customessays.co.uk >> DID I JUST MAKE A HUGE MISTAKE?

hi I need help fast. I just ordered a £120 essay from this site and a writer is apparently working on it but I have my doubts about this site because of their customer services. My order page reads like this :

Created 2008-11-29 02:27
Deadline 2008-12-04 02:30
Time left 49 hours
Instructions ......
About your Writer

I am currently in final year of Masters in Computer Application and Information Technology. I am an expert in all Computer and IT related subjects. I have won many essay competitions at the school and college level for creative and case study analysis.

Verification Status pending, please contact support

Order Status in progress

Now they asked me in the messages to provide my phone number which I have. I spoke to the customer services and the guy seemed really stupid, this was the transcript:

[yami] help?
[Vinny] yes
[yami] Hi i need to ask about my order
[yami] i received a message saying my telephone number was needed from "admin" - why was this?
[yami] ??
[Vinny] we need to verify the order
[Vinny] please,contact us
[yami] what does that mean?
[yami] it says my essay is in progress
[yami] ??
[Vinny] the order #?
[yami] 78******
[yami] ??
[Vinny] it's still not verified.If it won't be,you'll have no access to the completed paper
[yami] ok how do i verify the order?
[yami] ??
[yami] Helllo?
[Vinny] one sec
[yami] ok.. im waiting
[Vinny] ok.sent me your name,address etc
[yami] why is that required?
[Vinny] we'll call u then if u want and ask the same.The policy of the company...
[yami] ok can i provide this information once the essay is finished?
[Vinny] sorry,no
[yami] when will i be charged for this essay?
[Vinny] it's up to u when to pay
[yami] is my essay currently being written?
[Vinny] one sec
[Vinny] the payment is already accepted
[yami] yes..
[Vinny] and the essay is being written
[yami] for what purpose is my name/address required?
[Vinny] we're up to cancel the order if u won't verify it.The money will be back on your account in 3 days
[yami] how long do I have until I can verify?
[Vinny] right now.just tell me your name and address
[yami] im not sure I want to disclose that information
[yami] ill tell you tommorow
[Vinny] ok

wtf? I paid through paypal but the money hasn't gone out of my bank yet. Wat does it mean not verified? Have I been scammed? WHAT DO I DOOO?

helppp! what should i do.. shall i ask to cancel?

HELP!!

you paid by echeck? if so you need to wait until it clears (at least they may wait :) if due is near you could cancel, if not - wait

the date due is in a few days, I paid by paypal. If I tell them to cancel will they do it? Wont they just run with my money? I don't want to tell them I'm cancelling incase I lose my money :S I've seen this WB person posting on here she seems to be an expert on frauds where is sheeee!!

you got what you deserved

nope i got a refund. nice try though :)

Well done, it sounds from some of the transcript there that the one writing to you is also not first language English.

how did u go about getting the refund because i just ordered an essay from here and i dont trust them

pleaseee let me know
i paid via paypal

I used to work for them (was a premium writer) but resigned ... tell you why:
1) Admin don't even speak English so when you try to communicate with them, it is nothing short of a disaster (they are mostly Ukranian and English is not their strong suit)

2) Most of their writers hardly speak English, plagiarise and have doubtful qualifications (a few are very good, though)

An advice from someone who knows this company - STAY AWAY. With Customessays.co.uk (which is also masterpapers.com, ma-dissertations.com; essaycapital.com, etc. etc) you (the customer) gets the luck of the draw ... you might get a good writer but you'll most probably get a disaster. And trying to communicate with their undereducated Admin personnel is nothing short of a fiasco!

File a charge back. Contact Paypa or your Card company

I think I just sent them an email and they replied soon enough.

OMG- DO NOT EVER GO WITH THEM, they are just an absolute nightmare. Constantly late with deliveries, writers of abysmal ability (academically and language-wise). Heart attack for you, nice earnings for them.

I've used this company before and was very unimpressed.

Sam

Masterpapers in general is terrible. One paper I received, could have been written by a 12 year old! They may have a handful of good writers, however most are employed and do not hold university qualifications. Scary isn't it? What these companies will do to make a quick dollar!

I have made a payment to the company through paypal of £180 last night and I am am having serious doubts! I have never done anything like this before and the plan was to use the essay to base on writing my own. I could barely afford it but it seemed like a good idea at the time. The due date is in a few days but it says that verification is pending and I have contacted customer services about it and they want me to send my passport details and my card information through fax or scanned, "for verification" and then i will get my essay. I don't want to send my passport info. Why would that be needed tho if it was already paid for! Can anyone help me?? What should I do??

