| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3] > | Poll: Have you ever delivered a project to the wrong client? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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Nesrin 
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:33
English to Arabic
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Two new clients with unfamiliar names, two small jobs arriving simultaneously, two similar deadlines...
You guess the rest.
| | | | | Confidentiality implications | Mar 11, 2009 |
Viktoria Gimbe wrote:
I wonder if anybody got into trouble because of this. For example, if you signed an NDA and then sent the text protected by it to the wrong person, did the client consider you violated the NDA?
Yes, good point Viktoria. This was at the back of my mind as I considered this question. I have never actually been asked to sign an NDA, probably because of the nature of the translations I do, but I still impose a personal one anyway, and would be horrified to be in breach of it.
Let's learn from mistakes and near mistakes. Quite apart from the obvious need to label files accurately, and check and double check, another good piece of advice which I think I read on a forum a couple of years ago was about the order in which to prepare your e-mails: (it was advice about not forgetting to include your attachment in fact) put your attachment on first, check that the right attachment appears, and then put in your recipient's address and your message.
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No interesting story to tell. My answer is simply "no".
| | | | | *I* didn't but... | Mar 11, 2009 |
I live in an apartment building with staff 24/7 at the reception. In the past 20 years they've never lost nor misplaced anything.
One neighbor is a rather famous musician, he plays the drums. Fortunately, he never rehearses at home, maybe because he has small children.
Once I left there some DVDs for a messenger from the client to come and pick them up. On the same day, the drummer left some CDs for some messenger to pick up as well.
My client's messenger a... See more I live in an apartment building with staff 24/7 at the reception. In the past 20 years they've never lost nor misplaced anything.
One neighbor is a rather famous musician, he plays the drums. Fortunately, he never rehearses at home, maybe because he has small children.
Once I left there some DVDs for a messenger from the client to come and pick them up. On the same day, the drummer left some CDs for some messenger to pick up as well.
My client's messenger arrived first. The doorman asked "Are your disks for XXX?" to which he answered "Yeah, yeah! Giv'em to me quick! I'm running late!" He grabbed the drummer's CDs, and vanished with his motorcycle in a cloud of smote. Later the drummer's messenger picked up whatever was left, of course my DVDs, and also vanished in a cloud of smoke.
A few hours later my client called me in dismay to say that all she had received were some audio CDs with drum solos. About the same time, another doorman (a different shift) called me via intercom to say that a messenger had just "delivered" my disks - my DVDs were back.So I called my client, for her to ask her stupid messenger to unravel this mess. Took him two days, as he and the client were far away East in town. ▲ Collapse
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| I have a good system, but my office once delivered the wrong file | Mar 11, 2009 |
The minute I start working with a new client, I create a separate folder both in my e-mail and in my documents. So all correspondence and all files are separate. I do keep my clients' filenames, but I add an abbreviation of their name plus my initials and the date I last worked on the file, plus a version number if it's the same date.
Adding the date and version number to the filename prevents delivering the wrong file.
I don't think I've delivered the wrong file in ... See more The minute I start working with a new client, I create a separate folder both in my e-mail and in my documents. So all correspondence and all files are separate. I do keep my clients' filenames, but I add an abbreviation of their name plus my initials and the date I last worked on the file, plus a version number if it's the same date.
Adding the date and version number to the filename prevents delivering the wrong file.
I don't think I've delivered the wrong file in my 17 years of freelancing, but my office staff once did when I was head of the translation service at PAHO/WHO. It was a 200-page job that had been run through the machine translation system. Three or four posteditors worked on it, and then I reviewed their work, so the whole project took about three weeks (requiring more manpower than if it had been done from scratch). But the office staff mistakenly delivered the raw machine translation instead of the edited version. The document was presented to a meeting of the Executive Committee and there was an uproar. You can imagine how I felt, after all the time I had spent turning the sow's ear into a silk purse. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | When you said that, I knew you had to be talking about Sao Paulo | Mar 11, 2009 |
José Henrique Lamensdorf wrote:
So I called my client, for her to ask her stupid messenger to unravel this mess. Took him two days, as he and the client were far away East in town.
Only someone who has tried to get around Sao Paulo can appreciate this challenge!
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Good one, José Henrique! That's the kind of stuff they make movies about! Never sent anything to the wrong client but I was given the wrong document to translate once! Somebody at the agency sent me the part of the document that somebody else was supposed to translate. I did it, sent it back, received the right part, made death threats and did the translation in a fraction of the time I used for the first one!
I hate deadlines now!
| | | | Oleg Osipov
Russian Federation
Local time: 20:33
English to Russian
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Never happened to me luckily.
Would be very unprofessional.
Double-checking and... triple-checking before delivering projects.
