| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8] > | Agency requesting deductions from invoice Thread poster: XXXphxxx (X)
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Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:35
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Lisa Simpson wrote:
[Unfortunately my contact person at the agency has been the same throughout so there's no going over her head elsewhere...
So has she had a personality change, or something? If her attitude has suddenly and inexplicably changed after all this time, why might that be?
[Edited at 2010-03-05 15:33 GMT]
| | | | XXXphxxx (X) 
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:35
Portuguese to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Cog in the wheel | Mar 5, 2010 |
Tom in London wrote:
So has she had a personality change, or something? Why the sudden change of attitude?
I think she's just a cog in the wheel. I've just got an email from the partner of the business to whom I'm currently replying, she's offering me a 25% reduction as a non-negotiable offer...
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:35
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Lisa Simpson wrote:
she's just a cog in the wheel.
ah- so somebody higher up has begun to interfere. Maybe they don't like you getting too cosy with that particular PM. People are jealous......(i'm just speculating wildly)
| | | | John Rawlins
Spain
Local time: 13:35
Spanish to English
+ ...
| Play hardball too | Mar 5, 2010 |
If they are offering you 75% of your invoice it is because they cynically believe that you will not make a fuss about the remaining 25%. And they are probably right.
If I were in your shoes, I would probably accept their offer. I would wait until the bank transfer has been made and then show them that others can play hardball too.
Approach the client directly as the translator who has been working on their material for the past two years. Tell them that they can save co... See more If they are offering you 75% of your invoice it is because they cynically believe that you will not make a fuss about the remaining 25%. And they are probably right.
If I were in your shoes, I would probably accept their offer. I would wait until the bank transfer has been made and then show them that others can play hardball too.
Approach the client directly as the translator who has been working on their material for the past two years. Tell them that they can save considerable time and money by dealing directly with you. Give them an indication of your pricing levels.
I believe you would have a fair chance of winning the account for yourself. If not, you may well contribute to the agency losing the account. Business, as they say, is business. ▲ Collapse
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XXXphxxx (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:35
Portuguese to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Putting the client in the picture | Mar 5, 2010 |
John Rawlins wrote:
I believe you would have a fair chance of winning the account for yourself. If not, you may well contribute to the agency losing the account. Business, as they say, is business.
I take your point That option is there. In fact another possibility in these instances is to let the client know what is going on. Not sure I'd do it myself but my husband (a freelance photographer) once didn't get paid for months/years by a photo agency, he rang the end clients and told them that he was being exploited - payment was immediately forthcoming!
Anyway, I haven't accepted the 25% reduction, I've set out the legal position on this which is simply that the first I heard of a problem was 10 days after submitting the second file and a full fortnight after the first and was never given the option to remedy the situation. The Danish Sale of Goods Act is pretty clear on the seller's rights in this point. Let's see what they say. I love it when people give you 'non-negotiable' offers, that behaviour in itself I find unreasonable and unhelpful.
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:35
Member (2008)
Italian to English
| and another thing........... | Mar 5, 2010 |
Lisa Simpson wrote:
I haven't accepted the 25% reduction, I've set out the legal position
If you haven't already done so, I suggest you hurry to the BlueBOard and give them a negative rating. But be careful how you word your comment, so that you don't leave them any possibility of rebuttal.
| | | | XXXphxxx (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:35
Portuguese to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Tom in London wrote:
If you haven't already done so, I suggest you hurry to the BlueBOard and give them a negative rating. But be careful how you word your comment, so that you don't leave them any possibility of rebuttal.
I am still waiting to see how and if it resolves itself. After a perfectly good 4 year relationship with them, no problems with payment etc I feel I have to give them the benefit of the doubt. I have checked them out and they're not yet on there, which I found curious.
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:35
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Lisa Simpson wrote:
and they're not yet on there, which I found curious.
Well, as and when you get tired of waiting for a satisfactory outcome, you can always create a BB entry yourself. It's sometimes surprising how quickly people pay up when they see they're getting a bad BB record.
[Edited at 2010-03-05 17:22 GMT]
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XXXphxxx (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:35
Portuguese to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Tom in London wrote:
It's sometimes surprising how quickly people pay up when they see they're getting a bad BB record.
[Edited at 2010-03-05 17:22 GMT]
I agree Tom and if this isn't satisfactorily resolved I will certainly post a bad entry, I owe it to fellow translators, however at this point I must be careful not to wind them up, I can't afford to have them balk and hold back payment of the full invoice. I am hoping they will see sense and work within the law, otherwise yes, they will risk losing serious credibility in the translation world. Thank goodness for the BB.
| | | | XXXphxxx (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:35
Portuguese to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | What did you mean here? | Mar 5, 2010 |
Tom in London wrote:
But be careful how you word your comment, so that you don't leave them any possibility of rebuttal.
Out of interest Tom what do you mean - saying something that could be considered defamatory?
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:35
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Lisa Simpson wrote:
Out of interest Tom what do you mean - saying something that could be considered defamatory?
No no. I would assume you wouldn't do that. I mean not saying anything that they could refute or could counter by saying they weren't satisfied with your work for any reason, or your general behaviour.
In my opinion the best solution for Blue Board comments is to give a low score and simply write something along the lines of "I had serious non-payment issues with this outsourcer. For details, please email me privately". That leaves them without any way to get back at you.
