| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Keiko |
Posted - 03/04/2009 : 04:16:10
Re: Global for translation in Egypt
Hello, I am a new member since last week.
My first topic is unfortunately about a fraudulent translation company in Egypt "Gloval for translation". This agency is found on the first page of your Agency Research. About a month ago(I wasn't a paid member yet), I received a job notification from you and found that I could apply for the job for free(without a full membership). Then I applied for it and was immediately assigned to the job. The payment term was 10 days after the invoice. The job had 12600 words "to be delivered in 3 days". Obviously I worked very hard on it. Even after the date of invoice, they asked me to translate some more lines and I've just done it for them for free. Well, since then I've had NO news from them although I send numerous e-mails to them. I think I was swindled by them. They owe me 630 EUR. I strongly encourage all of you NOT TO WORK FOR THEM. Does some have any ideas to recuperate my money...? Do I have to just forget it...? Many thanks in advance for your advise.
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| 15 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| heykalemba |
Posted - 03/27/2017 : 05:27:10
A great place to start your career as a translator is this Guide on How to Become a Professional Translator: http://www.columbustranslations.co.uk/language-translator. I have put a lot of work into it but I would still love to try and improve on it. That's why please feel free to share and comment and if you'd like to suggest your favourite resources, let me know in the comments below the article so I can add them as and when they come in. Many thanks. Any questions, let me know...
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| Stefan |
Posted - 04/28/2015 : 12:28:52
If you have valuable information to share about Payment Morale, don´t hesitate to leave feedback under the TranslatorPub Rating System. This will help your fellow colleagues to get more information due to your experience. Thank you. |
| PramodSrivastava |
Posted - 06/05/2009 : 17:58:32
Hi Keiko,
I prefer a bank transfer in Germany. Second preference PayPal. Question to you guys. How does one tackle tax ? Are we supposed to add VAT to the invoiced amount. The agencies should be able to write off such things.
Also how is Transperfect as a company. Heard anything about them ?
Regards, Pramod
quote:
[i]Originally posted by Keiko[/i]
[br]Hi Pramod & Stanislav,
Oh yes, there is so much risk to meet dishonest job suppliers in this industry. The translation sites which Stanislav mentioned have the trustworthy information about good/bad agencies, Pramod. And you can rate any agencies.
BTW, I noticed today again that TranslatorPub placed a job whose language pair was English > Japanese, from a very notorious fraudulent company and I do hope no other translators would be scammed by this agency. They have been just banned from posting jobs from TranslationDirectory. I pay for the full membership since a while and have discovered some jobs were fraud or very suspicious. (Many jobs are the same ones being posted at TranslatorsCafe.com though)
As Stanislav mentioned hundreds of times on the site, I think it's time for TranslatorPub to work out the measure/policy such as Blueboard against the fraudulent agencies. We would appreciate !
Dear Stanislav/Pramod, which payment method do you prefer ??
I prefer clients' payment simply via bank transfer for the clients in Euro zone. For others via Paypal. As recipient of money, which is more practical for you, Paypal or Moneybookers ? Many thanks.
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| Keiko |
Posted - 06/04/2009 : 05:15:58
Hi Pramod & Stanislav,
Oh yes, there is so much risk to meet dishonest job suppliers in this industry. The translation sites which Stanislav mentioned have the trustworthy information about good/bad agencies, Pramod. And you can rate any agencies.
BTW, I noticed today again that TranslatorPub placed a job whose language pair was English > Japanese, from a very notorious fraudulent company and I do hope no other translators would be scammed by this agency. They have been just banned from posting jobs from TranslationDirectory. I pay for the full membership since a while and have discovered some jobs were fraud or very suspicious. (Many jobs are the same ones being posted at TranslatorsCafe.com though)
As Stanislav mentioned hundreds of times on the site, I think it's time for TranslatorPub to work out the measure/policy such as Blueboard against the fraudulent agencies. We would appreciate !
Dear Stanislav/Pramod, which payment method do you prefer ??
I prefer clients' payment simply via bank transfer for the clients in Euro zone. For others via Paypal. As recipient of money, which is more practical for you, Paypal or Moneybookers ? Many thanks.
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| Stanislav_Pokorny |
Posted - 06/03/2009 : 07:45:39
Hi Pramod,
yes, I agree. There's a lot of risk if you don't know the people you are dealing with personally. That's why it's generally necessary to verify their payment practices on the web.
