If they are a UK registered company then you should be able to apply some pressure. I would check the address, probably an accountant offering an address for the company. You should be able to trace the owners via the registration number etc. Are you in the UK? I would use Google Maps and check out the address, it looks like a residential home, tatty street. Not far from my cousin's house. You can always take out a Statement of Claim and deliver via registered mail, too.

Perhaps Phylks' concept of a wire transfer is a more US centric one and thus his firm belief it wasn't such? I agree with MeoKhan and think you should discuss the matter with your Bank, but I would not hold my breath. Do you know where they are physically located? You can always make inquiries with the authorities int heir own country. You never know, you may be the complaint they have been waiting for so they can pounce.

I would argue that point, MeoKhan. This is the difference between the theoretical and actual uses of English. While I accept your point regarding the subject/clause relationship, such a sentence would never be constructed and used in that way by a native speaker.

I have found that English as taught and used on the Sub-Continent (Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh) is still very much the way it was taught pre-Independence. I have found similar usage in the Philippines although there the influence of course was pre WW2 US English with most of the text books still using English as it was back when the US first invaded and occupied the islands (1898).

In practise this tends to have these L2 English users construct sentences that are grammatically correct yet often use words rarely heard by L1 English speakers as well as the way the words are used being 'old fashioned' or rather formal English. Is this wrong? No. I don't think so however I do think that it 'places' the writer somewhat. It can jar the ordinary English reader's ear or it might make the reader form an opinion of the writer and the material that is biased and thus detracts from the veracity of what is actually written.

As for obeying the rules, I appreciate your concern however I am a big lad and will take my chances. Must be the Australian Larrikin in me. Cheers Perry

Why bother? If you were worth the effort I would but it is only you who considers the grammar of the post an issue, not I. Once again, you have won and have the last word, albeit perhaps not in chronological order but I will repeat it here to save you replying to this post...'were.'

You get the last word in again Feeelicks. You win. Once again your superior intellect and command of the English language has ruled the day. I bow to your superiority and leave the thread to you. I bet you can't resist replying though. I bet you.

And you have the temerity to say my grammar sucks! Look it up if you have to. On second thought, don't bother. It really isn't worth arguing about, is it?

Ahem! You were saying... about my poor English... And how is 'par for the course' any less cliched than 'throw the book at them'? Hahahahahahah

There are rules? And yet you behave like such a spoilt little brat. Why not PM me with the details then?

MeoKhan, are you a moderator? If not then thankyou for your feedback but I will let the moderators manage my adherence to the rules or otherwise, thanks.

Thanks for that. It made me laugh to see Phylicks in the flesh, so to speak. As you say, he seems otherwise such a nice boy but for some reason he feels he has to pretend he is the tough, know all writing expert. Pheeelux, I have made more money from my ****** books on a lot of things than you have had hot dinners. What have you written that is out there under your own name? What have you accomplished other than amusing the kids between Acts at the high school play?

Never mind, I don;t really wish to know and I am not about to get into an angry contest with someone who has to stand so much closer to the trough.

jboy, you might have more response if you keep it impersonal. Just say:

"Due to your breach of the contract between us by not providing the agreed upon work, I request that you refund my payment in full within 7 days. Failure to do so will give me cause to commence recovery proceedings."

Never ever threaten anyone, it only shows you are scared or desperate. Tell them what the issue is and the remedy you wish and then what you will do if they do not oblige. Not as a threat but as a statement of fact. Then if they do not comply, do it. No warning needed. Never say you will do something you won't and always accept that if you do take action, there may be unforeseen consequences you will have to live with.

It is much harder not to threaten than it is to do so. Most threats are merely ways to let off steam and not feel so vulnerable and helpless. When threatened, if you feel you can manage it, invite the threatener to act right then and there and you will find 99% of the time they will have some excuse ready not to. If they were serious they would do what they threaten to do. Once you call their bluff they have lost. Of course, if they do act you might need to work fast.

