| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Agencies, Try Work With Some Realistic Deadlines! Thread poster: Dinny
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| client thinks of translation too late | Jun 26, 2012 |
jyuan_us wrote:
but that the agency wastes a lot of time.
I work with several end clients and they always allow sufficient time, and they are very flexible with deadlines. For example, they could give you 30 days to translate a 2000 word document. It often happens that the agency doesn't start working on it until after 28 days have passed.
Excuse me? And what would the benefit for the agency be to hold on to the file for such a long time, before passing it on to a translator?
From my point of view as an agency owner we are not the ones imposing tight deadlines, it's due unfortunately to our clients. And of course we try to educate them on what normal deadlines are, but in many cases, the client figures out at the end of a whole process that documents need to be translated. For example, only in the last stage before launching a new website or developing a company brochure, someone remembers that a translation is also needed and then the client of course wants this done ASAP.
As agencies we try to help out our clients as much as we can regarding fast turnaround times and we always negotiate with our translators on feasible deadlines. If truly quick deadlines are unavoidable, rush rates apply - both for the customer and for the translator!
| | | | Dinny 
Greece
Local time: 19:28
Italian to Danish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Thank you all for your input | Jun 26, 2012 |
I guess that, unless we can get ProZ.com to issue yet another button or two saying "This translator requires double rate for rush jobs" or "This translators refuses to work with badly organized PMs", we are back to each of us fighting our own battle.
Tell you what I will do: I will compose an email to all of my regular customers, exposing the problem and my concerns, and telling them that this will have to stop. It wil... See more I guess that, unless we can get ProZ.com to issue yet another button or two saying "This translator requires double rate for rush jobs" or "This translators refuses to work with badly organized PMs", we are back to each of us fighting our own battle.
Tell you what I will do: I will compose an email to all of my regular customers, exposing the problem and my concerns, and telling them that this will have to stop. It will take me DAYS to get the right wording, but I will eventually fill you in. In fear of everyone stopping to ask me to do translations, I will keep ONE customer from receiving this mail, the one an only who keeps me busy subtitling at decent rates and with decent deadlines and in enough quantity to secure my paying the bills.
I know, "regular translations" bring in much more than subtitling and with less working hours, but at least I will feel that I have put my foot down (where my mouth is? That gives some curious associations! LOL) and tried to make things change.
Will keep you posted.
Dinny ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Thank you, Dinny, for keeping us posted. | Jun 26, 2012 |
And speaking of curious associations: You know what they say: Move your a*s and your mind will follow.
| | | | | to be flexible or not to be flexible: perhaps that's the question | Jun 26, 2012 |
Dinny wrote:
Tell you what I will do: I will compose an email to all of my regular customers, exposing the problem and my concerns, and telling them that this will have to stop. It will take me DAYS to get the right wording, but I will eventually fill you in.
In fear of everyone stopping to ask me to do translations, I will keep ONE customer from receiving this mail, the one an only who keeps me busy subtitling at decent rates and with decent deadlines and in enough quantity to secure my paying the bills.
That's certainly the stupidest thing you could do: be a smartass and try to educate your customers in this way, instead of just quoting your best delivery time (with a deadline you are comfortable with).
But should you take this action, and one day your ONE and ONLY client decides to quit working with you, you end up having NO clients at all.
I'm beginning to think you're just not that flexible type of person and translating is just a parttime hobby for you, not a breadwinning, because then you would now that sometimes you have to be flexible; there will always be jobs with reasonable or even good deadlines, and other ones just have to be delivered a bit quicker!
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Dinny
Greece
Local time: 19:28
Italian to Danish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | It is all in the word "sometimes" | Jun 26, 2012 |
Rifraf, I am quite flexible, I can assure you. But all this "flexing" made me eventually post this item. Because it is not the "sometimes" anymore, it is a rule that "as an agency, I ask you to deliver tomorrow", as in "I am your ONLY client and I demand your immediate attention!"
