| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3] | What discount for mistakes? Thread poster: MissDobs
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Vincenzo Di Maso 
Portugal
Local time: 01:16
Member (2009)
English to Italian
+ ...
Well,
once I was asked not to invoice them just because of 3 alledged mistakes! The translation was around 7,500 words. After a letter from a lawyer they apologised. Furthermore, I proved that just 1 word was wrong. Incredible!
Unfortunately many agencies have this bad practice. The problem is that they do not proofread the text. They do not translator and try to break rules.
About MissDobs, I think she should search an agreement. The agency was not professional at all and, re... See more Well,
once I was asked not to invoice them just because of 3 alledged mistakes! The translation was around 7,500 words. After a letter from a lawyer they apologised. Furthermore, I proved that just 1 word was wrong. Incredible!
Unfortunately many agencies have this bad practice. The problem is that they do not proofread the text. They do not translator and try to break rules.
About MissDobs, I think she should search an agreement. The agency was not professional at all and, regardless of her mistakes, she should stand firm.
A 20% deduction would be fine. In case that no agreement is reached, she should contact a solicitor. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | less qualified translator | Feb 8, 2010 |
I've read through the whole topic, but at the end where Ms Dobbs admits that she isn't a trained translator the only thing I thought was: there you have it!
In difficult times there will always be clients/agencies who work with unqualified/less qualified translators, but then they should not wonder why the quality is not up to standard.
However, even with so many mistakes, NOT paying for work which has been done, albeit not up to standard, is wrong in my opinion. A huge... See more I've read through the whole topic, but at the end where Ms Dobbs admits that she isn't a trained translator the only thing I thought was: there you have it!
In difficult times there will always be clients/agencies who work with unqualified/less qualified translators, but then they should not wonder why the quality is not up to standard.
However, even with so many mistakes, NOT paying for work which has been done, albeit not up to standard, is wrong in my opinion. A huge discount, however, would be appropriate, but it doesn't matter what you do: the agency won't work with you ever again: of that you can be sure! ▲ Collapse
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they are going to use your translation in some form, then you should be paid, deducting the amount spent of fixing it. Having said that, you should have been given time to rectify the translation yourself... I would insist on some form of payment...
| | | | | How to get free translations | Feb 8, 2010 |
Sounds a promising strategy for the more cost-conscious clients:
1) Take a relatively inexperienced and not fully qualified translator rather than a more experienced and professionally qualified one (this is not to say that the latter make no mistakes of course);
2) Take a maverick attitude towards your own contractual obligations (delivering source material on time and as agreed);
3) Bicker and bitch around when the inevitable and totally predictable error... See more Sounds a promising strategy for the more cost-conscious clients:
1) Take a relatively inexperienced and not fully qualified translator rather than a more experienced and professionally qualified one (this is not to say that the latter make no mistakes of course);
2) Take a maverick attitude towards your own contractual obligations (delivering source material on time and as agreed);
3) Bicker and bitch around when the inevitable and totally predictable errors occur;
4) Demand that the work is supplied free of charge.
Hey presto, you get the work done for nothing with a bit of tweaking and adjusting (which would have to be done anyway for a published work).
You had a contract with the agency to provide a translation within a certain period of time, namely 5 days, not counting the day of receipt (Friday) and the day of delivery (Thursday). It is usually better to do no new translation work on a day of delivery. Reserve this day for checking.
This becomes 3 days if we discount the weekend. 3 clear working days for 5000 words with the day of delivery left free for a final check is well doable to a professional standard (with the weekend giving an additional buffer) for an ordinary qualified translator. (This claim can be supported by reference to professional associations.)
Whether an extra fast translator is a bit more nifty is irrelevant we are not talking about this particular wizz-kid, but a normal qualified translator.
As I see it, the time allowed to complete the work was a term of your contact with the agency. As I see it, it was a fundamental term as a normal qualified translator would have needed a reasonable amount of time to complete the work. 1 day in this case is not a reasonable amount of time.
The agency broke the contract by failing to deliver the source material on the agreed date.
Depending on the jurisdiction of course, this might have entitled you to cancel the agreement and claim damages (time set aside for the work, result of rejecting other work etc.). So the agency would have had to compensate you without getting anything in return.
You nevertheless completed the work by the Thursday, despite being under no obligation to do so, and arguably helped the agency out of a fix. (Would they have been able to find another translator on such good terms at short notice?).
