I have worked with British, American and Ukranian companies. On the basis of personal experience (which I won't generalise), I disagree. With the Brits and Americans, I only ever revised another writer's work a couple of times. With the Ukranians, I can safely say (and have the supporting evidence), that I spent most of my time, revising the work of others. More often than not, revision was virtually impossible for one of the following reasons:
1) I genuinely couldn't understand the ESL writer's English;
2) the work was plagiarized.
3) the write-up had nothing to do with the order instructions.
Rewriting from scratch was always the easier option.
Customer complaint rates are not, in my experience, remotely comparable. Certainly, we would get some problematic customers but, in general, most were satisfied and were loyal to the site/the company. With the Ukranians, customer complaints were never-ending and sometimes tended towards the rude. One had to sympathise, however. It was not unusual that I be the third or fourth writer assigned to the order and by the time it got around to me, the customer would have formed a highly negative opinion of the site and its writers. It is largely because of this that Ukrainian site customers develop writer-loyalty and, hardly ever, website-loyalty.
There is no doubt that the Ukranian companies have some good writers and it is this group which has helped them survive the rotten publicity they deservedly receive. The majority of their writers, however, are illiterate, uneducated fools. Their Admin is even worse because most do not even understand English. Hence, they invariably miscommunicate client messages and instructions to writers, and writer messages to clients. The end result is, often, a horrid customer experience.
As I said, I will not presume to generalise my experience but I strongly believe that your contention, Stu4, is ridiculous.
Those who TRY to artificially create the bubble that the "foreign" companies are much worse than "American" companies are:
No. You are much worse and most of what is posted here is based on the personal experience of writers and customers.
Stu4, as you know, the Ukranian companies don't have a writer screening and recruitment process/policy in place. When we apply to US or British companies, we are thoroughly screened and they do not take our resumes at face value. We provide proof of our degrees, our nationality and sign a contract or a writer policy. When I applied to the first foreign site I ever worked for (Ukranian), they took everything I said at face value. I never provided (nor was asked to) proof of my degrees or nationality. All I had to do was write this stupid 1 page essay on "Plagiarism." I was accepted on the spot and assigned orders right there and then. One of the very first orders they assigned me, an untrained writer (as far as they were concerned, I was), was an MSc dissertation. Why did they assign it to me, a writer whom they had no experience with and knew anything about? Simply because they did not, as still do not, give a fig about their customers.
The other companies, RWC, EW and Allwriting, just recruited me. They never asked me for anything, not even a sample of my writing.
The reader should do the math him/herself.
Yes, please. At an average CPP of $4.5 per page, you get illiterates. Is an undergrad (let alone a grad or post grad) going to settle for that type of money? Stu4, you pay peanuts and you get monkeys.
It is YOU who are the problem because you don't believe in yourself and your own skills.
No, Stu4. You and your gang are the ones who pay peanuts, not the Americans and not the Brits. You are the ones responsible for the entry of hordes of unqualified ESL writers into this industry and for the subsequent devaluation of ALL ESL WRITERS. The Americans and Brits do not have a race-based fee policy in place. Nationality and race are utterly irrelevant.
you shouldn't judge anything because you are an ESL writer and cannot think straight.
Flawed logic. An ESL writer, even an utterly unqualified one, is probably capable of rational thought in his/her native language. You, however, are not. Your irrationality is not a consequence of your nationality but, an integral part of your mindset. Stu4, injecting race and nationality into this debate is senseless. Let's talk qualified and unqualified writers, regardless of race and nationality but, as determined by education and linguistic proficiency.
This isn't about race. This is about "bad industry practices".
Right. Why can everyone but you and your cronies see this, Stu4?
It just so happens that these "bad practices" are done by non-American sites.
I disagree. Melissa is a native speaker but cannot write and, importantly, theft, deceit and lies are the foundations of her sites.
companies need to have better tests and outsource their testing to ESL teaching companies.
Good idea.
So you are from Philippines? You MUST be a fraud then!
Don't misrepresent. How about the Australian or British sites which were exposed right here, on this forum? While scam has no nationality, a tremendous percentage of the scammers are Ukranian, Pakistani and Indian. Do you know why? Because your consumer protection and business accountability laws are non-existent or underdeveloped. You can get away, scot-free, with things which we would be torn apart for even considering. The absence of solid Sales of Service, Consumer Protection, Consumer Fraud and Business Accountability laws, functions to encourage and promote blatant dishonesty.
You are and will always be an ESL Writer, but now you seem to forget it.
You wish. Stu4, if you people hadn't allowed illiterates into the industry, the ESL debate would never have begun. Had you recruited people like AsianWriter, ESL would never have been mentioned at all.
Your argument is both tired and boring, Stu4.
Scurry off, now.
