They took my money, told me what documents to get from my English Universities. I was informed by my universities that they did not have the types of documents WES was requesting. I emailed WES asking what to do next - got no reply.

Called a week later and was told to wait for a reply. Still nothing. Emailed a followup another week later. No reply. Called "Customer Services" was told that I'd signed a document promising to submit the required documents, and if I couldn't submit them as requested I couldn't have an evaluation. So I asked for a refund in writing. I got no response, not even an acknowledgement of my request.

I got another contact number for WES from my Uni admissions office, and emailed and left messages - got no response.

I called customer services (10 days after the refund request). They told me that the refund had to be "considered" and they didn't know when that would be finished. I said that since they were unable to provide me with the translation service they couldn't also keep my money. The woman was very rude and just kept repeating to me that I had to wait for them. I asked how I could believe they would contact me, since they have never contacted me about anything ever before. So she just hung up on me. 1hr later, they emailed me a refusal to refund my $170. It was obviously a vindictive response to my (really polite!) phone call, and still I have no way to get an evaluation.

I called the San Francisco office, and she told me that they won't refund if I "fail to provide the required" documents I told her that I assumed that if they asked for xyz documents from English universities, it was because these documents exist.

How was I to know that such documents did not exist in the 80's and 90's? WES already had the dates of my degrees when they told me what documents to get. With their supposedly "35yrs" of experience, they must have known that my institutions did not have these documents for students who graduated before a certain date.

So this has to be a scam - they knowingly take money, demand documents that don't exist, then blame you for failing to do your part in the evaluation and refuse the refund. Its unbelievable.

Then I looked them up at the New York BBB - 130 people have filed complaints in just 3 months (so that must be the tip of the iceburg) check it out:

http://www.bbb.org/new-york-city/business-reviews/educational-consultants/world-education-services-inc-in-new-york-ny-9023

If anyone else is having problems you might get a resolution by complaining to the Better Business Bureau who seem to have resolved some of the complaints:

http://charityreports.bbb.org/public/complaint/complaint.aspx

If I can't get anywhere with the BBB I will also complain to New York Attorney General Charities Division;

http://www.charitiesnys.com/complaints_new.html

You can also post a review of them as a charity on the GuideStar database which is an important nonprofit reference, taken seriously by funders and nonprofit researchers - people should be told what a scam this place is:

http://www2.guidestar.org/ReportNonProfit.aspx?ein=23-7396384&Mode=NonGx&lid=494030&dl=True