1 day allowed for a text that is to be published is definitely unreasonable by any standards. As I mentioned above, it would have needed to be checked and possibly edited by at least 1 other person if it was going to be published for all the world to see, even if an experienced translator had done it. ▲ Collapse
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| Only work with what and who you are comfortable with | Feb 8, 2010 |
First of all, sorry for your trouble, as it's hard starting out and these things are always nasty.
Since you're just getting into translation, give yourself generous deadlines. In this case you should have moved the deadline right back or told the agency to forget it - there are plenty more jobs where that came from.
Most of the rest of what you say seems to stem from the fact that you didn't have enough time. But be careful that any specific formatting requests (or an... See more First of all, sorry for your trouble, as it's hard starting out and these things are always nasty.
Since you're just getting into translation, give yourself generous deadlines. In this case you should have moved the deadline right back or told the agency to forget it - there are plenty more jobs where that came from.
Most of the rest of what you say seems to stem from the fact that you didn't have enough time. But be careful that any specific formatting requests (or any other special demands) are made in advance and that you are happy with them. With all of my agencies, I point out that additional requests are not part of our normal contract and need to be negotiated job by job. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Alex Eames
Local time: 01:16
English to Polish
+ ...
| Always quote jobs in number of working days from when I get the files | Feb 17, 2010 |
Leaving aside the issue of whether or not the translator should be paid anything for this work (which if it is used on a website, she darned well ought to receive something for it in my opinion).
A good question to consider is...
What can be done differently in future to prevent this situation?
And the simple answer is "rolling deadlines" or, put another way, you tell the client how many working days ... See more Leaving aside the issue of whether or not the translator should be paid anything for this work (which if it is used on a website, she darned well ought to receive something for it in my opinion).
A good question to consider is...
What can be done differently in future to prevent this situation?
And the simple answer is "rolling deadlines" or, put another way, you tell the client how many working days from receipt of files and purchase order/jobsheet.
So when they say "can we get this done by thursday?" the answer is "yes if I get the files today - if not, you need to allow X working days for it".
It's a rookie mistake and lots of us have made it (although we're all much too experienced and important now to remember the early days too clearly) so don't feel too bad
Giving up your entire fee because you had a bad day seems totally one-sided and unfair to me - particularly if the "product" has been published after being fixed. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Jeff Whittaker
United States
Local time: 20:16
Member (2002)
Spanish to English
+ ...
| Mistakes will happen | Feb 18, 2010 |
There was a case on the People's Court (a television program in the U.S. where real court cases are tried on camera) recently wherein a translator was suing a defendant who failed to pay for the Russian > English translation of a book because the translation was allegedly deficient and had to be re-translated. The judge ruled that even though the plaintiff's written English was manifestly deficient, since the new translator did not re-start the translation from the start, but instead used the pl... See more There was a case on the People's Court (a television program in the U.S. where real court cases are tried on camera) recently wherein a translator was suing a defendant who failed to pay for the Russian > English translation of a book because the translation was allegedly deficient and had to be re-translated. The judge ruled that even though the plaintiff's written English was manifestly deficient, since the new translator did not re-start the translation from the start, but instead used the plaintiff's translation as a basis for their own, the defendant was not entitled to withhold payment.
We are human and we will make mistakes no matter how much we try to avoid them, especially when we are dealing with at least two different systems of communication. I once worked for an agency for years without incident. Then, I forgot to change the language settings to English for the footnotes on a large document, resulting in one word being misspelled. The project manager was irate and refused to work with me again.
[Edited at 2010-02-18 17:12 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Alex Eames
Local time: 01:16
English to Polish
+ ...
| A sensible ruling :) | Feb 18, 2010 |
Jeff Whittaker wrote:
There was a case on the People's Court (a television program in the U.S. where real court cases are tried on camera) recently wherein a translator was suing a defendant who failed to pay for the Russian > English translation of a book because the translation was allegedly deficient and had to be re-translated. The judge ruled that even though the plaintiff's written English was manifestly deficient, since the new translator did not re-start the translation from the start, but instead used the plaintiff's translation as a basis for their own, the defendant was not entitled to withhold payment.
Which seems to me to be a well-balanced ruling.
If the original work was used, it has not been rejected. If it has not been rejected it should be paid for, at least in substantial part.
It would have been much fairer, in the OP's case we're discussing if the client had first given the translator a chance to make good and failing that, negotiated a discount.
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