Really? I'm sorry to hear that nothing has been done before, but I can assure you this WILL get sorted out today.

I've personally just nipped into the room next door to talk to our customer service guys and I've asked them to keep an eye out for an email from you, which they're to action straight away. I've also forwarded your post on to our development team, who are currently working on the plan and programming for the new Essaybay system and design. This is so they can ensure this kind of score-manipulating behaviour isn't able to take place in the future and I've asked them to think about foolproof measures to factor in, so people can't 'game' the system.

Please can you send the email, with any evidence you have contained within, and mark it for the attention of Laura and Edd. Laura is working through the Essaybay emails right now and Edd is the manager of the team - like I say, they're going to check through the accounts now for you and take action on your complaints. The email is on the Essaybay contact page (you have to replace [at] for the @ sign, obviously.)

I really do want this problem resolved for you, as you say it's unfair to those working hard on the site.

Thanks,
Carly.

Hey Biblio, I really appreciate your feedback. I can get somebody to look into those fraudulent accounts and perhaps ban anybody engaging in fraudulent practises, but I need you to email me with your concerns, including usernames and links before I can do so. You can find the admin email address on the Essaybay site.

Thanks,
Carly, Academic Answers.

Hello,

Curious the silence isn't a 'tactic'!

I can't really comment on the issue, because as I've said hundreds of times, I only help look after the website-side of things, not the day to day running of the company.

The people that could address this (Tony (our CEO) and Jen) are both exhibiting at a show in London this week, and are due back in the office on Tuesday.

I'm certain they'll both want to post something on here & get this sorted.

Thanks,
Carly
AA / UKEssays

Hello Gaz,

Please let me stress that TheAcademic.co.uk is absolutely NOTHING to do with Academic Answers and UKEssays.co.uk - if you visit AcademicAnswers.co.uk and click 'About us' and then 'Portfolio' you'll see our portfolio of websites.

If you take a look at the bottom of The Academic's website, there is no message stating 'Part of Academic Answers Ltd', no VAT number, no Companies house number and their telephone number is 0808 - all of ours are a local rate Nottingham number, starting with 0115. Finally, they're using a lot of American spelling on their site (utilize for example, we spell it utilise.)

I've searched through our database and there's nothing with your order ID - I can prove this - take a lot at the attached screen shot from our database:



If we would have sent you a piece of work, it would have been uploaded to your customer control panel, which you'd access using your email address and a password we sent - is this how you retrieved your work from us?

It really does sound like you've used a rip off company, who have pretended to be UKEssays or stole some of our email templates - but if you forward the emails to me from them, I can take a look into it a bit further for you. All I can think of, is that they've plagiarised our auto response emails, after placing a test order with us?

Thanks Gaz,
Carly

StudentAdvice, we have and will continue to pay the £5,000 when there is plagiarism in work. I can think of a few cases where we've done this in the past, because a researcher has let us down and plagiarised something. Of course we sack them - wouldn't you?

To be honest, Just as we could easily 'open' a company overseas if we wanted to, I'm certain people could open one here, in the UK. I'm sure all you need is something like a PO Box or a 'virtual office' and you're set. So, no, I don't agree with you StudentAdvice.

Also, please can you back up any statements you've made about AA in your comment with facts. If you've got a problem with us, and you can back it up with facts, I welcome your comments.

As an employee from UKessays.co.uk (Academic Answers) I can officially say we are NOT the same company!

TheAssignment.co.uk do not even have a website on their domain. It's just white with 'Under construction.' TheAssignment.co.uk are hosted in Canada, we host all of our sites in the UK, on the same server.

Are you sure you used UKEssays? What made you think we're the same site?

Are you sure you didn't use a rip off site who register a similar domain name & try to poach our business? (for example, putting .net at the end of our name, registering names like ukessay.co.uk etc.)

If you're absolutely sure it was UKEssays.co.uk you ordered from, could you please give me your order number? If you did buy plagiarised work from us, we'd obviously honour our guarantee and send you back £5,000.


You're telling him to do something he's claiming he did! He's claiming he used UKEssays.co.uk and our company is registered at Companies House!

Erm, nope, we refund the marking charge too.


Nope, we send the work to one of our experts who grades the piece and comments on possible improvements. The customer then makes these improvements.


Again wrong, we don't edit the paper.


