I hear a lot of complaints about contacting TOEFL customer support by phone. It can be challenging, mostly due to extremely long waiting times.  Here are a few things that might help.

1. The telephone number for customer support is 1-609-771-7100 (in the United States) and 1-877-863-3546 (toll free in the United States). Support is only available from 8:00 AM to 7:45 PM Eastern Standard Time.
2. Yes, these numbers are in the USA.  Thankfully, ETS has set up local numbers in some countries that will forward you to the United States number.  Select your country from the list on this page to check for one.
3. To avoid being placed in a long queue, try to call as soon as the lines are open.  That means calling exactly at 8:00 AM EST.  This is really important!
4. Calling the United States can be very expensive.  To make free (or cheap) calls, use a service like Viber Out.  They have a one-week free trial.

Of course, you can also email using this form.  Fill it in completely for best results.

TOEFL India has a separate customer support office.  Details are here.

This is the message TOEFL test takers get when their scores are available:

“Dear [NAME]

Great news! The scores from your recent TOEFL iBT® test are now available online. Open the Official TOEFL® app now to view your scores and send official score reports to institutions. We wish you nothing but success as you continue your journey toward your academic dreams.

Sincerely,

The TOEFL Team”

Looks good, right? Well, not exactly. You see, the Official TOEFL app was discontinued last year. It cannot be downloaded. It cannot be used to view scores or send score reports. It doesn’t exist.

This is small potatoes compared to some of the other curious issues I’ve written about in recent weeks, but it still matters. Test takers deserve to get correct information. Beyond that, it looks bad.

One might argue that I’ve been unduly harsh regarding this TTX stuff, but ETS has a major impact on the lives of millions of young people around the world. They need to do their very best.

Since this will be my last post on the topic, I’ll mention one more thing.

Every email sent from ETS to test takers (password resets, purchase receipts, confirmations of bookings, etc) is meant to contain the ETS logo in the top left-hand corner. But since the corporate rebranding last year the image file containing the logo has been missing. As a result, every outgoing email instead contains a “broken png” icon. This has been going on for about six months. It isn’t a big deal, but it doesn’t look great.

So why don’t these things get fixed? That’s unclear.

I’ve written before about the importance of “dogfooding” to assessment companies. That’s a business term that refers to how employees need to use their own products so they can better understand their strengths and weaknesses.

But maybe that’s not what’s needed at ETS.

Maybe what’s more important to ETS is “walking the shop.” Bear with me as I tell a story.

Lately I’ve been reading coverage of the recent bankruptcy of the Hudson Bay Company. That’s a chain of Canadian department stores that has been around since the beginning of recorded history (much like the TOEFL). The coverage often mentions how at some point the escalators in most stores stopped working. One by one, they just broke down. And they never got fixed. Why not? That’s unclear. It wasn’t a big deal, since shoppers could just take the stairs, but it looked bad.

What could have been done? Well, they could have fixed the frigging escalators, for starters. Beyond that, here’s a compelling quote from an analyst who appeared on CBC:

“If a leader like [the CEO], like his crew, the board, are not walking the shop floor of the Bay and realizing that there’s something not quite right in the store, that’s a big clue.”

Maybe it’s time for the senior leadership over at ETS to pause their world tour for a few months and instead just walk the halls in New Jersey. That sort of management style could lead to conversations that eventually lead to things getting fixed.

Hey, so I’ve started a substack called “Some of the Above: The Business of English Testing.”  Right now, my goal is to publish a weekly or biweekly roundup of the sorts of items I already post here and on LinkedIn.  Basically… the same items, but expanded when necessary.  And with slightly less sarcasm.

Everyone knows it is easy to miss important stuff when it is only posted on social media. Substack’s newsletter format is a possible solution to that.

And a bonus:  the “notes” feature of Substack is quickly becoming the “new Twitter.”

I’ll still post everything here, of course. I probably won’t monetize the substack (banking regulations here in Korea make that pretty difficult) so don’t worry about that.

A couple of signup links are embedded in the first news round up.

One of the VPs over at ETS posted on LinkedIn about some initiative in Vietnam.  He wrote (emphasis mine, emojis not mine):

“A heavy focus on test-taking shortcuts over real skill development threatens long-term success. True global mobility isn’t just about passing exams—it’s about equipping students with the skills they need to thrive in academics and careers worldwide. 💡

At ETS, we go beyond assessments. We provide personalized, actionable learning solutions that build real-world proficiency, ensuring students aren’t just test-ready but future-ready. ✅ Vietnam’s progress proves that investing in education unlocks opportunity—now, we must ensure learning solutions match student aspirations.”

I liked it.  But it begs the question:  what solutions are those?

I’ve spent the last couple of years wondering what everyone at ETS is really up to.  Sometimes it seems like the answer is “not much.” Obviously acquiring PSI was a big deal.  That brought in new revenue and products. But as far as “ETS proper” goes?   It seems to consist of a handful of tests with slowly shrinking volumes that haven’t been meaningfully adjusted in more than a decade.  

Amit makes the rounds doing keynote addresses at all the big events, and there is plenty of motivational content shared on LinkedIn.  But I’ve seen very little by way of new products and assessments.  There are a whole lot of posts about “Skills for the Future,” but that project doesn’t seem to have produced much more than superficialities.  And, hey, it looks like the College Board might beat them to the punch.

My server logs indicate that there is a strong Lawrence Township contingent visiting the blog.  Do let me know in the comments if I’m off base here.  Normally I would post this on LinkedIn myself, but I don’t want to be overly catty today.