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Agencies that ask for too much info
Thread poster: Susana E. Cano Méndez
Susana E. Cano Méndez
Susana E. Cano Méndez  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 15:51
French to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Bank account Sep 23, 2015

Soonthon LUPKITARO(Ph.D.) wrote:


Agencies also say they work under the ISO standards for translation quality. That is why they need much information. But they actually link to no actual jobs.

Soonthon L.


This is probably true, but no ISO standard requires to ask for you bank account, or am I wrong?


 
Susana E. Cano Méndez
Susana E. Cano Méndez  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 15:51
French to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Oh... Sep 23, 2015

Annamaria Amik wrote:


Yup. During this same tender season, 2 agencies I first replied to with a 'no thanks, not interested in EU tenders' came back saying explicitly that I wouldn't need to accept jobs from them if they did win the tender, but please just fill in the forms so that they could participate. No comment.

I may be misjudging them, but I believe that European agencies that don't have regular translators in the usual language pairs of the EU and have to hunt for subcontractors here on ProZ probably don't have the capacity to win. They can't be big players. Or if they do work with translators in those pairs who can't provide the paperwork, they will probably let them have the jobs anyway, so why bother? I assume that's the case even more so with Spanish, French, German to/into English.

[Edited at 2015-09-23 04:53 GMT]


1. Oh!
2. Yes, I think the same, not a serious agency would hunt for new freelancers to win a tender; they should work with many already.

Thanks.


 
Susana E. Cano Méndez
Susana E. Cano Méndez  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 15:51
French to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thanks Sep 23, 2015

Woodstock wrote:

Agree with the others - applying to tender offers is a lot of work that usually ends up not being compensated by a concrete job offer. I generally do not even reply to such requests, because they are only interested in affirmative responses anyway, not negative ones. These types of email are mailed out to dozens or hundreds of translators, so if I were you I would just write off the time spent to experience, and end the time-wasting communications.


Thank you Woodstock, that's what I'll do with nou doubt.

[Edited at 2015-09-23 11:47 GMT]


 
LilianNekipelov
LilianNekipelov  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 10:51
Russian to English
+ ...
Horrible. Don't give anyone any references, ever, or you will lose Sep 23, 2015

clients or look like a total idiot, when some interns start asking busy lawyers or other people silly questions, such as "On the scale from one to ten would you say, you were satisfied, moderately satisfied, more than moderately satisfied, quite satisfied, very satisfied, etc. The same type of thing ten times or more. So no, never do that. Some agencies may also be after stealing clients.

Never give any bank account numbers to anyone, just PayPal or some other secure payment syst
... See more
clients or look like a total idiot, when some interns start asking busy lawyers or other people silly questions, such as "On the scale from one to ten would you say, you were satisfied, moderately satisfied, more than moderately satisfied, quite satisfied, very satisfied, etc. The same type of thing ten times or more. So no, never do that. Some agencies may also be after stealing clients.

Never give any bank account numbers to anyone, just PayPal or some other secure payment system information.

As to tenders, they are the stupidest thing one could have invented, especially with regard to such services as translation, which require more unique type of skills than bricklaying, which almost everyone can learn, if they are healthy and strong, within a year, I guess.

[Edited at 2015-09-23 08:32 GMT]

[Edited at 2015-09-23 08:37 GMT]
Collapse


 
Peter Shortall
Peter Shortall  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Romanian to English
+ ...
New freelancers Sep 23, 2015

Susana E. Cano Méndez wrote:

2. Yes, I think the same, not a serious agency would hunt for new freelancers to win a tender; they should work with many already.

Thanks.


Most of the agencies that contacted me about this tender are ones I have never heard of. The client (normally the EU's Translation Centre or the Directorate-General for Translation) often wants a wide range of languages, some of which may be languages the agency never normally works with, so that's why agencies have to look for new translators. And they're all chasing after the same pool of translators, so if translators do want to participate in one of these exercises, they can afford to (and in my opinion, should) be picky about which agencies they sign up with.

These things must be lucrative as some agencies have been extremely persistent in persuading me to sign up. One in particular has emailed me about five times. Initially they said I would have to have Trados for it (I don't), then they said I would only need to be willing to buy it (I'm not). When I told them I wouldn't buy an expensive piece of software just for potential work, they said "oh, but you wouldn't need to buy it unless we win the contract and assign work to you". But that work could be a really small job!

Since the agency that contacted you mentioned that the translations have to do with Alternative Dispute Resolution, and since they require a lot of paperwork for what is a very specific and unusual subject at a time when a translation tender about precisely that subject is under way, I'd say it's definitely the same tender (either that, or it's the coincidence of the century!) And since they haven't mentioned that to you, they are being economical with the truth to say the least. Personally, I wouldn't want to work with an agency that hides important facts like that.


