Opinions please: 100% match: 30% rate, 99%-75%: 60% rate, 74%-0%: 100% Thread poster: Klaus Hartmann
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As I seem to have lost a number of (sometimes long-standing) (indirect) clients for price reasons, I now feel constrained to introduce discounts for Trados matches. I wonder whether my colleagues consider the following Trados discount matrix to be fair and workable / I would welcome others sharing their schemes.
I intend to apply the 30/60/100 rule
100% match: invoice at 30% of my rate
99%-75% match: invoice at 60% of my rate
74% match: invoice at 100% of my... See more As I seem to have lost a number of (sometimes long-standing) (indirect) clients for price reasons, I now feel constrained to introduce discounts for Trados matches. I wonder whether my colleagues consider the following Trados discount matrix to be fair and workable / I would welcome others sharing their schemes.
I intend to apply the 30/60/100 rule
100% match: invoice at 30% of my rate
99%-75% match: invoice at 60% of my rate
74% match: invoice at 100% of my rate
This would apply both to customer-spefific TMs I have created myself and to TMs received from the customer.
Unfortunately the pattern over the last two years was all too often: I got a new technical assigment, say for a manual, with a little reference material, usually previous translations of inferiour quality. Then I got 2-3 large assignments, was asked for another quote and afterwards never heared from that (indirect) client again.
Probably, after I had created a solid terminological basis, later jobs were then awarded to others, who seem to be applying discount schemes.
Thanks in advance for your opinions and your advice!
Klaus Hartmann
Technical translator: En, Fr, Ro > De
Munich ▲ Collapse
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| 30% for exact matches and that's it | Oct 4, 2004 |
I only give a discount for exact matches: the client pays 30% of the full rate in that case. Anything from 0% to 99% is invoiced at the full price. The reason? Very simple: translating fuzzy matches takes you almost as long (in some case even longer!) as translating the sentence from scratch.
Moreover, I don't give discounts on 1000-word projects. There have to be at least 10,000 words involved, with at least some 15% in exact matches. Anything less than that: sorry, no discount on ... See more I only give a discount for exact matches: the client pays 30% of the full rate in that case. Anything from 0% to 99% is invoiced at the full price. The reason? Very simple: translating fuzzy matches takes you almost as long (in some case even longer!) as translating the sentence from scratch.
Moreover, I don't give discounts on 1000-word projects. There have to be at least 10,000 words involved, with at least some 15% in exact matches. Anything less than that: sorry, no discount on the exact matches either.
My argument: my using a CAT tool already gives the client the benefit of consistency throughout all his projects and the advantage of the translator being able to work faster and so to deliver faster. That means two extra services at no cost for the client! Then why should we give discounts on top of that added value for the client?
And if we all started applying this principle, we would make life a lot easier for ourselves... (If only you knew how many agencies demand discounts without giving those discounts to their clients...)
fwiw
Joeri
[Edited at 2004-10-04 13:27] ▲ Collapse
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| 30% discount for exact matches | Oct 4, 2004 |
I give a 30% discount for an exact match and that is that.We should all take pride in our work and stand united: we deliver quality work, hence we wish to be paid for it.
If everybody were to apply this principle, all those working at absolutely ridiculous prices would soon be outmarketed.
As we all know and experience these pre-tranlations are no blessing at all!
Anne-Marie Dewachter
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| Base rate important | Oct 4, 2004 |
I agree on a scheme together with the client on an ad hoc basis, but normally I set a 10% higher base rate. That should be fair enough, considering that the total after discount is lower than your regular rate multiplied with the word count.
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| Trados and discounts | Oct 4, 2004 |
Klaus Hartmann wrote:
100% match: invoice at 30% of my rate
99%-75% match: invoice at 60% of my rate
74% match: invoice at 100% of my rate
Hi Klaus,
I apply these rates to projects from my regular customers. I mainly translate very technical manuals and such and I do get the updates.
If the customer wants me to use a memory that I have not created, I will on the understanding that I am not responsible for terminology issues that may ensue. I will, however, ensure that grammatically the sentences are correct. If I see something that is really wrong, of course, I do correct it. Most of the memories I work with have been checked and corrected by the customer and therefore reliable.
I use Trados in 90% of cases but I only tell customers if they ask
Good luck!
Marijke
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Lia Fail (X) 
Spain
Local time: 06:56
Spanish to English
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| 100% matches only | Oct 5, 2004 |
Joeri Van Liefferinge (King Darling Communications) wrote:
I only give a discount for exact matches: the client pays 30% of the full rate in that case. Anything from 0% to 99% is invoiced at the full price. The reason? Very simple: translating fuzzy matches takes you almost as long (in some case even longer!) as translating the sentence from scratch.
[Edited at 2004-10-04 13:27]
I haven't been pricing fuzzy long, but that is one conclusion that I came to, that only 100% matches would be eligible for a discount.
My argument is that the translation process is about translating units, BUT ALSO ABOUT reading source text and target text AND comparing both, AND ensuring consistency at the textual/paragraph level (CAT tools isolate sentences). And these reading tasks are the same no matter how many matches there are. OK, a CAT tool 'reads', but the problem is that it is prone to error...
Joeri Van Liefferinge (King Darling Communications) wrote:
My argument: my using a CAT tool already gives the client the benefit of consistency throughout all his projects and the advantage of the translator being able to work faster and so to deliver faster. That means two extra services at no cost for the client! Then why should we give discounts on top of that added value for the client?
And if we all started applying this principle, we would make life a lot easier for ourselves... (If only you knew how many agencies demand discounts without giving those discounts to their clients...)
Agree absolutely, after all it's the translator who paid for it AND who learned to use it...
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Klaus Hartmann
Local time: 06:56
English to German
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TOPIC STARTER | Thank you all very much! | Oct 7, 2004 |
Dear Tayfun, dear Joeri, dear Hayatim, dear Ivan, dear Marijke, dear Ailish,
thank you very much for sharing your experience and your opinions with me!
So I'll introduce this moderate discount matrix now, hoping to keep the follow-up jobs from now on.
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pcovs
Denmark
Local time: 06:56
English to Danish
| Only ONE discount % | Oct 9, 2004 |
[quote]Marijke Singer wrote:
I use Trados in 90% of cases but I only tell customers if they ask
I do the same thing: the customer has to ask for a discount to get one.
I only offer ONE discount: 100% matches!
If the customer says, he/she won\'t pay for 100% matches, I say \"OK, but then I will not check 100% matches at all, and any mistakes etc. caused by this is not my problem\".
If the customer does want me to check 100% matches, I charge 30% of my usual rate.
I offer no discounts on lower % matches as I spend a lot of time checking where the differences are, and checking that the new sentence is correct.
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cezara lucas
Romania
Local time: 07:56
English to Romanian
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| Is the TM lowering rates ?? more frequently the answer is ....yes | Feb 10, 2009 |
I wonder if now in 2009, you face the same situation with the TM, with clients or agencies who ask you to accept lower rates,
and how much?
I cannot accept conditons of an agency, due to the fussy and matching policy applied, but this seems to be a generalized situation.
I need to know how "normally" is such a policy now, how much is it applied in Agencies.
Cezara
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