Writers need to be qualified to write in several fields of study, regardless of whether or not he is working for himself. That is because the writer will not be able to choose the type of work that a client comes to him to work on. Therefore, a basic to intermediate knowledge of several fields will work best for independent writers. That means fewer orders that they will have to turn away or pass on to friends within their network for an earning split type of work. It doesn't make a difference if you work solo or a company. When you work for a company, the work will automatically pass onto the next writer in the system until somebody actually accepts to do the work.

Whether that person is qualified or not is never a major issue for the company because all that matters is that they get to assign the work. They can worry about the revisions later. That is what I learned from my clients who end up coming to me asking for help because an unqualified writer was assigned to do their work for them. I end up having to write the paper from scratch because of it.

As far as I know, these papers are uploaded by two types of people. The first are, as Smiley73 said, college students who wish to monetize their previously written papers. The other, are independent writers who have about 3 or more years worth of collected client papers. They make a few modifications to the paper to bring it more up to date and also, to make sure that it passes the quality standards of the paper mill, then upload and wait for students to purchase the paper.

While I do not practice this method of reselling papers as I send electronic transfer of rights agreements to my clients each time, I do know of some writers who engage in this business. When I asked them why they do it, the answer seemed logical and criminal at the same time; "College research papers are gifts that just keep on giving." For as long as they can modify the paper, then can keep reselling the same paper over and over again.

It doesn't make sense to report a company to an internet crime complaint center just because you were not hired for the job. That would be considered a frivolous complaint and would just clog the system with an unwarranted complaint. Just accept defeat. Acknowledge that you were not up to the writing standards of that company, even though you do not what their standards are. Do not think too highly of yourself in this business. There is always someone better at writing and there is always a company that will not agree with your writing style. That is why you should go into the business for yourself whenever you can. That way you do not have to meet anybody's standards except the clients and that, is much easier to achieve than you think. Just let it go and try to find another company to enter. That is, if another company will have you.

@Smiley73 I believe that recommendations are now allowed. Although, it seems to be only recommendations made by the website owners. I just saw that they have a checkmark next to the academic writers and research services section. There is the text "Reviewed" written before the green checkmark. So I can only assume that these are the specific recommendations that EF approved of. After seeing the seemingly endless requests from students for people here to recommend services, I guess it became imperative for the owners of EF to do that. After all, not allowing recommendations in some form would hurt their purpose.

The purpose of the forum is to make sure the student's don't get scammed right? Therefore, it is the duty, no, the responsibility of the owners of this forum to help the students find the most reliable service for their needs. They certainly did it the right way. Nothing beats an approval like that. If you ask me, it makes for a strong recommendation.

Academic writers who started out as attached academic outsourcing company writers should never look to move to another company after some time. The aim is to get out of slavery, not go deeper into it. I know, I have seen my friends get ill, cry like crazy because of the unreasonable work hours, and hit the wall when they get their salary and see all the deductions applied to it. It isn't worth it to try to stay employed at a company.

Instead, go for it as a "business owner" instead. Either start your own company and hire your own writers, whom you hopefully will not abuse in the manner that you were or, do the work yourself as a freelance writer. Either way, legitimate company or not, I don't advice a truly exceptional writer remain employed with a company for long. You lose more that way. The company still keeps the lion share of the profit while you get all of the stress and client abuse that comes with completing the order.

Don't be a sucker for punishment. Just because you are used to it doesn't mean that you should live your live permanently being abused by the third rate essay writing companies. While it may definitely be difficult to get your independent writing business off the ground at first, it is the eventual option for any academic writing company writer. I have had friends who stayed with their respective writing companies for more than 10 years before they gained the gumption to strike out on their own.

Granted that they had some help from me when they were getting started ( I would throw a few clients their way to introduce them in the business), they eventually learned that there are more benefits to be gained from being self-employed in this seasonal business than if they had stayed on with the writing company. They floundered for a bit at the start but right now, they are on steady footing with a steady stream of clients, earning independently and properly. They receive the proper payment for the required quality of work.

