| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | International agency offering clients rock-bottom prices Thread poster: OlafK
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OlafK
United Kingdom
Local time: 08:28
English to German
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I just received a spam message by an agency, allegedly "ISO qualified" and with serveral offices in Europe and the US. They offer translation in all language combinations for EUR0.09 per word, including proofreading. That's less than I as a freelancer charge for translation only.
With this kind of aggressive marketing, a nice website, low prices and impressive words like "ISO" I'm afraid they might convince a lot of customers, at least at first. I know this offer is ridiculous and they won... See more I just received a spam message by an agency, allegedly "ISO qualified" and with serveral offices in Europe and the US. They offer translation in all language combinations for EUR0.09 per word, including proofreading. That's less than I as a freelancer charge for translation only.
With this kind of aggressive marketing, a nice website, low prices and impressive words like "ISO" I'm afraid they might convince a lot of customers, at least at first. I know this offer is ridiculous and they won't be able to deliver anything half-decent but I'm afraid end clients will fall for it.
This isn't the first time I've come across an agency in Europe or North America offering lower rates than I do. Should I just pack it in and look for another job? ▲ Collapse
| | | | Laurent KRAULAND (X) 
France
Local time: 09:28
French to German
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| Selling prices... and what's behind | Oct 30, 2009 |
Hi Olaf,
some European / US / international agencies have been selling prices for some years now, and going from 0.10 euros to 0.09 euros for example is only one of many psychological tricks used by such outfits. Other tricks are to say they do QA on translations when translators are asked by PMs to do the QA by themselves - and the same applies for DTP.
So and while it is certainly sad to see clients falling for such advertisements (plus the classical "We are a major player ... See more Hi Olaf,
some European / US / international agencies have been selling prices for some years now, and going from 0.10 euros to 0.09 euros for example is only one of many psychological tricks used by such outfits. Other tricks are to say they do QA on translations when translators are asked by PMs to do the QA by themselves - and the same applies for DTP.
So and while it is certainly sad to see clients falling for such advertisements (plus the classical "We are a major player in the translation industry and have been in business since XXXX"), I would say Let them fall for commercial tricks, as there is no point in trying to educate people who will buy prices over quality.
What I really find sad (after having received a magnificent offer for USD 0.02 per source word) is that some colleagues will continue "quoting" - although this word is highly inappropriate, one should rather speak of "applying" - for such rates and therefore encourage low-rates agencies to go even lower.
Loek van Kooten wrote:
Their trick is easy. They don't pay their translators.
Plus this trick, of course.;) One should never try to find a rationale when the reason for such low prices is rather obvious - a gross benefit margin of 100%.
[Edited at 2009-10-30 16:59 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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| Prices and delivery. | Oct 30, 2009 |
OlafK wrote:
Should I just pack it in and look for another job?
That depends entirely upon whether you can make a living with the decent paying customers you are able to get.
There are a lot of customers out there; some are looking for rock bottom prices, others understand that you have to pay for quality. It’s just the same as in all other professions. Some are looking for the cheapest bread and meat in the grocery shop, others want the best taste.
There are also a lot of translators out there. Let’s hope the cheap customers find the monkeys (if you pay with peanuts you ....). We who want to deliver quality work compete to get the customers who appreciate good results. Personally I have found it worth while; I just spend a fraction of a second to press the delete key for every mail about cheap translations, whether it is from a supplier or from a deliverer.
Regards,
Magnus
| | | | John Rawlins
Spain
Local time: 09:28
Spanish to English
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| More than just cheap | Oct 30, 2009 |
Information on the Blueboard suggests that this company is not so much a cheap supplier as a fraudulent trader.
| | | | | Couldn't agree more... | Oct 30, 2009 |
Laurent KRAULAND wrote:
What I really find sad (after having received a magnificent offer for USD 0.02 per source word) is that some colleagues will continue "quoting" - although this word is highly inappropriate, one should rather speak of "applying" - for such rates and therefore encourage low-rates agencies to go even lower.
I couldn't agree more with you. I can't believe my eyes when I see so many quotes these job offers have. It's a never ending situation. If fellow translators keep on accepting these undercutting rates, they will keep on encouraging those agencies to continue undercutting the market. It's sad, indeed!
Loek van Kooten wrote:
trick is easy. They don't pay their translators.
Where has Loek's post gone?
| | | | XX789 (X)
Netherlands
Local time: 09:28
English to Dutch
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| It was deleted | Oct 30, 2009 |
Because I forgot you're not allowed to post direct links to the Blueboard. But search, and you will find.
