Pearson Customer Services

[rossibIT]

Hello,

 

Happy new year. Hope everyone is having a good start to the year.

 

Pearson - Our exams officer gets monthly newsletters with links regarding Pearson information and every time we click on the link Smoothwall blocks it due to 'The Server certificate did not match the domain name' which is obviously an issue there end. We have checked this using https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/index.html and has come back with the certificate not being secure. Have checked this through a 4G connection and is showing as not secure. Is anyone else finding this issue?

 

It has been happening for the last couple of months, I am finding that I can't tell Pearson it is an issue there end and our Exams officer is always thinking that it is an issue with IT. They can use the portal but the exams officer is claiming due to this being a new process in the portal they are not sure where to look, where the link just takes you there.

 

Any advice appreciated.

 

Ross

[Aprice]

I suppose you could add it to 'Do not inspect' under the HTTPS policies, which would stop the Smoothwall from blocking it because the cert doesn't match.

However Pearson really should sort this out.

[David44]

Which domain is it?

[ibpalle]

The error 'The Server certificate did not match the domain name' means that the domain in the address that's being visited does not match the ID value for the address in the certificate. There could be a new redirect in place or other issue that causes this mismatch.

 

When speaking to them, show them the screenshot and the certificate information.

[robyholmes]

We're running into this issue. The reason is the certificate not matching the domain. They appear to be using SendGrid for mass emails, the links are pointing to customerservices.pearson.com which uses a certificate for sendgrid.net. Hence the issue.

 

I personally don't feel happy putting a bypass in place for this, it's a problem Pearson need to resolve. I opened a case with them on the 10th January, which they got back to me on the 17th & 18th. But they are not understanding the issue. They think it's just us not following the link or fill out the form they sent us right. I've tried to explain it's a certificate issue at their end but I guess I'm hitting a 1st line support wall.

 

Our case number if others what to try link to ours is: 48457815

[rossibIT]

Many thanks for all the comments.

@robyholmes - Have DM'd you.

 

Regards

Ross

[rossibIT]

Is anyone still finding this? Not only Pearson but there is multiple websites I am finding the error 'The server's certificate did not match the domain name' when trying to access.

 

Regards

Ross

[robyholmes]

I've still got an open case with Pearson. I'm told second line support are 'Looking into it'.

 

The issue is badly configured sub domains which are being used for marketing tracking for links. Domain is of thd business who sent you the email, but the hosting and SSL certificate is of the mass email/marketing firm. I'm guessing that they ask for a sub domain to be created with the name servers pointing to marketing firms hosting. Smoothwall catches it as its just every domain along the redirect path. Chrome doesn't seem to do this, it skips past a bad domain and checks the last one. If that's good it allows the redirects.

 

Smoothwall is more strict than Chrome or Edge, who are fudging it really for a better user experience.

[toffee_paul]

Anyone still getting this error? Been getting reports from staff about this more and more lately. Is it all down to sendgrid or are there other causes?

[rossibIT]

Still finding it on some websites. Not so much Pearson anymore.

 

Has been happening to my members of staff that runs Careers, when they get newsletters with links and they click they normally come up with the error.

 

Ross

[robyholmes]

I still have a case open to Pearson. They 'lost' the support case for a number of months, as first line didn't escalate it correctly. So even though I chased them, and they said it was being looked at by 2nd line. One it got to the correct 2nd line they admitted to me it hadn't been touched for months.

 

Been over a month mind and still no response from them.

[toffee_paul]

That's really poor of Pearson.

 

This morning I've just had an email from Syncfusion informing me that they've released updates software development components but when clicking the link I get the Smoothwall block page "The server's certificate did not match the domain name" message. Looks like they are using a third-party to send emails out too.

 

Also staff have been having the issue recently with emails inviting them to sign up to webinars and such like. Very frustrating.

Edited June 19, 2024 by toffee_paul