The above letter seems to be more of a velied advertisement for a writer's service instead of someone simply showing off a sample. His language is horrible. The content was obviously written by an ESL writer who is not based in the UK or the US. The wording tells me the person is from somewhere in a third world country. I won't be specific as to which country I suspect the writer is from in order to not cause a flame war on this forum. I am still convinced though that this writer is not worthy of being hired for any job.

His letter is too long to be a cover letter, which is what he should have written. Instead, he turned it into a biography of sorts for himself. Obviously, he doesn't know that a cover letter is only written to highlight skills and achievements. It doesn't summarize your resume into a long page of typing paper. If I were the HR person reviewing his paper, I know exactly which pile I would place this letter in.

Start ups in this business certainly struggle to gain a steady foothold in this business. That is because most of the independent writers and companies aim for the big leagues when they should be thinking about catching the small fry instead. The reason that I have lasted this long in this business is because I do not rely on paid marketing or advertising to get my business. I go direct to the source.

I pound the pavement at nearby university towns, I spend time at the local student hang outs to exchange messenger information with the students. I come armed with my sample writing and ready to do a single page sample (paid for of course) on the spot for any student that asks. I show them the value they will be getting for their money by directly advertising my services. This method of self promotion has never failed me and I have never had to fork over a dollar to Facebook or Twitter to boost my ads. I never place ads with them in the first place. Nothing beats blatant self-promotion on a physical level. That beats search engine ranking anytime.

I have experiences wherein the student approaches me for coaching in terms of how to best write their essay or research paper. These are the students who are diligent enough to make the time to actually do the research themselves, relegating me to the position of adviser instead. Basically, what I do for these students is I guide them in the rough draft development of their paper. Once they have complete the rough draft, I take over and polish their work through my editing services. This way, the student does the work on his own and learns how to develop his own writing style based upon my guidance. Now, in instances when they feel like the paper could be improved further or needs improvement, they ask me to take over. I only do so when asked and after the rough draft has been completed.

So basically, I wrote the essay for the student by guiding the student in the development of the paper, then I polished it for them before it was submitted. This is an indirect way of asking a professional writer to "write the paper for me" while going around the academic honor code of the university. No rules were broken since the student did write the paper himself, I just edited and polished the content, without actually changing anything that he wrote. It's a loophole that my clients have effectively used over the years.

Kenyan writers are only good for ESL students who are still struggling with the English language and yet somehow managed to find themselves enrolled either in an online course or at a community college where they are also enrolled in ESL classes. Hence, any paper written by a Kenyan and submitted by an ESL student would probably get a grade that took the language disability of the student into consideration. The grade will reflect this allowance and hence, make the work of the Kenyan writer acceptable to the client. Kenyan writers cannot work for native English speakers for the same reason that they can work for ESL students. Their lack of fluency in the English language affects the grade of the client. Therefore, a Kenyan writer must never be hired for higher learning classes by a student who actually speaks English.

You need to take baby steps in order to become a freelance writer. Start small. Work within a close circle of friends or students who know you. If you are a fresh graduate, you may still have some contacts with the lower classmen who may be able to help steer some writing jobs your way. If not, then the best way for you to get the necessary experience to become a freelance writer would be for you to test and work for an academic writing company first. Sure the pay will not be great at the start, but it beats having you try and try to sell yourself as an independent writer to no avail. Not everybody can be lucky as me to have a constant flow of students, even during the summer months, waiting for my availability to work on their papers. Most other freelance writers need some assistance when it comes to getting started in this business. Working for the academic writing company first, then slowly branching out on your own would be the best way for you to become a true freelance writer.

The review sites are no different from models and endorsers. They will say the best things about a service provided the service is willing to pay for it. These positive reviews help in not only advertising their website and services, but also allows them to get benefits out of their SEO rankings and search engine advertisements. In theory, it should function the same way as the "crowdsourcing" review at TripAdvisor and Yelp. These sites are supposed to be open for reviews as well but you will notice that their websites have ads that contain references to competitor sites.

