| Pages in topic: [1 2 3] > | Not getting paid for large jobs due to very subjective issues Thread poster: Tai Fu
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Tai Fu 
United States
Local time: 07:02
English to Chinese
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I've worked for a well known agency for several years. They have paid on time up until now, and had zero issue either.
This one project that totals to more than 3000 dollars was done back in April, and at the time there was zero feedback or anything from the "client" (and I have no proof if this client's words are real or whatnot). Been doing the same work for the client for a year before that and client never had any feedback.
Translation is for patents, often with ver... See more I've worked for a well known agency for several years. They have paid on time up until now, and had zero issue either.
This one project that totals to more than 3000 dollars was done back in April, and at the time there was zero feedback or anything from the "client" (and I have no proof if this client's words are real or whatnot). Been doing the same work for the client for a year before that and client never had any feedback.
Translation is for patents, often with very tight deadlines.
The client "rejected" this one, claiming that I used the wrong "dialects" (this is EN to Simplified Chinese, and I've always done it in the same way, typed it in traditional Chinese then changed the character set, and no clients had any issue with this). Then they proceeded to point out errors that were extremely subjective (such as choice of words used, and no glossary was provided) or errors that weren't really errors. Except they refuse to back down from it and claims that I'm a unqualified translator. Keep in mind I've delivered the exact same quality for a year before this, and they have not had any issue over this. As no real dialects were specified nor was there a glossary, and that they never had any issue with me for the past year, I feel that they've decided not to pay and is looking for excuses. It's extremely hard to mess up grammatically in Chinese.
So far they've only had issue with one file, but I have an entire line of jobs that they've refused to pay that were unrelated.
Keep in mind the source document, upon further reading (at the time of the job I had to do 30,000 words in a week) the English was not very well written and the original specification was unclear and grammatically wrong. I believe the source was machine translated from another language, perhaps French (according to a friend).
I have no recourse as the company is supposedly located in Egypt.
Going to leave blueboard entries for all of their supposed subsidiaries (there were several), but my theory is they've decided to not pay me for some reason and found "excuses" not to. This is a well known company on ProZ with a track record but I've also noticed some low LWA's recently, however not having any professional membership I am unable to see what the actual text of the entry is.
This experience has made me not want to even contemplate translation as I have exactly zero recourse if a client/agency decides payment is optional except to write on the blueboard,
I'm still getting job offers from them, but due to the experience I'm asking for advance payment for anything more than 1000 dollars, and that dropped them real quick.
I've wound up in financial hardship over this. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Michael Newton
United States
Local time: 10:02
Japanese to English
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| Not getting paid for large job | Oct 30, 2023 |
When considering a new agency, the first order of due diligence is geography. "Located in Egypt'. That says it all. They know you are vulnerable and are unable to take any action. Your are, of course, oceans away. Their excuses are dodgy. "Not the right dialect"? Gimme a break. Scientific Chinese is not published in "dialect". I am afraid you are out $3000 and I am very sorry you have had this bitter experience. I do not doubt in the least that you are an extremely accomplished translator. Pay t... See more When considering a new agency, the first order of due diligence is geography. "Located in Egypt'. That says it all. They know you are vulnerable and are unable to take any action. Your are, of course, oceans away. Their excuses are dodgy. "Not the right dialect"? Gimme a break. Scientific Chinese is not published in "dialect". I am afraid you are out $3000 and I am very sorry you have had this bitter experience. I do not doubt in the least that you are an extremely accomplished translator. Pay them no heed. When I was a translator I was very careful about who I did business with. Careful perhaps to the point of paranoia. I didn't do business with anyone I could not pin down legally. I did business with agencies in the US and in UK, Germany and Italy only. I only had to take legal action twice (Small Claims Court). The only other problem of note was a state-side law firm that kept me waiting for six months telling me that "we only pay when our client pays this". I solved the problem by contacting every single partner in their law firm telling them of the inaction and asking what they thought about it. I was paid in short order. My advice is to seek clients in the US only. Again, I am sorry that such lowlife has taken advantage of an undoubtedly talented translator. As a sidebar, when you do your taxes, you can claim the $3000 as a business loss. Cold comfort indeed, but it might allay the sting. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Tai Fu
United States
Local time: 07:02
English to Chinese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | They weren't stiffing me until now | Oct 30, 2023 |
It wasn't a new agency, it's a fairly large one that I've worked for over several years, and they have never stiffed me until now. It seems like if they were stiffing people they must be doing it randomly.
I'm not in the us, I'm in Taiwan but I have zero success in finding work locally. I've also tried Upwork, who isn't looking for translators (I was auto rejected), Fiverr which I got no work from (a ton of competition).
I've entered the blue board but I think if this... See more It wasn't a new agency, it's a fairly large one that I've worked for over several years, and they have never stiffed me until now. It seems like if they were stiffing people they must be doing it randomly.
I'm not in the us, I'm in Taiwan but I have zero success in finding work locally. I've also tried Upwork, who isn't looking for translators (I was auto rejected), Fiverr which I got no work from (a ton of competition).
I've entered the blue board but I think if this site wants to charge money for me to use it, like being able to use the blue board, they need to protect freelancers better.
I've worked with that agency because they had a track record, but now I'm not so sure.
