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odd remark about price quote content
Thread poster: Lydie Parisot
Lydie Parisot
Lydie Parisot  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 22:31
French to English
+ ...
Mar 28, 2017

Good Day Collegues,
I responded to a request for translation recently that I would like to share.

In my standard price quote I include payment methods accepted and payment due dates (among other items). In my experience among business owners and professionals of all industries, this is simply standard practise.

To my surprise, in a inadvertantly included email to his colleague at the bottom of the conversation in reply to my quote, I read that including such was
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Good Day Collegues,
I responded to a request for translation recently that I would like to share.

In my standard price quote I include payment methods accepted and payment due dates (among other items). In my experience among business owners and professionals of all industries, this is simply standard practise.

To my surprise, in a inadvertantly included email to his colleague at the bottom of the conversation in reply to my quote, I read that including such was an "odd item to include in a quote" and to let me know they did not pay using the forms I specified.

He did not specify what payment types they do use.

Any thoughts? What is odd about including payment methods and due dates in a quote that, if confirmed, is binding?
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Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
Nothing Mar 28, 2017

Nothing

 
Lianne van de Ven
Lianne van de Ven  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 17:31
Member (2008)
English to Dutch
+ ...
Agree Mar 28, 2017

I don't include this information for most (agency) clients, but everyone has a different approach and I don't see anything wrong with yours.

 
Laura Kingdon
Laura Kingdon  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:31
Member (2015)
French to English
+ ...
Sounds normal to me Mar 28, 2017

There's nothing odd there that I can see unless you're requesting that you only be paid by Rwandan bank cheque or something like that. Given that that is almost certainly not the case, my best guess is that they're one of the many agencies that likes to dictate their own payment deadlines and isn't used to translators suggesting otherwise.

 
John Fossey
John Fossey  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 17:31
Member (2008)
French to English
+ ...
Forms? Mar 28, 2017

Lydie Parisot wrote:

... and to let me know they did not pay using the forms I specified.



What forms did you specify for payment? It doesn't usually take a particular form to make a payment, just an invoice. Could this have something to do with it?


 
jyuan_us
jyuan_us  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 17:31
Member (2005)
English to Chinese
+ ...
... Mar 28, 2017

John Fossey wrote:

Lydie Parisot wrote:

... and to let me know they did not pay using the forms I specified.



What forms did you specify for payment? It doesn't usually take a particular form to make a payment, just an invoice. Could this have something to do with it?


I guess by “forms”,the OP meant to say "methods of payment"


 
jyuan_us
jyuan_us  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 17:31
Member (2005)
English to Chinese
+ ...
I'm not sure if I understood your post or not Mar 28, 2017

Lydie Parisot wrote:

To my surprise, in a inadvertently included email to his colleague at the bottom of the conversation in reply to my quote, I read that including such was an "odd item to include in a quote" and to let me know they did not pay using the forms I specified.



I guess we need you to clarify this paragraph on a couple of points:

1)What is "a inadvertently included email to his colleague at the bottom of the conversation"? Did he include (CC) his colleague "inadvertently" when he replied to your email? What is "at the bottom of the conversation"? What was the conversation? Whom was the conversation between?

2) What did you mean by "including such was an "odd item to include in a quote""? Who said that? What was actually considered by that person as an odd item?

3) In "to let me know they did not pay using the forms I specified", who did let you know that?


[Edited at 2017-03-28 20:56 GMT]


 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
Seriously? Mar 28, 2017

It's very clear to me what OP meant...

 
jyuan_us
jyuan_us  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 17:31
Member (2005)
English to Chinese
+ ...
What was so odd? Mar 28, 2017

Lydie Parisot wrote:

To my surprise, in a inadvertantly included email to his colleague at the bottom of the conversation in reply to my quote, I read that including such was an "odd item to include in a quote" and to let me know they did not pay using the forms I specified.

He did not specify what payment types they do use.

Any thoughts? What is odd about including payment methods and due dates in a quote that, if confirmed, is binding?


Did you mean the PM's remark was odd because he said your "including such" was an "old item to include in a quote?


 
Agnes Lenkey
Agnes Lenkey  Identity Verified
German to Spanish
+ ...
No, it's not so clear, but probably they are used to impose their conditions Mar 29, 2017

Hi everyone,

I had the same questions/doubts (exactly the same ones) as jyuan_us. It is really not clear how exactly things happened. And yes, I also think probably Lydie meant "methods of payment".

