Poll: Do you ever accept projects without reviewing them first? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do you ever accept projects without reviewing them first?".
This poll was originally submitted by Milena Taylor. View the poll results »
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Mary Worby 
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:23
German to English
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| Yes, but rarely | Sep 11, 2014 |
Only if I know exactly what I'm getting myself in for. If it's a regular job for an existing client that I've done lots of times before, I'll accept without reviewing, especially if I'm out and about.
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Tim Drayton
Cyprus
Local time: 22:23
Turkish to English
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| Yes, sometimes | Sep 11, 2014 |
I work for a number of agencies that specialise in legal translation, and anything legal is up my street, so if they contact me and say "Can you do ... words by ...?" I am happy to reply in the positive without looking first.
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| Just for one specific client | Sep 11, 2014 |
I have one client who sends me texts every week about the same topic, so I don't review them. I contact the client if I have some issue with one specific text, and he's always willing to help.
All the other projects I do review first. I need to know what I am getting into!
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Muriel Vasconcellos (X)
United States
Local time: 12:23
Spanish to English
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I'm not lucky enough to have predictable work. I have learned the hard way. In the past, every time I gave the client the benefit of the doubt, I lived to regret it.
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| Yes frequently | Sep 11, 2014 |
I work mostly with a loyal client base, so they know me (what I can handle and what I can't) and I know them (they know their part and don't play tricks).
Philippe
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Philippe Etienne wrote:
I work mostly with a loyal client base, so they know me (what I can handle and what I can't) and I know them (they know their part and don't play tricks).
Philippe
In the extreme rare cases where there is a problem, it’s always solved quickly and easily.
On the other hand, for new clients, I have to look first at the document in order to give them a price estimate and a deadline for completion of the translation.
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| Yes but very rarely... | Sep 11, 2014 |
Laura Pascual wrote:
I have one client who sends me texts every week about the same topic, so I don't review them. I contact the client if I have some issue with one specific text, and he's always willing to help.
All the other projects I do review first. I need to know what I am getting into!
Same thing !! Only with 2 clients so far.
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DianeGM
Local time: 22:23
Member (2006)
Dutch to English
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| Yes, for a few projects | Sep 11, 2014 |
I have some projects which recur on an annual basis. I sometimes accept those without seeing the texts first.
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Ventnai
Spain
Local time: 21:23
German to English
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I also have a set client base and I know what to expect. If it is a new client or end client, I will look at the project in detail.
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I answered 'rarely' but this is becoming more frequent with my main customer who gives me big projects that last weeks. Work is predictable with standard patterns repeated throughout. All the customer has to do is tell me the numbers and content, whether it's to do with 'mechanics' or 'electronics' or a mixture of both. This method has worked fine so far for both of us and there is a certain amount of leeway factored into schedules to accomodate for the unexpected. Projects are also long-run whi... See more I answered 'rarely' but this is becoming more frequent with my main customer who gives me big projects that last weeks. Work is predictable with standard patterns repeated throughout. All the customer has to do is tell me the numbers and content, whether it's to do with 'mechanics' or 'electronics' or a mixture of both. This method has worked fine so far for both of us and there is a certain amount of leeway factored into schedules to accomodate for the unexpected. Projects are also long-run which means that I can negotiate for an extra day or two if need be - this customer is very understanding. 
And, quite frankly, I dread the thought of having to 'review' or look through 1,000 pages of techical documentation before I start it.
So saying, if other clients give me 'must be delivered by such-and-such date/time' schedules, I will give the document a thorough butchers instead of a quick once over. ▲ Collapse
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Thayenga
Germany
Local time: 21:23
Member (2009)
English to German
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However, only from long-standing customers since I am already familiar with the type of documents they need to have translated.
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neilmac
Spain
Local time: 21:23
Spanish to English
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Same as Philippe and Teresa:)
Most of my work comes from my regular, direct clients and I already know what it's going to be.... so N/A there.
If it's from agencies, I usually want to see what it is first so that they don't palm me off with illegible OCR texts or unworkable, time-consuming PDFs etc...
[Edited at 2014-09-11 14:11 GMT]
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Mario Freitas
Brazil
Local time: 17:23
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
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| Most of us are in the same boat | Sep 11, 2014 |
My situation is similar to many who replied below.
Sometimes an already known client sends me an e-mail saying "I have another document, similar to that one... with 20.000 words. Can you translate it until Friday?". Or something like that. It happens.
But, of course, I wouldn't accept one from an unknown or non-regular client.
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Rebecca Garber
Local time: 15:23
Member (2005)
German to English
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I have one client like this.
Most of the others do try to tailor their assignments. Some do so better than others.
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