Thanks

Am not commenting on the company itself - customessays.co.uk/masterpapers.com use SWreg. In cases where the vendor has proven somewhat risky, the processor requires the info you've mentioned. Rather than send it to customessays though, send it straight to SWreg, citing your the order # on your e-receipt. Definitely do not send them your card details - only deal through SWreg.

Hiya

I ordered my assignment from there
paid over £200 and I recieved 35% , in the UK 40% is the lowerest pass mark.
They promise to get me above 60% , I was scamed !!!
Do Not Trust This Site
Businessteacher.org is really really expensive but i recieved seriously great grades and ontime.
u must book in advanced as they sometimes dont have available writers
good luck guys

has anyone got any cheaper options
im writing my dissertation soon , and i dont wanna pay £1200 on businessteacher.org

Having searched & searched the Internet, for the best essay writing services and was just about to pay for one through customessays.co.uk, but since seeing the website posts, I have thought it best to check I'm doing the right thing. I'm a VERY stressed out student not able to get my head around my History assignment and just need help.

I don't know anything about customessays.co.uk but I have been to Sheffield many times and the address they have stated (124 BLAIR ATHOL ROAD) is a residential address off ecclesall road. This not a good sign as it suggests it is being run from a bedroom. If you have google earth you can check this or if you have a friend in Sheffield you can ask them to check. Also a 3000 word essay costs just £168. This should ring further alarm bells. Don't compromise, just take your time and keep looking

Omg, that's terrible to know that people can get away with such a disgusting act of deceit. I truly believe though it'll come back to bite them in the butt. I'm talking about all of this fraudsters. Thank you for your reply, I'm definitely staying away lol :-)

I bought essays from UK sites in Nottingham
I paid just short of 1000£ and the essay failed
They offerred me hlf the money back and that was all

The company works overtime to quash any negative reviews for their services. It appears that they have a dedicated department for creating positive online reviews. The problem, is that their positive reviews cannot be written as fast as the negative reviews from actual students / users are loaded. So the negative reviews are what usually calls the attention of the student first. Which means hiring their company is a big mistake. They normally try to convince the student to hire them for multiple essay developments at the start. The students fall for it because of the "discounted" price for "bundle" orders. All of them find out, when it is too late, that they were robbed of their hard earned income or allowance.

The company underwent a name change some time back. Changing from customessays to royalessays for some reason. The crown above the name was a sweet touch but I doubt anybody would mistake the company as having received a royal endorsement of any sort. Such a laughable attempt at legitimacy in the UK. That is not how it works. An icon won't make a questionable compancy legitimate overnight.

By the way, industry experts do not work for the academic writing industry. They have way too much actual work, in their professions, where they are actually leaders and innovators, to spend time writing about trivial foundation topics and courses. They have far more important things to do that earn them the big bucks, not peanuts on the side. Nobody that hires this company will get a subject matter expert. They may get a writer who is knowledgeable about the topic, but definitely not an expert. No academic writer will have the kind of profession focused training that an "expert" requires. You can bet on that.

What sort of writer will you get then? A jack of all trades, master of none will be more like it. If you get a competent writer at all from the company. Do not pay for a "subject expert" writer because is just a blatant lie meant to part an unsuspecting student from his money.

The OP of this thread contacted me about this project back in 2009, through the forum's direct messaging system. I wasn't able to take it so I referred him to the essay company that I was writing for at the time and told him to request Professor Verb by his company ID, because that was before I knew him on the forum. I just knew that he was one of the only company writers who received as many customers requests on the company project board as I did. He placed the order and I confirmed that it was actually posted on the board.

@FreelanceWriter Can you provide any details with regards to the order completion? Was PV one of their "industry experts" ? What was the paper about? Would you happen to know if the client was satisfied or more than satisfied with his work? Is PV still an active writer who can be directly contacted by students here (as an option if you are unavailable?)

@noted
@FreelanceWriter
The double act whose only purpose on this site is self-promotion continues. Everyone can see it for what it is. Publicity stunt.

I confirmed that the order was actually posted on the company board and that it included the client's request for PV under his company ID. Apparently, he was happy with his work, because I know that he continued using PV for many projects, afterwards. Both PV and I tended to receive many requests from company clients and both of us typically retained our clients from the time they received their first projects from us until they completed their courses of study.


