| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | One of the worst offers received Thread poster: Ana Gutierrez
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Zhihua Liu
China
Local time: 04:02
English to Chinese
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Tina Vonhof wrote:
In any case, certified documents should not be charged per word because they are often very time-consuming to format. An hourly rate or per page rate would be more appropriate.
| | | | | Have I wasted my time? | Mar 25, 2015 |
I have spent some time with an agency doing a test, filling in forms, familiarizing myself with their own CAT tool, e-mailing back and forth until yesterday when they asked me to confirm a rate of $0.05 and a rather unfair CAT scale.
I had told them my rates in my very first e-mail?!
Although this isn't the lowest rate I have been offered by far, but it is below what I can accept and had I known I would not have spent so much time with them.
| | | | | Translation agency offer | Mar 25, 2015 |
Last year a translation agency in Madrid contacted me saying they were looking for technical and medical translators and asking f I would be willing to translate a pair of documents as a test, about a page each, plus a questionnaire. I was reasonably impressed with their professionality as I've had agencies that were happy enough simply looking over my CV.
They contacted me afterwards to say the translations were very good and they wanted me to work with them. And the rates? Oh... See more Last year a translation agency in Madrid contacted me saying they were looking for technical and medical translators and asking f I would be willing to translate a pair of documents as a test, about a page each, plus a questionnaire. I was reasonably impressed with their professionality as I've had agencies that were happy enough simply looking over my CV.
They contacted me afterwards to say the translations were very good and they wanted me to work with them. And the rates? Oh yes, between €0.02 and €0.025/w....
After writing up a suitable reply to help myself vent, I prudently deleted it and all the agency's emails and got up to have a beer. ▲ Collapse
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After politely pointing out that their rates are not workable for me I just received an e-mail confirming that they have approved my rates and asked me to do more ... read requirements, log in to their system, send certificate .... I hope its all worth it.
Maybe this is called negotiation? But it surely didn't sound that way?
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| Been there, done that | Mar 25, 2015 |
Gabriele Demuth wrote:
After politely pointing out that their rates are not workable for me I just received an e-mail confirming that they have approved my rates and asked me to do more ... read requirements, log in to their system, send certificate .... I hope its all worth it.
Maybe this is called negotiation? But it surely didn't sound that way?
Unless you are luckier than I am, they'll ALWAYS find someone cheaper than you to do ANY job they have.
In some cases, you'll eventually get an automatic e-mail from their system saying that if you lower your rates closer to... (usually half of what you entered), you'll stand a better chance to get translation assignments from them.
Only one translation agency web site I visited was so blunt to state, on their recruitment page: "Before you get started on your application, if you charge more than US 5¢ per word, please don't waste your time nor mine. I already have enough translators in every language pair charging less than that."
| | | | Radian Yazynin 
Local time: 23:02
Member (2004)
English to Russian
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| Unless there is Part II | Mar 25, 2015 |
Gabriele Demuth wrote:
I hope its all worth it.
with a bad payer record in the BB. A surprising change in the pricing policy? I doubt it.
| | | | | One of the worst offers received | Mar 26, 2015 |
Thomas T. Frost wrote:
On sites such as oDesk and Elance, ridiculous rates are commonplace: 1 cent per word for translation or article writing, for example. Many are looking for people to write e-books for them for ridiculous rates like this too, and they expect at 100 % error-free.
Of course, a young person living with his or her parents in a country with very low living costs can get started in the online marketplace that way, gaining experience and reputation, presumably considering that even if their are abused for a while, it is less bad than earning nothing.
Once I had an offer to write 300 word articles for less then 25 dollars, rip off!
| | | | | Worst offers reprised | Mar 26, 2015 |
Recently I was approached by the kind of direct client I have learnt to dread – the novice. She wanted me to translate her seminal work on some kind of alternative therapy and warned me that I would have to pay particular attention to terminological accuracy, as if this were a new or unusual concept for a translator.
I assured her that I would.
Then, as expected, when I told her how long it would take and how much it would cost to translate approximately 50,000 word... See more Recently I was approached by the kind of direct client I have learnt to dread – the novice. She wanted me to translate her seminal work on some kind of alternative therapy and warned me that I would have to pay particular attention to terminological accuracy, as if this were a new or unusual concept for a translator.
I assured her that I would.
Then, as expected, when I told her how long it would take and how much it would cost to translate approximately 50,000 words, she was astounded, screamed (literally and several times) that the price I had quoted was “barbaric” and concluded by saying that she was offering € 400 (0.008 € per word), as if this were totally reasonable.
The only thing we did agree about was that I wasn’t the right person for her project. ▲ Collapse
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| Let her scream at Google | Mar 26, 2015 |
Denise Phelps wrote:
Then, as expected, when I told her how long it would take and how much it would cost to translate approximately 50,000 words, she was astounded, screamed (literally and several times) that the price I had quoted was “barbaric” and concluded by saying that she was offering € 400 (0.008 € per word), as if this were totally reasonable.
The only thing we did agree about was that I wasn’t the right person for her project.
I get frequent estimate requests to translate books, articles, etc. from people who need to read them for their graduate courses.
First I explain them that a publisher pulverizes the cost of translation over a few thousand copies, so nobody notices it.
Then I tell them my price, and often have to admit that a foreign language course could be much cheaper, were it not for the time it would take.
So I give them options:
- Google Translate, which is free, if they are sufficiently familiar with the subject to cope with the garbage that usually comes out of it; or
- a cheap amateur translator, who will provide them with a different kind of garbage.
Bottom line is that I never got screamed at, well... at least for this reason.
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