I took one of those online courses. Not because I'm lazy, but because it fits for my busy lifestyle.
Ever since I took the test I've been getting spam mail from the company warning me to tell my friends to sign up for online testing. They say it MAY become standardized after the September 15th deadline (making it harder I assume is the angle they are going for), hurry and get your test before they make these changes. Its now well after September 15th and nothing has changed.
All these statements are legal tactics. If you notice none of the statements are definite, thus they are just making a suggestion of what COULD happen.
Anything to sell a product/service these days....competition is brutal!