Inexcusable Inefficiency for Clutches of Cash

I write merely to mention my digust with the Standardized Testing Organizations' methods of reporting scores to intended schools. Aside from the ridiculous level of difficulty regarding the simple lack of communication from the ACT website preventing me from even reporting those scores, I particularly want to mention the cost and procedures.

While Collegeboard charge $9.50 per school, I assume this price well covers the cost of printing, sorting, handling, and mailing the various scores from various students to various schools. While I'm very confident this can be entirely done in complete automation by machines with minimal (if any) direct human involvement, the cost suggests that it is done mostly by hand with several levels of verification to prevent incident in such an important task. However, I'm fairly certain that the reporting of scores can be done quite easily and efficiently over the internet with minimal risk of forgery or mistake with secure networking. After all, what do you think's going to happen to those scores as soon as school gets them? They're going to be entered right into a database with all your other info, and that useless paper copy will be shredded and thrown out or put in a file never to see daylight again. Heck, with my inexperienced progamming skills, I could write something up to take requests and send out scores with few mistakes.

The outrageous $26.50 fee for "rushing" delivery is understandable. Anything that shoves its way up the priority list must be adequately supported (in this case, by payment). But this fee moves the shipping time from 3-5 weeks to 2 business days. That, my friends, is lame. If sending the scores in two days is at all do-able, then 3.5 weeks as a normal standard can be no more than a crude business practice to encourage people to pay the extra sum for a quicker delivery. I might also remark that were the system done entirely electronically via the internet (a series of tubes, yano, not big trucks), the process could occur immediately upon verification of the payment method. It could even be done on non-business days! GASP! Productivity on the weekends! Nooo... that'd be too efficient. And we know who pays for lack of efficiency: the customers.

I close with a quote from a delightful movie and not the slightest bit related to this post's topic:
"I know, I am merely remarking on the paradox of asking a masked man who he is." --V. :)