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Non-paying agencies on the rise
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Thread poster: aruna yallapragada

Non-paying agencies on the rise

Laurent KRAULAND

France
Local time: 11:01

Member (2007)
French to German
+ ...

How about high rotations?

Nov 22, 2009

Samuel Hunt wrote:

How can French agencies find good people to work with them in spite of this enormous competetive disadvantage?

Hi Samuel,
an agency I worked for only in 2008 contacted me because, they said, their favourite FR to DE translator gave them problems as per his/her IP rights on translation memories and was not considering what this agency called a long-term relationship.

I made some 1,000 euros ex VAT turnover with that agency in 2008. By the beginning of 2009, they asked me to lower my rates, justifying this with "the volumes" they had given me to translate. I replied that one could hardly speak of volumes, that I had not claimed IP rights on the TM's and had furthermore accepted their payment terms, i.e. 60 days. They then asked me to do what I consider to be additional work (layout adjustments on PPT files), which I declined, thus bringing this relationship to its end.

I am quite sure that my successor has been fed with a story similar to the one they told me about my predecessor...

So this may not completely answer your question, Samuel, but I think some agencies (and not only French ones) like to swap horses after one year or 18 months. Not to speak about (French and other) agencies who seem to post and post again on ProZ.com and elsewhere - how do they manage their subcontractors?

[Edited at 2009-11-22 14:16 GMT]

Laurent KRAULAND

France
Local time: 11:01

Member (2007)
French to German
+ ...

I am working in the EU

Nov 22, 2009

aruna yallapragada wrote:

Those who do not like the long wait for payment will not take up such jobs. But my contention is, having accepted their terms of 60, 45 or whatever number of days and having delivered the translation to their deadline, why don't they stick to their end of the bargain? I for one, am willing to wait for payment, if they tell me when it will be made and it is done by then.

I respect your point of view, Aruna, however I am working in the EU and mostly with European agencies. In Europe and according to the relevant directive (sorry, I never remember the references of this one), payments are due after 30 days unless agreed (read: negotiated) otherwise, the maximum payment deadline without a previous agreement being 45 calendar days.

Also note that some French agencies will only pay their translators after 90 days (quite like in the retail branch), thus having your retained money working for them on some savings account.

[Edited at 2009-11-22 18:13 GMT]

xxxNMR
France
Local time: 11:01
French to Dutch
+ ...

Serious French agencies

Nov 22, 2009

I only work for French clients, one big direct client and several agencies. Most of them pay at 30 days end of month, which means that I receive the money in about 40 days after invoicing date, except two which pay about 10 days after the invoice date, and one who pays late and sometimes very late, but who is a friend of mine since 25 years (she is a one-person agency with a cashflow problem, but we talked about that and I know she is reliable, I'll always get my money).

Like Laurent, last year I refused to work for agencies I knew from former experience to be slow payers (60-90 days), but I can do that because I have enough work for serious clients.

In my experience, French clients (in each case my clients) are very well organized, know their translators, have a good database and if there is nobody in the database for a particular job, they'll ask another translator before consulting the SFT list. I never see my clients posting jobs on the internet. In this way, in the past year I helped out dozens of people.

In this context, just look at what Tomás wrote above:

Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote:

For us as people who are approached by unknown customers via the Internet, there is a pivotal question we must ask ourselves: If this agency has existed for a number of years, how come they want to hire a new translator in my language pair? Good companies usually stick to their translators unless they have proof of bad work or complaints from end customers. They do so for practical reasons: their usual translators know the end customer and produce better work. Bad agencies might want your services because other people refuse to work for them for price or reliability issues.

This is very true. It is not personal, but why should French agencies send work to a German to English translator located in Germany? There are English translators here in this country. The only reasons I can think of are economical.
Just as in my case they send the translations to Belgium.

aruna yallapragada

India
Local time: 15:31

Member (2008)
German to English
+ ...

TOPIC STARTER

I did not know this

Nov 23, 2009

I did not know that there was a EU directive regarding payments. Now I will try to insist on payment within 30 days. Is it thirty days from sending the invoice? What if I have they say the invoice is lost and ask us to resubmit it?

Anyway if they prolong the payment, there is nothing one can do, especially if someone is in India like me and the agency is in Europe. I think this is also a factor in non-payment.

Laurent KRAULAND

France
Local time: 11:01

Member (2007)
French to German
+ ...

Short answer: yes

Nov 23, 2009

aruna yallapragada wrote:

I did not know that there was a EU directive regarding payments. Now I will try to insist on payment within 30 days. Is it thirty days from sending the invoice? What if I have they say the invoice is lost and ask us to resubmit it?

Anyway if they prolong the payment, there is nothing one can do, especially if someone is in India like me and the agency is in Europe. I think this is also a factor in non-payment.

and sometimes 30 days EOM.
I always send invoices by e-mail together with the translation and in PDF format, also mentioning that the invoice is attached, so there is no excuse possible - when you are able to receive a file containing the translation, you are also able to receive the invoice in the attachment, simple as that.

Do you know that there is at least one free software allowing you to write invoices easily? It is called Express Invoice and can be downloaded here: http://www.nchsoftware.com/invoice/index.html (this is the URL for the Mac download, but there also is a link for a Windows download).

And... sorry if I am dreaming, but there could be the possibility to create or to join an international network of translators, thus allowing e.g. members located in the Northern hemisphere to do the first collection steps for colleagues of the Southern hemisphere and vice versa.

[Edited at 2009-11-23 09:02 GMT]