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| Loek's post was not in line with site rule http://www.proz.com/siterules/forum/8#8 | Oct 30, 2009 |
Hello Gabriela,
Where has Loek's post gone?
Loek's post was removed because it was not in line with forum rule 8, http://www.proz.com/siterules/forum/8#8 .
Hope this explains.
Regards,
Alejandro
| | | | Jeff Whittaker
United States
Local time: 03:28
Spanish to English
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| Rock-bottom prices | Oct 30, 2009 |
Just because some marketing "genius" with an MBA thinks that they have come up with a "new" translation business model, does not mean that their business will be successful. Too bad we do not have a list of all the "new" agencies that have since gone out of business. Such information would probably be most enlightening.
The other sad part is that in 1992, translation agencies in the United States were billing clients between US$0.22 and US$0.27 per word for French, Spanish, German a... See more Just because some marketing "genius" with an MBA thinks that they have come up with a "new" translation business model, does not mean that their business will be successful. Too bad we do not have a list of all the "new" agencies that have since gone out of business. Such information would probably be most enlightening.
The other sad part is that in 1992, translation agencies in the United States were billing clients between US$0.22 and US$0.27 per word for French, Spanish, German and Italian. At this rate of decline, we will all be working for free in 5-6 years. If not for the desperate lot of translators scraping the ground for .04 or .05 crumbs, just imagine where rates would be now in 2009 - 17 years later!
http://www.lisa.org/globalizationinsider/2003/12/from_mozart_to_.html
[Edited at 2009-10-30 21:34 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | OlafK
United Kingdom
Local time: 08:28
English to German
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TOPIC STARTER | How do they get away with it? | Oct 30, 2009 |
There seem to be so many of these criminal outfits, why do they never get prosecuted?
Of course I wasn't serious about throwing in the towel. Actually I'm glad they turned out to be crooks rather than some kind of wizards who manage to offer translations at incredibly low prices. But the Blueboard entries are shocking!
[Edited at 2009-10-30 18:31 GMT]
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Loek and Alejandro,
Thanks for clarifying.
@ Loek: yes, I had already checked. Thank you!
[Edited at 2009-10-30 17:51 GMT]
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Amy Duncan (X)
Brazil
Local time: 05:28
Portuguese to English
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| I got their e-mail too | Oct 30, 2009 |
I got two copies of their e-mail in an e-mail account that I don't even use for business. The offer looked cheesy to me so I stuck them in the spam folder.
| | | | Geraldine Oudin (X)
United Kingdom
Japanese to French
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| I send them a real quote | Oct 31, 2009 |
am one of the translators who actually send a quote to those offers.
Don't worry, I do send them a real quote, at my real rate...which as Laurent said is different from just "applying" for the job at the rate they offer. I wonder how many people do the same?
It doesn't take much time, as I have created a template especially for that.
I know it probably doesn't have any impact at all, especially if I am the only one to do that, but I really want the... See more am one of the translators who actually send a quote to those offers.
Don't worry, I do send them a real quote, at my real rate...which as Laurent said is different from just "applying" for the job at the rate they offer. I wonder how many people do the same?
It doesn't take much time, as I have created a template especially for that.
I know it probably doesn't have any impact at all, especially if I am the only one to do that, but I really want them to know their offer is indecent.
*****
http://geraldineoudin.com
[Modifié le 2009-10-31 05:04 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Laurent KRAULAND (X)
France
Local time: 09:28
French to German
+ ...
OlafK wrote:
There seem to be so many of these criminal outfits, why do they never get prosecuted?
[Edited at 2009-10-30 18:31 GMT]
Just think about the time, energy and money one must put in before one is able to "extract" the first cent out of them, think about the costs of hiring a more or less motivated attorney (possibly in a foreign country), the fact that a judgement has no value until it is actually enforced... and so on.
On top of this, there is the so-called presumption of innocence... and how many years does it need for a judgement to be issued?
What would be of interest to me would be to know how "cosmetic" such outfits have to get just to make their yearly balance sheet look somewhat acceptable to their local revenue services. It would be much easier for us to get paid if unpaid debts would be considered as taxable income on the side of the outsourcer, like in the USA (and, as it seems, like in Belgium (?)).
[Edited at 2009-10-31 07:17 GMT]
| | | | | Pages in topic: [1 2] > | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » International agency offering clients rock-bottom prices | Trados Business Manager Lite | Create customer quotes and invoices from within Trados Studio
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