I recently ordered an essay from Oxbridge Essays for my Master’s engineering course (a resubmission attempt after my disasterous experience with UKWritings.com). I had high expectations because of their name (implying Oxford/Cambridge-level quality) and their own claims of being a leading UK academic writing service. Unfortunately, the experience turned out to be a mixed bag. In the end, I’d rate Oxbridge Essays 3 out of 5 stars – there were a few positives like timely delivery and friendly service, but the quality and value for money left much to be desired.
Quality of work
I paid for a Merit grade at the Master’s level, but the paper I received did not live up to that standard. The content was riddled with issues. First, there were numerous writing errors – I spotted quite a few typos and poorly worded sentences throughout. I expected polished, academic-level writing, but what I got felt quite rough. And as you will know of me by now, I go hunting down other opinions once something goes wrong, and I didn’t have to look too far. One Reddit reviewer had a similar experience, noting their Oxbridge Essays paper was “rife with flaws, from poor wording and grammar to problems with the research and technical substance itself,” indicating the writer lacked proper expertise. I have to agree; my essay’s grammar and phrasing were not what you’d expect from a service that touts Oxbridge-quality writers.
Secondly, the writer failed to follow some of my specific instructions. I had provided a couple of key sources that needed to be cited in the essay, including a particular journal article relevant to my engineering topic. To my disappointment, the final draft ignored one of the main sources I requested. This wasn’t a trivial oversight – that source was important for the essay’s argument. And again, I’ve since learned that many others have complained about the same issue: papers “written without following certain instructions”.
Not only that, but my essay’s content didn’t fully address the prompt I gave. It went off on a bit of a tangent, almost as if the writer only superficially understood the engineering topic. There were even a couple of technical errors that stood out to me as an engineering student. For example, the writer incorrectly applied a formula for calculating shear stress, leading to a result that made no sense for the scenario in my assignment. They also misused a common engineering term (confusing voltage with current in an analogy), which clearly showed a very serious lack of subject knowledge. These kinds of mistakes would be obvious to anyone in my field, so it was frustrating to see them in a service supposedly employing top graduates.
Because of the problems, the overall quality felt far below a true Merit standard. In fact, the essay I got would probably score around a low pass at best. I actually ended up receiving a 2:2 grade for it, which was upsetting given I paid for a higher standard. And it seems I’m not the only one who experienced such a gap in expected quality. One customer recounted that their essay “came back with a 40% mark”, far below a 2:1 that they ordered, and they deeply regretted using the service. Another reviewer pointed out that Oxbridge Essays “are most certainly not Oxbridge standard and very overpriced for very average work.” This matches my feelings well. The work I got was average at best – certainly not the elite quality one would hope for given the branding and price. I even wondered if parts of the essay were reused or not original, because some paragraphs were oddly generic and didn’t fit my topic perfectly (a worry echoed by others who fear they might be getting recycled content). In short, the quality of writing was a letdown: poor execution, unmet requirements, and a final product below the promised grade level.
Revisions and customer support
After reading the first draft, I wasn’t happy and decided to request revisions. I have to give credit where it’s due: the customer support team was quite responsive and polite when I reached out. Oxbridge Essays offers multiple contact methods (email, phone, even WhatsApp, and a live chat on their site), so I used the live chat to get in touch. I got a reply within a few minutes, which seems to align with other reports that their support team replies fast. The support agent was friendly and didn’t give me any pushback on my complaints. This was a relief because since I’ve seen some reviewers on Reddit describe Oxbridge’s customer service as unhelpful or hard to reach – one person said “I did not receive satisfactory answers… support representatives’ lack of interest” when they reported issues. In my case, at least, the staff were courteous and willing to address the problems.
I detailed the issues I found – from the missed source citation to the numerous grammar mistakes and the technical inaccuracies – and asked them to fix these in a revision. They agreed to revise the paper. I should note that Oxbridge Essays’ policies on revisions (and refunds) are a bit vague on the website, and some reviews have pointed out that getting a refund is nearly impossible. However, they do claim to offer free revisions, and indeed I was not charged extra for the revision I requested (I have since found another detailed review where the customer also managed to get a free revision despite the unclear policy). This was good to see.
The revision process itself, unfortunately, was not smooth sailing. The first revised version came back in about two days, and while it did fix a couple of things, it still left some issues unresolved. For example, the grammar in some sections was improved, and a few of the more obvious typos were corrected. They also added a brief reference to the source I had asked for. But to my astonishment, they still hadn’t fully integrated that source’s content meaningfully – it was just a token citation that felt tacked on. Additionally, one of the major technical errors I flagged was only partially fixed (they corrected the formula usage in one paragraph but still got the units wrong in the calculation). It seemed the writer or editor addressed some of my comments but not all, or perhaps they simply lacked the expertise to completely fix the technical parts.