From how I understand her post, I would agree with Laura: Probably it is an agency and many of them seem not to be used to translators imposing their conditions on them, this is why they used the word "odd". I can't know exactly, because I work mainly (95 %) for direct clie
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Hi everyone,

I had the same questions/doubts (exactly the same ones) as jyuan_us. It is really not clear how exactly things happened. And yes, I also think probably Lydie meant "methods of payment".

From how I understand her post, I would agree with Laura: Probably it is an agency and many of them seem not to be used to translators imposing their conditions on them, this is why they used the word "odd". I can't know exactly, because I work mainly (95 %) for direct clients. Indeed, direct clients are not surprised about agreeing the conditions upfront, even though I must tell that this is usually (with some negative exceptions) really not even necessary with direct clients – after receiving the translation, all the additional work (corrections of the original text, in some cases a glossary specifically made for them, bilingual revisions and suggestions, etc.), they are so thankful for all the extra effort that they run to pay you upfront... they do so in order to make sure that next time they will call you, you won't turn them down, because you already know they have excellent payment practices.

So, to resume, I guess this agency likes to impose its conditions and doesn’t care about your own business practices. This is why they may have used this expression.
Have a nice day!

Agnes Lenkey
www.tradubalear.com
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Lingua 5B
Lingua 5B  Identity Verified
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 22:31
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
Agencies... Mar 29, 2017

You will learn soon enough that what works among "most business owners" and "professionals" ie. end clients will not work with majority of translation agencies.

 
Sonia Hill
Sonia Hill
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:31
Italian to English
Nothing odd about it Mar 29, 2017

I always mention my required method of payment and state that invoices are to be paid within 30 days. I think that's perfectly normal and it's best to be clear about this from the start, otherwise you might find later on in the process that the agency will only pay by cheque and after 90 days.

 
Angela Malik
Angela Malik  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:31
German to English
+ ...
Another theory Mar 29, 2017

I think it was totally normal for the OP to include that information.

I'm wondering if the client's colleague thought it was "odd" because they thought the negotiation was not as far down the line as the OP did. What I mean is, perhaps the client('s colleague) was thinking that they were just collecting quotes at this stage with no firm offer on the table to give the work to the OP, and that the OP giving her payment terms meant that she thought the job was definitely being assigned
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I think it was totally normal for the OP to include that information.

I'm wondering if the client's colleague thought it was "odd" because they thought the negotiation was not as far down the line as the OP did. What I mean is, perhaps the client('s colleague) was thinking that they were just collecting quotes at this stage with no firm offer on the table to give the work to the OP, and that the OP giving her payment terms meant that she thought the job was definitely being assigned to her. So he commented that it was "odd" (that the OP would assume the job was being placed and was therefore laying out her payment terms when on the client's end, no decisions of the sort had been made).

Just a guess. Could also be what others have said, that this company dictates its own terms and is not used to being told anything different by its suppliers.

[Edited at 2017-03-29 11:36 GMT]
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Lydie Parisot
Lydie Parisot  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 22:31
French to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
odd remark about price quote content Mar 29, 2017

My usual paymanet methods are bank wire/transfer and PayPal/Credit Card.

 
Lydie Parisot
Lydie Parisot  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 22:31
French to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
odd remark about price quote content Mar 29, 2017

Thanks for everyone's comments and input.

I was surprised by the remark, because I have not had this issue with direct clients or agencies until this time.
For information, this is a Public entity and I naively would have expected more rigor, but then they also refused me a Request for Quote / Proforma / Purchase Order or you know, some document that makes the scope and terms so clear and precise.

By "inadvertently" I meant the email was not intended for me to
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Thanks for everyone's comments and input.

I was surprised by the remark, because I have not had this issue with direct clients or agencies until this time.
For information, this is a Public entity and I naively would have expected more rigor, but then they also refused me a Request for Quote / Proforma / Purchase Order or you know, some document that makes the scope and terms so clear and precise.

By "inadvertently" I meant the email was not intended for me to read, as it was clearly addressed to my contact so that they would inform me of certain things in a separate email. Instead of doing so they wrote me a laconic reply including the full inter-office email thread on the subject, telling me to just scroll down and read the message concerning my quote.

Funny thing about email conversation threads is they include all the messages from everyone involved unless you change that. After scrolling to read the message as instructed, I decided to keep scrolling and eventually got down to the original message instructing my contact to request several translation quotes. In that message, the first thing I read is, "require the lowest bidder as a prerequisite".
As if lowest bidder is a prerequisite of quality translation ... but that's another topic.

Thanks again for the conversation. Just had to share.

Cheers!
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odd remark about price quote content







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