I work for one translation agency which requires a 60-day payment term as well. But it is one of the major agencies in the world and they always pay. Moreover, the terms and conditions were discussed beforehand, so there's really no problem about that. |
| PramodSrivastava |
Posted - 06/02/2009 : 07:19:38
Hi Stanislav,
I agree with you on the German companies as well. There is one in Berlin that is not responding (AAA Eilübresetzungen) and another one that has a 60 days payment term - don't know yet if they will pay but they were pretty prompt and efficient with the Purchase Order and such stuff.
This whole busines is actually full of payment risk. At eBAY they take care of such risks - payment risk as well as delivery of goods risk. But there they are dealing with well defined goods. In our business the goods (and the associated quality) can never be judged independently.
quote:
[i]Originally posted by Stanislav_Pokorny[/i]
[br]Hi Pramod,
not taking business from any part of the world is your sole and exclusive privilege. For my part, I can confirm that I have never run into any payment difficulties with Czech agencies. So don't worry about them. 
I usually employ the following policy: If I can't get to the client's office at one third the price of the job and if this is the first or the second job I am doing for them, I don't accept it. In other words, I won't accept a € 200 job from a client, say, in India or in the States. A € 3,000 job is, however, worth considering, provided such an agency has a positive feedback on the sites I mentioned.
As for German agencies, you will find quite a number of notoriously known non-payers among them.
And yes, you can contribute to the ratings at those sites.
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| Stanislav_Pokorny |
Posted - 06/01/2009 : 15:40:31
Hi Pramod,
not taking business from any part of the world is your sole and exclusive privilege. For my part, I can confirm that I have never run into any payment difficulties with Czech agencies. So don't worry about them.
I usually employ the following policy: If I can't get to the client's office at one third the price of the job and if this is the first or the second job I am doing for them, I don't accept it. In other words, I won't accept a € 200 job from a client, say, in India or in the States. A € 3,000 job is, however, worth considering, provided such an agency has a positive feedback on the sites I mentioned.
As for German agencies, you will find quite a number of notoriously known non-payers among them.
And yes, you can contribute to the ratings at those sites. |
| PramodSrivastava |
Posted - 06/01/2009 : 10:14:38
Hi Stanislav,
Is it possible to post our bad experiences on those sites? Sorry to sound discriminatory but I have stopped accepting requests from Russia, Eastern Europe, Africa and China. I do just local German because being based here, at least I have some legal remedies. So, unless the company winds up and goes off, I can catch them.
All above precautions apart ... indeed a sorry state of affairs.
Regards, Pramod
quote:
[i]Originally posted by Stanislav_Pokorny[/i]
[br]Hi Pramod,
just like Keiko, I am sorry for your bad experience you've had so far. And I can't but second Keiko's post.
Before you even quote for a job, you should check at least the following:
1) www.proz.com > Blueboard
2) www.translatorscafe.com > Hall of Fame and Shame
3) www.gotranslators.com > Black & White List
There are numerous other sites, all including some system for rating translation agencies, especially their payment practices.
I have urged several times that the Pub also implements a similar system; no success so far. That's why I don't even consider full membership here.
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| PramodSrivastava |
Posted - 06/01/2009 : 10:12:04
Hi Keiko,
Thank you very much for sharing your experiences as well. I come from an honest world and the initial experiences have been eye openers for me. I have also started asking for 50% payment up front and the rest on delivery. Many of the agencies do not come back. Actually not all of them are bad. They just have similar payment terms with the end customer. These are however individuals/agencies who take on large jobs at good rates and are offering parcels of such jobs at definitely lower rates, making some money in the process. I don't mind their making money, but then when they are running this as a 'business', they should be 'financing' the business (working capital requirements) and they should be undertaking the risk. This is a fair representation and a fair demand. They also need to run with the risk that a job will not be done well (varying skill level of different people) and that they will need someone to do a quality control and stitch the entire document together - some overheads.
As for me, I would rather not take up a job and waste my time, than take up a job, invest one's precious time, and then ultimately not get paid for it.
Regards,
Pramod
quote:
[i]Originally posted by Keiko[/i]
[br]Hello Pramod,
I am sorry to hear about your unfortunate experience and totally understand how you feel. "Global 4 translations" hasn't replied to any of my e-mails (and to e-mails of many other victim translators...). I have 2 other agencies which are very late in their payment, one in Engen, Germany and the other Bangalore, India and hope their payment will be settled soon.
Today, when I receive job request, I always ask to first-time agencies/persons for the prepayment which is 50% of the total amount if I'm not sure about their credibility(Blueboard/Proz & Black & White list/GoTranslators are very usuful to get such information). Let's say, half of them stop contacting me if I ask so and then I understand they are possibly "fake...". I become even overly suspicious about the translation agency, this is unfortunate but I think I have to be.