So, I had to go back to customer support again and explain that the revision was not adequate. This was a bit frustrating, but to their credit, the support team remained patient and agreed that the work should be revised a second time. I could sense that time was ticking, but I appreciated that they didn’t argue and were willing to keep trying. The second revision took another couple of days. By the time I got the final-final version, about 5 extra days had passed since the original deadline. In total, it was almost a week of back-and-forth to get the essay to a point where it was okay. I say “okay” because even after two revisions, I still found a few minor errors (at that point I just fixed a typo and a unit conversion issue myself to save time). It was disappointing that it took so many rounds to iron out issues that should have been caught in the first place.
On the bright side, Oxbridge Essays did not limit my revision requests and the staff stayed friendly throughout. They could have easily pointed to fine print or resisted further changes, but they didn’t, and I acknowledge that as a positive. I never felt like they were going to ghost me or refuse to help – which is more than I can say for some other services. Given that some students have reported truly terrible support experiences elsewhere (and even with this company in the past), I feel somewhat fortunate. Oxbridge’s team at least tries to make things right, even if the execution wasn’t the best. Still, the drawn-out revision process meant I nearly missed my own submission deadline. If you’re on a tight schedule, this could have been a disaster. And, despite revisions, the work was still a pass, not a merit. The problem is, as a student, I can’t really grade the work myself and say what’s wrong with it. I’m relying on their experts, and clearly my writer was none too expert.
Pricing and value
One area where Oxbridge Essays stands out (in a bad way) is price. The service is expensive. As a student on a shoestring budget, the cost made me hesitate, but I figured a higher price might mean better quality (and after recently being stung, you gotta try right).
For context, Oxbridge Essays doesn’t display a simple price-per-page chart upfront. You only find out the cost after filling in their detailed order form. In my case, the quote was steep. To give a concrete example from an independent review: a 1000-word (~2 page) essay at 2:1 standard with a 10-day deadline costs around £155. My project was larger, so it ran me a few times that amount. The price can climb even higher for faster turnarounds or higher grade standards. In fact, an analysis found their rates can range roughly from £80 up to £175 per page (275 words) depending on the level and deadline. That is an astonishing rate – on the upper end, it’s like paying for luxury. One reviewer I found has humorously noted that Oxbridge’s prices are comparable to “the cost of penthouses in Manhattan” for what you get, ouch.
They do advertise some discounts (like a 10% off for first-time customers), but in practice the ordering process was confusing and I never actually saw that discount applied. I later saw another reviewer mention that despite a promise of 10% off, they “never got one.” This suggests the site isn’t very transparent with pricing or discounts. The lack of a clear price table and the complicated checkout felt a bit shady on the transparency front. There were also a bunch of expensive add-ons. For example, they offer a “development plan” for your essay at around £120 extra, and a plagiarism/similarity report for £25 (other services offer that for free). I skipped those, because frankly you can get things like plagiarism checks for cheap or free elsewhere.
Now, was it worth the money? In my opinion, not really. I wouldn’t mind paying a premium if I got an excellent essay without stress, but given all the problems I faced, I feel the value for money was poor. I paid a premium price for subpar quality and then had to invest additional time (and worry) into getting it fixed. I can see that this sentiment is echoed by many others – Oxbridge Essays is often criticised as “very overpriced for very average work”. If their quality had matched their prices, my review would be very different. But as it stands, the service costs a lot more than most student writing services, and yet it delivered a result that was below average in quality. From a value perspective, I was left disappointed and felt a bit taken advantage of. There are definitely more affordable options out there that have better reputations for quality. Unless you have money to burn, Oxbridge Essays’ pricing just doesn’t justify itself.
Pros and cons
To summarise my experience, here are the key pros and cons of Oxbridge Essays:
- Pros: Delivered the work on time (met the deadline I was given); Customer service was responsive and friendly (live chat replies within minutes); They honored my revision requests and corrected some issues without extra charges.
- Cons: Very expensive for the service provided; The paper had many errors (typos, poor grammar, and even factual/technical mistakes in my engineering content); Not all instructions were followed (they ignored a source and some requirements I specified); The quality of writing did not meet the promised standard (ordered merit level, but the work was a pass, but I didn’t ask for revisions regarding the standard because how would I know??!)
