What do you know about WritersDepartment.com - I didn't pass the test?

The weirdest thing happened to me. I'm working as a freelance academic writer for some time and I applied for a position with this website a few days ago. I have no idea how to pick these sites in advance, usually you have to make an account to be actually able to see what they offer. So I submitted the bunch of details they required, passed the tests, submitted some short written piece for evaluation.

Two days later, I get an email saying that I didn't pass the test and here, have a pat on the head, the right fit is out there. To which I replied and ask in a couple of sentences what was the exact problem, as in "point the mistakes". There were no obvious mistakes in the 200-word text, so I was genuinely puzzled. To which they reply and say that, wait!, actually the HR dept decided to give me another chance.

They gave me a new essay theme (the title was grammatically wrong), this time a longer piece. I wrote the thing, had it checked through 2 grammar checking websites and a paper-rater, proofread by 2 English natives etc. It was flawless. If anyone cares to read it, I can post it here later on. Today they answer, again, that unfortunately my writing does not meet the requirements of their customers. I think this is a lie. In their exact words, my "writing skills are not enough to meet the demands and writing expectations of [the] clients".

The piece was grammatically flawless, interesting, fact-checked, referenced; I took special care to not use long sentences or weird formulations; I used vocabulary words to make it appropriate for a high education level. It was impeccable. Even if the website doesn't accept writers at this point, or they are simply not interested in my application, why not say so instead of lying?

I am seriously considering to file a case with the Internet Crime Complaint Center because this website may very well be used for phishing or god-knows-what. Anyone who has any idea what's up with this site is welcome to share information. Thanks a lot!

No offense, but there are MANY mistakes in grammar and punctuation throughout your post.

Also, FYI, by taking it upon yourself to incorrectly insert "[the]" in the quote, you lead me to believe that your writing sample probably contains the type of eyesores that would potentially cause any prospective employer to immediately toss your application.

Could you post the paper here? Where are they located; have you asked? Did you send them SS # / W9 form and/or other sensitive information?

@Major, I didn't ask where they are, there's is little room for conversation like that in the communication with them. I didn't send any tax forms, only a copy of my ID and graduation certificate. @Major, on a second thought, I'd rather distribute the piece by email. I'm somewhat unsure it's a good idea to post it here.

You may check this thread - your data has been processed by someone in Europe so now it's too late to worry if it's a good or bad idea - https://essayscam.org/forum/wc/writersdepartment-suck-pay-5417/

This tactic seems familiar to me, as I have been around with many different companies. Imo, in cases like these, there really is no test; the people making the decisions are likely incompetent, and therefore are making fairly arbitrary decisions. That's why so many overseas outfits run by people who don't speak English as a living language have such problems with quality control; admin can't even read and understand the essays their company is putting out.

Anyway, not to digress... OP, you should probably consider yourself lucky to have avoided this place, and admin is likely having a laugh at you for trying so hard. My advice is to let it go, put it behind you, and make sure you don't lose any more of your time and effort on what is likely a shady outfit that would have eventually stolen from you.

You may also want to post the essay, because the validity of your claim appears to have been challenged.

@Major - thanks a lot, that's an interesting finding.

@editor75 - thanks for the insights. It's weird that people out there waste their time with such antics. At this point, my main concern is that some strangers have copies of my papers, the exact same documents that I regularly use to create accounts. Identity theft, anyone? Regarding your second point, posting the essay online forfeits my right to ever use it again because it will show up in plagiarism checks, which is why I changed my mind about it. (It may not be a long essay, but I had to waste quite a few hours of my life researching highly technical information regarding skyscraper structural features. Thinking about it now, it's weird that they sent me such a theme, far removed from my area of expertise - business.) I am not here to make a point or gain trust; I don't treat this as a contest or tournament. I don't care what people think about my "claim". I am only interested in factual information about some website, if such information exists. So, thanks everyone for answering, much appreciated!

I checked the company's live chat, and the operator claimed that the company was UK-based and had its service center in Orlando, and then proceeded not to know what Orlando's weather was like yesterday, even though my business was on the line.

You " Please update your info
Are you a Magic fan?
Paige
Not really
I am sorry, but I am not really supposed to talk about myself in chat
You Please update your info
Okay, Paige, one more question, and it's not personal, I promise.
Paige
Sure
You " Please update your info
You just have to do me a favor and answer in under five seconds.
It was really rainy yesterday, right?
Oooh, sorry Paige.