The rating review for websites work the same way. Nothing is really free and nothing is gained without an exchange of money. The amount of lies told you make a company look good and increase their chances at getting clients are based on the amount of money they are willing to spend. These companies that write the reviews are image makers in a way. They can make your site as popular as you need it to be based upon fake reviews or, they can tank a competitor site if that is what the other company is paying them to do. It's all about the money in the end.

It's part of the competition in the business. All businesses have their own methods of sabotaging one another in a discreet manner. These "reviews" are one such type of competitive actions that these sites take. By poisoning the image of each other in the eyes of the student, it becomes more difficult for the student to make a decision regarding which site to trust. It's basically a mind game that the sites hope to have work in their favor. By sabotaging the reviews of one site, they increase their chances of receiving the business from the student.

That is why these site reviews should never be trusted. These are all designed with one objective in mind, to get the business that one site might have an opportunity to having. By leaving a question in the mind of the student, the student may consider other options first and hopefully, that other option will include the site of the company that paid for the bad review of the other site and glowing review for their own site.

Exam notes usually cover about one or two topics that you are sure to be quizzed on. I don't understand why you would need a professional writer to write these types of notes for you. These are summarized lecture notes that you should be writing yourself. Writing it yourself will help you learn the topic better and also work in your memory retention regarding the information in relation to the topic. Don't hire a writer to do this. It is part and parcel of learning the lesson. Do it yourself so that you can better understand the subject. More importantly, if someone else writes the notes for you, the way it was written will make sense to the writer, but may make little sense to you. This is one writing task that I do not recommend a student pass off to a writer for completion. It could backfire on you later on.

Owning more than one essay writing service website helps the essay mills and scam companies keep a monopoly on the business. It is just like one company that has various business interests under different names. It makes it easier to sell the services of the company to the students when nobody is clear that it is a subsidiary of a well known scam company or that the mother company has built up a questionable reputation online. It is all about keeping the money coming in, regardless of where the student turns for service. By owning multiple companies, the main office is assured of an income, regardless of where the client goes. They don't need to spend on advertising, don't have to worry about social media backlash regarding certain company affiliates and services, and they can easily deny being connected to those companies if need be. It is all about making more money and nothing else.

I believe that the reason why students tend to simply ask the question again rather than doing research on this site via the search tool is because they want updated information for their question. I noticed that @Smiley73 tried to revive the old threads at this site by providing new information to the students. While most of the regulars here jumped on Smiley for being of service to the students, the fact that some sort of new, even if sometimes inaccurate information is presented to the student.

The students ask because they feel that the search box isn't providing them with the information that they need. They hope that someone, like @Smiley73 will come along and help them out. There has been a great amount of time between the postings that referred to a particular topic and the time that the student asks the same question in reference to today's academic climate. So the student cannot be faulted for not using the search tool of this forum. It's up to the student to confirm any information or declarations found on this site anyway.

Well, you may not buy custom made papers from a site that sells pre-written papers, but other students just might. There are some advantages to that sort of service for the student. The first, is that the student can get a paper based on a topic related to their homework or research paper to gain an insight into what their actual research should be about or at least, get an idea as to how to get started with their paper. The second advantage, is that if the student falls short on "research", then this paper, using its separate bibliography page, can come to the student's rescue by helping the student to add information, sources, or quotes based on the model paper. Nobody ever said that the pre-written paper should be submitted for a grade and any student that does that is not thinking straight or doesn't understand the concept behind pre-written papers.

Does it get any better? According to my friends who continue to work for academic writing companies since they fear the problems that may arise from working as a freelance writer, the pay does get better but doesn't make you rich. It is all about longevity at the company. If you decide to stay and ignore the low rates per page, you eventually write enough papers to get booted up a step with a slight increase. Say from $.50 to 1.00 per page. Then you can another slight increase depending upon how fast you complete the page and rating requirement of the company. While it won't be enough of an increase to make a sizeable mark in your savings account, it is still money that can help augment your income. My advice is, don't write for just one company. Try to write for several companies. Don't box yourself into a corner just writing for academic companies either. Find other paid writing venues that may be able to use your writing talents. Don't stick to one job. Don't be afraid to spread your wings. That's the best way to get the kind of income you want out of the writer's market.

