Hello,

(Note: I'm not sure if there is a more appropriate listserv to which I should pose this question; if so, please just let me know!)

I know several members of this list also process thesis/dissertation submissions.  I'm hoping that I can get some suggestions from you folks, on an issue I've encountered with the new Proquest dissertation submission site.

The web site currently instructs students who choose to pay by "check/money order" to send their payment directly to ProQuest.  The confirmation email these students receive also instructs them to send their payment directly to ProQuest.

This is a problem for me, and for the school, because I am not able to consider a dissertation submission "complete", until I know payment has been made.  (If the submission is not complete, the student does not graduate).  Thus, students really ought to be instructed to send their check/money order payments to me first, so I can verify the payment has indeed been made, and then I can forward it to ProQuest.

I have requested that the remit-to address be changed, so that students are instructed to send payments to me, but according to ProQuest, this cannot be done.

They did say that they are working on a feature which would allow me to change the remit-to address on the website myself, but they cannot tell me when this feature will be implemented.  They have no way to change the address within the confirmation email, additionally, they have no way to keep the confirmation email from being sent to the student.

So my options seem to be:
1) Have the site only accept payments via credit card.
2) Stop using the site, and go back to only accepting paper submissions.

I'd really rather not choose option 1, because some students may not have a credit card, and/or they may have one, but not wish to use it on the internet.

Option 2 isn't really an option I'd like to consider, because it seems like a step backwards.

We've had notes added to the web site, which say that the remit-to address is not correct, and that students ought to send payment here... but my belief is that, if there are incorrect instructions anywhere on the site, there is always a chance that someone is going to miss seeing the "please don't actually do this" notes, and they are going to follow the incorrect instructions.

Is anyone else dealing with this issue?  Does anyone have suggestions on how we can resolve this problem?

Thanks so much!
Take care,
Cyndi

Cyndi Adamo
Serials Specialist - Mortensen Library
University of Hartford
200 Bloomfield Avenue
West Hartford, CT 06117
Ph: 860-768-4811
Fax: 860-768-5349
adamo@hartford.edu