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Near-misses cannot be reported on the Blue Board
Thread poster: Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 04:54
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
May 16, 2018

I sometimes wish I could make an entry on the Blue Board - or somewhere else if more appropriate - when I have negotiated with an agency and not actually worked for them. That is against the rules, however.

https://www.proz.com/siterules/blue_board_bb_blueboard/2#2
Certain conditions must be met before Blue Board entries can be made.
Entries concerning ... See more
I sometimes wish I could make an entry on the Blue Board - or somewhere else if more appropriate - when I have negotiated with an agency and not actually worked for them. That is against the rules, however.

https://www.proz.com/siterules/blue_board_bb_blueboard/2#2
Certain conditions must be met before Blue Board entries can be made.
Entries concerning the Likelihood of Working Again (LWA) with given outsourcers are allowed only when (1) commissioned work has been completed in full and delivered on time, and (2) there have not been complaints related to quality shortly after delivery. Entries may not be made on the basis of negotiations, test translations, or other preliminary or non-commissioned interactions.

I quite appreciate that all sorts of misunderstandings can arise in a situation like that, so an entry might give an unfair impression.

I don't think that was the case this time. The agency had a long record of 5-ratings saying that the PMs were helpful and payment was made on time. So far, so good. There was just one 4-rating saying yes, they were very nice people, but they were a bit slow to pay.

Today I had a very brief enquiry - 'hello - we have some work for you. Proofreading...'
I checked out the Blue Board and the sensible-looking, but modest website, and decided to give it a go.

I quoted my hourly rate for proofreading as requested, and was immediately asked to reduce it by 3 EUROS. There was no file attachment for me to see the text concerned, but the e-mail mentioned a style guide, glossary, feedback template and several URLs, some of which only had very little content.
all this to be checked within one hour, and they were not willing to pay the rate I quoted...

Finally, it turned out that the text was in Danish, and I don't proofread Danish. The PM had ignored my declarations of being a native speaker of English and only translating into English.

I would like to warn others to be very clear about what they are actually agreeing to do before signing up with that agency, but I can't do that on the Blue Board.

Am I the only person who feels like that now and then? ▲ Collapse
 
Josephine Cassar
Josephine Cassar  Identity Verified
Malta
Local time: 04:54
Member (2012)
English to Maltese
+ ...
No, you're not the only one May 16, 2018

But I am glad you posted here. I also had an agency which asked me to reduce my rate by 30% to €0.045 which is far too low. I had done jobs for that agency but never submitted any entries for it. I wonder whether I can now as the last job was in 2017 but I would still like to warn others-and payment is about 45 days after to add insult to injury!
 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 04:54
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Different blacklists have different rules May 16, 2018

Christine Andersen wrote:
Am I the only person who feels like that now and then?


https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/WPPF/info
 


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Near-misses cannot be reported on the Blue Board






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