@Smiley73 is on to something here. A student with a large collection of personal essays, opinion, and research papers should not look to writing companies to earn their income. They just need to resell the papers as "model" papers that can be really useful to students. Set up a website, get a good server, have someone deal with the logistics of the business then take over by uploading your papers and promoting your site on social media and similar places. Google may even promote it since you are not an academic writing company. This could be the start of the student actually branching out and becoming a legitimate independent writer since the students who buy the model papers may just decide to come back and ask if the former student can help them find writers who can create original content for them. That's it. The best way to earn extra income without breaking a sweat is to sell your old papers first.

Anybody who contacts writing companies to create "original" papers for them should make sure to check the Terms of Service prior to signing up. The TOS is where the transfer of rights, or lack therof, are usually indicated. This is the biggest problem that the students have when they hire a writing company. The companies these days tend to blur the lines when it comes to who really owns the paper. Their writers are told that the company owns the rights to any paper that they write. However, there are certain companies that turn over the rights from the company to the student once it is downloaded from the company server. These days though, the student really needs to be careful and make sure that they own the copyright to their paper. That is because the companies tend to resell the papers these days so the rights to the "original" paper may be misrepresented somehow within the TOS.

If a writer wishes to earn better either as a freelancer or a company affiliated writer, then yes, he has to learn and expand his knowledge in order to be able to write more complex papers such as a masters thesis or a dissertation. These sorts of papers requires the writer to have a specialty or field of academic expertise so that he can write the paper in an academic and well informed manner. It all boils down to the charge per page. A highly trained writer can charge thousands of dollars for the completion of a simple research paper in relation to an advanced academic degree. A writer who only has college level writing skills will be limited in writing scope and abilities.

Don't get me wrong, a writer doesn't need to enroll in university again to be able to become an expert in the field. Merely making sure that his knowledge is constantly updated through reading materials and developing his advanced studies writing skills will help him stay afloat in the game. Just like in any job, if you want a promotion and a chance at a higher salary, you need to improve your skills and prove you can do the job properly. It's the same thing for academic writers.

I have never heard of anyone who is in the business of not making money. That is, until now. There is no sense of offering free essays just so a writer can get feedback. I mean, any decent writer would say "Your feedback is good, but I need cash!" If a writer allows a student to get used to getting free essays, there is absolutely no way he will be able to transition into a paid gig over the long term. He will become known as the "feedback writer" and definitely become popular, but he's going to have lint in his pocket instead of money.

I agree that this is definitely a bad business decision. I also don't doubt that this writer never made money and he eventually changed his line of work. He'll have to eventually. He isn't making any money to pay for his expenses. Although, he's probably got excellent feedback for the free papers though. Hahaha!

Making myself available to the client during particular hours is something that helps to build the trust factor between the two parties. However, I don't rely simply on phone calls to keep the client cool and calm. Since I keep a local base of clients from local and nearby universities, it doesn't bother me so much to have a face to face conversation with them. Yes, I opt to spring for coffee if that means the client and I can spend a few hours together getting a feel of one another, what the client really wants, showing him a sample of how the paper can be completed, getting approval for my writing approach, and all that. Doing this often results in less to no phone calls and helps to create a permanent client base for myself.

When the client does have to call me, I make sure to set the calling hours with them so that they don't call me at an inopportune hour. It's kind of like keeping work hours only over the phone. The client can start calling me at 8 AM but definitely cannot call me after 8 PM. After 8 PM only SMS and email contact is allowed and he has to be patient enough to wait for me to get ample rest time before responding to him. It's something that I recognize as part of the job because the clients do have specific needs that should be addressed before the paper is completed in order to avoid having to work on revisions after the order is completed. They also understand that it is this privilege that increases the cost of their paper order once I decide to accept it.

Basically, Upwork is telling you that you used their platform at your own risk. They cannot be held liable for the actions of their members and they will always side with the programmer/writer. This is one of the worst companies out there and should be avoided like the plague. It pains to me to hear of your suffering just because the company would rather protect a scammer than do what is right. If all of their writers function on the same basis then there is no hope for this company. It is going to eventually kill itself.

