When/how do you deliver a finished project? Thread poster: Carol Anda
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Hello,
I am new and after reading a few posts about scams, I am wondering how and when do you deliver you project once is completed? How can a person contracting me can trust that I will deliver a project if they have to pay me before I submit my work? How can I trust a person that will pay me after I submit a project? How does it work?
I appreciate any input
Carol
| | | | Samuel Murray 
Netherlands
Local time: 00:31
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Carol Anda wrote:
How can a person contracting me can trust that I will deliver a project if they have to pay me before I submit my work?
See also: https://www.proz.com/forum/money_matters/340444-how_do_clients_pay_you.html
Yes, that is the question, isn't it? If you buy anything online, how do you know (a) they won't steal your information and (b) they'll actually send the product in question?
| | | | Sheila Wilson
Spain
Local time: 23:31
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
| B2B or B2C assignments? | Feb 5, 2020 |
Carol Anda wrote:
How can a person contracting me can trust that I will deliver a project if they have to pay me before I submit my work? How can I trust a person that will pay me after I submit a project? How does it work?
For business clients:
The solution, IMO, is in doing due diligence before you ever enter into the contract. You should check the client out thoroughly beforehand. There really is no need for anyone to be caught by scammers in this age of information sharing, but somehow it seems to be on the increase. Any business client should have an internet presence if that's how they found you. Check out everything about them online, even their registered address on Google Earth, and engage them in emails too. Weigh up the risks, decide whether they are acceptable, then accept or decline. I rarely ask a business client for an advance, unless it's a matter of staged payments for a large job. That simply isn't how B2B transactions work. I've never failed to get a payment from a solvent B2B client in 20 years, and I've worked with clients in many countries around the world.
For consumers, aka private individuals:
There, it's much more difficult to research, and they have less to lose in the way of reputation, so there's more risk. But then again, it's normal for consumers to pay up front, so collecting anything from 50% to 100% in advance is acceptable. If you forget (as I sometimes do), you can deliver the work in a format that reassures them but isn't easily used, e.g. watermark the text, then deliver it as a restricted access PDF, or do what one colleague suggested: do a global delete of all "e"s and deliver that (but do copy the file before mangling it  ). That way, the client knows the work has been done and will be happy to pay to receive the perfect version.
On your side:
Clients are taking a risk too. Even if they don't pay in advance, they are legally obliged to pay in normal circumstances. They're going to be doing their due diligence too, so your own online presence must be encouraging. Your professional presence must be just that - professional. And even your personal presence shouldn't raise red flags, hackles, or whatever. If they see nothing but empty profiles, photos of cats, and posts full of really poor use of language (rather than normal textspeak and typos), then they'll find someone else to trust.
Check out the ProZ.com Wiki articles re risk management, and visit the scam centre so you can sign up for notifications.
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 23:31
Member (2008)
Italian to English
| When I deliver | Feb 5, 2020 |
Carol Anda wrote:
Hello,
I am new and after reading a few posts about scams, I am wondering how and when do you deliver you project once is completed? How can a person contracting me can trust that I will deliver a project if they have to pay me before I submit my work? How can I trust a person that will pay me after I submit a project? How does it work?
I appreciate any input
Carol
I deliver my finished jobs by email, and ask the client to confirm that they have received it. If the file is too big to send as an email attachment I use WeTransfer.
I never - and would never - accept payment BEFORE completing a job. Unless it's a very big job, in which case I agree with the client that they will pay me in instalments - but never in advance.
I always trust that the client will pay me because I agree everything before I start- including confirmation of the client's business address, VAT no. if applicable, etc. And also because in the (very rare) event that they try not to pay me, I have mechanisms in place to make sure that they DO pay.
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I have mechanisms in place to make sure that they DO pay.
You have me all intrigued now. Do you send the heavies round? 
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 23:31
Member (2008)
Italian to English
| Don't we all? | Feb 22, 2020 |
Pratik Bhattacharya wrote: I have mechanisms in place to make sure that they DO pay. You have me all intrigued now. Do you send the heavies round?
I hope we've all made provision for what to do when people don't pay. Because it happens.
No, I don't send the heavies round. And I don't send them square either. Or any other shape.
[Edited at 2020-02-22 08:35 GMT]
| | | | Kay Denney
France
Local time: 00:31
French to English
There's always an element of risk, it's inherent in doing business.
Delivery before payment is the norm for services like translation.
You do your due diligence before accepting a job - looking on the Blue Board and Scammers section here, in groups like the Naming and Shaming groups on LinkedIn and extensive internet searches to check that the potential client has not been flagged somewhere as a scammer.
You don't accept huge jobs from people you don't kn... See more There's always an element of risk, it's inherent in doing business.
Delivery before payment is the norm for services like translation.
You do your due diligence before accepting a job - looking on the Blue Board and Scammers section here, in groups like the Naming and Shaming groups on LinkedIn and extensive internet searches to check that the potential client has not been flagged somewhere as a scammer.
You don't accept huge jobs from people you don't know. You can start by doing a small job - which can be part of their big job. Once they've paid you for that, you can start accepting other, bigger jobs from them.
This is good for both sides, in that they check they like your work and you check you like their payment terms and how they operate in general (how they respond if you find there's a bit missing in the file for example, or whether the PMs are efficient and friendly). If they don't pay, you can write off a small job more easily.
I don't work with private individuals but I believe you can more easily ask for payment up front, they rarely want more than a CV or a sworn translation of a certificate so you're not building a business relationship. ▲ Collapse
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