Andrew E.

All of the messaging on your homepage indicates that this is a free service. Only after you've invested a considerable amount of time building your resume do they hit you with the "you have to subscribe to actually download and save your resume" punch. Alright, you got me. I'm not gonna do all that work and then walk away from it - but you're all bastards and you know it.

I had a couple two-page essays due today by 11:59pm, and of course I procrastinated until the last day to start working on either of them. As I was laying in bed I remember reading an article about this type of "academic services" a few years ago and thought I'd check it out. After about 20 minutes worth of research, I decided to go with BestEssays.com. I don't remember what made me choose them, but spoiler alert: I chose poorly. I've carefully documented what has taken place over the previous 12 hours so that you, dear reader, hopefully see this in time to avoid the same fate as me.

I placed my order for a two-page essay at 11:33am. When you go to check out there are all these add-ons you can select for an upcharge. For a $3/page upcharge, I chose to upgrade from "Standard Quality" to "Premium Quality." According to their website, this upgrade gave my order "high priority" and an "advanced plagiarism check." Seeing that I had to turn the paper in in just over 12 hours, I figured an extra $6 total for "high priority" is worth the peace of mind. I copied and pasted the instructions for the assignment and uploaded the relevant chapter of my textbook as a PDF for the writer to use as a reference. I put my credit card info in, pressed submit, and thought I was good to shift my focus to my other essay that was due by the end of the day.

Eight minutes later, I receive a message from Christofer from the BestEssay.com support team trying to upsell me: "Given with your urgency for this order, we can have this assigned to one of our Top 10 Writers in the field of Business This additional service will only cost $22.00." I replied to Christofer and asked "Will you be able to meet the deadline without adding the Top 10 Writers extra?"

Three minutes later Arvie replies to my question (I have no clue what happened to Christofer) with "Yes, we can guarantee you that you will receive the paper on time." He goes on to try and sell me on it some more and then says "They [Top 10 writers] are always taken first by our other clients but since your order was matched to this writer's profile, we'd like to know first if you are interested to have the best and top 10 writer to work on your paper." [See attached image 1]

I replied to Arvie telling him that now I'm a bit concerned. If I don't pay $22 more for their shakedown, is the paper I get even going to be something that I'm able to turn in for a B grade at minimum? Arvie gave a rambling response that, upon re-reading it, didn't really address my concern at all. "I definitely understand where you're coming from but know that this writer can guarantee better assessment and since he's very much experienced to work on your topic this will definitely save you a lot of time in waiting for another writer or you sending us additional resources. This is a very good investment and it's really worth your money. Please let us know your decision. Thank you."

At this point I hopped on their live chat feature and again asked for clarification as to whether or not I would be able to receive my paper by my 12 hour deadline I set if I didn't pay for the upgrade. I was assured they wouldn't have an issue completing it on time. I declined to purchase the Top 10 Writer upgrade.

At about 7:00pm I contacted support through their live chat feature again because I had not received any status updates and was feeling uneasy. I spoke with Ervin and explained that I hadn't received any status updates and just wanted to check in with the progress and see if the writer had any questions. Ervin's response? "I am very sorry for the delayed response. Please rest assured that it'll change [the status] once the writer is already on board. Is there anything else I can help with?" [See attached image 2]

Ok, guys. This is when I pretty much could see how this was going to play out. Incredulously I confirmed with Ervin that despite the deadline for the paper being about 4 hours away they didn't even have a writer assigned to it yet. He tried to assure me that "As of the moment I can see here that our writer's team is just checking the most suitable writer to the order with the potential writer that's lines up."

Ok, guys. I'm going to be honest with you. I don't think I actually read that line before I just typed it, and it's a doozy. So here again for your enjoyment is good ol' Ervin's reply: "As of the moment I can see here that our writer's team is just checking the most suitable writer to the order with the potential writer that's lines up." I'm going to be honest with you - I don't even know what that means.

I then ask Ervin, in his professional opinion, what does he think the odds are of me having a completed paper to turn in by the deadline and he gives another classic Ervin reply of "Please rest assured that this is not going to affect the delivery period. Please do not worry we will have the order completed no longer than the given deadline." Even though we're past the point of not worrying, I thank Ervin for his help and end the chat.

I still hadn't received one inkling of communication regarding the status of my paper, so at 10pm - just an hour and a half before the deadline - I reached out to chat support again. This time I had the pleasure of speaking with Kim. After explaining the situation and giving her my order number, she advised "We are sorry for the delays in assigning a writer on your order. Upon checking, our writer's team is still making a follow up with out writers. Is there any chance that you can extend the deadline for this order?"

After swallowing down my rage, I let her know that the reason the deadline is when it is, and the reason that I paid extra to make my order high priority is because the deadline is when it's due. I felt like a jerk typing that, but I didn't know how else to break it to her that I didn't just arbitrarily set a deadline. I told her about how I spoke with Arvie way back when I first placed the order with them in the morning. Arvie had told me that I was already matched up with one of their top 10 writers and tried to get me to pay more because of that; I declined upon his guarantee that regardless of whether i upgraded or not, I would have my paper completed by my deadline. I asked her what happened to the Top 10 writer that was assigned to me initially - if that is the only writer they had available that could write my paper, they should have either let me know that upgrading is my only option - or - he should have written the paper even without me paying for an upgrade. (This would be similar to when you call for an Uber X using the app, but an Uber Black (upgraded, nicer car) shows up because all of the Uber X's were busy so they sent a nicer car because it was the only one available).

Kim replied "Upon reviewing, my colleague did recommend the top 10 writer's service however, we did not received any confirmation that you would want him to be assigned. The top writer already proceed and work on a different order."

Guys, I'm going to be honest with you. Re-living this as I type it out for this review is exhausting. I trust you can form an idea of the kind of business bestessay.com is running here from what I've already described. I don't want to leave you hanging though; the best solution Kim could come up with is that, based on the instructions I provided, she can have a writer complete the paper and get it to me within 12 hours. Personally, I am highly skeptical.

I almost left out the best part! As I was ending my conversation with Kim, she says "Thank you for your consideration. We'll be honest and straightforward this time." [See attached image 3]

What!? This time!? Like it's an exception!? You've got to be kidding me!