How did you pay them? If by PayPal or Western Union you should contact them and lodge a formal complaint. If by credit card, perhaps you can have it reversed and taken from their account. Always go for the hip pocket, it hurts the most. Perry

When you have the courage to identify yourself to me, either on of off list, I will dignify your remarks with a reply. Until then, and we both know you will never come out from behind your anonymity, you have been dismissed.

But you don't give 'estimates'. You don't even say who you are or where your web site is. All you do from what I have read is lambast other posts and posters, especially those who are new. Anyway, I appreciate you feeling sufficiently threatened by my joining the forum to attack me and to take the time to do so phrase by phrase. When you reach that level of threat or importance to me I will reciprocate. Until then, I did say you were dismissed, right?

It is a pretty basic, 'raw' site but it gets the message across. I think you should include more tangible contact details to show you are someone who is legitimate and obtainable. All the scam sites don't do that (I phrased that to give Phyleks something to crow about) and the good ones do.

The theme is ok but I prefer plain backgrounds rather than hitting them over the head with the "this is a writer's site" thing. If you look at the professional writing sites around they tend to stay clear of that paper, typewriter, pen motif kind of thing and keep it clean and modern looking.

I commend you on finding a great niche to market to (Bodybuilding forum), but of course don't rely solely on the iron pumpers and fitness types. Think of other things you like or are good at and target them too.

I would look at five good essay writing sites and five scammers and see what leaps out at you. Keep in mind the scammers get a lot of business so don't worry about modelling some of their site features. The objective of the site is to have a point of contact as well as promote your services. Providing a legitimate service can be done to 100 respondents from a scammer type site (talking look, feel and features) as it can from a legit style of site that only gets 50 clients. Bottom line it your product and service and in time your reputation will override any 'cheesy' features of the site. Or pe4rhaps I am wrong (I threw that in for Phylexis, too)

BTW, it might be fun but slinging mud back and forth at Phyleics does nothing to promote a professional, trustworthy image. He is so uber-cool and successful no doubt he can get away with behaving like a little child but then he hasn't posted his web site here, has he?

Fair comment then jboy and my apologies if my remarks stung, however they did elicit more information from which I can make a more measured assessment. Have you ever considered reviewing your work load? As for exposing yet another scammer, well done on that. Taking money for their product means they have a duty of care to ensure they meet their promises and obligations, obviously they failed and in your case you paid twice for this.

As for Phyleeks; you are entitled to your opinion regarding my writing as you are to anything and everything else. Opinions are like a-holes, everyone has one, some, like you, are one. When you leave the personal attacks, spite and vitriol behind and post a balanced, thought out rebuttal I will reply, until then you are not worth wiping with a reply.

I take your point but I can't agree with it given he turned on me within two or three posts and I can't see why, other than he feels this is HIS forum and he is the arbiter of taste.

The thing with trawling the archives, it is time consuming and you can't seriously expect people who use an essay service with hours to go before deadline to spend the time reading old posts, especially when they feature the ******** and backbiting exhibited by some on a regular basis.

This is not a phenomenon restricted to this forum but something one sees on forums everywhere, although Phyleeks will no doubt point out a MA should use 'flora' for the plural of forum. I would still like to see Essaybrah's web site.


And you are clearly an idiot who has a very high opinion of themselves. Who made you the King of the Forum? Who declared you the Arbiter of Taste for this forum? You virtually live here so that tells us a lot but to defame my professional ability from behind the cover of an alias is pretty low. How do you know whether I am a native speaker or not? On what do you base this superior assessment? Actually, don't bother to reply as your opinion is worth nothing to me nor to every new poster you have attacked since you signed on here in 2009.

If you were so busy and making so much money you would not have the time to make so many posts.

Gee, and you say I'm insecure. Your rant tells me far more about you than anything you have said about me. It fails to address the topic, fails to rebut any of the statements I made and it weakens any credibility anyone using an alias could hope for. Apart from that you fall into the common trap of stereotyping people based on your own prejudices and values. Anyway, you have had your say and no doubt felt, if only a momentary thrill as you hit 'send', that somehow you might not be the loser you fear you are. If you were obtaining custom essays and intending to pass them off as your own then I fully understand the need to hide your identity. As for 'fat', it is an adjective, not an offence. When you reach my age and have lived my life, come and talk to me. Until then, you are dismissed. That should twist your Wa nicely. A dash of arrogance does wonders, don't you think?