For sample test, in my opinion it would be better to ask for paid sample anyway and many agencies do pay. I rarely accept free sample these days. I also discovered that several agencies requested me to do sample test for the reason that a huge project is coming soon or a long term partnership wil be ensured and so on, but in reality they just asked me to do their existing translation job. This is tricky and dishonest.
Well I am glad to exchange/share any kind of information about translation industry here with you as I find it sometimes very usuful.
Thank you, Pramod and I hope you will get paid soon...
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| Stanislav_Pokorny |
Posted - 05/30/2009 : 13:44:48
Hi Pramod,
just like Keiko, I am sorry for your bad experience you've had so far. And I can't but second Keiko's post.
Before you even quote for a job, you should check at least the following:
1) www.proz.com > Blueboard
2) www.translatorscafe.com > Hall of Fame and Shame
3) www.gotranslators.com > Black & White List
There are numerous other sites, all including some system for rating translation agencies, especially their payment practices.
I have urged several times that the Pub also implements a similar system; no success so far. That's why I don't even consider full membership here. |
| Keiko |
Posted - 05/30/2009 : 10:00:01
Hello Pramod,
I am sorry to hear about your unfortunate experience and totally understand how you feel. "Global 4 translations" hasn't replied to any of my e-mails (and to e-mails of many other victim translators...). I have 2 other agencies which are very late in their payment, one in Engen, Germany and the other Bangalore, India and hope their payment will be settled soon.
Today, when I receive job request, I always ask to first-time agencies/persons for the prepayment which is 50% of the total amount if I'm not sure about their credibility(Blueboard/Proz & Black & White list/GoTranslators are very usuful to get such information). Let's say, half of them stop contacting me if I ask so and then I understand they are possibly "fake...". I become even overly suspicious about the translation agency, this is unfortunate but I think I have to be.
For sample test, in my opinion it would be better to ask for paid sample anyway and many agencies do pay. I rarely accept free sample these days. I also discovered that several agencies requested me to do sample test for the reason that a huge project is coming soon or a long term partnership wil be ensured and so on, but in reality they just asked me to do their existing translation job. This is tricky and dishonest.
Well I am glad to exchange/share any kind of information about translation industry here with you as I find it sometimes very usuful.
Thank you, Pramod and I hope you will get paid soon...
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| PramodSrivastava |
Posted - 05/28/2009 : 13:12:58
Ladies & Gentlemen,
I am also fairly new to translation. My first two pieces of work also haven't brought me any happiness or money. The first piece of work was delivered to an individual in Qatar. One Mr. James Christopher, who is apparently a Partner in a Top 4 consulting company. Over a period of the past 6 weeks he has failed to pay me Euro 80 for a small piece of work. When I took exception the first time, he even got on his high horse and told me that he was a very busy person and how dare I suspect his intentions etc. His last response to me was on the 29th of April wherein he mentioned that he will pay but since then he has not been able to find 5 minutes on the Internet to make a Paypal payment.
The second agency in Berlin AAA Eilübersetzungen has not responded either to the invoice presentation, nor to my reminder so far. I hope they do not default on payments.
A third agency, will pay but their stated policy is that they take 60 days to pay.
What I don't understand here is that when the work is required, they email and call and do everything. Have us put in late nights and weekends. And when it comes to payment time, they use us to finance their working capital. This is unfair.
I think as a community we must start insisting upon 50% payment upfront and the remaining 50% on delivery. This way only serious businessmen will come up for work.
What is missing in our business is some body that will guarantee payments and also the quality of services. This is what eBAYs of the world do.
One more trick that some of the people/agencies giving work deploy is to ask for sample translations. They usually do not publish the sample text but send everyone half a page or one page separately´. And if 50 of us respond, then their 50 page document gets done for free. Of course someone needs to stitch it all up and do quality control but their work gets done at 10 % of the effort.
TAKE CARE ALL OF YOU ... Pramod
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| Keiko |
Posted - 05/12/2009 : 10:45:08
Thanks very much, Stanislav.
Thanks to alexberg also :-)
Yes, their website has gone. I asked already the local Egyptian embassy and some other authorities for help. Dear MH123, could you please tell me if you e-mailed them about me ?? Appreciate if you could kindly let me know about it.
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| Stanislav_Pokorny |
Posted - 05/11/2009 : 06:54:09
Hi Keiko, I'm afraid their website is currently down. I suggest that you ask at the respective authorities in Egypt (such as the Chamber of Commerce or the Commercial Register). Perhaps they will know a little more.
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| Keiko |
Posted - 05/10/2009 : 04:02:47
Hello all,
Does anyone have the correct contact details of the agency "Global for translations" (Global4trans.com) in Egypt?? If so, please kindly e-mail me by clicking on my name. Many thanks in advance.
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