Again, wrong. If you have used the marking service and made the recommended changes AND still get a failed grade, just send us the transcript and we'll send you your money back.

Look, you've already made a few misconceptions about what we are and aren't offering. As I offered before, lets make a thread and look at the guarantee in more detail. At least I'm offering a solution and not being rude to you, saying 'don't comment because you do not understand.'


If you're referring to the guarantee, I have already welcomed a discussion.


That comment was actually directed at StudentsBeware, not you. I can see why you thought this, but your name is there because I was quoting something I said previously to you, I just forgot to wrap that in the quote mark up.

Do you mean where I said this:

Hey, WritersBeware I've only just spotted your message about the 'legality' of our guarantee. In the interest of keeping this thread free, as CriticalTheory requested, would you like to open a new thread up and I'll respond to your concerns. :)

Because that's the only time I've discussed the guarantee on this forum. Absolutely feel free to search my posts and find the other time I'm meant to have mentioned.

Let me make our guarantee absolutely clear, because you really do seem to misunderstand.

1) You buy an essay from our writers
2) You read though it and use it like a model answer
3) Write your own piece
4) Get it marked by our writers
5) Make any recommended changes from our writers
6) HAND IN YOUR OWN WORK
7) IF that piece gets a worse grade than the piece you bought from us we'll refund your money.

We're not guaranteeing a grade. We're guaranteeing using our service will help you get the grade you want, legitimately, legally.

As for the Viper thing, we've been through this with members of the forum before. We hold onto the essay for marketing purposes, after three years we may decide to use snippets of the essays for advertising or marketing.

Write Check, which belongs to Turnitin, which you keep recommending isn't so perfect either:

In their privacy policy:

If you are thirteen (13) years of age or older, Turnitin may also use your personal information to offer or furnish additional products and services and to personalize the types of information you receive from Turnitin.

They'll use your personal information to 'furnish additional products and services.'

Right, off home from work now.. Enjoy your evening.

Wrong. Above you said:


Implying we sell the essays. Which we don't. That is libel.


Wrong. Read my post again, in the thread I said we only just realised. WritersBeware had made a post about our guarantee. I was apologising for only just seeing it. I maintain, there is nothing illegal about our guarantee.


None of mine are. And they don't have to be. You have to take a long, good look at the people that are doing that and ask why.

As far as I'm aware Jen hasn't been chucked out of anywhere. In fact, she just had two articles published by the Institute of Legal Executives. One was about our industry and the issues surrounding it legally and the second was an educational supplement, which was a guide to answering legal problem questions.

Libel (for written, broadcast, or otherwise published words)-is the communication of a statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual, business, product, group, government, or nation a negative image

You keep saying we sell the essays scanned into Viper. We don't.

So, I'm requesting you stop saying this.

That is all.


I recently admitted what? We make no illegal promises about grades. If you're referring to our newest guarantee, we offer you money back if the essay you buy does not help you write a better piece yourself. This is an incentive to STOP people handing the work in. This is an incentive to legitimize the industry and only attract people who want to use the work as a model answer. If you were buying a product that didn't work, you'd want your money back, right?

Is this is what you're referring to? As I said to WritersBeware before, I'm happy to discuss this guarantee with her, and I'd welcome any feedback about how we can make it clearer.

All professional plagiarism software does is check through Google, Yahoo and Bing (which tend to more or less index the same content anyway) and through past papers submitted through the software.

i.e. if you user Turnitin or Viper, it will scan against work submitted previously through turnitin or viper.

I honestly think the best way to ensure your work is OK when you come to submit it, is to use it (like you said) as an outline.

I can't see why they'd need a scan of the back of your card though so I think you were wise to cover up the three digit security code.

To check your essay for plagiarism, try putting the title into Google. Try Googling lines and paragraphs of the essay too. Or, look on the parent website's essay bank and search for your topic to make sure it's not in the essay bank.


I'm fairly certain this is getting libelous now, I'll have to talk to Jen about this. Let me reiterate, we never resell essays that are scanned through Viper. We used to own an essay bank, which allowed STUDENTS to resell their OWN papers to other students (and we took a small cut.) We never sell the work from Viper to our customers - why would we - they'd see a 100% match if they scanned it through Viper. We'd put yourself out of business! Haha.

Pocket Radio, I'd honestly recommend you just Google sections of your essay - it's a quick and easy method. It's not as thorough as having a piece of software check every line for you, but you should be able to find something if it's plagiarized.

