Number of working hours in a review job is predetermined and not negotiable! Thread poster: Sumit Sarkar
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Sumit Sarkar 
India
Local time: 22:40
Member
English to Bengali
+ ...
Hi friends
Recently I was assigned a review job by an agency. They have a practice of assigning review jobs based on hourly unites where number of hours is not left on reviewers to determine. Rather thay would prefix it on their own. To my surprise i found that it took me more than 20 working hours to work on still around 20% of the job was yet to be finished, while they had rated it to be a 7.5 hour task and even the hourly rate they offerred was not even moderately good.
Understa... See more Hi friends
Recently I was assigned a review job by an agency. They have a practice of assigning review jobs based on hourly unites where number of hours is not left on reviewers to determine. Rather thay would prefix it on their own. To my surprise i found that it took me more than 20 working hours to work on still around 20% of the job was yet to be finished, while they had rated it to be a 7.5 hour task and even the hourly rate they offerred was not even moderately good.
Understanding the situation I informed them that it is a lot more time-taking than was expected. They did not even bothered to reply. All on a sudden they cancelled the job by giving me only one reminder which I could not even reply as they did not wait much before cancelling the job. They did not even bother to call me over phone!
I am can only assure you that I am an experienced professional in this field. My can translate 250 words/hour and can review 500 words/hour.
Now do you think I got any fare treatment? What should be my future course of action in this regard?
Regards
Sumit1970
[Edited at 2016-05-31 23:38 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Stop at the end of the time that is paid for | May 31, 2016 |
-- and never take on reviewing from that agency again.
Hi Sumit
I am sorry to hear about your problem, and I agree, it was not entirely fair. I have had similar problems several times, and I have reached the point where I only accept 'proofreading' or reviewing and editing from clients if I know that the translation is of a reasonable quality to begin with, and they will pay for the actual time I spend on it. If the translation is poor, it takes extra time to check and correct... See more -- and never take on reviewing from that agency again.
Hi Sumit
I am sorry to hear about your problem, and I agree, it was not entirely fair. I have had similar problems several times, and I have reached the point where I only accept 'proofreading' or reviewing and editing from clients if I know that the translation is of a reasonable quality to begin with, and they will pay for the actual time I spend on it. If the translation is poor, it takes extra time to check and correct, and agencies will not always pay extra.
I don't know what you should do in your current situation. If you can make the client pay anything at all, then by all means do so. However, it sounds as if you may be wasting even more time, if they have cancelled the job and will not listen to you or negotiate. Send them your invoice, and the work you have done.
Another time, as soon as you can see that you will not be able to complete the job in the time allocated, tell the agency at once. By continuing to work for 20 hours, you have to some extent accepted the situation.
The agency may be able to pay for an hour or two extra, but they cannot afford to pay three or four times their budget, however unreasonable it might have been. They have probably quoted a price to the end client, and cannot pass on the extra cost. So by not informing them, you are not being entirely fair either.
If you stop as soon as you can see there are problems, you can inform the project manager and see how the agency reacts. Some will negotiate, and it always depends on the particular circumstances. It may even be easier and cheaper to do a completely new translation.
If you cannot reach an agreement with the agency, then stop working for them! You may be able to run a spelling check and perhaps pick up one or two serious errors in the time they will pay for. Send a file with 'tracked changes' if you can, because this registers when you were working and how much time you have spent.
If you can see there is no chance of getting paid without spending a lot of time chasing the agency, then it is really more profitable to spend your time looking for better clients instead!
I hope you sort something out - but look for other clients anyway, and drop an agency that will not listen to you. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Sheila Wilson
Spain
Local time: 18:10
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
| The practice is common; cancellation without payment is not | May 31, 2016 |
Sumit1970 wrote:
Recently I was assigned a review job by an agency. They have a practice of assigning review jobs based on hourly unites where number of hours is not left on reviewers to determine. Rather thay would prefix it on their own. To my surprise i found that it took me more than 20 working hours to work on still around 20% of the job was yet to be finished, while they had rated it to be a 7.5 hour task and even the hourly rate they offerred was not even moderately good.
That sounds to me like a typical peanut-paying agency treating their intellectual service suppliers as sweatshop production-line workers. There are plenty of them out there if you care to work with them. If you don't want to be exploited you have to learn to say "No".
Understanding the situation I informed them that it is a lot more time-taking than was expected. They did not even bothered to reply. All on a sudden they cancelled the job by giving me only one reminder which I could not even reply as they did not wait much before cancelling the job.
You mean they intend to pay you nothing for your work? Had the deadline already passed? If so, there may have been legal (if not moral) justification for doing that. If it hadn't, then it's totally unacceptable and you should fight for your money. Of course, they aren't going to pay you for all your time. But they should be made to pay 80% of their original payment offer, although maybe a discount would be in order as 80% of a job is arguably not worth 80% of the pay.
I advise you to present them with the work you did up to that time, which will hopefully have some sort of time-stamp on it, and send that with your invoice for the pro-rata payment. I'm sure they'll be reluctant to pay anything, but no court in the world would deny you that money, I'm sure. Companies cannot commission work and then cancel without at least paying for actual work done up until cancellation. You would need to insist on your rights and be very firm.
| | | | | Why did you accept the job? | May 31, 2016 |
Sumit1970 wrote:
To my surprise i found that it took me more than 20 working hours to work on still around 20% of the job was yet to be finished, while they had rated it to be a 7.5 hour task and even the hourly rate they offerred was not even moderately good.
Never take reviewing jobs without knowing the quality. You need to see the entire translated text, or if that is absolutely impossible, a very good representative sample of it, before agreeing to the review.
You should know your own review speed "range", for example 700-1200 words/hour (depending on quality and type of review/edit required), and assess the job. If the hours the agency estimates are not in line with your estimate, negotiate. If that fails, reject.
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Sumit Sarkar
India
Local time: 22:40
Member
English to Bengali
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | I consider it to be my mistake | Jun 20, 2016 |
Dear proz friends
Thank you all for your reply and suggestions. Now I clearly see that at the very first view of the job file I should have asked them to change the deadline in a realistic way and should have asked them to charge the job depending on number of words. But again I think there should be negative feedback marking options on such agencies.
Thank you all for your solidarity.
Sumit1970
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