Writing for Academic Knowledge

Yes, it has been the experience of a writer known to me. But they don't take away writer earnings, or report student-writers' universities.

Serene you moron - ALL good companies - essay sites and all companies in any field - will refuse to pay writers who send them plagiarised unsatisfactory essays and who attempt to scam and steal from them. And if writers or customers try to defraud any company then that company has the right to inform anyone they like - the police, the university, anyone. But then you Serene are a scammer and support credit card thieves and fraudsters - and i know who u r. You are such a complete and utter asshole - would u pay for something u never received? IDIOT! Those who try and scam deserve everything they get.

Go back 2 sleep u illiterate retard. You try it - send academic knowledge a plagiarised essay and steal from them - u think they gonna keep ur name secret. grow up u silly little indian retard and keep taking those tablets!

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User banned for abusive language.

administrator

You wouldn't have advertised your identity better!!


Yes, we here are talking about them, the established, ethical lot. Not about some suicidal psycho. Business started after release?



Racism??? You will call me Paki next!

Yes they do through fines etc which are 3 x the amount they pay for the writer

Do they really do that? I thought it was just a kind of threat.

I know several who have been fined. I once was scammed by them for £240 for an £80 essay

Academic Knowledge were the company which I very first started writing with, some four years ago now. They were responsible for getting me kick-started on working for myself as a freelancer, a decision which has granted me the freedom to travel the world while working and one which has changed my life for the better. But I digress...
I have had some absolutely shocking experiences with some other essay writing sites, but Academic Knowledge have always been, and still are, without a doubt the best company I have worked for.
I have only ever been fined once within the whole time that I have worked for them. This was due to an error on my part where the wrong essay was submitted, and the actual essay ended up being received late by the customer. The company did originally try to fine me 300% as is their policy, but they are open to negotiation on these things. They are also very receptive to discussion if you have problems and are honest about them and don't just not submit the work on time.
The company is always very fair and they are definitely not a scam company, unlike a number of others that I could name (including one which I am actually having problems with right now, which is what prompted me to come on here).
The company always pays on time, the staff are all usually very friendly and polite, and at the end of the day I think it is a case of if you produce quality work under the requirements of the contract then you should have no problems. That is only the same as any other type of work where you undertake a contract for the customer. I now source my own work in areas other than writing essays and I can tell you that if you yourself were to promise something to a customer and then not deliver exactly what you promised then they simply would not pay you, so you can't expect AK to do that either!
So all in all I would definitely recommend working for Academic Knowledge!

And just how much are they paying you for such blatant promotion?

I know of many who have had VERY bad experiences with this company. One satisfied writer (if that is what you really are!) does not make the company great. Heck there are loads of posters on here that praise academia-research, essaywriters.net etc etc that does not make them a good company.

When I worked for AK I used to get paid on time, however, when there were issues over extra words needing to be added, minor alterations (which demonstrated how the customer OBVIOUSLY intended to submit MY work as THEIR own) and then the 300% fine (of which I only had 1, because then I jacked it all in) that was the straw that broke the camels back.

They are constantly sending emails asking for minor amendments within a short period of time, and as I work full time and was only doing this as an extra outlet I was often under a lot of stress to do the changes after having already done a 10 hour day at work.

When you also consider the amount that they charge the customer compared with the amount they pay the writer that is diabolical. DO yo not realise that the essay they are paying you £100 they are charging the customer £300 for. Why not cut out the middle man and set up your own agency, and keep all the profits for yourself.

When you also consider the lies told by Jennifer about her supposed academic qualifications, does it not concern you that if they can lie about things like that what else do they lie about? With any of these companies there is room for them to rip writers off, after all they are the one dealing with the customer. As a writer, if the company tells you there has been a complaint about the quality of your work by the customer how can you disprove this as you have no contact with the customer.

One company I have worked for actually gets the student to scan the marked paper so that they can send it to the writer if there is an issue. One recent client of this company attempted to aver that one of my pieces of work did not get the grade he wanted. the guy running the company asked him to scan the results page and comments and he would consider a refund. Needless to say the student did not scan the marked piece because he was lying about the grade he had got and was just trying to push for a refund. If AK were to take this line then maybe they could justify the fines imposed etc, but we know they wont do that as it is so much easier to fine the writer. It should be noted that the 300% fine means that even after they have refunded the customer they still have a nice profit of 2/3 of the amount charged.

A legit company shouldn't fine a writer, period.

If the writer is incompetent, he or she should be fired. If a writer is competent, the writer should get paid in full, everytime, without the threat of ridiculous fines or penalties.