Best thing to do, is not hand it in to be honest!

I simply wonder if there are any ESL students who prefer to order from ESL writers for obvious reasons.

No hidden agenda. No attacks.

I also thought about if I was doing a degree overseas, I'd probably prefer to order an essay in my own language, so I can get a better understanding of the work, and learn from it. I suppose it depends entirely on what your intentions are.

A little off topic, but the above message got me thinking: Do you think there would ever be a market for ESL students who want work from ESL writers?

Critical Theory, did the situation get resolved in the end?

Hey, WritersBeware I've only just spotted your message about the 'legality' of our guarantee. In the interest of keeping this thread free, as CriticalTheory requested, would you like to open a new thread up and I'll respond to your concerns. :)

Brush, I will email you now to find out your order number, and I'm certain we can get this sorted. If you've received notification your order is ready, I can't see why you'd have trouble accessing it.

Oh, can't you reply to the email I sent? Apologies, I did not realise!

I'm glad to hear our manager is contacting you, hopefully that will resolve the situation.

Carly

Critical Theory, I've just sent you an email. Thanks, Carly.

Hello Sally,

The prices are different on University Essays because of the guarantees.

If you compare both site's guarantees, you'll notice they're very different.

With UKEssays you're paying for 18 guarantees, where on University Essays you're paying for 12. It's worth digging into the differences as you can see why one service costs less. I won't state them all here because it's not the place and it'll look like I'm promoting our sites!

I hope this clarifies the difference between the two sites.

Thanks,
Carly.

And CriticalTheory, I'm not ignoring your case, I'm going to forward your message on to our manager.

If a company claims it is a UK LTD company you can check if they're telling the truth through the 'Web Check' service on the Government-run website:

wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/421baca4c70e1508cd7cc849a1e48882/wcframe?name=accessCompanyInfo

Hope this helps.

Actually, that's wrong. I am not hired to sit on any forums and answer questions. As I'm sat here now I'm not being paid, I'm at home in my own time. I was at lunchtime when I posted too. I rarely log onto the forum at work. I'm hired to do website design, SEO etc. I'm hired to go through UKE.com and fix errors, make the pages load faster, rewrite copy, update broken links etc. I choose to come on the forum (and yeah 70% in my own time) and engage in conversations with people because I think there's value in it. Plus I like reading the info about scammers. When I leave in September (to go to do my MA) nobody else will come here from AA and 'take over'. I'll probably still look in and post though.

I'm not against anybody adding their site to the list I'm just saying for me personally I hope AA doesn't get added because there's value in helping the few people I can. (Though why those people don't use the messaging service in their control panel, I don't know!)

I can see why ET got added. I can't see why the individual in question hasn't had their IP banned or been reported to their ISP.

I see. I was toying with asking for the mods to add AA to the list but I'd rather be able to address real problems. Like in another forum earlier somebody posted and asked why they'd not received a response in 4 days. I looked into it and found they'd been told the wrong email address in error (misspelling) without the forum I'd just have a pee'd off writer because I would have never known that. On the other hand I can't be bothered with Muff's ramblings about the site. Asking me questions that I answer and she posts again demanding an answer?! SO I am actively ignoring her posts now and not responding. I encourage others to do the same. Like my little brother who used to pester me and annoy me, if I ignored him long enough he'd just go away. Better than feeding them ammo in my opinion.

What did you order? Out of curiosity...

I think if all of us do that, yes! Spread the word!

If that's the case, the person's IP should be monitored and if they are creating multiple accounts to just stalk certain essay sites the mod should notice and ban the IP. Of course, they'll just turn to proxies but at least it sends a message. If they're engaging in stalker-like behaviour and you're fed up of it, ask the mod to report their IP to the ISP and ask the ISP to send a letter.

I also think if you don't have anything to hide people can say what they like about the company (over and over again) and you can just calmly give your explanation each time.

Or... close your eyes, ignore them and hope they'll go away?

I will answer this query this once as I can't stand to see you twist things:

DOES AA OR DOES AA NOT STEAL STUDENTS ESSAYS VIA ITS VIPER SOFTWARE?

No, users are told when they sign up that we have rights to publish extracts of their work for marketing purposes once it's been in the database over two years. It's in the ToS. We won't sell them or do anything else with them. And, as far as I'm aware Turnitin has the exact SAME ToS though I'm not 100% on that.

