"Voluminous project" for 0.00051 Euro per word ... Thread poster: Charlotte Blank
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Hi,
there has been a job posting on proz about six weeks ago about 500,000 words to be translated from English to Italian and German which was closed only two days after posting and in which the poster, an Indian agency, wrote:
"... for the sake of giving contribution, even though small, in the development of a developing economy, in wider sense, and an upcoming agency, in smaller sense. In this perspective, one may believe or not, we ourselves have decided to take only... See more Hi,
there has been a job posting on proz about six weeks ago about 500,000 words to be translated from English to Italian and German which was closed only two days after posting and in which the poster, an Indian agency, wrote:
"... for the sake of giving contribution, even though small, in the development of a developing economy, in wider sense, and an upcoming agency, in smaller sense. In this perspective, one may believe or not, we ourselves have decided to take only Rs. 0.03 (equivalent to $0.00065 USD or 0.00051 Euro) per word as our agency charges (out of which we have to pay for currency conversion charges, money transfer charges etc.)."
Apparently, they did not get many offers as today I got a mail from them (using proz's bulk mailing system) asking whether the "Dear linguists" it was addressed at would join in. The mail is rather long but one paragraph did strike me:
"However, I would like to say that in response to our current
work, 3-4 very good translators quoted 0.01 USD OR 0.01 Euro per
word as their lowest possible charges after considering each and
every aspect that I wrote on the job description on proz.com."
Are they really going to sacrifice themselves by paying 0.01 Euro (!) while getting only 0.00051 Euro themselves?! I do not mind working even for free if it were to help anyone in need but to me this kind of "fishing" (not for compliments but for low offers) sounds rather untrustworthy. Developing countries are one thing but why should any translator (if I understand them correctly) place a bid with a ridiculously low rate only to help "an upcoming agency"?
Please don't take me wrong, I'm not blaming Indian or any other agencies in countries with low rates (I'm living in one of them myself ) - what brings me up is that certain agencies (worldwide!) still tend to consider translators as being cash cows.
I know low rates have already been discussed quite a lot but now, having shared my frustration with you, I feel better
Charlotte
[Edited at 2006-08-31 15:26] ▲ Collapse
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Thomas Pfann 
United Kingdom
Local time: 09:05
Member (2006)
English to German
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| They should not offer payment at all | Aug 31, 2006 |
"... for the sake of giving contribution, even though small, in the development of a developing economy, in wider sense, and an upcoming agency, in smaller sense. In this perspective, one may believe or not, we ourselves have decided to take only Rs. 0.03 (equivalent to $0.00065 USD or 0.00051 Euro) per word as our agency charges (out of which we have to pay for currency conversion charges, money transfer charges etc.)."
In other words, they are doing it for free (I mean, the translation of half a million words for 255 Euros is equivalent to doing it for free). That's around 65 cent per day per translator!
I think they would fare much better, if they claimed it was a charity translation and they were looking for translators to do it for free. Or else, they should just put it through a machine translation system - that way, at least the end user will have something to laugh about.
Ridiculous!
[Edited at 2006-08-31 15:58]
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Irene N
United States
Local time: 03:05
English to Russian
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I hope no one had fallen for it. Why not to help the economy by giving the work to locals so that they could feed their families? Poor can't afford to be picky and any quality shall be satisfactory. Lots of savings on currency conversion and money transfers, which could also be re-directed to charity if they wish so...
If anyone feels like "helping" here, I would suggest to request excerpts from the prime contract for 0.03 euros/word with the name of the end client disclosed.
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| The agency commission | Aug 31, 2006 |
will be 0.00051 Euro/word.
Nothing to do with the translators' rate here, as I understand it.
I suppose it is just an "incentive" not to quote too high.
Assume that a middleman takes a rock-bottom 3% commission on a huge contract, which may be realistic for a huge contract (this is not the case here) and no added value whatsoever from the middleman, only the lead/referral.
This brings the translator's rate to 0.017 euros.
This is still ... See more will be 0.00051 Euro/word.
Nothing to do with the translators' rate here, as I understand it.
I suppose it is just an "incentive" not to quote too high.
Assume that a middleman takes a rock-bottom 3% commission on a huge contract, which may be realistic for a huge contract (this is not the case here) and no added value whatsoever from the middleman, only the lead/referral.
This brings the translator's rate to 0.017 euros.
This is still outrageous, but I think that reading the ad the way you did is not quite accurate.
Regards,
Philippe ▲ Collapse
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| A simple way to see it | Aug 31, 2006 |
If I can recall (since I work in-house and don't have access to all reports), my yearly production is more or less 200 k.
They have a project of 500 k @ 0.00065 US$ per word, which means in their eye, it's worth 325$.
I don't think any decent translator would think their work of 2 years is worth only 325$.
My two cents
Nina
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Brandis (X)
Local time: 10:05
English to German
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| The last voluminous offer ... | Aug 31, 2006 |
I had recd. was better than this, atleast €0.01 per word and lots of stipulations, should be typo finished, grammatically corrected, the translation will be sent to a native proof-reader and upon failure, I wouldn´t receive any payment, Am I ready. Isn´t that a great way of exploiting and escalating things even before seeing any file and have an idea about it. Best Brandis
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Thomas Pfann
United Kingdom
Local time: 09:05
Member (2006)
English to German
+ ...
| Now it makes more sense | Aug 31, 2006 |
Philippe Etienne wrote:
will be 0.00051 Euro/word.
Nothing to do with the translators' rate here, as I understand it.
I suppose it is just an "incentive" not to quote too high.
Assume that a middleman takes a rock-bottom 3% commission on a huge contract, which may be realistic for a huge contract (this is not the case here) and no added value whatsoever from the middleman, only the lead/referral.
This brings the translator's rate to 0.017 euros.
Ok, Philippe, that actually makes sense. We probably misunderstood it, and those $0.00065 USD per word are only the agency fees for admin costs - not including the actual translation work. That would make sense indeed.
The only thing is, what do I care about that? I need to know their budget for the translation effort, if they want me to consider it in my quotation.
At least now it doesn't look all that ridiculous anymore.
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