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StudyBay.com has been in business for at least a few years now, although we are not certain exactly for how long. We have found customer reviews off-site going back three years. StudyBay has a business model of “approved” writers who are free to bid on student orders and to be selected for a project by students based upon those bids. In reviewing this company, we have looked at its website content, at testimonials published on that site, at the writers’ information, at the process for becoming a writer, and at the policies governing both students and writers. We have also looked at customer feedback out on the web as well as that which has been provided to us by visitors and users of our review site. As is always the case, we also contacted customer support with several detailed questions about Study Bay’s products, services, and policies.
Through all of these investigations, our goal is to see if a writing service is reliable and can be trusted to deliver quality products, deliver them on time, and provide the type of customer service that paying customers deserve.
Our Study Bay review is the following.
Features
The company offers academic writing of any type and at any academic level, through its contracted writers – writers who view orders and bid on them. Students place an order, put it up for “auction,” receive bids, and then select a writer. There is a system in place for students to converse with their writers during the process. The student pays for the order upfront, but the money is not released to the writer until the student has approved of the final draft. Students have 20 days to request revisions from their writers – what the site calls its “warranty.”
StudyBay.com states that it also checks each finished product for plagiarism. And this does seem to be true. No customer has complained about plagiarized products being delivered.
In all of these respects, StudyBay.com is a legal service that provides what customers order.
Customer Protection/Security
The company states that personal and financial information is secured and protected in the following ways:
- It does not share any personal information with third parties. Customers are known by their ID numbers, not names.
- The company also uses a third-party SSL-certified payment processor when customers submit their financial information for payment. The company holds the money paid but does not collect or hold bank information. Customers can feel safe using their payment process.
- Payments can be made through major bank cards or PayPal.
Prices
Obviously, there are no standard StudyBay prices. Once students place orders, they are placed on a “job board” for bids from writers. Then that pricing can perhaps be negotiated, but that puts a lot of onus on the customer to be a good negotiator.
If there are any discounts, they would have to be negotiated between student and writer. And, of course, there are no coupon codes or any type of promo code for new customers.
Once a student receives bids, he then selects a writer and the agreed-upon price. The customer pays upfront, and the payment is put on account with the company. It is released to the writer when the customer indicates that he is fully satisfied. In theory, this should work well. In reality, it doesn’t always, at least according to a number of customers. Many state that they ask for revisions, ultimately may get them but are still not satisfied. Getting refunds seems to be a big hassle, and these customers state that they give up, accept a product they are not really happy with and just move on.
Customer Service
There are several issues here. Customer support does not seem to be an active and involved activity. We had trouble getting in touch with this department to ask questions that we usually ask of all writing services. We did send a few emails but they were not answered.
Our issue with the administration of this site is big. The owners/administrators seem to act more as managers of a job board and do not involve themselves in the day-to-day operations. They rely on customers and writers to negotiate their agreements and then to move forward.
In terms of writer backgrounds and experience, we have no idea how the company verifies these. One customer stated that her writer touted a Master’s degree from Columbia but that the finished product was obviously produced by an ESL writer and was totally unacceptable. Her revisions, she states, were no better. This seems to be a common complaint.
We even applied to be a writer, just to see what was involved. We submitted credentials and were accepted immediately – no checking, no verification. This is a huge red flag.
Conclusion
Looking at the pros & cons, we have to insert some final comments. Students are placed in a tough position of looking at bids, setting up communication with possible writers, and then trying to determine who will be the best fit for them. In some cases, this obviously works out. In others, it does not.
There is no company control over which writers bid on which projects, qualified or not. Again, the onus is totally on a student who may or may be aware enough to ask the right questions and to dig deep into a bidder’s background.
Overall, we do not think that Study Bay has a good business model. There is no quality control and no active participation in basic operations.
Because of this, we are giving a rating of 2, on our 1-5-point scale.
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