DOES AA OR DOES AA NOT ENCOURAGE STUDENTS TO HAND WORK IN AS THEIR OWN - AS PROVEN BY AA FINING WRITERS WHEN MARKED WORK GETS A LOWER MARK THAN CHARGED FOR?

No, you ring up our office and tell any one of the CE team that you want to hand the work in as your own. They won't sell it to you. Plain and simple.

If a student thinks their work isn't up to standard WE mark the work independently and if the work IS rubbish, the writer gets fined. As in their contract. Sometimes students get tutors or colleagues to mark work if they think it's rubbish. Of course a lot of students will hand the work in as is and if it gets a poor grade, we have to still honor the fact it's a rubbish piece of work and give them their money back. Would you buy a pair of shoes with a hole in and not expect your money back? BUT the student gets a 'strike' to their record and if they hand the work in again we ban them from our service...

If we didn't threaten to fine writers, it wouldn't be regulated - writers could write rubbish and we could just sell 3rd class work all the time to people ordering 2:1 and 1st class. Give nobody their money back and never have any repeat custom. Drive our business into the ground. Seeing as we've expanded from 8 to 30 people in just a year, we can safely say we're not following that business model. Why would we want to?

We've even set up a new scheme (Live since March 1st 10) where if students buy an essay, write THEIR OWN essay and submit THAT essay to our experts to mark and it doesn't get the grade they want, we'll refund 100% of their money. Why would be bother doing this if we didn't want to encourage people to use the work legitimately.

I couldn't be anymore transparent about our company if I tried. Ha, maybe that's what bothers you?

Now please leave me alone. I'd like to continue to enjoy the forum. I am opting out of reading and responding to your posts now NOT because our service is a scam (or whatever else you claim) but because I'm tired of your rambles. I don't get what your problem is. You tie anybody who has a conversation with anybody else together as a 'band of libelers'.

I invite everybody else to ignore this person too. All threads simply get filled up with ranting posts ... he said she said. It's boring and I don't wanna read it.

I agree with this 100%. I'm not saying that anybody on the list is a scam site, I'm saying they probably don't realise this fact. Any legit companies on there are probably trying to protect themselves from the bad-mouthing opposition who have nothing better to do.

I have no gravitation towards which sites are legit/scam in the list, it could be 50-50. Any company on the list has added themselves to protect themselves:

If legit, from being bad mouthed
If scam, protect their shady operations

I think the legit companies (if there are any) shouldn't be afraid of being discussed in public. If you're truly trying to do the best for your customers/writers then if something goes wrong you can address it and resolve it, otherwise you end up with a strain of 'Dell Hell.' If the competition put up fake claims of scams about your company ask them to step up. Ask for an order number or ID and if it doesn't exist, there you go, they're outed for what they are. That's my take on it anyway.

Hello Tal50, I sure can explain it!

I've just spoken to Martin who was a little confused at first as all researcher messages have been answered to date. He dug into a little bit deeper and found that in fact Danny had sent you back a message with the wrong email address in it. So your emails were going nowhere! It's payments@ not payment@. I've now addressed with Danny and he knows the correct email to give out in future. Sorry for the inconvenience.

WRT & WB you should follow my lead and ignore ModMuff. They'll tire of rambling to themselves eventually.

Thanks.

I still struggle to see why anybody would want to opt out of conversation about their sites and services though. I guess it's to stop people making up rubbish and posting lies about their sites. But I suppose it's going to be abused by scam companies who want to 'look' legit or who want to avoid having their scams outed by disgruntled customers/writers. Plus you can get around the problem, like many of the forum's members have done by using brackets and spaces, and still post here.

So it kind of makes the list redundant

I don't answer the phone, I don't work in the Customer Services department, love.


As I pointed out, only because people LIKE YOU MODMUFF make it that way. I've never promoted our company here.

Actually nobody has claimed that but you. Read the thread again. S/he's just pointed out that it's been suspended???

The comment was intended for anybody who reads it, WB, you, the general public.


I don't think stating that something has been suspended, and linking it to the suspended page makes it libellous.

Saying they were a scam outfit and linking to the page would. Yet I can't see an instance where WB does this??

