| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Word count leaving out trademarks Thread poster: pcovs
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| I agree that it's not ok to let it become a trend | Nov 22, 2005 |
Ok, I'm sorry if my sarcasm was over the top.
I agree that it's not ok to let this become a trend. However, just **suppose** that your client has a choice between two language service providers, say John and Jane. They both offer commensurate quality of work and charge equal rates. But while John is adamant about counting characters his way and "educating" the client about the right and wrong of the translation business, Jane is willing to drop a few words (which in this case are pr... See more Ok, I'm sorry if my sarcasm was over the top.
I agree that it's not ok to let this become a trend. However, just **suppose** that your client has a choice between two language service providers, say John and Jane. They both offer commensurate quality of work and charge equal rates. But while John is adamant about counting characters his way and "educating" the client about the right and wrong of the translation business, Jane is willing to drop a few words (which in this case are probably highly repetitive anyway) from her count. Whether she's more easy-going or can think ahead about the future of the relationship doesn't really matter. The bottomline is that Jane is more likely to become the translator of choice for this particular client.
That's all I had to say. I know that trademarks can be a pain, especially in a language like Russian where we have inflections and cases and so translating trademarks is actual work. But that is really beside the point (imho).
Here is to everyone getting their clients to pay for each space, comma and trademark sign
[Edited at 2005-11-22 16:18] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Marc P (X) 
Local time: 22:36
German to English
+ ...
| Word count leaving out trademarks | Nov 22, 2005 |
Mikhail Kropotov wrote:
But while John is adamant about counting characters his way and "educating" the client about the right and wrong of the translation business, Jane is willing to drop a few words (which in this case are probably highly repetitive anyway) from her count.
To me, this misses the point. I will happily not charge for trademarks, or for names, or for numbers, or for words beginning with "r". What counts (excuse the pun) is that I am paid an appropriate amount for the work I have done.
So, whilst I think that the customer does need to be "educated", it is not a matter of "educating" him that trademarks should be paid for. (I don't like the word "educate" in this particular context because it sounds patronizing to the customer.) It is more a matter of explaining that the use of words as a quantifier is not an exact science. Most importantly of all, it is a matter of convincing him that he is getting good value for money. The customer may appear to gain better value for money by not paying for the trademarks. In the broader picture, though, a customer who sees the translator's value in terms of so many words is hardly going to appreciate the value of a good translation. In this respect, a completely different strategy is needed.
A perfect example of this happened to me today in which I was on the "other side", i.e. I was the customer. I was becoming increasingly disgruntled at still being charged 30 euros/month for flat-rate Internet access by my ISP, who had been advertising the rate of 10 euros/month on TV for some time. Eventually, I got round to calling them. They not only agreed immediately to switch me over to the cheaper rate for the same service, but also offered to double the transmission speed at no significant additional cost.
I could, in fact, get flat-rate Internet access for around 5 euros/month. But I'm actually quite happy with my ISP, and any technical hiccups - and I've heard plenty of horror stories - very quickly begin to cost me sums of money that make 5 euros/month pale into insignificance. I'm not even that averse to paying 30 euros/month. But I couldn't help thinking that the ISP's publicity was geared towards selling on price, and that existing customers who didn't hunt for the best deal or, better still, negotiate one themselves, were being taken advantage of. By the same token, I think that this attitude is growing among consumers as a whole. It doesn't necessarily mean that customers are inevitably only going to look at the price. But it does seem logical that if a customer doesn't understand the service, price will naturally be his focus, and that it's the responsibility of the service provider, whether ISP or translator, to ensure in other ways that the customer feels he's in good hands. If he doesn't, a confrontational attitude towards price negotiation seems more or less inevitable.
Marc
| | | | | Title of my reply | Nov 23, 2005 |
Hi Mark,
Thanks for your response!
You wrote:
"What counts (excuse the pun) is that I am paid an appropriate amount for the work I have done."
That is exactly my point. Perhaps I didn't illustrate it in the best way, but my intention was the same as yours (or so I think). I stated so in my first post.
EDITED: those darn typos...
[Edited at 2005-11-23 17:52]
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