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I replied anyway Thread poster: Jeff Whittaker
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Jeff Whittaker 
United States
Local time: 11:28
Member (2002)
Spanish to English
+ ...
Received today from translation agency in the U.S.
"Hi there,
We need a French - English translator for the project that is due tonight at 11:59 GMT. we actually have 2 files: one is 2500 words and one is 3500 words.
The rate we can offer is 0.05 USD per word (if the rate doesn't work for you, please do not reply).
I look forward to your reply.
Please include link to your Proz."
I replied anyway:
... See more Received today from translation agency in the U.S.
"Hi there,
We need a French - English translator for the project that is due tonight at 11:59 GMT. we actually have 2 files: one is 2500 words and one is 3500 words.
The rate we can offer is 0.05 USD per word (if the rate doesn't work for you, please do not reply).
I look forward to your reply.
Please include link to your Proz."
I replied anyway:
"Is this a joke?"
[UPDATE: The company has 40 five ratings on the BlueBoard - all created within the past two months and all of the translators leaving the rating have a reciprocal rating from the agency on their profile.]
[Edited at 2015-04-20 16:53 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Angela Malik
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:28
German to English
+ ...
| Been there, done that | Apr 20, 2015 |
I had a similar request once, but the word count was actually over 10,000 words. I literally laughed out loud.
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Jeff Whittaker
United States
Local time: 11:28
Member (2002)
Spanish to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | The difference is that they want to send out... | Apr 20, 2015 |
a ridiculous offer to thousands of translators and not have to weed through all the negative replies they know they are going to get. Sorry, I think the email will have the opposite effect.
Start by paying a decent rate and you won't have to scramble to find translators for every job.
Once the U.S. minimum wage goes up from $8.00 to $15.00 an hour (with health insurance and 50% of your social security tax paid by the employer), these types of agencies may have real dif... See more a ridiculous offer to thousands of translators and not have to weed through all the negative replies they know they are going to get. Sorry, I think the email will have the opposite effect.
Start by paying a decent rate and you won't have to scramble to find translators for every job.
Once the U.S. minimum wage goes up from $8.00 to $15.00 an hour (with health insurance and 50% of your social security tax paid by the employer), these types of agencies may have real difficulty finding freelancers willing to work for so little. (2,000 words x .05 = $100.00 before taxes) ($15.00 x 8 hours at McDonalds = $120.00 with 50% taxes paid by the employer plus other benefits).
Angela Rimmer wrote:
I had a similar request once, but the word count was actually over 10,000 words. I literally laughed out loud.
[Edited at 2015-04-20 17:04 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:28
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Jeff Whittaker wrote:
[UPDATE: The company has 40 five ratings on the BlueBoard - all created within the past two months and all of the translators leaving the rating have a reciprocal rating from the agency on their profile.]
I think I know how that happens. It doesn't require much imagination.
[Edited at 2015-04-20 17:05 GMT]
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Jeff Whittaker
United States
Local time: 11:28
Member (2002)
Spanish to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
[Edited at 2015-04-20 17:25 GMT]
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Neil Coffey
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:28
French to English
+ ...
| I have to say... | Apr 20, 2015 |
I got this as well. While it didn't waste too much of my time, this is why I sometimes think it ought to be possible to leave Blueboard entries when we get spammed by agencies...
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Jeff Whittaker
United States
Local time: 11:28
Member (2002)
Spanish to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Or perhaps... | Apr 20, 2015 |
.. a method to opt-out of receiving bulk translation offers under twelve cents a word.
Neil Coffey wrote:
I got this as well. While it didn't waste too much of my time, this is why I sometimes think it ought to be possible to leave Blueboard entries when we get spammed by agencies...
[Edited at 2015-04-21 13:25 GMT]
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Natalie Soper
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:28
French to English
+ ...
| Who are these people | Apr 21, 2015 |
I'm still a newbie to the translation game and keep seeing these job postings for 5000-10,000 words to be completed by the same day for such a small rate. My question is: are the people who reply to these job offers sharing the work out, using Google Translate, or genuinely just superhuman? It's hard to see who's pulling whose leg sometimes!
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Neil Coffey
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:28
French to English
+ ...
| Google Translate | Apr 21, 2015 |
Natalie Soper wrote:
\My question is: are the people who reply to these job offers sharing the work out, using Google Translate
Let's put it this way: they may as well use Google Translate.
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Alex Lago
Spain
Local time: 17:28
English to Spanish
+ ...
| For 0.05 I will be happy to... | Apr 21, 2015 |
Run your translation through Google Translate and return the unedited result
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| I received the same message | Apr 21, 2015 |
I can't help wishing I could have a look at the finished product, to see what kind of quality they get for the money.
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Jeff Whittaker
United States
Local time: 11:28
Member (2002)
Spanish to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | There is a website... | Apr 21, 2015 |
...whose name we are not allowed to mention, where there are thousands of "translators" who will Google translate (and possibly briefly edit?) 1000 words for $5.00 (or 0.005 cents a word).
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| Same message-same deadline | Apr 21, 2015 |
I didn't bother replying. Besides the rate, the deadlines bugged me. How can they expect a serious translator to translate that stuff in such a short time? 2,500 or 3,500 without knowing what type of text this is or format. No thanks, not worth a reply. Mass emails I think. 'Don't bother to reply if rate does not suit' Not only rate but also deadlines.
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Jeff Whittaker
United States
Local time: 11:28
Member (2002)
Spanish to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
[duplicate post]
[Edited at 2015-04-21 13:35 GMT]
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Jeff Whittaker
United States
Local time: 11:28
Member (2002)
Spanish to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | This is due to the fear of losing business... | Apr 21, 2015 |
.., because of the proliferation of people undercutting one another. To us, a rush job is a lot of work and an inconvenience. To the middleman, it's just another project and more income, so there's no advantage to negotiating a deadline and no reason to ever turn down a project.
1990:
Client: I have 20,000 words to translate.
Agency A: That will take at least a week.
Client: A week!!!! I need it in two days.
Agency A: Sorry, it will take at least a week. ... See more .., because of the proliferation of people undercutting one another. To us, a rush job is a lot of work and an inconvenience. To the middleman, it's just another project and more income, so there's no advantage to negotiating a deadline and no reason to ever turn down a project.
1990:
Client: I have 20,000 words to translate.
Agency A: That will take at least a week.
Client: A week!!!! I need it in two days.
Agency A: Sorry, it will take at least a week.
Client: Fine, I'll go somewhere else.
Client: I have 20,000 words to translate and I need it in two days.
Agency B: That will take at least a week.
Client: What? I'll call someone else.
Client: I have 20,000 words to translate and I need it in two days.
Agency C: That will take at least a week and a half, maybe two, but if you really need it sooner, maybe we can get it done in a week or maybe we can translate the most important parts in two days... If we try to do it faster, quality will suffer.
Client: That's a good point. I didn't realize that giving you more time would give me a better result. I wouldn't want to pay $4,000 for junk just because I couldn't wait five more days. I thought you just put it through a machine.
2010:
Client: I have 20,000 words to translate and I need it in two days and I will not pay more than $2000.
Agency A: Ok.
Natalie Soper wrote:
I'm still a newbie to the translation game and keep seeing these job postings for 5000-10,000 words to be completed by the same day for such a small rate. My question is: are the people who reply to these job offers sharing the work out, using Google Translate, or genuinely just superhuman? It's hard to see who's pulling whose leg sometimes!
[Edited at 2015-04-21 14:15 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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