| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Problem with client: How would you have handled this? Thread poster: David Jessop
|
|---|
| How would I have handled it? | Nov 23, 2014 |
Exactly the same as you did...
...right up to the last e-mail.
Regardless of what had gone on before, you had acted in a very professional manner and the agency had very politely agreed with you and admitted that they had made a mistake. At that point it was 100% win.
I see no reason to drop a good client over an isolated incident that has now been satisfactorily resolved. These things happen.
With regard to the last e-mail, I would do one of ... See more Exactly the same as you did...
...right up to the last e-mail.
Regardless of what had gone on before, you had acted in a very professional manner and the agency had very politely agreed with you and admitted that they had made a mistake. At that point it was 100% win.
I see no reason to drop a good client over an isolated incident that has now been satisfactorily resolved. These things happen.
With regard to the last e-mail, I would do one of two things:
1) Write another one saying something like "Sorry about my last e-mail, it was the end of a long week and I probably over-stated the case. With your permission, I would like to draw a line under the whole thing and move on with our excellent relationship."
2) Just ignore it. If the agency responds, see #1. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Balasubramaniam L. 
India
Local time: 06:06
Member (2006)
English to Hindi
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER | More or less in a similar manner | Nov 23, 2014 |
I take my translations very seriously, and if anyone points out problems with it I get very upset. It is almost a professional challenge to me. I first ascertain if I am in the wrong, and if I am not, I get really mad. It wouldn't take me long to send a stinger to the PM, and if it results in losing the client, it wouldn't bother me one bit. I would in fact be quite happy to get rid of him, for clearly he is not professional and doesn't know a thing about translation.
Yes I am emoti... See more I take my translations very seriously, and if anyone points out problems with it I get very upset. It is almost a professional challenge to me. I first ascertain if I am in the wrong, and if I am not, I get really mad. It wouldn't take me long to send a stinger to the PM, and if it results in losing the client, it wouldn't bother me one bit. I would in fact be quite happy to get rid of him, for clearly he is not professional and doesn't know a thing about translation.
Yes I am emotional in such matters, but that is because I am passionate about languages and always try to give my best in all my work.
Very often, clients and agencies get hold of very junior and inexperienced translators for review and proof-reading work, and it is they who create this kind of situations. I have no patience with them, and give the clients and the agencies who hired such newbies to vet my translation, an earful of my frank opinion about these newbies.
At the same time, if a really experienced translator corrects my translation and makes changes that are really an improvement on what I have translated, I in all humility accept them, but I also clarify that what I have produced is also a satisfactory way of translating. After all, there are as many ways of translating a document as there are translators. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | More pragmatic | Nov 24, 2014 |
If you know you work is solid, sooner o later things will be cleared up anyway, which they did. I would not press any further on the emotional part of the matter (which I understand).
| | | | | I totally understand, David (long message, sorry) | Nov 24, 2014 |
While I agree with some of the comments saying in principle you might as well have dropped the matter upon receiving that last clarifying email from the client (all's well that ends well, right?), I also think things were worse in this case because of the total lack of communication on your PM's part. They dropped a bomb and walked away. That's what obviously made your frustration raise even more so I don't see why it should be reasonable for your client to "panic under pressure" while your tota... See more While I agree with some of the comments saying in principle you might as well have dropped the matter upon receiving that last clarifying email from the client (all's well that ends well, right?), I also think things were worse in this case because of the total lack of communication on your PM's part. They dropped a bomb and walked away. That's what obviously made your frustration raise even more so I don't see why it should be reasonable for your client to "panic under pressure" while your totally understandable reaction should be viewed as over the top. In my 20 years' career I recall three similar "incidents" and the reason I remember about them, despite the positive feedback I've always received about thousands of projects now, is that not only was the client wrong in all those cases, but the way they handled the situation ended up making these experiences very painful, so I can totally understand your position. Let me share those with you so maybe you'll feel a little relieved. My experience has to do with subtitling projects, but I guess that doesn't make any difference.
Case 1.
The agency contacted me saying they'd received complaints about my work. As I am always perfectly aware of the quality I deliver, meaning if I'm in doubt about something I always ask and solve any possible issues before delivery, I asked the agency to provide a list of problems, but I was sure there was none. Upon opening the "revised" file, none of the corrections made any sense (I was also under the impression the reviewer was not an Italian mother-tongue speaker) so my translation was turned into total rubbish. Just like in your case, I was working on several other projects by then that I was forced to put momentarily on hold to deal with this situation. I wasted time and energy because the agency was not even prepared to get in command of the situation and was simply forwarding emails back and forth from me to the "reviewer" and vice versa. So at some point I ran out of patience because we weren't going anywhere and I asked them to hire a third impartial linguist to make an assessment. After a few days, the agency came back saying the third reviewer they selected themselves told them my translation was all right as was. They apologized saying these days we should feel lucky to land projects and so it was okay for them to deal with unreasonable clients. Problem was, they didn't actually deal with them, but I had been forced to do so instead. That was the last straw and I decided to drop them altogether because we weren't on the same page. I didn't really feel "lucky" to deal with unreasonable clients, so I wasn't willing to keep working with them. End of story.