I figured you already knew that there's really no such thing. Bona fide experts in specific academic fields don't typically become academic writers for hire, except, perhaps, very briefly until they secure jobs in their respective fields or while they're in between real jobs in their fields; likewise, there really are no "unemployed professors" (or, especially, employed professors) writing academic projects for hire, either. I don't consider myself an "expert" in US law, just because I happen to have a degree in the field. PV and I just acquired enough experience after writing thousands of projects in hundreds of different fields that very few subject areas are outside of our ability to write projects at least as well, and almost always much better, than just about any students assigned projects in any academic field of study that we cover. That doesn't mean that we know more about nursing or political science or marketing (etc.) than students on track to receive degrees in those fields; but written academic assignments don't test substantive knowledge, unless they're expected to be written in real time and without consulting any materials, as is the case with in-class exams. After as many projects as I've written, there are actually plenty of underclass college classes in which I could probably do as well on live exams as most students, even in real time and without any sources; but writing projects with sources and a deadline is much more dependent on one's ability to research and to write well than it is on one's knowledge or expertise in the field.


I wouldn't want to publicize the details for the client's sake, notwithstanding that this project was ordered 13 years ago; but it was a 12-page section to start a dissertation about Dell Computers and their supply chain. Actually, this is an example of how a good writer can become proficient in more subject areas from experience. In 2009, I could not take this particular project in good conscience, because I just wasn't sufficiently confident that I could do a good job on it, especially at the post-grad level. Today, I wouldn't hesitate to take that same project at all. That was also once the case with UK Law, because I just wasn't familiar enough with the differences between US and UK law and I used to err on the safe side by declining most of those projects. Today, I feel very confident with UK law (especially if clients can provide source material for them) and I handle them quite routinely, and well enough that all of my UK law clients become regulars until they receive their degrees.


PV was the most experienced, prolific, and successful academic writer I ever met. We competed against one another directly for company projects as well as for freelance clients for many years; but we always did so honestly and honorably, and above board, and without ever trying to undermine one another's reputation with lies or personal attacks. We used to refer clients to one another in certain subject-matter areas and we also provided emergency backup for one another, on occasion. He retired about 3 years ago and he referred all of his regular clients to me, for which I'm still very thankful.

I did figure that out quite easily on my own. I just wanted to have you give an expanded explanation in case I missed anything in my comments. Thanks for the additional information that will help the students figure out who is real and who is fake when they are hiring an academic writer.

@noted
Wouldn't you agree that not putting a telephone number on a website offering writing services looks suspicious and dodgy?

A Public Phone Number Says Absolutely Nothing About the Legitimacy of Essay Providers. Here's why:

Almost every fraudulent scam essay company ever discussed on this forum prominently features a phone number right on its website. There's no need to take my word for this: Just use the search function right here on this forum for terms like "blackmailed by" and "scammed by" and "plagiarized" and then check all of the websites that correspond to forum threads in which they're mentioned in connection with ripping off or blackmailing their customers. Every one of them, except one, I believe, displays a phone number. So, one thing you can be sure of, and without just taking my word for anything, is that it means absolutely nothing in terms of the probable legitimacy and trustworthiness of an essay provider that there's a phone number on the website.

Isn't It Helpful To Be Able To Reach an Essay Company or a Writer by Phone?

Essay companies that do provide a phone number do so for several reasons, all of which are intended to benefit them, not their customers. The main purpose of providing a phone contact option (as well as a chat function) is for their sales reps to sell you a project the first time you call them. More specifically, their job is to sell you a project that you'd otherwise not commit to just yet, during your very first phone inquiry. Their job is to turn as many initial phone inquiries into immediate sales as possible. So, they cheerfully assure you that they have the "perfect writer to assign to your project" who, coincidentally, "just completed a PhD. dissertation" in the exact area of whatever your project is about. They reassure you about their money-back satisfaction "guarantee" and/or "unlimited free revisions"; and if you're ready to order during your first phone call, they can "get you" a 20% discount. The other part of their jobs is handling complaints. Again, no need to take my word for anything: simply search terms like "chat" or "phone" or "scammed" or "blackmail" and read the accounts (and full-text chat logs) of some of the same company reps who sold them their projects refuse refunds for way-overdue projects, ignore legitimate complaints about unusable ESL gibberish and/or clearly plagiarized content and/or about projects that fulfilled none of the major requirements in the project specs, and, eventually, just terminate their communications and "ghost" complaining clients, thereafter. Many of those threads (including two or three very current ones) provide detailed accounts of being threatened with exposure of their transaction to their schools in connection with completely bogus legalese word salad threats and justifications about "recovering copyrights" and other fabricated nonsense. What's the one thing that all of those sites have in common? A contact phone number on their websites.

