I've worked for this company for several years. I have always been paid in full and on time at the end of each invoicing period.
Their customer service was atrocitious when I first started but it has improved a little. They are still very difficult to get hold of over the phone and this can be very frustrating. I think their quality procedures are quite bizarre too. If you get a high quality feedback score from the customer then you get an extra 25% on your fee. I have some issues with this. If it was easy for the client to gauge the quality of a piece then they wouldn't be paying huge amounts for someone else to write their essay. Secondly, assuming this feedback is voluntary why is anyone going to bother filling in a quality feedback form unless they have to? Thirdly, given the fact that some writers ask for a 2:2 and have only paid to that level how would they judge quality and is this explained to them? Do they judge whether it is a good quality piece for a 2:2 level piece of work, or do they assess whether it is a good quality piece overall? Surely it is the quality assessors who work for AK that should assess quality and award accordingly.
They do however, pay an extra 25% on top of the original fee to requested researchers which I think is a very good idea. Additionally, the highly automated, structured service, although frustrating at times, prevents the customer from making endless changes to the assignment (i.e. changes in structure and assignment title) whilst the researcher is still in the process of writing it. This is something I have experienced with other companies who have a more personalised approach.
