3/5/2003 -- On March 1, the Computing Technology Industry Association implemented a new policy aimed at shutting down Web sites that offer discounted CompTIA exam vouchers directly to the public.

Currently, a handful of companies use their membership discount to buy exam vouchers in bulk directly from CompTIA and then resell these online for less than the non-membership price of the organization's certification exams.

Effective this week, CompTIA is banning the sale of vouchers sold "independently to non-members." Instead, providers must bundle the vouchers with other services, such as training.

CompTIA offers several vendor-neutral certification exams, including A+, Network+ and Security+. The non-member price of these exams ranges from $139 to $225 (U.S.) per exam.

In an e-mail sent to several discount voucher providers on Monday, CompTIA explained that the policy was implemented to protect its member benefits program. "The discounts for certification vouchers are one of most important reasons many of our members choose to join and renew their memberships with CompTIA," wrote Edward Grace, CompTIA's sales operations manager. "The intent of the discount is to allow our members to purchase discounted vouchers for their own employees....It was never CompTIA’s intention to have our members reselling stand-alone vouchers."

The decision also appears to be financially motivated. In a memo sent to several of the same providers on Tuesday, CompTIA said it estimates that 17,686 of these discounted vouchers were sold to the public last year. These members paid a total $1,454,257 for their vouchers, or $82.23 per voucher. "Had CompTIA received the nonmember rate of $145.76 as opposed to the discounted rate of $82.23 for those 17,686 vouchers, CompTIA would have recognized an additional $1,123,591 in revenue," the memo states.

"These vouchers are sold individually [one at a time], or in bulk as 'stand alone' sales which has the effect of reducing the value of membership and depriving CompTIA of additional revenue," the memo continues.

CompTIA stated in the memo that providers who don't comply with the new policy will have their membership revoked.

"This policy is...a big surprise to all of us," commented Andy Barkl, trainer and owner of the Web site http://vouchers.wetrainit.com. (Barkl is also contributing online editor to CertCities.com.) " I've been involved with the CompTIA program since 1996 and I think they have really gone overboard this time."

"CompTIA wants and begs for promotion of their programs but then tries to limit who can belong to their group of promoters," he continued. "I will stop offering discount vouchers to the public certification community, but most likely I will also stop promoting CompTIA certifications and not renew my corporate membership next year."

"It's a crock..." commented another voucher reseller, who asked not to be named. "I don't agree with their math...that we cost them a million dollars."

"I don't believe that all the people who bought vouchers through us would have bought them through CompTIA if these sites weren't around," the source explained. "Individuals don't buy vouchers through CompTIA. Most test takers go through the test centers directly, and I have to believe that Prometric and Vue take a cut..."

"I honestly feel that CompTIA can't see the forest through the trees," the source continued. "With all the money these [resale] companies are spending promoting the CompTIA name through banner advertisements and links...it's hard to believe that CompTIA doesn't see this as a win-win situation."

When asked for a response, a spokesperson for CompTIA e-mailed the following statement. "CompTIA is formalizing and enforcing an existing policy to protect the value of membership. We have a responsibility to all our members to ensure an equitable and level playing field and protect the value that membership offers.

"Knowingly or unknowingly, individuals reselling vouchers are diluting that value. At the same time, this practice is depriving some of our member training companies of sales revenue that would be generated in the bundling of training and testing packages. CompTIA must, as an industry association, protect that value."

As for candidates who previously purchased vouchers through these sites, the spokesperson recommended that individuals "approach their employer to see if the employer is a member of CompTIA, since reduced pricing for tests is a benefit of membership and available to all employees of a member organization."

The voucher providers interviewed for this story said they were told by CompTIA that they would be given two to three weeks to comply with the policy. One provider, who also did not want to be named, stated that it seemed that the ban was still up for negotiation, but other providers we talked with said that they felt the new policy was "pretty final." -B.N.