Case 2.
Someone (probably a non mother tongue speaker) on the client's end "revised" my work and introduced an incredible number of mistakes even a middle school student wouldn't have made. What was worse is that the agency was aware that the client was wrong but as I was taking care of hardcoding the subs as well they demanded that I'd use that ridiculuous version instead for the final embedding because the client was adamant we had to use their version. I spent two weeks telling them if they wanted to change the version I'd delivered with the one requested they should have done that themselves because I wasn't willing to ruin the work I'd done and especially because I was sure the production would have received negative feedback later on due to the poor quality of the subs and I was also sure the agency in that case would simply have asked me to do something about it despite my warnings and reluctance to implement those changes. To cut a long story short, it turned out the agency didn't have any alternative suppliers for originating new subtitle files so they literally forced me to implement the changes because, according to them, my reluctant attitude wasn't very "cooperative". So I sent them a long and very formal disclaimer and reappended my version too stating that version was the one and only subtitling I should be held responsible for. There's only so much you can do, right?
Case 3.
The client was so incredibly ignorant and bad-mannered. They didn't know anything about subtitling at all (or languages for that matter) and they came up with quality complaints that really made no sense at all as they didn't know what they were talking about both from a linguistic and technical point of view. What was worse is that this PM called me on the phone and very rudely yelled at me saying I couldn't speak until they were finished listing all the pseudoproblems in the job. It was the very first time in my whole life that I'd felt like I had two choices: either hang up on them, or raise my voice as well, both of which I think are totally unprofessional. They very rudely demanded that I "improve" my work by inserting their versions which were all TOTALLY WRONG. So I simply said the subs were totally fine and while I always encourage my clients to ask for changes should they have personal preferences, I couldn't possibly have my version pass as wrong and their mistakes pass as acceptable. The project was really small so I decided to give up payment for the sake of not dealing with them ever again, because when you come across nutjobs there's really nothing you can do to solve the matter. Good manners are really the basics. So I told them I wouldn't insert mistakes in my work and they might as well not pay! And that was it.
I very recently read an interesting point at clientsfromhell.net. The website's name says it all. This one really suits us: [...] Educate the client (or accept their ignorance). How aware a client is of their ignorance will dictate how useful their feedback is. [...].
I'd simply say feel free to vent, but then just get on with your work and forget about it. From Dante's Inferno: "Let us not speak of them, but do thou look and pass on."
[Edited at 2014-11-24 12:10 GMT]
[Edited at 2014-11-24 12:11 GMT]
[Edited at 2014-11-24 12:14 GMT]
[Edited at 2014-11-25 08:10 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | |
|
|
|
Robert Forstag
United States
Local time: 20:36
Spanish to English
+ ...
| A learning moment for you | Nov 24, 2014 |
I just noticed this thread and thought I'd throw in my two.
I think you handled the situation well. While I agree with the spirit of some of the other comments that, having "won" the battle, you could have let the matter slide, the fact is that your precious time and energy were wasted by having to deal with a spurious complaint. I would not have taken kindly to this either.
I think it important to have a proper appreciation of where one's bread is buttered. This will ... See more I just noticed this thread and thought I'd throw in my two.
I think you handled the situation well. While I agree with the spirit of some of the other comments that, having "won" the battle, you could have let the matter slide, the fact is that your precious time and energy were wasted by having to deal with a spurious complaint. I would not have taken kindly to this either.
I think it important to have a proper appreciation of where one's bread is buttered. This will sometimes involve putting up with certain behavior that is less than entirely respectful (in other words, swallowing a certain amount of shit, and the more important the client, the harder you need to be prepared to gulp). However, if you have any self-respect at all, you do need to set certain limits.
Anyway, I think your biggest takeaway from this should be how nervous you became over having communicated your displeasure. A regular client was involved, but they are paying you a low rate. Would it really be difficult to replace such a client? Is it that your skills really are so shaky that you can't be confident of securing other low-paying clients? Or do you just lack confidence in the skills you have? Maybe a bit of both? Only you can answer these fundamentally important questions.
All this said, I must admit that it makes me nervous as well when I feel compelled to confront a PM of a very important client. But there are some situations that simply cannot be ignored.
So my view is: Stand your ground when you need to, do so professionally, and be prepared to end a business relationship with anyone who feels that grossly disrespectful treatment of you is appropriate.
[Edited at 2014-11-24 18:10 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | 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 » Problem with client: How would you have handled this? | Anycount & Translation Office 3000 | Translation Office 3000
Translation Office 3000 is an advanced accounting tool for freelance translators and small agencies. TO3000 easily and seamlessly integrates with the business life of professional freelance translators.
More info » |
| | TM-Town | Manage your TMs and Terms ... and boost your translation business
Are you ready for something fresh in the industry? TM-Town is a unique new site for you -- the freelance translator -- to store, manage and share translation memories (TMs) and glossaries...and potentially meet new clients on the basis of your prior work.
More info » |
|
| | | | X Sign in to your ProZ.com account... | | | | | |
Login to reply/comment 
Translation news
