ProZ.com Translation Forums

Poll: Have you ever underestimated the work involved in a project and quoted too low? | It happens

Mario Freitas — Tue, 09 Jan 2018 16:24:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Have you ever underestimated the work involved in a project and quoted too low?
Poster: Mario Freitas
Post title: It happens

Above all when there are non-text stretches and the client informs you late that they want those translated as well. But cases when I actually underquoted and received less than I should have are very rare.

Poll: Have you ever underestimated the work involved in a project and quoted too low? | All too often

Muriel Vasconcellos (X) — Tue, 09 Jan 2018 09:22:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Have you ever underestimated the work involved in a project and quoted too low?
Poster: Muriel Vasconcellos (X)
Post title: All too often

Especially with proofreading, as Jack pointed out. That's why I don't do it anymore.

My main clients are very fair and I don't have that problem with them, but with agencies I have had problems underestimating the task.

Poll: Have you ever underestimated the work involved in a project and quoted too low? | Only twice

Thayenga — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 18:07:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Have you ever underestimated the work involved in a project and quoted too low?
Poster: Thayenga
Post title: Only twice

That was when I started as a translator.

Once a 10 K+ words, highly technical manual needed to be translated within a week. I thought I could do it (and would have been able to ;) ) until I discovered that the document contained unfinished sentences, requiring me to frequently check back with the client to make some sense of parts of the text.

The second time was "my bad"... which won't happen again.

Poll: Have you ever underestimated the work involved in a project and quoted too low? | These things happen

Robert Forstag — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 16:20:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Have you ever underestimated the work involved in a project and quoted too low?
Poster: Robert Forstag
Post title: These things happen

My really bad mistakes along these lines occurred in my early years as a translator. Nowadays, not so much.

Given that I typically only skim a document prior to providing a quote, I am fairly satisfied with my estimating capabilities. In any area within my broad "comfort zone," it is not content so much as formatting issues (re-creating tables and, worst of all, rekeying columns and columns of numbers) that are the factors that tend to slow me down.

And I tend to avoid proofreading altogether, because such jobs are often "disaster relief" in disguise, and typically do not pay nearly what they are worth.

Poll: Have you ever underestimated the work involved in a project and quoted too low? | Same experience (in the past)

Mario Chavez (X) — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 15:15:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Have you ever underestimated the work involved in a project and quoted too low?
Poster: Mario Chavez (X)
Post title: Same experience (in the past)

[quote]Jack Doughty wrote:

I always skim through the text before quoting a per-hour or per-word rate, and sometimes find that when I actually get around to it, much more correction than I had anticipated is involved. [/quote]

Ain't that true? Many agencies like to think that a translator can proofread a document at a rate of 6,000 to 8,000 words per day, regardless of topic, text density, terminology used and other wordface aspects.

Poll: Have you ever underestimated the work involved in a project and quoted too low? | Exactly the same!

Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 13:21:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Have you ever underestimated the work involved in a project and quoted too low?
Poster: Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Post title: Exactly the same!

[quote]Jack Doughty wrote:

I always skim through the text before quoting a per-hour or per-word rate, and sometimes find that when I actually get around to it, much more correction than I had anticipated is involved. [/quote]

Poll: Have you ever underestimated the work involved in a project and quoted too low? | Yes, but not often

Joohee Kim — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 11:05:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Have you ever underestimated the work involved in a project and quoted too low?
Poster: Joohee Kim
Post title: Yes, but not often

Last year, I translated a legal document from Korean to English and the rate was 0.02 USD per word...

Poll: Have you ever underestimated the work involved in a project and quoted too low? | yes

Kay Denney — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 10:49:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Have you ever underestimated the work involved in a project and quoted too low?
Poster: Kay Denney
Post title: yes

Beginner's mistakes, biting off more than I can chew, listening to my partner whose attitude was "say yes and work out how to get it done once they've given it to you", not realising just how bad a proofreading project is till I realise I'm still on page one when I should be half-way through... yes I made plenty of mistakes when I was starting out. Thankfully I know exactly how much I can take on nowadays. Since I have to make sure of not earning too much (which would mean I would have to change my status and pay way more tax), I tend to say no any time I'm not sure.

Poll: Have you ever underestimated the work involved in a project and quoted too low? | Proofreading is the most difficult

Jack Doughty — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 10:13:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Have you ever underestimated the work involved in a project and quoted too low?
Poster: Jack Doughty
Post title: Proofreading is the most difficult

I always skim through the text before quoting a per-hour or per-word rate, and sometimes find that when I actually get around to it, much more correction than I had anticipated is involved.

Poll: Have you ever underestimated the work involved in a project and quoted too low? | No

Michael Harris — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 10:12:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Have you ever underestimated the work involved in a project and quoted too low?
Poster: Michael Harris
Post title: No

My customers know my rates and if more work should have to be completed for the project, this is then just added on - Fair play!

Poll: Have you ever underestimated the work involved in a project and quoted too low? | No but

Chié_JP — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 10:11:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Have you ever underestimated the work involved in a project and quoted too low?
Poster: Chié_JP
Post title: No but

No, but UNLESS client adds request afterwards

Poll: Have you ever underestimated the work involved in a project and quoted too low? | Yes, but not often

Jan Truper — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 09:09:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Have you ever underestimated the work involved in a project and quoted too low?
Poster: Jan Truper
Post title: Yes, but not often

My worst case was when I consented to translate a geographical maps application from English to German. This app had originally been written in Russian and had been translated into English. The English source text was sent to me in Excel format. I had taken a look at the source document beforehand and spotted the names of countries and cities as well as some longer text passages, but I reckoned this was something I could deal with, as I am well-versed in world geography.
While translating, I came across a list of approx. 1000 Russian village names. Most of these villages were so tiny and obscure that I needed to do some heavy, time-intensive research in order to find any sort of "official" previous mention within a German context.
Because the English names for many of these villages did not show up in Google, I had to ask the client for the original Russian source text, so I could use the Cyrillic (which I am not familiar with!) names to find suitable matches. If there was no previous German "official" mention of a village name, I needed to come up with a suitable German spelling that reflected Russian/English to German spelling norms.

It took me approx. 2 long days to translate these 1000 village names -- and of course, I had agreed to a per-word-rate. Because I saw this as my fault due to not checking the source text sufficiently beforehand, I just took the hit and didn't even mention it to the client.

[Edited at 2018-01-08 09:11 GMT]

Poll: Have you ever underestimated the work involved in a project and quoted too low?

ProZ.com Staff — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 08:10:02 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Have you ever underestimated the work involved in a project and quoted too low?
Poster: ProZ.com Staff

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Have you ever underestimated the work involved in a project and quoted too low?".

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