"I simply tell what the local agents in my country have done to the freelance translators, and it's true."

If people say that providers of cheap translation services will provide low quality results of translations, I'll say that it's true but not simply true. I prefer stating that there are still many quality service providers that provide cheap translation services with fast and high quality translation results. In my country, for example, some local agents can employ the local freelance translators with a very low rate. With only, 40 IDR per word of the target language, the agents can get best quality translation results from their freelancers regardless of the time spent. Mostly, they give their freelancers a very tight deadline.

This, of course, will be different if it is applied in some foreign countries. Let me take the example! In Hong Kong, for language pairs of Indonesian to English and vice versa, the agents are willing to pay around $ 0.05 per word of the source language. If the rate is converted to IDR (Indonesian Rupiah), it will be around 400 IDR (based on the current IDR to USD rate exchange). For the translators of Indonesian native especially those who are living in Indonesia, the rate above will be a very valuable price for them, and , of course, it will cause them to provide the best translation services ever. So, it is merely a mistake if one says that cheap translation services will result in low quality translation results.

Then, how to cope with it?
Commonly, if we buy one cheap product, it will be easily broken, but of course we have to be as smart as possible in preventing this thing from happening. It, of course, also applies the same when we choose to buy the translation services.

The strategies are as follows:
1. Try to find the translators with their respective language pairs who are living in their own countries. For example, if you want to have your English to Indonesian or Indonesian to English documents or files translated, try to find the best freelance translators of those native languages. Be sure that they are currently living in their own country, for it will give you more guarantee of high quality translation results with very low rates. I can guarantee that there are a lot of freelance translators with their own respective language pairs that are not well accommodated in their country and it's time for you to exploit their best potentials. If you're not sure with them, try to find the best agents of the same case.
2. Give them a try. To ensure that you have chosen the best freelance translators or agents although they are paid with very low rates, ask them whether or not they are willing to translate some words, sentences or paragraphs for the trial. I think that they will do it happily.
3. Please remember that there are many foreign agents that use the freelance translators of different countries. This thing is done to reduce their costs. So, for those who want to have their documents translated, try the above tips. It seems that proz.com is one of the places where to find them.