I hope that someone with more resources than I have in this industry checks up on this company, as I find lifting advanced skyscraper engineering papers as samples, as well as my live chat experience, to be very hinky.

WritersDepartment.com uses a RUSSIAN-language mail server (mx.yandex.ru). One does not use a Russian-language mail server unless one is (or speaks) Russian/Ukrainian.

To some, lying is as natural as breathing.

@editor75 - Haha, nice! Thanks for sharing the chat. This industry is not well-regulated, which is exactly why so many of them casually lie about their location, charge customers 3.35x the author's pay etc. While this behavior is unethical, I understand why they take advantage of people - because they can. To be completely rigorous, my piece wasn't an engineering paper per se, but there wouldn't have been any paper without the technical details, given the nature of the question.

@writers2beware - That's a pretty awesome tool you used there. How does one run that IP query you used? I'd love to be able to know more about academic writing websites priorto applying, and not after that, like now. Usually, the rackets don't pay well either, so I hate to waste time taking their tests. Moreover, a better paying job would allow me to invest in some writing courses, which would help me improve my writing and maintain the quality around a fixed point by placing my knowledge on a solid theoretical footing.

@ai983 what you call impeccable writing is actually quite flawed. I can almost see the kind of 3rd rate research test you submitted to the company. Your grammar errors in this post are enough to tell me that if you lasted this long in the business, you probably did it as part of a fly by night company that doesn't really care about the quality of the work that their writers produced. Which is probably the reason why you were not hired by the company you were applying to. Even as a scam company, they would like to portray some sort of quality when it comes to choosing their writers. Or, another scenario, is that you were applying for acceptance at a satellite / sisters / affiliate company of the academic outsourcing company you were originally attached to. These companies keep tabs on their writers and share their writer records with the affiliated in order to prevent double applications or work profiles. That is because you will be looking at the same system server and you will most likely catch on the con. Hence the double rejection that you received.

It doesn't make sense to report a company to an internet crime complaint center just because you were not hired for the job. That would be considered a frivolous complaint and would just clog the system with an unwarranted complaint. Just accept defeat. Acknowledge that you were not up to the writing standards of that company, even though you do not what their standards are. Do not think too highly of yourself in this business. There is always someone better at writing and there is always a company that will not agree with your writing style. That is why you should go into the business for yourself whenever you can. That way you do not have to meet anybody's standards except the clients and that, is much easier to achieve than you think. Just let it go and try to find another company to enter. That is, if another company will have you.

Even if they did report it, it would be unlikely it would do any good -- even if their complaint was valid. Legit reporting centers are aware these companies exist and that they dupe customers and have under-educated writers working for next to nothing. They don't care. In all honesty, why should they? After all, a little research (which @ai983 or any serious writer should be capable of) will reveal the companies to watch out for. Still, @writereview is correct: try to find another company if you can, but first, brush up on your grammar.

So, the OP no longer updated this post. Why do they always do that? These sort of non-updated posts makes me think that the OP might be a person released by the opponents of the company to bad mouth their rival. The information provided is just too detailed. If someone thinking of applying for work at that company reads this post, they would think twice and more than likely, not apply for a writer position at the company anymore. I think that was the actual purpose of this post, to blacken the company's image so that the writers would not apply for a job there.

I've been freelancing for over 15 years; occasionally, a client asks me for help putting together a team of freelancers for a large project, so I've had the opportunity to review many test pieces/writer applications. It's possible the OP submitted a flawless sample and got rejected anyway, but I can't tell you the number of times I've received nasty emails from people who submitted error-riddled sample pieces and insisted that what they had written was perfect. The reality is that many people submit samples with multiple errors and/or don't follow the instructions when completing a sample piece.

I'd say that following instructions is even more important than flawless writing, especially at companies that have editors on hand to review each order. If someone submits an order with three typos in it, an editor can quickly fix the typos. When writers don't follow instructions (don't answer the prompt directly, don't follow the required academic citation style, exceed the max. word count or fail to meet the minimum word count, etc.), it takes a lot more time to fix up the order and make sure it meets the client's needs.

This is one strange website. It is not open to order placement. It acts as the writer's recruitment page for the company. However, when you try to apply as a writer, it tells you that they have a hiring freeze. So what is the use of this website then? Is it a case of a company that has gone out of business but has to ride out the server and domain name contracts? Does anybody know what is actually going on with this company?