You did right by making your experience public. Your experience with them is the cautionary tale that should deter students from hiring their services for any reason. I used to think that Upwork was a reputable company and even considered signing up for their platform at one point in my career. I am glad I did not do it. I could never affiliate myself with such a devious company just to make money for myself.

I for one can say that all of my clients, yes, 100 percent of them, are all from word of mouth. Whether you guys believe it or not, I have been able to build up an enviable client base solely on my hard work pounding the pavement at local and not to far universities, as well as through my network of student users who keep my clients coming during the regular year. I don't have to advertise because I don't want to have an impersonal relationship with my clients. I always meet with them face to face and I also hand over the thumb drive to them each time we complete an order.

They can place their faith better in a person they have met face to face, with the person referring them to me rather than just a simple phone conversation or chat. It's the trust factor that builds up when they know that after the initial face to face, they can video call me anytime they need to as well.

Fraudulent writers are emboldened by the way that students cave in to their threats. They use bullying, harassment, and threats in order to break the spirit of the student so that they can get what they want. The important thing to remember is this, there is no way a writer can blackmail a student unless he allows him to. Call his bluff. dare him to turn in your essay, threaten him back. See how quickly he folds and disappears. So he has a journalist paying him? Even better. Have him turn your papers in, the journalist, whom I know does not exist, will disappear as well. If you call their bluff on every angle, they will know that you are not playing games either. In fact, tell him, it's too late for him to threaten you because you have already been turned in by your teacher based upon your confession. I know, that's over reaching and exaggerating, but then, so are the threats of the scamming blackmailers. You need to be more devious and more cunning than they are to make them stop.

Writer's can never start an authorship procedure with regards to paid work for students. What is the point? Even if the university administration takes his word for it and investigates the issue, that still won't get his payment collected. If the student is kicked out of the university, all the more he can't collect what is due him. He ruined a student's future for nothing.

A university doesn't take any complaint from a non-faculty member seriously anyway. However, they do pay attention when a current student makes plagiarism accusations against another student, regardless of whether that student is higher or lower in academic level. The professor for one will normally be the first person alerted to the plagiarism and normally contacts the suspected first writer for verification purposes. If there is a strong hint of misrepresentation or cover-up, the professor then files the appropriate charges against the student(s) for academic investigation.

I found that it is always better to be upfront with the student when it comes time to pay for the order. I request that payments be given upfront and I also make it clear that there is only 1 free revision being offered. The revision is only going to be granted if the student can prove that I missed something within the requirements, which never happens. I don't do revisions for content just because the client thinks the paper will be better if information is added or some other sort of BS. If there is no evidence I misunderstood or did not follow the prompt directions, the student is out of luck. No revisions. Since the paper is paid upfront, I normally don't refund even a portion of the payment. Hey, I did the work, I should get paid for it. I've been lucky though, my clients are intelligent enough to know that I am not playing games with them and they will get a perfect A paper from me each time. So I have never had problems with students requesting for refunds. Specially since most of the students are referred to me by my network of satisfied students.

There is no such thing as academic integrity among students. They will lie, cheat, and steal if it means getting the grade that they want or need in class. If these students had any sense of moral conduct or respect the school / university honor code, then all the academic writers would be out of business. The students do what is needed in order to deliver what is required of them academically. If it means hiring a writer and submitting the writer's work for a grade then so be it. They will not bother to read, review, revise, or rewrite the work that they paid up to thousands of dollars for. The writers are meant to help them get through the academic requirements "legally". In this instance though, "legally" simply means not having a single plagiarized sentence in the text for submission. Nothing more, nothing less.

The best way to scan your essay is to not scan it at all. Leave the scanning to your professor or teacher in order to avoid accidentally loading your paper into an online plagiarism checker that stores your paper for future reference. If the professor accidentally uses the same system, you are sunk. Don't focus so much on scanning your paper. That is, provided you actually did the writing yourself. If you paid a writer to help you out, then you should request the writer to provide you with a plagiarism report using an offline scanning tool instead. Don't trust these scanning services to not store your data because you can be sure that they do that. It is always best to just leave the scanning to the professor. A professor will know best how to judge whether or not a paper is actually plagiarized or simply using too many quotes in the presentation.

