Hi Frank,
I recently saw a job posting on Proz.com that I found interesting, but did not bid on because the deadline was too tight. Then, a day or two later, I received an e-mail from an agency asking if I was available for a particular job. I replied positively and asked for more information. The details looked suspiciously familiar to what I had just read on Proz.com. Going back to Proz, I found that the subject for translation was the same, the word count was the same, but this agency offered me significantly lower pay and the deadline was one day before the deadline on the job posted on Proz.com.
Is it normal that agencies bid on jobs that are posted by other agencies, even if they don't have any translators to take them? How do people deal with such requests?
You should not assume that the agency who offered you the job actually got it when it was posted on ProZ.com.
About ten days ago, we dealt with a very similar case, where a freelance member complained about being ripped off (there was a rather significant difference between the price offered to her, and the price originally indicated on ProZ.com). We checked the job and found out that it was closed without awarding it to anyone via ProZ.com. Chances are that you're looking at a similar situation - the fact that the deadline was extended would underscore that.
Best regards, Ralf