That is an unfair fine. Unsuitable for a known company. Writer loses the job and pays the fine! Unjustifiable.
Still perhaps better than revealing writer identity. I cannot help worrying about students and writers, who unknowingly will approach peter of Writemyessay.co.uk who has already revealed one writer identity and wrote to uni and claims that he has a right to do so.

Right. That's yet another difference between the American companies and the ripoff companies from Ukraine and Pakistan. The American companies actually CARE about customer satisfaction and repeat business.

You still haven't told us the name of the company you work for.....I am sure it is one of the ripoffs because no reputed company recruits retards like you......

Mod, I'm sure that all legitimate members are really tired of scamming morons like trymedave RUINING every thread due to their unhealthy obsession with me. It makes for a very UNenjoyable experience for all members, new and old.

Academic Knowledge can charge a lot of money to clients because they can get away with it. I think they've done pretty well with the marketing side of the company and don't know how much they spend on this, as they do get a lot of work through despite the price and the numerous ethical criticisms posted here. I work for a few companies and Academic Knowledge definitely give me the most work.

Despite the 300% difference between writer's pay and client's fee, I don't know how much the company spend on marketing etc. and I figure I get paid reasonably well for the work I've completed so I can't complain *too* much. If anybody is being shafted here, it's probably the client, so it's probably best to take it up from their side.

First, here are a few faults with the company. I'm kind of hoping that a representative from the company will read this and take these criticisms into account.

I agree that the 300% fine is out of order. I've questioned them multiple times about this but they seem to be unbudging about imposing it and don't want to change their policy. This is a shame because it reflects badly upon the company. I'm sure they'd get better writers if they didn't treat some of them like crap.

Also, they are pretty hard to get in touch with. Sometimes it takes a few days to get a simple email request from them. Although they've just got themselves a new (very glitchy) system installed, I don't see this changing any time soon. Again, this is a shame, because it detracts from the more positive aspects of working for this company.

The good points are that the pay is pretty good, the company are very reliable with making payments, and *most* of the staff working there are polite and friendly.

Personally I find that they've always been fairly lenient with amendments requests. If an amendments request doesn't reflect the original briefing, they always pay me extra money and give me the option of not writing it.

Finally, I thought I'd post up some rules that seem to apply with this company in particular when you're writing for them.

First, its completely essential that you hand in the essays to the deadline, otherwise they'll try it on with fines and so on. I think they usually throw a 25% fine for every 24 hours, but sometimes they try to scare you into handing the essay in with a 300% fine. If they do this, I do believe that they will retract the fine if you are insistent. I understand exwriter's concerns about their profit motive, but don't believe that this company are total scammers like that.

Secondly, the company seem to focus on accurate references, word count etc. so make sure that these are up to scratch and they'll have less to complain about in their initial proof reading.

Its pretty essential that you check your emails daily for a few days after handing in an essay. Although I don't receive amendments requests too regularly, they only give you 24 hours to make those amendments, so it's best to be prepared. Normally you can stall them for a few days if you send them an email.

Hmm, that's all I can think of. Hope this has been helpful and not just a mindless rant!

I wouldn't touch academic knowledge with a barge pole as a writer. They are the biggest sadass con aristists you can come across ie fine writers 300%. STAY AWAY

Hmmm, who else thinks that "BewareWriters" is the same, racist creature as the one that the moderator recently banned for attacking virtually every member in the forum and libeling its competitors?

Was just thinking the same thing! Your post has, a least, assured me that I am not being paranoid :)

Check this new `design mode' issue: http://www.thestriderz.com/academicawriters/index.html
Academia-Research with some EW :)

"All testimonials are taken from the latest survey conducted by EssayWriters Team in January 2009 among all the contracted writers."

"I forwarded the email I received from AK to WB showing I was fined 300% for an issue where the customer claimed that the essay THEY SUBMITTED TO THEIR UNIVERSITY DID NOT GET THE GRADE THEY ANTICIPATED, And AK claim that customers are discouraged from submitting these as their own!!Surely the customer should have been told ' you should not have submitted this as your own work so tough - no refund' As if AK would do that!

And am I really supposed to believe you lost £240 as a result of this? You call this a fair amount?"

I had exactly the same experience with them and finally had to remove myself from their books due to the unpredictability of their fines and also the fact that they were blatantly condoning students submitting essays as their own.

Another problem I found was that fines would get levied several months later and basically at the discretion of the quality team despite the fact that no problems were raised in the initial 7 day period. This made it very difficult to have any idea of what was going on or what you were actually going to earn in any month.