Well, surprise, this whichever agency is not my only client (fortunately!) and I DO actually try to plan my days, setting off this and that much time for each project, when possible. And the eternal reques... See more Rifraf, I am quite flexible, I can assure you. But all this "flexing" made me eventually post this item. Because it is not the "sometimes" anymore, it is a rule that "as an agency, I ask you to deliver tomorrow", as in "I am your ONLY client and I demand your immediate attention!"
Well, surprise, this whichever agency is not my only client (fortunately!) and I DO actually try to plan my days, setting off this and that much time for each project, when possible. And the eternal requests from agencies to deliver almost immediately very often destroy my carefully made work schedule.
Rifraf, please do not make assumptions. Translation is not a hobby for me. I have been translation most of my life, definitely for over the last 20 years, and I have been living on translating full-time for the last 8 years. I would just like to organize things a little better.
Dinny ▲ Collapse
| | | | Dinny
Greece
Local time: 19:28
Italian to Danish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Is that how agencies would react? | Jun 26, 2012 |
Rifraf, I noticed that you are an agency owner.
Do you truly believe that all agencies - when approached with courtesy and reason - would react like you assume? Not using my services anymore, because I try to discuss a better way of making the work flow and assure quality translations?
That puzzles me... although I doubt you are right.
Dinny
| | | | Dinny
Greece
Local time: 19:28
Italian to Danish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | The Half Way Solution | Jun 27, 2012 |
Well, since I certainly do not want to be a "smartass" and abuse my poor clients, I opted for a half way solution: In these days most of my regulars send out emails requesting availability during the summer months. So when I reply giving them my holidays plans, which are way out of the holiday period, I add a little request:
"To be able to organize my work at best in this period, I kindly ask you not to take it for granted that I shall be able to deliver any translation at the speed... See more Well, since I certainly do not want to be a "smartass" and abuse my poor clients, I opted for a half way solution: In these days most of my regulars send out emails requesting availability during the summer months. So when I reply giving them my holidays plans, which are way out of the holiday period, I add a little request:
"To be able to organize my work at best in this period, I kindly ask you not to take it for granted that I shall be able to deliver any translation at the speed of lightening. I get so many requests in this period, that I am forced to organize things a bit and - as far as possible - deliver in the order they arrive. I therefore ask you please to negotiate the delivery terms with your clients leaving as much a safety margin as possible."
It is probably not correct English - but I do not have to worry that much about it, since English is not my native language - but it seems to be working fine so far. I receive only kind replies in return with assurance that it has been noted.
A first little step?
Dinny ▲ Collapse
| | | | | A realistic experience with tight deadlines and low rates | Jun 27, 2012 |
I just had a very impressive experience with an agency.
I must say that I only recently started to work with agencies, I mainly worked for direct clients before.
This agency gave me a translation job to be delivered within a very tight deadline. Since I didn't have another job at the time, I decided to accept their, admittedly, low rate.
I just had started working, when I received a request for an urgent project of another agency. It was well paid and inte... See more I just had a very impressive experience with an agency.
I must say that I only recently started to work with agencies, I mainly worked for direct clients before.
This agency gave me a translation job to be delivered within a very tight deadline. Since I didn't have another job at the time, I decided to accept their, admittedly, low rate.
I just had started working, when I received a request for an urgent project of another agency. It was well paid and interesting, but I couldn't accept that job, since I was already translating for the other agency.
20 minutes later the agency I translated for sent me an urgent message, that one of their PM's "found" a complete translation of the document, which I worked on. I should stop translating and proofread that translation.
I was angry, since I had rejected the other job offer, but decided to do the proofreading instead of earning no money at all that day.
Discussions about proofreading rates began, only when I said that they should give the job to someone else they accepted my rate.
Later on they tried to change the deadline, which was very tight already, saying that their client would need the proofread document 2 hours earlier.
The translation I had to proofread was the worst translation I ever saw.
I spent hours to find all the important mistakes, but it is impossible to change a bad style. I told the PM that, in my view, this translation is unacceptable and that the text should be translated again by another translator.
I fear that, if the client isn't satisfied, they will get back to me, since I was the last silly person who worked on the text.
Low rates, tight deadlines and disorganisation are a very bad combination.
[Edited at 2012-06-27 23:38 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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