I started small when I was getting started in the industry. Working on my relatives / cousins papers meant that I got to sharpen my writing chops without having to worry too much about the quality of the work. As long as I could emulate my cousins writing style, I was in the clear. It was from there that I found myself being referred by my relatives to their classmates and family friends.

That was when I started to pay attention to the quality of my work and really put effort into earning the money I was being paid. From there, I began growing a client base using my early network of satisfied clients. I even found the parents of my friends, cousins, and their friends parents referring me to others. That was how I built my client base during my early days. It just naturally followed that the same students / relatives came back to me for their writing needs as they progressed in their academic years as well. The network just kept growing for me from then on.

There is no such thing as a uniform pricing from companies or individual writers in this industry. The price will still depend upon what the company / writer wishes to charge the client. The same considerations for pricing exist as the basis for the charges. It all depends upon how greedy and hungry for money a company / writer is. They can opt to charge to the heavens if they wish to or, they can charge rock bottom prices in an effort to snare clients. The pricing of the paper is something that cannot be predicted. This is something that is done on an individual basis / per client basis owing to the requirements of the task.

This is a gray area industry. Do not expect uniformity in pricing, do not expect discounts of the same kind per company / writer. There are no rules here except to deliver a well developed and usable paper to the student. That is what the student is paying for and that is the basis of the pricing offered to the student.

This is true. With the proliferation of 3rd rate writing companies that make their blurbs sound like they are godsent entities to help students out, it has become next to impossible to vet the company for legitimacy, reliability, and competence. These are things that students can only prove to themselves based upon their length of time working with an individual writer or a company.

I for one have never been attached to an academic research company. So one would say that I would have a difficult time proving the legitimacy of my work and my competence as a writer. Actually, nothing could be further from the truth. My legitimacy comes from the fact that I had a steady stream of clients during my heyday as an academic writer. My competency was proven by the fact that the students would beg me to open up my tight schedules to accommodate their orders because they refused to trust any other writer, even if I personally referred them to several others who could do the job. My reliability came from how I managed to deliver the paper in time, regardless of the tight turnaround time. End result? My clients always saw me as a legitimate, reliable, and competent writer. That, is what made my freelance academic research business legitimate in the eyes of the students and to me, that was all that mattered.

These are the hazards of hiring an academic writer instead of a writing tutor. Those are two different things. That is why I always asked my clients if they were looking for someone to write the paper for them, or someone to guide them in the writing and editing of their paper. If they chose the latter, then I charged them accordingly. The fault of the OP was that he never made his intentions clear to the writer he hired. He could have been clear about needing writing assistance instead of needing a ghost writer. I am sure the writer would have accommodated him since it is easier to guide and edit the work of a student instead of having to do it from scratch.

There is indeed a lesson to be learned here. The lesson is that students need to be sure the writer they hire is clear about the job he or she is being hired to do. If you need writing assistance but not ghost writing in itself, then say so. Be clear about what you need and you won't run the risk of being blackmailed in the future.

There you have it. UpWork is nothing but an unscrupulous middleman out to make a quick buck. This company is even worse than a 3rd rate academic writing company based on that waiver that the OP just posted. It proves that nobody should deal with that company because they refuse to take any sort of legal or moral responsibility for their writers. One cannot provide a service without some sort of guarantee. At least the academic writing companies offer unlimited revisions and a free work reassignment when things go wrong between the writer and the client. I hope you get your money back. You also made the right move by posting your experience with UpWork here.

BTW, @Programming you can look into some of those companies or independent writers at this site who can do the job if you want to. I am not one of them. However, I know for a fact that the companies and some of the writers here have experience in writing code and there are also programmers here available to work with you. It may prove to be a better experience than the one you had with UpWork.

Based on your updated comment, it would appear that UpWork it's no better than the other scamming companies that the students here find themselves having to contend with every so often. I'd like to give such a large multinational company the benefit of the doubt in this instance but it is becoming difficult to do so. Keep the updates coming as you try to resolve your issue with them. As the saying goes, "forewarned is forearmed." All the users here, be it a student or writer, will benefit from the lessons that can be taken from your experience.

