Ultius, Inc. provides custom writing services to consumers and businesses. The company often goes by the name Ultius as a way to differentiate their services from pre-written term papers or plagiarized essays. As a writing service that hires freelance writers, Ultius connects clients who need writing assistance with independent contractors who can complete the requested projects. Over the years, Ultius has assisted thousands of clients but has also received its share of complaints and controversies regarding the legitimacy and ethics of their business model.
History and Business Model of Ultius
Ultius was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Englewood, Colorado. The company states its primary goal is to provide consumers and businesses with high-quality, customized writing for various projects at an affordable price. Ultius takes orders for essays, research papers, business plans, web content, and other written documents through their website. Once an order is placed, Ultius assigns the project to one of their writers and handles the transaction and delivery between the client and writer.
The bulk of Ultius’ writers are independent contractors located all over the world. Writers apply to join their network and must meet certain criteria regarding qualifications, sample writings, and background checks. If accepted, writers can choose which projects they want to complete and are paid per project. Ultius generates revenue both from what clients pay for the work as well as taking a percentage from each transaction as a service/project administration fee. With writers working remotely and as contractors, Ultius maintains a relatively small permanent staff mostly focused on website operations, client services, and quality control.
Complaints Against Ultius’ Writing Practices
While Ultius states their goal is to provide clients with customized, high-quality writing assistance, their business model of utilizing freelance writers has led to accusations that not all projects are original or remain plagiarism-free. Some common complaints against Ultius include:
Plagiarism – Several clients have complained that the work they received contained significant portions that were directly copied from other sources without proper citations or attribution. Ultius counters that all work is put through plagiarism detection software during the quality review process, but some plagiarized work seems to slip through.
Using Pre-Written Papers – There have been allegations that some Ultius writers will take pre-existing papers they have written for other clients and resell them to new customers with minimal edits instead of creating original content. It can be difficult for Ultius to monitor this directly.
Inexperienced or Unqualified Writers – With writers located globally and working independently, some clients argue they received work that did not reflect the quality expected for a college level paper due to writers lacking necessary qualifications, English language skills, or subject matter expertise. Ultius states all writers must meet minimum criteria but weaknesses still occur occasionally.
Delivery Delays – A number of complaints cite projects not being completed on time or deadlines being missed by writers. Ultius argues their 48-hour standard turnaround is ambitious and delays can happen due towriters overcommitting themselves or projects being more complex than anticipated.
Poor Customer Service – Some dissatisfied clients state they had trouble getting issues like plagiarism, delays, or subpar quality resolved satisfactorily through Ultius’ customer support channels. The company maintains helping customers is a top priority but response quality may vary.
BBB Accreditation and Complaint Resolution
The Better Business Bureau (BBB) tracks complaints against businesses and provides reviews and accreditation to promote trustworthy marketplace practices. Ultius is an accredited BBB business and maintains a rating of an A- as of December 2021 based on BBB standards. Their BBB profile also shows 25 complaints filed against the company in the last 3 years, with 13 of those complaints remaining unresolved.
Common issues stated in the unresolved BBB complaints against Ultius reiterate many of the concerns mentioned above such as plagiarized or late work as well as dissatisfaction with the quality of writing or customer service processes for addressing problems. Ultius publicly responds to complaints on their BBB profile page and states they strive to amicably resolve all client matters to the best of their ability according to their policies. In some cases clients remain unhappy with the ultimate resolution provided.
The BBB accreditation helps validate Ultius is operating legally and engaging in the complaint resolution process in good faith. Some BBB complaints highlight issues with consistency in the quality of work provided by freelance writers and comprehensive resolutions for all customer disputes. While Ultius claims better quality control measures, weaknesses in their decentralized business model seem difficult to eliminate completely due to reliance on independent contractor writers.
Legal and Ethical Considerations
Beyond customer satisfaction, Ultius’ practice of reselling customized student papers completed by third party writers has also raised legal and ethical concerns debated both for and against the writing services industry. On one side, Ultius and those defending the industry argue:
They are providing a valuable service for students who need assistance which they may not otherwise access. Many students work jobs and have family/health responsibilities impacting academics.
As long as the work is original, students are still learning the subject matter even if they did not write it themselves. Papers also go through plagiarism checks and are intended as assistance, not a replacement for learning.
Writers complete legally binding contracts requiring all work be original and can be held accountable for plagiarism. Ultius also states a 0% tolerance for plagiarism in their work.
Others counter that writing service businesses inherently promote:
Academic dishonesty when students purchase and submit pre-written papers as their own work without doing any original writing or learning. This undermines principles of academic integrity.
Unfair advantages for students who can afford written work over those who cannot, weakening the objective grading/evaluation system.
The potential for lower quality, unqualified, or deceptive writings coming from freelancers that could mislead or harm students relying on the information.
Overall, there are reasonable arguments on both sides and many educators continue debating these industries and whether university honor code bans should apply more broadly against third party paper mills and writing services. Ultius maintains the goal of their service is assistance, not replacement of coursework responsibilities.
Conclusion
Ultius has assisted many students and professionals with their writing needs over the last decade. Their reliance on an international network of freelance writers introduces challenges in maintaining consistently high quality, original content according to all clients’ expectations. While the company claims improvements in quality control and customer satisfaction measures through technology and staff oversight, complaints of plagiarism, delays and customer service issues persist for some users. Academic integrity and legal concerns around submitted pre-written works also remain ongoing topics of debate for writing assistance services overall. Ultius states their goal of providing helpful resources to clients when needed, but mixed client experiences point to ongoing limitations of their decentralized model. Going forward, balancing quality, satisfaction and ethics will likely continue to define both challenges and opportunities for Ultius’ approach in this evolving industry.
Andrew Stroud