I've seen the UKEssays blog before, I assume it's aiming to compete for the UKEssays term, but the blog is written in American English, which I find odd because it seems to be affiliated with Essay Writer - a company I know is based in Leeds, UK. In fact, their registered offices used to be in York on a street I used to live on, near the river! How bizarre is that?

It never intended to be used like that. It's not the forum that makes it that way, it's the users.

There's absolutely NO reason why we can't use this forum to out scam operations. Like companies claiming to be from the UK/US when there's irrefutable evidence they're not.

If YOU want the forum to be used correctly then use it correctly, else what is your aim? What are you here for? I will openly admit what I'm here for: I want to read up on companies scamming customers and find out who are legit and who aren't (sure, for business reasons) and I want to monitor our reputation on these boards. If people aren't happy with one of the AA services, I'd like to do something about it. Equally if people are misinterpreting something, I can put them straight. I also like to put errors right that members of the forum spot on the sites, like old links and dates that are wrong. (Stuff that's been corrected thanks to WB) Like I say, if you're not here to get something positive out of this forum, what are you here for? I've never ever seen you contribute a single positive post yet. Please correct me if I'm wrong, I'd like to proved wrong on this one!

Furthermore, I have no idea who WT is. I simply agreed with a comment he made. IF by your logic that makes me his friend, then I am now best mates with the cashier I saw at lunchtime who asked if I'd like help with my packing. Or the petrol station attendant who gave me cashback this morning. I wouldn't have cared who said that sentence, I stick by it.

I was just thinking the same thing. I don't know who this ModMuff is, but why is s/he allowed to post such disgusting rants all the time. I answered another's question and got labelled the 'AA bimbo.' Surely name calling is not tolerated? (even if it is quite funny to me!)

I don't even know what ModMuff's problem is. To be honest, I don't want to know, I just want to be able to chat to people with an interest in STOPPING scam essay sites. I don't want to see forums taken over with rants and insults all the time.

I'm not really that interested. Blogs get suspended all the time. I've even had one on WordPress suspended; companies are not allowed to use the free hosted wordpress and yes, this is hidden away in the ToS. It's meant to be for personal blogs.

I've seen all of those sites before WB, they're hilarious! I love the pictures too! Would like to find out who those people really are... haaha.

Hahahha ^ that's fantastic!!!

Where was I racist? Because I asked if the word 'bimbo' had a different connotation in Poland to the one it has in England? I can think of a few words that Americans use differently to British people and asking them about it wouldn't be racist. I still would LOVE to know why you have decided to label me a bimbo, I think it's hilarious. Also, I'd hate to tell you the connotation of the word 'Muff' in the British language! Ha!


As mentioned above, we pay all our writers monthly, unless there is a very good reason. Without knowing your specific case, I can't tell you the reason why....


Hahaha, ditto. As fun as this is, I better go and do some real work!

I assume I am the AA bimbo? Please can you let me know what I agreed with?

I didn't even butt in, I was writing something on a post about a company I work for. In fact, I had posted BEFORE you in this thread. Hahaha! I only posted to correct some issues and say that I think that th63 could be a competitor.

Modmuff, I haven't once even referred to you in a post (until you started attacking me and I wrote back in my last post!) I don't know who you are or what you do.... You must have some interest in this forum? If you're not a writer, customer or site owner, what is it? I'd be quite interested to know! Only because I'm curious and I can't think of any other reason why you'd need to be here...?

Also, why am I a bimbo? I find this odd! In the UK blond people who are ill educated are usually referred to as bimbos. I'm not blond and I have an education, so why am I a bimbo? Unless it means something else where you're from? (Maybe it means something different in Poland?)


As I mentioned above, I find it hard to extract much sense from your post. Sorry about this, but I just can't work out what your point is. If you do have any questions, write them out, I'm happy to answer them :-)


I graduated from my degree two years before I worked at AA and I didn't even know such a company existed. I'm hoping when I return this autumn to do my Masters I won't be in a situation where I need the help as I'm doing a lot of prep work now. I'd never rule it out though as I've made lots of good contacts with writers who really know their stuff. I'd happily ask their advice or get them to give my work a look to make sure I'm on track.

I never assumed any of this, I never said any of this.


The phrase in which you're referring too, which I said above, wasn't even directed at you. I was talking about the person who started the thread. Undereducated? I have a degree and am about to embark on a Masters degree too. Bimbo? What makes you think that? A little unjust, don't you think? I'm not even blond, hahaha.