Hey Melinda,

You're not the only one who has been scammed!

I agree that anyone could sign up and say that one company is great and the others useless. It pays to be a little careful and read several posts - if someone is just going on about one site - either positively or negatively- then I would be dubious about what they are saying.

I have actually placed an order with custompapers.com just yesterday - not for a paper but an application I am making. I haven't had the work yet (it's due Friday) so can't tell you what the work is like from firsthand experience. I'll post again when I get it.

I have had a couple of good papers from ukessays.com (and also one very poor one from them - 38%!!), and I've also used oxbridgeessays.com who were fine. Both these companies are expensive though and I'm not totally convinced that I get good value for money (especially for the 38% paper!).

With American sites, apart from my current order with custompapers.com, I have also used paperstore.com and junglepage.com. Paperstore were appalling in my experience - the paper missed the topic completely and the customer service was poor (the 24 hr rewrite turned up a week late and wasn't worth waiting for). Junglepage.com were a slight improvement on paperstore.com but the original paper (not a rewrite) was a day late and, in my opinion, was more high school than college standard so I was disappointed overall.

I hope you find a company that helps you, and post your experiences when you do :)

Ben

Glad it worked out for you Pitt.

I've not heard anything bad about them on here or anywhere else. I'll be ordering from them myself when I get my assignments later this month.

I hope it works out for you Kimberley :) Let us know how you get on.

Ben

I've mentioned two companies, earlier in this thread, in the UK that are good - but they are expensive. I've heard good things mentioned about an American company called custompapers.com but you'd have to get reassurances directly from them about the references so that they'd use sources that you could reasonably expect to have accessed from Ireland.

Hope this helps & good luck. Sounds like you've had a rough time.

Ben

I think the problem with subcontracting to India and Pakistan isn't about academic standards in those countries - India's IIT rivals MIT! - it's the companies that are doing this - the Essay Reliefs of this world. They are not paying market rate in those countries for good researchers with strong skills in writing English. They are using cheap labour (labor to you ;-)) and non-native English speakers - not a great combination.

I like the hairdresser analogy but with the haircut you pay when your hair has been cut and you have seen what you are paying for. For me a bad experience of ordering say, for example a 1500 word essay on free market economics, was paying $300 up front and receiving a 10 page essay on a completely unrelated topic that had been plagiarised in its entirety from a free essay website. I'm assuming you wouldn't want to pay $300 for a haircut which resulted in you being scalped!

Believe me, with some companies you can generalise on their quality!!

Ben

Essay relief - very funny!!

It's cheap to be a British student if you write your own essays - max tuition fees even at Oxford and Cambridge are £3k ($4,800) a year! It's just we need a bit more competition in the essay market - a duopoly isn't healthy.

I think too many essay companies in the UK are started up by students with contacts / family in India / Pakistan - they have no interest in quality and only in making a very fast profit. I know a couple of companies who threaten to publish buyers details on their website when they complain about quality - they rely on people not wanting their college to know they buy essays. It's a bad business indeed.

I think more UK students would buy from US companies if they could work out which ones are okay. Sites like this help. But even then.... it's not a 100% guarantee as a company rep could pose as a student and say that they used their company and they were great. As ever, the message is buyer beware!

Ben

There are very few (as in 2) good essay companies in the UK - usessays.com & oxbridgeessays.com - that's how they get away with charging so much. UK students often want UK journal sources in their references and US companies will find this harder to do.

I just looked this company up as I hadn't heard from them. The web address is:

dissertation-advice.co.uk

They have a Bradford telephone number but I couldn't find a registered address on the site. I would recommend that people never deal with any company that doesn't clearly state that it is a registered company and doesn't clearly state what its street address is (ie the address at which the company is registered). That said, there are a couple of essay companies in the UK that do say they are registered and give a street address and are still scammers!

Helena, how did you pay for your order? If it was with a UK issued credit card you may be able to get a refund as there is consumer protection for purchases made over the internet that are not what you paid for. You should contact your credit card company and tell them that what was provided is not as described on the website. The credit card company - if they agree - will then chargeback your account.

If the chargeback is reversed - which can happen - then you need to tell the credit card company that you are making a claim for reimbursement against the card company under The Consumer Credit Act 1974 and the European E-commerce Directive 2002. The card company has to reimburse you and it's then up to the card company to pursue the offending essay company to get the money back.

Hope this helps!

Ben

I would expect that if there is proof that someone has fraudulently used a credit card from a campus computer that the college would take steps to trace the person involved. Most campus computers require users to log-in with personal ids and passwords so it shouldn't be too hard for the campus IT people to trace the user (should they be inclined to do so) - unless it was done from an open access pc and even then it might still be possible to trace the person, for example if they logged into their email account during that same session.

Credit card fraud is serious - law enforcement should be informed.

I really hope that you get DeVry to take some action.

I used them once. They were okay-ish. The paper was very basic - fine for a high school student but it was not a college level essay as I had requested. I wouldn't use them again but I didn't feel that I had been scammed like I have with other companies.

Hi Jim,

Thanks - I have received an e-mail from the site admins. (Thank you admins people!). I'll be giving your company a try in the fall semester.

Ben

Good essay Jim. I'm sorry you didn't get paid.

I read Jim's essay on his post (re Devry student) and this one - both good essays and I'm sorry that you guys didn't get paid.

I wish you'd let people know who you work for as I'd be happy to order essays from you. I have been scammed in the past and find it hard to know where to order from to be assured a good standard of writing as so many bad companies seem to operate under multiple aliases.

Ben

UK RESIDENTS: PLEASE DON'T USE ANY ONLINE COMPANY THAT DOES NOT OFFER PAYMENT BY CREDIT CARD (and if they want cash paid into a bank account run as fast as you can!!!)

Reasons to pay by credit card:

If you pay by credit card there is a seven day cooling off period for online purchases under the distance selling regulations so you can cancel your order if you've had second thoughts and still get a full refund.

If you don't get an essay or are not happy that the essay is original then contact your credit card company and tell them that what was provided is not as described on the website (ie not original). The credit card company - if they agree - will then chargeback your account.

If the chargeback is reversed - which can happen - then you need to tell the credit card company that you are making a claim for reimbursement against the card company under The Consumer Credit Act 1974 and the European E-commerce Directive 2002. The card company has to reimburse you and it's then up to the card company to pursue the offending essay company to get the money back.

I should add that you won't get any support from your card company if you just say that any essay received is just poorly written / has poor grammar / poor spelling as they will say that appreciation of the content is subjective. If you get the essay and you make a claim, you need to say that the essay clearly doesn't meet any reasonable interpretation of the subject matter, or that you were promised a customised essay and what you got was plagiarised and list the sources. I got my money back through my credit card company because I printed off the webpages that the essay company had plagiarised in creating the "custom" essay.

So, no more paying by cash, okay?!! :D
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