Huh? You are an argumentative type, aren't you? Can you point to the law that makes it illegal, as in a crime either felony or misdemeanour, to pass off an essay written by someone else as your own? Perhaps in your jurisdiction but not mine. Copyright infringement is illegal but plagiarism is not. It is against the rules and regulations of all schools but that doesn't make it against the law of the land, ie: illegal.

What is wrong with 'throw the book at you'? It is understood by one and all and gets the message across. Keep in mind you are arguably the only person on this forum with superior intelligence so I am writing for the lowest common denominator. Given so many here whine about getting ripped off for essays they should have written themselves I would think it wise to use cliches.

As for you, how come you are still here? Haven't you graduated yet? Or is this the only place you can lurk and exercise that superior intellect? I have noticed you attack all the new posters and basically drive most of them away, yet you have so little of value to offer to the forum as a whole. Still, every group has one and you're ours I guess.

As for my MA(Writing), do your homework and find out for yourself. Oh, BTW, I guess you did it on purpose when you wrote Master's in Writing in lower case. Gee, I really feel put down. Please, go easy on me.....

Why did you leave your essay to the last minute? I read this over and over again how time becomes critical yet it is clearly the fault of the student for failing to get organized and do the work. What are you students doing? Drinking, clubbing, Facebook? Why use a service in the first place when the Internet has all the information you need at your fingertips and plenty of free material out there to model off of. If you do use a service (and as a working writer that is fine by me) then don't go by lowest price and use common sense to sort the conmen from the genuine providers. Use Odesk or Elance or a site you can verify has a real address in the UK, USA or where ever.

First of all I am not an American, I am Australian. I left the Philippines a few years ago for the sake of my kids and their future. The purpose is not to promote my web site, of which that is just one of many, rather it is to say 'this is the real me, I exist and I stand behind my post and my opinions.'

Having said that, I purposely laid it on to get a response, to get the debate going because I can see both sides of the coin. I agree on one level that it is not the writer's problem, you are just providing a service. Like a prostitute, executioner, employee of the IRS, lawyer etc. The onus rests on the user of the service and this is why I find it pathetic that they moan when they get clipped.

I have no problem with sites like Degree Essays who have a physical address in Nottingham UK you can visit and speak to real people. It is the Best Essays in the Ukraine I find fault with as far as how they rip off writers. I am sure there are more out there.

I was also plagiarized by Jessica Simpson (not the celebrity) on one of my submissions during my MA(Writing). She got a slap on the wrist for copying swathes of my text verbatim. That irked me no end, I thought twenty lashes would have been more appropriate but apparently those days are long gone ;o)

So, who is right and who is wrong? Wrong to offer the service? Wrong to use it? Wrong to pass off the 'custom essay' as one's own work?

Did you post the url and it was removed? Hard to discuss what we can't see.

I think you got what you deserved. If you had planned your study properly you would not have been caught out at the last minute and so you could have checked the document before submission. To actually buy an essay and then submit it as your own work is not illegal but it is unethical. You don't deserve the mark even a good essay would get, nor do you deserve the degree.

What if you are studying medicine? One day you will need to rely on knowledge you don't have because you bought your essay and didn't re-write it yourself (and thus it becomes a legitimate study aid and in your own words so not plagiarism). Your patient dies because you were lazy. Or an engineer or a chemist or anything?

There is no excuse for what you did. I did my MA(Writing) in three semesters, four units per semester and I treated it like a full time job. It was hard work but 8 HDs and 4 Ds proved it was achievable.

Now you whine and moan like a little child because you got caught. I hope they throw the book at you and refuse to award you your degree. Cheat if you must but at least have the decency to take it like a grown up if it goes pear shaped. And one other thing. How weak are you hiding behind a username while naming the company that took your money? I bet you will go into politics or the Church.