  I felt terrible about that, but wasn't surprised.  I had used Pearson software when I was teaching and it wasn't overly user friendly.  I offered to help in any way that I could, but Meg said that she would handle it.  I was glad to hear that.  I knew that she was upset, but realized that it was important for her to find a solution on her own.  In the past I had resolved a lot of the Heinisch family's technology issues, but I realized that this was one that she'd have to solve on her own and for me to just be supportive.  

Meg finally decided to email her professor and explain the situation.  She knew from past experiences that she might get a tongue lashing since she had not followed the steps provided in the syllabus, but the thought of being locked out of stats forever was more pressing.  Thankfully this was not the case as he responded to her immediately and gave her tips on what to do.  He also said that he would contact his Pearson representative and see if that person could help.  Almost twenty four hours after she started, Meg was finally able to sign into the correct course.  She was thrilled and relieved.  She called her Dad and told him.  His response was, "So, next time you will read the syllabus first."  She definitely was onboard with that - lesson learned, been there done that, won't happen again.  What a relief!