 
Susana E. Cano Méndez
Susana E. Cano Méndez  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 15:51
French to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Sep 23, 2015



[Edited at 2015-09-23 11:55 GMT]


 
Philippe Etienne
Philippe Etienne  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 15:51
Member
English to French
About freelance translators and the EU Sep 23, 2015

People interested in offering translation services to the EU can do so without any middlemen.
Apparently, since you have to gather a lot of paperwork on the agency's behalf, you may be better off to do it for your own benefit.

the EU ordered 12M€ worth of translation services i
... See more
People interested in offering translation services to the EU can do so without any middlemen.
Apparently, since you have to gather a lot of paperwork on the agency's behalf, you may be better off to do it for your own benefit.

the EU ordered 12M€ worth of translation services in 2012 (http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/workwithus/contractors_2012_fr.pdf)

A brochure on freelance translators and the EU:
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/workwithus/factsheet/recruitment_freelance_en.pdf

Philippe
Collapse


 
Susana E. Cano Méndez
Susana E. Cano Méndez  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 15:51
French to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Losing clients Sep 23, 2015

LilianNekipelov wrote:

clients or look like a total idiot, when some interns start asking busy lawyers or other people silly questions, such as "On the scale from one to ten would you say, you were satisfied, moderately satisfied, more than moderately satisfied, quite satisfied, very satisfied, etc. The same type of thing ten times or more. So no, never do that. Some agencies may also be after stealing clients.

Never give any bank account numbers to anyone, just PayPal or some other secure payment system information.

As to tenders, they are the stupidest thing one could have invented, especially with regard to such services as translation, which require more unique type of skills than bricklaying, which almost everyone can learn, if they are healthy and strong, within a year, I guess.

[Edited at 2015-09-23 08:32 GMT]

[Edited at 2015-09-23 08:37 GMT]


Thank you, Lilian. Yes, I have always been very picky about all of this and I wanted you input just in case...


 
Susana E. Cano Méndez
Susana E. Cano Méndez  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 15:51
French to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thanks Sep 23, 2015

Peter Shortall wrote:

Most of the agencies that contacted me about this tender are ones I have never heard of.


Yes, I have the same experience.

Peter Shortall wrote: Initially they said I would have to have Trados for it (I don't), then they said I would only need to be willing to buy it (I'm not). When I told them I wouldn't buy an expensive piece of software just for potential work, they said "oh, but you wouldn't need to buy it unless we win the contract and assign work to you". But that work could be a really small job!


Haha!


Peter Shortall wrote: And since they haven't mentioned that to you, they are being economical with the truth to say the least. Personally, I wouldn't want to work with an agency that hides important facts like that.


Thank you very much, Peter. That's what I intend to do.

[Edited at 2015-09-23 11:56 GMT]


 
Susana E. Cano Méndez
Susana E. Cano Méndez  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 15:51
French to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Good idea Sep 23, 2015

Philippe Etienne wrote:

People interested in offering translation services to the EU can do so without any middlemen.
Apparently, since you have to gather a lot of paperwork on the agency's behalf, you may be better off to do it for your own benefit.

the EU ordered 12M€ worth of translation services in 2012 (http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/workwithus/contractors_2012_fr.pdf)

A brochure on freelance translators and the EU:
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/workwithus/factsheet/recruitment_freelance_en.pdf

Philippe


A very good idea! Thanks.


 
Susana E. Cano Méndez
Susana E. Cano Méndez  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 15:51
French to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you all of you... Sep 23, 2015

This agency keeps sending me new e-mails, so they will end in the spam folder.

Thank you all of you for sharing your experience and feelings.

Happy translating!


 
Paweł Hamerski
Paweł Hamerski
Poland
Local time: 15:51
English to Polish
+ ...
I always give my account No. Sep 23, 2015

to everybody who justifies the reason for having it - for example to anybody who wants to pay me.
They didn't fall into this category in your case.


 
Susana E. Cano Méndez
Susana E. Cano Méndez  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 15:51
French to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
No, they didn't Sep 23, 2015

Paweł Hamerski wrote:

to everybody who justifies the reason for having it - for example to anybody who wants to pay me.
They didn't fall into this category in your case.


Of course. I usually give my bank account number in the first invoice.

Update: they have sent me an e-mail calling me "Elena"!


 
Inga Petkelyte
Inga Petkelyte  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 14:51
Lithuanian to Portuguese
+ ...
How come Sep 24, 2015

Joakim Braun wrote:

Why? That would reduce margins.
Credentialed translators are useful in the tendering process, after that they're a liability.


I must be reading wrongly but I don't see how come the margines are reduced.
And yes, I did feel like a liability two days ago when an agency for which I used to work approached me with the same kind of request to fill in documents, print them out, sign, scan and send back to them.
I used to work for them and then all of a sudden I stopped receiving orders. Occasionally, in summer time, they would ask to substitute their translator.
So when I received this new request, I replied in the lines:
I always support your initiatives and wish you the best luck.
However, my participation in such projects is little expedient.
Even when you win tenders, you are not able to pay my rates. [They have won several tenders and then offered me a fraction of my rates, with alll the hassle of working through their own system.]
On the other hand, your actual translator copes with the work load perfectly.
So let it keep this way.


 
Yasutomo Kanazawa
Yasutomo Kanazawa  Identity Verified
Japan
Local time: 23:51
Member (2005)
English to Japanese
+ ...
. Sep 25, 2015

If this agency has asked for your bank account number, why didn't they go as far to ask you to send them a copy of your passport?

 
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