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Alice Bootman
United States
Local time: 12:33
Spanish to English
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| Not the wrong client... | Mar 11, 2009 |
Once my computer (well, my web browser I suppose) would not attach the files as I wished and they arrived to the client a huge mess. Luckily the PM was understanding.
Then there was this time that my husband had to burn the files on a CD for my direct customer. It was a tight deadline and I was taking care of the kids, and CD burners are my worst enemy. I delivered the disk without checking, only to find, to my dismay (when she angrily called me later), that it was empty! Considering that ... See more Once my computer (well, my web browser I suppose) would not attach the files as I wished and they arrived to the client a huge mess. Luckily the PM was understanding.
Then there was this time that my husband had to burn the files on a CD for my direct customer. It was a tight deadline and I was taking care of the kids, and CD burners are my worst enemy. I delivered the disk without checking, only to find, to my dismay (when she angrily called me later), that it was empty! Considering that one of the files was a correction of (one word of) an earlier translation that she didn't approve, I was not surprised that she didn't call back! I should have checked. Now I don't let my husband touch my work. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Mariam Osmann
Egypt
Local time: 19:33
Member (2007)
English to Arabic
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| I was the wrong recipient many times | Mar 11, 2009 |
Clients, as they mass mail job offers. Sometimes they send for the wrong translation. I even sometimes receive request for bid for languages that I have never heard about. I reply with the prepared template "Thank you for your mail. Please check that I am the recipient of this message"
Other times, it's me the intented recipient but clients forget to modify names or language pair in multilanguage project, I know that I am the recipient but I send the same template, just in case.
... See more Clients, as they mass mail job offers. Sometimes they send for the wrong translation. I even sometimes receive request for bid for languages that I have never heard about. I reply with the prepared template "Thank you for your mail. Please check that I am the recipient of this message"
Other times, it's me the intented recipient but clients forget to modify names or language pair in multilanguage project, I know that I am the recipient but I send the same template, just in case.
As I type the recipient mail address, the address book comes up with his suggestions. I prefer to make the delivery message a reply to the last message received from the client concerning the project to be delivered. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | The wrong department of the agency | Mar 11, 2009 |
An agency I work for had several departments, and you could not always see from the number which department sent the job. I used to write a clue in the file name, because I am hopeless with numbers, but the big boss went through a security-mad phase and we were only allowed to use numbers.
I suspect I was not the only one to get mixed up! On the occasion I remember, the PM simply forwarded it to the other department with a CC to me and a big smiley in the mail! Now they have a separ... See more
| | | | Mami Yamaguchi
Japan
Local time: 02:33
Member (2008)
English to Japanese
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| not yet , fortunately | Mar 12, 2009 |
I never fail to check the enail address or name multiple times before delivering files. And I never forget the name of the person provided me with projects(＾ー＾）ｖ
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I have sent an invoice to the wrong client, which was also pretty embarrassing... Luckily, she was someone I had been working with for years, and immediately called up up to let me know that she had not suddenly changed her name to X. And I was able to call the other client and ask them to destroy the invoice when they received it.
That was over 5 years ago, and I'm still so embarrassed when I think of it, it has prevented me from making any similar gaffes since!
| | | | Paul Kachur
Germany
Local time: 19:33
German to English
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| Right client, wrong file | Mar 12, 2009 |
I have made the mistake of sending the client the wrong version of a project, an unfinished file or one that did not contain the changes I was to work in.
| | | | | Technical tip on DVD-RW drives | Mar 12, 2009 |
AliceBootman wrote:
CD burners are my worst enemy.
Of course in each country you have access to different types of hardware.
LG products are very popular in Brazil due to their low cost. I don't intend to discuss quality here, but even if their being 'disposable' or not is a random event, their cost/benefit ratio here is fairly good.
I have two DVD-RW drives in my computer, and will keep them in my forthcoming upgrade for the reasons below. One is an LG, the other is a Sony. The LG is a model that does not record data DVDs, and the manual makes no secret about this. The Sony is newer and faster.
Anyway, now and then I get DVDs from clients that the Sony drive will identify as "unformatted" or "blank". Meanwhile the LG drive will open them without a hitch. I took the trouble to ask, and in every single case the disk had been burnt with an LG drive. A friend who has a Samsung CD-RW drive couldn't open one disk. The Sony drive couldn't read it either. The LG opened it in a snap. It's a safe bet that it was recorded with an LG DVD drive. Btw, the DVD desktop players here (Pioneer & Philips) play all these picky LG-recorded DVDs without any trouble.
So maybe there is some strange pattern in some (not all) DVDs burned with an LG drive. Just FYI, if all else fails, try opening the disk with an LG drive before discarding.
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