Blue Board LWA Thread poster: finnword1
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finnword1
United States
Local time: 13:21
English to Finnish
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I came across a translation company that had "earned" a total of fifteen 5's on the same day. That kind of shook my trust in the Blue Board, and made me place this post in the Scam category. I have seen something similar in the past, but not fifteen 5's in one day.
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| Blue Board LWA | Jul 9, 2015 |
Could you please state the name of this company?
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Thomas Pfann 
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:21
Member (2006)
English to German
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| LWA entries often come in waves | Jul 9, 2015 |
I would assume that most LWA entries come in waves. Agencies might have the urge to do a bit of a marketing drive every now and again and send round an email to some/most/all of their freelancers to ask them to leave some feedback. That could explain those waves.
If the individual entries don't sound dubious then I wouldn't be bothered. (And for me it are only the individual entries which count, not the overall rating.)
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Sheila Wilson
Spain
Local time: 18:21
Member (2007)
English
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Companies aren't allowed to be named here. However, I'm sure ProZ.com staff would be happy to investigate if you raise a support ticket. Click on "Contact Support" at the bottom of the page on their BB entry.
I suppose it could be legitimate if they'd sent an email to all their current translators asking for feedback. But I agree that it does look suspicious. Staff will be able to check the IP addresses and other details of those making entries.
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| Not allowed Michele | Jul 9, 2015 |
Michele Esposito wrote:
Could you please state the name of this company?
Any mention of the company will be removed immediately and could get the poster into trouble. It's a huge no-no rule -simply not allowed.
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finnword1
United States
Local time: 13:21
English to Finnish
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TOPIC STARTER | most 5's have been deleted! | Jul 9, 2015 |
Apparently ProzCom did investigate, and deleted most of the 5's before publishing my post. In the process, two thirds of the LWA's are gone. If I remember correctly, there were about 180 in total, and now only 57.
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| The urge for salvage marketing | Jul 9, 2015 |
Thomas Pfann wrote:
Agencies might have the urge to do a bit of a marketing drive every now and again and send round an email to some/most/all of their freelancers to ask them to leave some feedback. That could explain those waves.
Another explanation is when an agency gets too many 1s ans 2s on their Blue Board, their overall score dives under the magic 4, and they suddenly can't find as many 'willing' translators as they need any more.
They quickly sell some silverware or jewelry, get a loan, rob a bank, whatever, build a list of translators having outstanding credits with them in ascending amount order, and start offering them, "You'll get all your past overdue invoices paid by next Monday, if you give us an LWA=5 and some positive comment on the Proz Blue Board today."
They'll try to spend just enough money to float above the magic LWA=4.
I'm not naming names, but I've seen cases where one translator merely copied and pasted another's comment with their 5. (Or maybe the agency provided them with a standard comment?)
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Jessica Noyes
United States
Local time: 13:21
Member
Spanish to English
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| Fishing for recommendations? | Jul 10, 2015 |
I am always pleased and grateful when an outsourcer leaves me a WWA, because I never request them. A while back, I had a modest number of WWAs, and then within one week suddenly received three new ones from people I had done only one job for. In fact, one of them was from someone with whom I had had a complicated (and not in a good way) interaction. Why would that company suddenly leave me a WWA, months later? I asked Support, and they told me that they had contacted people with whom I had work... See more I am always pleased and grateful when an outsourcer leaves me a WWA, because I never request them. A while back, I had a modest number of WWAs, and then within one week suddenly received three new ones from people I had done only one job for. In fact, one of them was from someone with whom I had had a complicated (and not in a good way) interaction. Why would that company suddenly leave me a WWA, months later? I asked Support, and they told me that they had contacted people with whom I had worked, requesting WWAs on my behalf. Shocked, I asked them to remove the WWAs that had been solicited, and they did. The reason I am posting this incident to this thread is that I wonder if they sometimes do it the other way around; that is, they may send out mass mails to translators asking them to rate such-and-such a company. That could explain why a significant number of them would suddenly appear. ▲ Collapse
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| Once I was asked to post a comment | Jul 10, 2015 |
on the Blue Board and the agency told me they would return the 'favour' by leaving a positive LWA on my profile page.
Not feeling very happy about it, I went ahead and did what I had been requested. After a couple of days, I realised what was happening because a load of '5s' were appearing every day for that particular agency and I asked the support team to remove my BB post, explaining the reason.
Although I was satisfied with the agency, in no way were they exceptio... See more on the Blue Board and the agency told me they would return the 'favour' by leaving a positive LWA on my profile page.
Not feeling very happy about it, I went ahead and did what I had been requested. After a couple of days, I realised what was happening because a load of '5s' were appearing every day for that particular agency and I asked the support team to remove my BB post, explaining the reason.
Although I was satisfied with the agency, in no way were they exceptional and definitely weren't worth a '5' (rates? payment terms? deadlines? - I honestly can't remember). Whenever I post on the Blue Board it's because I want to let everyone know about my experience with an agency, not because the words 'have been put in my mouth'.
Incidently, they never left a LWA on my profile page and the last time I checked the '5s' hadn't stopped. I also stopped working for them! ▲ Collapse
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