| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3] > | Translation agencies and translators: where are the courtesy rules gone? Thread poster: Bruno Depascale
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Lingua 5B 
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 22:15
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
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Bruno Depascale wrote: Mihailolja wrote:
Occasionally, I see an interesting project on ProZ and very occasionally I apply. Typically, I get no response.
I then add the agency or individual to my personal blacklist of people not to be worked with in the future. Sadly, it's a growing list!
Ignore them, in the bin, straight away... Ok but I think this is an extremely drastic attitude. A translator should became a detective to detect potential clues that an agency is not professional..
You know what they say "what you don't learn from, you are doomed to repeat". If one agency requires a rush test job, etc, and then you see the same scenario with another one and you repeat everything, oh well then, not sure who you should blame...
So next time you see an agency with unnecessarily complicated procedures, you know what to do...
| | | | | from the other side | Jan 30, 2014 |
Thinking like an outsourcer PM, the scenario will be
"offer a rush special domain job on your own cat tool"
Say 45 have responded, xyz is the lowest/ has previous experience/ my favorite etc. so xyz is assigned the job.
Then move on to the next job for assigning.
So where is the question of replying to every unsuccessful one of every assignment. That is part of the daily process, no time to think about ruffled feathers.
| | | | Bruno Depascale
Italy
Local time: 22:15
Member (2009)
English to Italian
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TOPIC STARTER | the peak of business | Jan 30, 2014 |
Srini Venkataraman wrote:
Thinking like an outsourcer PM, the scenario will be
"offer a rush special domain job on your own cat tool"
Dear Srini,
thank you for your email.
unfortunately, they didn't offer the job on my cat-tool, but on theirs, not even bothering to ask me if i knew how to use such software.
Say 45 have responded, xyz is the lowest/ has previous experience/ my favorite etc. so xyz is assigned the job.
So the most important thing is the lowest price?!
Then move on to the next job for assigning.
So where is the question of replying to every unsuccessful one of every assignment. That is part of the daily process, no time to think about ruffled feathers.
Reading your post make me think translators are the slaves and translation agencies the masters.
I think translator are professionals and translation agencies intermediaries which should treat politely their counterparts during business transactions.
Yes, because we are talking about business. And politeness should be a must in business.
From your point of view the ideal translator should be paid nothing and also be grateful to the translation agency. But you forget that the individual translator is a business like a translation agency and not a slave.
| | | | Erik Freitag
Germany
Local time: 22:15
Member (2006)
Dutch to German
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| @Srini - courtesy! | Jan 30, 2014 |
Srini Venkataraman wrote:
So where is the question of replying to every unsuccessful one of every assignment.
That's just a matter of courtesy. No one can sue you for not being polite, but you certainly won't get another quote for a second job from this translator after not answering to the first one. You might eventually run out of suppliers ...
In my personal experience, the courtesy (and lack thereof) of a PM correlates strongly with other attributes I like to see from a potential client and is a very good general indicator of the quality of a translation agency.
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achisholm
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:15
Italian to English
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| Offer deadline | Jan 30, 2014 |
I have routinely been giving a deadline for the offers I make to clients. I.e. "I can do this job providing you reply to me by xxxxxxxxx".
This is because in the past I have replied to clients only to have them get back to me a week later, by which time I was no longer available.
| | | | Bruno Depascale
Italy
Local time: 22:15
Member (2009)
English to Italian
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TOPIC STARTER | Very Smart technique | Jan 30, 2014 |
Alexander Chisholm wrote:
I have routinely been giving a deadline for the offers I make to clients. I.e. "I can do this job providing you reply to me by xxxxxxxxx".
This is because in the past I have replied to clients only to have them get back to me a week later, by which time I was no longer available.
Dear Alexander,
Thank you for your suggestion!
It is very smart and I will surely apply it in the future
| | | | Maria Popova
Bulgaria
Local time: 23:15
Member (2011)
German to Bulgarian
| You're right! | Jan 30, 2014 |
You're right, Bruno! Business is done by humans and it has to be done in a human way! Personally, I ignore everyone who is treating me like a robot or slave and usually block their access to my inbox. The list includes low rate agencies, people who begin their inquires with "I need this and that. Send me this and that!", agencies with complicated procedures and repeated inquires about all the same information they've already been given. It's much more important to concentrate on good and respect... See more You're right, Bruno! Business is done by humans and it has to be done in a human way! Personally, I ignore everyone who is treating me like a robot or slave and usually block their access to my inbox. The list includes low rate agencies, people who begin their inquires with "I need this and that. Send me this and that!", agencies with complicated procedures and repeated inquires about all the same information they've already been given. It's much more important to concentrate on good and respectful clients who treat you right and inspire you to do your best for them.
I wish you the best!
Maria ▲ Collapse
| | | | DLyons
Ireland
Local time: 21:15
Spanish to English
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| Market niches. | Jan 30, 2014 |
Srini Venkataraman wrote:
Then move on to the next job for assigning.
So where is the question of replying to every unsuccessful one of every assignment. That is part of the daily process, no time to think about ruffled feathers.
If you do that to me, you won't ruffle my feathers, my daily process is to blacklist you without further thought. We're not in the same business, so let's not waste each other's time.
I suspect your way of doing business will result in you locking yourself into the bottom end of the market where no relationships are built. That end of the market is already, and will increasingly be, under pressure from machine translation. But it's entirely your decision what market niche you work in.
