The Federation Of State Boards Of Physical Therapy

Back in the days after graduating from PT school before the day I passed my board exam I was dirt poor. I know I am not alone in this scenario. Most people who pursue higher education find ourselves in that gap between running out of student loan money and getting that first real paycheck. I was in this gap myself when I was attempting to get my PT board exam results.
As any PT can tell you the board exam is administered on a computer and there is no reason what so ever that results shouldn’t be posted right away so you know if you passed or not. The money grubbers at FSBPT charge $ 50 to get your results expedited and if you want to use a credit card (which is more convenient for everyone including them) it costs an extra $ 2!
Sadly I had failed my board exam the first time I took it so I was especially anxious the second time I took it. The day after my exam I hopped on the computer and paid the $ 52 (that I couldn’t afford) to get my results. In my state of anxiety I accidentally purchased my first exam date records (which I had previously purchased). I immediately called the FSBPT told them about my mistake expecting them to do the right thing and put my payment towards the proper exam date. It’s not like was I was asking for a refund.
Not so, I was told that I would have to pay the $ 52 AGAIN to get the second exam results. The person on the phone told me that some people want to get prior exam results. I patiently explained that if he looked at my records he would see that in fact I had already purchased those results and I didn’t not need them a second time. I was told in no uncertain terms that I was out of luck and had no other option other than to pay again.
$ 52 isn’t a ton of money, but at a time when I was living on credit cards and so poor I couldn’t afford rent I felt extremely taken advantage of by an agency that I had no choice but to deal with. Additionally they were completely unsympathetic and rather rude on the phone.
As a student the FSBPT was just some agency that I was forced to deal with who has a monopoly over the field of PT here in the US. Since graduating I have moved to DC and now I know where the head quarters are. They are located in an extremely expensive part of Old Town in Alexandria VA. Now I understand that they have to pillage poor helpless students in order to pay their rent. For an agency that does 100% of their business on-​line or over the phone having a huge building in an expensive neighborhood is not only wasteful but further reinforces the fact that they shouldn’t have the authority that they do.
The FSBPT will always owe me $ 52 and although I know I’ll never get it back I would like to warn poor unsuspecting PT students to be extremely careful in your dealings with them. They will be merciless and once they have your money don’t expect any customer service.
If I could give them zero stars I would.