There are other important things to say about BLue Board, which is a truly excellent resource, when you need it. Via the Blue Board I have had a couple of times when recalcitrant non-payers coughed up. The BLue Board alone is worth the annual membership of Proz.com, but in my opinion the process needs to be handled with care.
For more detailed info, you could email me privately - but the main thing is that you should carry on doing whatever you think is the right way to go about this. The BB should be considered a last resort beyond which there remains only legal action.
[Edited at 2010-03-05 21:25 GMT]
| | | | John Fossey
Canada
Local time: 07:35
Member (2008)
French to English
+ ...
| Reporting reduction in payment | Mar 6, 2010 |
The BB is a gem in these cases. I also use PaymentPractices.com, which has a simple question on the home page: "Did an agency unilaterally reduce its payment to you due to alleged "quality" problems?" - I'd love to see that as a category that can be recorded on the BB. That's a simple fact that no one can quibble with, if its true.
I put on my Invoices and Contracts that I promise not to disclose any information about my business dealings with my clients except to report paymen... See more The BB is a gem in these cases. I also use PaymentPractices.com, which has a simple question on the home page: "Did an agency unilaterally reduce its payment to you due to alleged "quality" problems?" - I'd love to see that as a category that can be recorded on the BB. That's a simple fact that no one can quibble with, if its true.
I put on my Invoices and Contracts that I promise not to disclose any information about my business dealings with my clients except to report payment practices to the translators credit reporting boards. I don't think its done me any harm and I do think its forestalled some problems. If you use bank credit or a credit card, you know perfectly well that your payment habits are going to get reported, why not translators?
What if you point out to them that some translators credit boards require that reduction in price for alleged quality problems are reported? Are they aware of the BB and other reporting sites? That might start them revising their decision to cut the payment unfairly.
It sounds like their real motivation is to lower their cost. Perhaps they're feeling the financial crunch and have been instructed by management (or their bank) to cut costs. In this case, it might be necessary to make them feel that it will cost them more in the long run to reduce the payment of this Invoice, and a hint that it will be reported might be what's needed. It may resolve the problem without even ending up on the BB.
[Edited at 2010-03-06 05:07 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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XXXphxxx (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:35
Portuguese to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Threat of the BB | Mar 6, 2010 |
Thanks Tom and John
The threat of the BB is certainly the next course of action if my latest e-mail doesn't get results. Let's hope it's the trump card although I fear it may not be if they're not even aware of ProZ. I've searched BB and the directories for this agency and cannot find them anywhere. The threat of something they know nothing about may not have much effect. Anyone have any ProZ statistics that I can g... See more Thanks Tom and John
The threat of the BB is certainly the next course of action if my latest e-mail doesn't get results. Let's hope it's the trump card although I fear it may not be if they're not even aware of ProZ. I've searched BB and the directories for this agency and cannot find them anywhere. The threat of something they know nothing about may not have much effect. Anyone have any ProZ statistics that I can give them? Number of users: translators, agencies, direct clients using the site?
Their latest e-mail claims that they revised the translations themselves as:
"the key priority was to satisfy the client and deliver a satisfactory product in a hurry. We are confident you also understand the importance of maintaining our relationship with the client."
Fact is this was the time schedule:
1) Job 1 accepted 1/2 – Deadline 16/2 – Delivered 12/2
2) Job 2 accepted 12/2 – Deadline 18/2 – Delivered 16/2
Notification received that the client was not satisfied and that the translations had therefore been revised: 25/2
For both jobs they had longer to revise my work than I had to do the translations in the first place! ▲ Collapse
| | | | pcovs
Denmark
Local time: 13:35
English to Danish
| They have no legal ground | Mar 6, 2010 |
This exact situation that you in fact delivered ahead of time, which leaves time for you to revise the translation within the specified deadine, whereby the end client would not have been affected in any way, has been provided for in the Sale of Goods Act, so if you get legal aid, this agency has no legal ground to stand on whatsoever!!!
I would like to know who they are - if you feel comfortable doing so, could you send me an email?
Oh, and I would never threaten to bl... See more This exact situation that you in fact delivered ahead of time, which leaves time for you to revise the translation within the specified deadine, whereby the end client would not have been affected in any way, has been provided for in the Sale of Goods Act, so if you get legal aid, this agency has no legal ground to stand on whatsoever!!!
I would like to know who they are - if you feel comfortable doing so, could you send me an email?
Oh, and I would never threaten to blacklist an agency on a specific list - I usually say something like: I will make this practice/non-payment/whatever known on all translator sites that I know of.
Why show your cards?
[Edited at 2010-03-06 09:50 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:35
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Lisa Simpson wrote:
they're not even aware of ProZ. I've searched BB and the directories for this agency and cannot find them anywhere. T
Hmm that diminishes the effect of giving them a negative entry, of course. But I would still suggest you create a page for them (very easy to do) and start it off with a negative rating.
And then tell them what you've done.
They will then of course immediately check, will find out about Proz.com, and will realise that you have broadcast their poor behaviour to thousands of people (for all I know, hundreds of thousands of people) all over the world.
No doubt they will also find this thread and read it. You could even direct them to it.
Another thing:
It would be very interesting to read a short sample of your translation, and the corresponding sample of their edited version.
[Edited at 2010-03-06 09:58 GMT]
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