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Bruno Depascale
Italy
Local time: 22:15
Member (2009)
English to Italian
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TOPIC STARTER | You hit the point | Jan 30, 2014 |
Maria Popova wrote:
You're right, Bruno! Business is done by humans and it has to be done in a human way! Personally, I ignore everyone who is treating me like a robot or slave and usually block their access to my inbox. The list includes low rate agencies, people who begin their inquires with "I need this and that. Send me this and that!", agencies with complicated procedures and repeated inquires about all the same information they've already been given. It's much more important to concentrate on good and respectful clients who treat you right and inspire you to do your best for them.
I wish you the best!
Maria
Dear Maria,
you perfectly hit the point.
I mean, why the time of a translation agency should count more than the time of a freelance professional? Do they pay more taxes than us?
Unfortunately, as I said, it is not always easy to identify an unprofessional translation agency based on the first impressions we get from them.
| | | | Bruno Depascale
Italy
Local time: 22:15
Member (2009)
English to Italian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | business processes against unpolite/unprofessional customers | Jan 30, 2014 |
DLyons wrote: Srini Venkataraman wrote:
Then move on to the next job for assigning.
So where is the question of replying to every unsuccessful one of every assignment. That is part of the daily process, no time to think about ruffled feathers. If you do that to me, you won't ruffle my feathers, my daily process is to blacklist you without further thought. We're not in the same business, so let's not waste each other's time.
Since we are talking about businesses, and since some translation agencies seem to use the business process of treating freelance professionals like machines, a solution to such situation would be that of implementing business processes against such agencies, and this is the reason why I started this discussion.
Indeed, one solution proposed has been that of inserting in the reply to "unpolite" customers the phrase "If I won't get a reply in 2 hours, please consider me unavailable for the job".
Of course there are also other cues that should warn against unprofessional agencies, but, as I said, it is not always easy to identify them.
[Edited at 2014-01-30 14:56 GMT]
[Edited at 2014-01-30 18:23 GMT]
| | | | texjax DDS PhD
Local time: 16:15
Member (2006)
English to Italian
+ ...
Bruno Depascale wrote:
A translator should became a detective to detect potential clues that an agency is not professional..
Unfortunately, as I said, it is not always easy to identify an unprofessional translation agency based on the first impressions we get from them.
Hi Bruno,
True, it’s not always easy but something can be done and you certainly don’t have to turn into Chief Inspector Clouseau. However a little research on potential clients doesn’t hurt.
I received the same Connect! email and I checked the BB record of the agency.
In addition to the overall BB rating – which is not bad – there are some warning signs that can be found in the comments of the peers: disorganized, “misunderstandings”, late payers. For me that only translates into one possible conclusion: unprofessional. Therefore I made a mental note to never work for such firm, and deleted the message.
Unfortunately your experience confirms that I was right about them.
My piece of advice would be to spend a few minutes reading the comments of the BB before replying to any potential client because the overall BB rating can be quite deceiving at times.
Ciao
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Unfortunately, the translation industry seems to be as bad as any other when it comes to good manners (you would expect it to be better, as it's all about communication). People who don't reply to emails are extremely rude, so I sympathise with you, Bruno.
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| There is no courtesy... | Jan 30, 2014 |
when agencies adopt an outsourcing strategy like the one you mention... send a request to several translators and then pick the one who answers first with the lowest price... are you really surprised they didn't reply to you? I'm not. Just forget about this particular agency. They waste your time to gain time themselves.
| | | | Shai Navé
Israel
Local time: 23:15
English to Hebrew
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| The tell-tale signs were there | Jan 30, 2014 |
Bruno Depascale wrote:
Unfortunately, as I said, it is not always easy to identify an unprofessional translation agency based on the first impressions we get from them.
Bruno Depascale wrote:
...translation agency that at the moment has a job offer advertised on...
Bruno Depascale wrote:
how can someone pretend to have a MEDICAL translation job done at a low rate, delivered in a speedy fashion, and what's worst using a web-based cat tool that is not very user-friendly.
Just to be clear about it from the start, I'm not criticizing you, I actually sympathize with you, but all the tell-tale signs of an unprofessional broker (please don't give these entities the courtesy of being a called an agency. An agency in its traditional form is a professional practice and not a mere reseller of translation services) were there from the start, and quite obvious even, and you just failed to notice them (happens).
First, the bidding platform or replying to mass emails are no place for a professional simply because the entities that turn into these platform are unlikely to share any professional or business value with a professional independent translator.
Then, their demand for fast and cheap translation speaks volume about their respect for the profession, how much they understand the profession they falsely pretend to represent, and how unprofessional they are; and if that was not enough, they try to dictate which tool shall be used (a professional chooses his or her tools on merit and in according to professional considerations and not because someone told them to), that only goes to show that they put the technology before the human qualifications, skills, and expertise, and that's alone should disqualify them.
One should target his or her market niche or segment and work to get there. There are many opportunists out-there, but not all of them are born equal, so not all of them should get the same attention from a professional independent translator.
This is in addition to all the other great and invaluable insights and advice that others have already given.
[Edited at 2014-01-30 18:45 GMT]
[Edited at 2014-01-30 18:46 GMT]
| | | | Sheila Wilson
Spain
Local time: 21:15
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
| Choose the best; forget the rest | Jan 30, 2014 |
Bruno Depascale wrote:
Reading your post make me think translators are the slaves and translation agencies the masters. Some agencies certainly seem to think that that's true.
I think translator are professionals and translation agencies intermediaries which should treat politely their counterparts during business transactions.
Yes, because we are talking about business. And politeness should be a must in business. Many other agencies and many direct clients think that way, too.
Fortunately, a freelancer is free to choose his or her clients. Of course, if you rely on your income to feed yourself and/or your family then you may have to make some compromises, but you never need to accept slavery.
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