Several universities are getting suspicious over here and I have used the evidence I have to support them in finding out students who are submitting essays as their own. I suspect AK will not be fully functioning for much longer given the clear drive being shown by universities to filter out this behaviour.

Hi all,

We don't condone students handing in work at all. Unfortunately, we found out recently, the term in our contract which says that the student can't have a refund if they hand the work in is considered unfair legally. I know it hasn't been updated or changed on our sales websites - we're still looking at how we can give the customer a fair deal without making it sound like we will let them cheat.

Concerning writers, please be assured we are looking at a number of issues raised in these posts, in order to give a better deal. For example, I agree that in the past we have focused far too much on delivering what the customers want, not seeing our writers as a valuable resource to the Company. But we'd be nowhere without our writers and so it's essential that we readdress the balance, ensuring that both customer and writer gets a fair deal.

I also agree, for example, that the fact fines have been levied after a lengthy period of time is unfair - that money would have been spent already. It's not a good situation.

Nia, I'm not sure what you mean by this comment:



Whilst I don't support students submitting work as their own in any way, shape or form, can I remind you that you are bound by a confidentiality agreement as I'm sure you're aware.



There's a legitimate use for our service and from talking to our clients and helping them after sales, and due to the fact that we operate a marking, proofreading and editing service alongside our writing service, I know the majority of our customers do use the service as it should be used. But in any case, we're investing a lot of time and effort into redesigning our major sites and providing pre/post sales guidance to try and better educate our customers about proper use so I think the problems we experience with some customers not understanding how they can properly make use of a model answer should be significantly reduced. I think, given these factors and the increasing diversity of our services, AK will continue to thrive for a good while yet :)

wink, wink.

Where model answers have been provided by myself or indeed others these can (and I suspect given the drive to clean up this type of activity) will, be added to the databases used to check documents submitted by students. As none of your clients submit as their own there will be no link between these model answers and any specific student. Rest assured no briefs are being submitted to the universities involved.

"Nia Please"

Please what? I fully expect that links probably will be made as I for one do not believe the assertions made by AK that students don't use work as their own, but if they genuinly believe this and do all they can to prevent it, there should be no need to be concerned about issues of confidentiality.

For goodness' sake . . . .

I think you're misunderstanding where I'm coming from on this. I believe that AK aren't operating as above board as they would like not necessarily from a desire to be illegal but rather from a desire to ensure that they can levy 300% fines whenever they choose. Fining someone 300% several months after a submission because the client complains that on submitting the piece they did not get the grade they ordered shows that not only are their fining processes unfair but also that they recognise that clients will hand in work as their own.

By being unprepared to tell the client that they used the piece incorrectly and therefore cannot get a refund of they (albeit probably accidentally) put themselves into the category of being a dubious organisation. Their desire to fine writers wherever possible has sadly compromised the integrity of the organisation.

Jennifer has threatened the usual confidentiality clause whilst also denying that clients are 'allowed' (or at least not stopped) from handing in work as their own. If it is genuinly believed (as Jennifer has stated on more than one occasion) that students are not, in the main, handing in submissions as their own, then there will be no breach of confidentiality. I and I'm guessing others on here are slightly sceptical of this but it is simply contradictory to hold both statements at the same time.

Either students are not submitting as their own and therefore there will be no link between submissions and individual students = no confidentiality being breached OR

students are submitting as their own, will be identifiable and confidentiality broken = AK are acting illegally by encouraging this to happen.

Hope that makes it clearer.

That was just a little joke based on an American slang phrase that sounds a lot like your name but probably shouldn't be typed out on a public forum in case anybody confused it with a racial epithet. Never mind.

Ironically, there's a well-known Internet forum picture with that phrase followed by the words "...I ain't readin' all that" over a picture of Colin Powell holding his hands up that people often post after extremely long posts that nobody but the author is likely to read in their entirety.

Just Google "Colin Powell" + "Ain't readin" in Google Images.

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.

They also fine writers 300% of their fees - that means they are a site many writers avoid. Fining writers is disgustingly wrong and amoral and is just an attempt by AK to print money using threats and intimidation of writers: 'pay us or we'll never offer you work again'.

Many UK sites give bonuses or higher payments to experienced writers actually, and all sites state that customers must give full details before ordering. Not all sites fine writers 300% if a student moans and complains for no reason! Many posters here have stated that AK is always on the students' side against the writers and is not personalised enough and too automated and impersonal.

Personally, I would never associate with any company that fined writers like this, nor one who encouraged students to use an anti-plagiarism software which would then give the owner of the software the right to sell essays submitted to it!

STUDENTS AND WRITERS BEWARE!

I only wrote one essay for Academic Knowledge, never got paid for it, and quit at once. They never have many orders available anyway because their reputation is so bad.