The other common purpose of displaying a phone number is simply to misrepresent the real physical location of the company by rerouting phone calls from phone numbers corresponding to landlines in whatever country and city they want you to believe they're located.

Are There Totally Legitimate Reasons That Honest Writers Would Choose Not to Post a Phone Number?

I think so. I'll just list some of my reasons and you can decide for yourselves:

1.I want us both to have a complete written record of our entire communications history so that there's the smallest possible opportunity for any kinds of misunderstandings, miscommunications, conflicting memories, etc.

2.No matter what we could discuss by phone, it will also have to be memorialized in written form, such as in email, anyway. Why would I want to spend time doing both, unnecessarily? I'm not going to keep a notebook of what clients tell me by phone; and I'm certainly not going to spend my time taking written notes of phone calls of projects that never even get ordered. Roughly half the people who contact me actually become clients. I have no idea which ones will become clients and I want written records going back to that first inquiry. So, the only thing a phone number would do for me is waste my time having to take notes of what should simply be in our emails where it's easily searchable and where inquiries that don't become orders take as little of my time as possible.

3.Phone calls need to be answered in real time or recorded, listened to, and returned. Emails are transmitted and received in real time but they allow you to multi-task. One of the reasons that I'm a writer in the first place is that I'm really comfortable being home almost all the time. I monitor my emails on at least 3 screens in different rooms pretty close to 24/7/365 unless I happen to be out or sleeping. Emails at all hours of the day and night don't bother me, because I can deal with them while I'm doing other things. If I'm working out, I can monitor and respond to emails while I'm resting in between sets. If I'm writing, I can check emails as soon as I make my deadline or whenever I take a break. Either way, I decide when to spend time on customer service when it doesn't interrupt whatever else I'm doing. Phone calls at all hours of the day and night and anytime while I'm already doing something else (which is almost always) are a totally different matter and just not right for me. Same goes for sitting on the phone taking notes of conversations with clients instead of just referring to their prior emails.

4.I'm just one-person with a simple website, not a company employing phone sales reps or customer service reps. I don't need a phone call to give you my confidence level with a project and the price; more importantly, I can't possibly provide either without seeing all of the specs and the deadline, length, any and all instructions and any sources you'll be providing and/or requiring for the project. So, you're going to have to email me all of that, anyway.

5.I'm never going to try to talk anybody into ordering a project before that person is ready to order it (unless you inquire about an already-borderline-ridiculous rush deadline for a ton of work that would require me to start reorganizing my whole work and non-work schedules for the next 2 days immediately). So, I don't need any phone calls about projects, especially before they're ordered. Once someone is client, that person is welcome to my phone number; but even then, the only purpose of it is in case of some real emergency or something like an Internet outage that makes emailing impossible. The last thing I ever want, even from someone who's already a client, is a phone call that's unnecessary, for me. In 20 years and over 10,000 projects, I've needed to talk to clients about (academic) projects on the phone maybe 3 or 4 times. Almost everything that prospective clients would be asking me by phone is either: (1) already very clearly addressed in my FAQs; or (2) something that I'd need to look at and/or an exchange that I'd want to have in a written email record, anyway.

What If Some People Just Want To Talk To You Before Placing an Order?

That depends. It's only about 3 times in 20 years that I was the one who needed a phone conversation about a project; but if I had to guess, I'd say maybe one client per year asks me something that makes as much sense for me to discuss or explain by phone, and maybe one or two clients per year have wanted just to hear my voice and (non) accent and/or to confirm that I'm really located in NYC, where I represent myself to be located. I have no problem with providing my number for any of that if nothing about the exchanges with that prospective client makes me uncomfortable providing my number. But I will not have substantive conversations about projects by phone, because I won't remember them and won't have a record of them. Clients typically have to worry about one or two projects at a time every few weeks for a few months or so. I have projects and due dates on almost every day of my calendar 30 days a month and 12 months a year. If you call me with a question a week after you received your project, that's probably a dozen or more projects in my past. I'd need to review our email history to discuss your project and I want all our exchanges before and after the fact in writing. Finally, I've been doing this and answering emails about work for long enough to know that the vast majority of questions that would come from new inquirers calling my phone if I posted my number on my website would be the exact same questions already very clearly answered in my FAQs that I now get all the time by email, which is annoying enough. I'm sorry, but I just don't have the patience for that by telephone.