I hope you won't mind my asking but, did you eventually hire another writer for the project or did you just complete the work yourself? The reason I ask is because I believe that UpWork should pay you for damages and inconvenience aside from a refund for services paid for but not received.

It's time UpWork develop a freelance screening method for their participants. If this code writer is any indication of the way their freelance members are treating the clients of the company, then UpWork won't be around much longer. This is also the problem with hiring hourly writers. They watch the clock instead the quality of their work. Here I thought the scammers were limited to academic writing... Seems I was wrong.

I hope that what happened to you is more of an exception rather than an upcoming norm at that site. Thank you for the warning. This is certainly a cautionary tale for the students thinking of hiring someone / a writer or programmer from that site. I hope he is banned by UpWork soon.

I look forward to hearing from you soon regarding the resolution of your case with them.

Aside from the back up drive saving method, I also use Google Drive and Microsoft One Drive to save electronic copies of my files. I find these methods to be the most convenient saving method actually. I haven't saved data to a hard drive or thumb drive in ages. The cloud offers me more freedom to work in any setting that I choose and the clients also have a direct hand when it comes to commenting on the document for real-time editing.

I found that my clients preferred that saving method because it saved both our energies when it came to revisions and editing needs on the paper. In addition to that, the cloud doesn't have a tendency to crash without warning. I've been known to do on the spot editing using only my mobile phone or tablet even if I am at the sports club taking my daily swim or playing tennis.

This amazes my clients, who never have to wait for me to get home or go get to a place with wi-fi before I can complete the editing / changes to the document since all the club members have free wi-fi access. My friends at the club know that I will always put a game on hold or cut my swim laps in half to attend to my client's needs first. The cloud helps me do that. They appreciate the cloud saving system I use because we both have easy access to the same file and updating the document is a breeze since the cloud allows me to hold office wherever I am and using whatever gadget is available to me at the time.

The first thing the OP should have done was put a hold on the payment for the order. Hopefully the student knew better than to pay upfront for the full order. As far as the clients I dealt with in the past are concerned, we knew that it was an unspoken rule to demand 50% of the payment upon acceptance of the order with the final 50% due 2 days before the deadline or the client doesn't get the paper. In this instance, student seems to have paid in full upfront, which is never a good move on the client's part.

So if the writer is not responding to emails, file a chargeback. Refuse to accept the order if it is eventually submitted by the writer because he failed to keep in regular contact while developing the paper. That is a direct violation of the client's trust so the client has every right to refuse to pay for the paper. There is a reason he failed to keep in regular touch which makes me hope that the client was wise enough to hire a new writer for the same topic at that point.

Independent writers are better to deal with in the long run because there is a direct line of communication between the client and the writer. There can be no miscommunication or misunderstanding because there is no company middle man to muddle the issue. Companies tend to try to control the writer and the client when an order is being completed by becoming the communication bridge between the two parties. This is where the confusion and miscommunication comes in because some of these companies will be coming out of Europe and other third world areas that do not really speak English at the native language level. The company itself creates the problem for the writers and the clients because they can barely put together a coherent English thought, much less speak or write it. So if a client can find an ENL independent writer to work with, I strongly urge the client to go down that writing route rather than the company writer hiring option.

Not all academic writers need to have a masters degree simply because there are more than enough undergraduate students who also require writing services of the non-specialized kind. The only reason a company would have to hire MS and PhD writers would be if their company specializes in post study research alone. Then the company would definitely require the writer to have an advanced degree under his belt as part of the requirement for hiring a person as a writer.

Provided one has an undergraduate degree from a reputable university in the US/UK/Canada, there shouldn't be a problem with applying for a job and (eventually) getting hired by these companies. They will definitely not hire non-graduates or high school graduates because those people lack the proper skills to be able to write or do research at a college level. A writer should therefore, make sure that he at least meets the minimum requirements to become a company writer before he even considers applying for a job at the company.