Graduate students Tanvi Apte and Siddhanth Paralkar studying near the Memorial Union before class on Nov. 25, 2014. Sites like paymetodoyourhomework.com offer to complete homework and tests for students for a charge. (Photo by Emily Johnson)A small online company based on the East Coast has offered college students a unique medium in order to pass their classes.
The New York-based company Paymetodoyourhomework.com will complete homework assignments, tests and even entire classes for prices ranging from $10 a page for an assignment to $800 for a final.
The company serves approximately 6,000 customers, one in five of which are from Arizona, owner Jessica Mott said in an email.
“We receive about 629 students from the state of Arizona that view our website per month. Around 50 percent of those students actually use our service,” Mott said. “A majority of our clients in Arizona state are ASU students.”
ASU, one of the biggest universities in the nation, offers a wide variety of online courses which allows for an easier use of Mott’s services.
Mott said her service does not hinder students from getting their degree but helps them.
“Over 90 percent of my students do not use our services for courses that pertain to their actual degree," Mott said. "My clients use our services for the classes that do not come easy to them. This is the main reason that students end up using my service. If you fail a class, then you have to repay for that class and prolong your degree.”
Mott said she began doing corrections for students when she was inspired to open this up to a larger audience.
“It came to me that if I created a website that actually did students' homework, I could make a profit,” Mott said. “I created the website from scratch on my own. The website cost me around $20 to build. I launched the website, and in the first week, I had made $3,000.”
Several years later, Mott has established a team of “experts” to complete assignments. Mott explained her experts must be qualified in order to meet her high-set standards.
“My experts are extremely qualified and cannot work for my company unless they have a bachelor degree," Mott said. "Our standards are very strict, and we only hire the best. If an expert says that he or she can get an A grade on a particular assignment and the end result is a B, the expert is not paid and is usually terminated for employment.”
Mott said students interested in using her services will have to go through several steps before the assignment is completed.
“The expert will look at the work and guarantee a quote for the work to be completed,” Mott said. “A deadline will be established as well as a guaranteed grade. We will then send the quote and guaranteed grade to the customer with our direct payment link. The customer will pay and the work will be started.”
Clients have not been limited to university students. Mott explained that parents, and even professors, have contacted her to use her services.
“I have been contacted by several different professors asking me to contact their students and help them," Mott said. "It looks really bad on a professor and the school if half the students are failing that particular class. You would be surprised at the amount of parents that contact me and want me to take classes for their children.”
Carrie Lingenfelter, communications specialist for ASU Online, said the University uses several methods to ensure that students are completing their own work.
“In terms of methods used to help promote academy integrity for online students, we use a three-pronged approach: pedagogical solutions, technology-based solutions and community-building solutions,” Lingenfelter said.
These solutions include oral exams via phone or web conferencing, identity verification software before exams, and asking students to develop and commit to a class honor code.
Psychology freshman Courtney Cabral has never used the service before, but she said she would not be against it.
“I would probably use the service occasionally,” Cabral said. “However, the prices of this service are pretty steep for college students.”
Mott has also developed a payment plan for students struggling to pay for the services.
“As for students struggling to pay for college: I offer a flexible easy payment plan that fits their budget,” Mott said. “I give most clients as long as they need to pay for our services. I also guarantee my work or your money back.”
Mott said her service is all about keeping customers satisfied, which has helped her business earn a revenue of over half a million dollars.
“We would not make that amount of money if our clients were not satisfied,” Mott said. “Our service is very addictive. Once you use our service, you will use it again. We are all about customer satisfaction.”
Reach the reporter at Jlsuerth@asu.edu or on Twitter at @SuerthJessica.
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