That was literally five pages with subheadings. Aren't you supposed to be charging premium for that during busy season? And here it is, pro bono.

Well, you must have a soft spot for charlatans. It is busy season, isn't it? My memory is a little fuzzy.

Totally Legitimate Reason #6 That Honest Writers Might Choose Not To Post a Phone Number

6. I've mentioned before that I already get about one email every month or more from other "writers" (and almost always, obviously ESL) asking about "working with" me. At first, I used to just delete them; but they'd often follow up a few days later with another email. So, now, I usually respond just to tell them that I work alone and that I'm not an employer and I wish them the best of luck, but ask them not to email me again. Some of them actually respond to that by emailing me again, trying to convince me to review their resumes and writing samples and to give them a "chance." If I posted my phone number, I'd be getting phone calls from all of them, too.

Have you ever considered posting a message or notice somewhere in your contact / email page about it? Telling them beforehand that you are not soliciting applicants since you work alone could save you time since you won't have to respond to each email individually. Maybe it will end the unsolicited applications submissions that waste your time.

Actually, I don't think most of them ever bother even reading my website, because that's usually not how they contact me. Most of them probably find me right here. I'm just saying that's another type of phone call that I definitely don't need. There's nothing on my site that suggests, even remotely, that I'm an employer of any kind: everything about my services on there is in first person and nothing there refers to "writers" or even my "company." The same ones who email me again after I respond once letting them know that I'm not an employer would just ignore anything about it on my site and call my phone # if it were available to them. Most of them seem to believe that they're such good writers that their resumes and samples will convince me to hire them, even after I tell them that I'm not an employer. Meanwhile, their emails are full of idiomatic and other mistakes that nobody who has any business considering himself a "writer" would ever make.

@FreelanceWriter
I disagree. Personally speaking, clients like to talk to the person doing the writing. That is why they avoid essay writing companies and would rather deal with the one person they know will be writing their essay. This is why a phone number helps. Someone who has nothing to hide would publish a phone number. It might be worth buying a phone specifically for client contact so that they don't bother you when you are socialising for example. I would never order from a person not displaying a contact number on their website.

It's perfectly fine for you to have that preference, Jeannie; and it's every client's prerogative to decide how to choose a writer or essay company according to whatever criteria he or she chooses. Just for the record, when my clients choose me, they are always communicating with the person who will be writing their essays; I just happen to prefer email for client communications.


Thank you, but I'm perfectly happy doing business exactly the way that I've been doing it for about 20 years, now. If there are some clients who choose not to use me just because I don't publish my phone number, that's fine and I accept their choice without any resentment. My preference for email over phone actually has nothing to do with my work, in particular, either. I prefer email to phone in general, and it also applies to my communications with my fellow directors on our co-op building board of directors and with any shareholder-tenant who needs to reach me, as well as to coordinating with the guys with whom I play hockey. All of them use the phone (and text messages) much more than email; but they all know that my preference is to do everything by email. I respond to emails pretty much 24/7/365 unless I'm sleeping and my cell phone often stays off for days at a time. It's just my personal preference and nothing more.


While your criteria for choosing what writer you decide to use are entirely your business, this is a declarative statement that's simply neither fair nor accurate. I have absolutely nothing to "hide" from my prospective clients; and my actual clients are welcome to my phone number if they'd like to have it, just for emergencies. I detailed 6 perfectly sensible reasons (in Posts 29 and 31 of this thread) that a totally legitimate writer might simply prefer not to publish a phone # on a website. Nowadays, anyone can obtain an additional phone number at a nominal cost. As I already mentioned earlier in this thread, every single essay company that has been implicated in scams detailed elsewhere on this forum, as well as the essay company whose telephone conversation with the OP appears in transcript form in the first post in this thread publishes a phone number on its website. So, objectively, the availability of a phone number actually provides absolutely no guarantee of legitimacy, whatsoever. It's none of my business how you choose what writer or essay company to trust; but you have absolutely no basis for implying that I must have something to "hide" just because I don't want phone calls at all hours of the day and night from anybody and everybody merely consideringbecoming a client before he or she actually is a client of mine.

Welcome to the forum, Jeannie. Are you a student currently looking for a writer, a student who's already been scammed or let down by a writer or essay company you already tried, or are you involved in this industry somewhere on the provider side of things?

*[Quotes edited to fit within the word-count limitation of this system.]