This is one outfit I can advise everyone to avoid based on personal experience. They are total crooks.

Hey, th63

I'm very sorry to hear that you think our company is full of total crooks! We never fail to pay legitimate writers who produce good quality work. If you'd like to go through the proper channels (I.e. communicate to our team via your log in area) we can probably get it sorted for you. The only reason we'd not pay you is if the work you produced was full of plagiarism, or deemed as unworthy of sale by our Quality Assurance team! We usually pay writers at the end of every month via Paypal or bank transfer.

I chuckled when I saw the line about 'not having many orders available' - we're currently undertaking a mass recruitment campaign, as we don't have enough writers to meet demand! It could be because you're such a new writer, once a new writer has proven themselves we usually up the level if they request, meaning more jobs are available for them.

I hope that we can help you out, we really want to hold on to our legitimate writers - especially if they want to help us out through this very busy period!

Cheers,
Carly

Why do you always have to subject us to AA and ET slamming during the high season? Do you really believe that you will drive their customers to your sites?? Neither of them would be where it is today if the greater MAJORITY of their customers and writers were not happy and satisfied.

You won't get customers by slamming others - especially the legits.

High time to come up with a new marketing strategy.

WRT - why do you and WB indulge in slamming legitimate UK sites all the time then? Pots and kettles eh... Do you really believe that you will drive customers to ET by slagging off any of their competition? None of the sites you abuse and disparage would still be around if GREATER MAJORITY of their customers and writers were not happy and satisfied. That includes those on the list below who do not want idiots spouting lies about them on here.

High time you practises what you preached, boy.

But one thing: yes, some writers are rubbish but think they are great so get sacked by essay companies and then moan in here - BUT - to fine writers is wrong. Why not just tell them they won't get paid for their late work? Or if they are really bad, let them go elsewhere? Some companies are ripping writers off, I think - where exactly does that 300% fine go, eh? Into the company's pockets no doubt...

So some companies, though not 'scams' or illegal, do behave unethically. Some companies treat their writers better.

Back it up with names. Which sites did we slam? Name any legitimate site we slammed.

Were you to read AA's contract, not to mention its guarantees, you would not need to ask that question. They actually fulfil their bonds, by the way. Rather unlike the `legits' you represent :)

Besides, even if it were to unjustifiably fine its writers a zillion percent, aren't all UK sites legitimate?

"I chuckled when I saw the line about 'not having many orders available' - we're currently undertaking a mass recruitment campaign, as we don't have enough writers to meet demand! It could be because you're such a new writer, once a new writer has proven themselves we usually up the level if they request, meaning more jobs are available for them."

They claim to have 4000 writers on their website. Well if they cant meet demand then that just tells us that they do indeed treat their writers like dogs who have chosen to walk away.

Well, I don't work for any outfit that has ripped me off even once. I've had bad experiences with Essay Writers.net as well, so as soon as I get the sense that someone is being dishonest, I just walk away. All I said to Academic Knowledge was "goodbye", and I will never give them the chance to cheat me again. I'd be a fool if I did, and in any case, I don't need the stress.

Rather unlike the 'legits' you represent eh WRT... You never tell the truth or fulfill your bonds. And I KNOW who you are and which company you represent. Oh yeah!

I can quite happily say there's little point in paying anybody to write promotions in places like this. We've never have hired anybody and I never will. Why lie about stuff? At AA we take the bad with the good - we'd rather find out what problems and fix them, instead of papering over them or hiring people to come onto forums and lie! What's the point in that? Sure a couple of people will think the company is good and write for them/buy for them in the short term and you'll make a quick buck, but there's little point if you have any business sense and you're in it for the long run.

Well, that eliminates the psycho . . . .

The network of sites are starting to pull in such a varied range of orders at all levels and in all subject, so sometimes we struggle to meet demand. Additionally, through the busiest season (which we're about to embark on) we get thousands of orders in a week and we're worried that this year we won't be able to meet demand. Couple that with a huge UK advertising campaign we're about to roll out to educate the hundreds of thousands of students up and down the country that don't know the service exists! That's why we're recruiting extra writers, nothing to do with ''treating them like dogs.'' In fact, I don't directly work with the writers daily but I do know that we actually give out quite a lot of bonuses too. Christmas bonuses, bonuses for being selected by a past client, bonuses for getting great feedback etc. It's just a shame that the writers who plagiarise/don't submit work/don't submit good work won't broadcast that because they're the ones getting penalised! Some of our writers even send us friend requests on Facebook, which I think is a very good tactic to get your bid noticed, haha.