I'm asking for advance payment in these instances but I know that will guarantee that I won't get any work. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 17:02
Member
English to Turkish
| A very big no-no! | Oct 30, 2023 |
Michael Newton wrote:
When considering a new agency, the first order of due diligence is geography. "Located in Egypt'. That says it all.
I've been given to understand that it's extremely "bad form" on these forums to refer to people from certain parts of the world or, indeed, to certain parts of the world themselves or you might end up hurting the sensibilities of some people here and get labeled, at the very least, as "politically incorrect" or, worse, as "racist" or, God forbid, as "sexist", but in your case definitely as an "Orientalist" (as you seem to be suggesting the superiority of western translation agencies over those located in other places (I'm not going to name names, once bitten twice shy!)).
What you must understand is that it's all to do with 'human nature'. Some people (as in the example of the Egyptian agency) are more human than us, and we have to accept this and make our peace with it.
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Michael Newton
United States
Local time: 10:02
Japanese to English
+ ...
| not getting paid for large jog | Oct 30, 2023 |
It's too bad you have not found any work in Taiwan. Yet you say you are posting from the US. I would say drop the agencies and start looking for direct clients. Go to the internet and google: Intellectual Properties in (Boston, NY, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Dallas, Houston, San Francisco, Los Angeles). You will come up with hundreds. Most large US law firms do business with Mainland China and IP is one their chief focuses. I'm sure they would be interested and they will be work with you. Why no... See more It's too bad you have not found any work in Taiwan. Yet you say you are posting from the US. I would say drop the agencies and start looking for direct clients. Go to the internet and google: Intellectual Properties in (Boston, NY, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Dallas, Houston, San Francisco, Los Angeles). You will come up with hundreds. Most large US law firms do business with Mainland China and IP is one their chief focuses. I'm sure they would be interested and they will be work with you. Why not try Hong Kong or Vancouver, Canada as well. You can always contact me via my proz. page you need more advice. In perusing these threads, it occurs to me that if some people spent their obviously copious free time looking for work rather than nursing their considerable grudges ("Romanian fat gypsies". Oh my, the mods indeed were shirking that day!), we would all be better off. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Tai Fu
United States
Local time: 07:02
English to Chinese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Prefer direct clients | Oct 30, 2023 |
I've tried direct clients, managed to get a few, but without a real marketing strategy (I don't know how to do this, I'm on the autism spectrum), I can't get enough work to sustain myself.
A referral network would be nice and I figure agencies are good for this, but the years of translation I've done hasn't yielded anything, and translation work seems to get fewer and fewer. When I started in 2010 I was routinely getting 3000 in work, but now I'm lucky if I got 1 percent of that. <... See more I've tried direct clients, managed to get a few, but without a real marketing strategy (I don't know how to do this, I'm on the autism spectrum), I can't get enough work to sustain myself.
A referral network would be nice and I figure agencies are good for this, but the years of translation I've done hasn't yielded anything, and translation work seems to get fewer and fewer. When I started in 2010 I was routinely getting 3000 in work, but now I'm lucky if I got 1 percent of that.
I think outside of specialized translation or interpreting (for which I need a translation degrees, and given the state of the industry, I'm not going into debt for it) translation industry is dead, and ai is good enough for most.
I've done a lot of work for Deutsche Bahn Engineering and Consulting, has a friend who is the CEO of the taiwanese branch, but he isn't helping me getting any work either.
Someone suggested Fiverr because they have better protection for freelancer, but I've had zero success with Fiverr.
[Edited at 2023-10-30 09:31 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Dan Lucas
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:02
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
| Risk management needs improvement | Oct 30, 2023 |
Tai Fu wrote:
It seems like if they were stiffing people they must be doing it randomly.
Whether they are a well-known agency or not is irrelevant. If they don't have a spotless record on the Blue Board and on Payment Practices, you shouldn't get involved. I'm betting this agency has a track record of poor payment that would have been noticeable on closer inspection.
As for randomness... If you persistently interact with a dog that is known to have bitten other people, it is likely only a matter of time before you yourself also get bitten. A random bite hurts as much as any other bite.
I agree with Michael: it's unwise to enter into an agreement with a client that you cannot reach through legal means, or at least pressure in some way.
Regards,
Dan
PS Suggest you edit your latest post to remove the name of your client unless you have permission to use it in public
| | | | Tai Fu
United States
Local time: 07:02
English to Chinese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
I do have his permission in fact which is why I'm mentioning it.
Without a professional membership I have no way of knowing what all the low ratings are about.
It's obvious blue board is not a deterrent and does not protect freelancers.
At least Fiverr do not charge huge annual fees, they only take their cut if you have landed a job.
I don't want to mention the name of the agency because if may be against rules.
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Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 16:02
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
| Stiffing etc. | Oct 30, 2023 |
They are not doing stiffing randomly. Being ethical and nice at first, paying on time, to build your trust, then they turn tables later on looking for the wholes in the system to steal money. But it’s not random, it’s done at a later stage on purpose. It’s a very manipulative and sly scam.
| | | | Dan Lucas
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:02
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
Tai Fu wrote:
It's obvious blue board is not a deterrent and does not protect freelancers.
It protects freelancers by warning them away from poor payers. You chose to ignore the low ratings and you also chose not to invest $120 in a ProZ.com membership to check those ratings further. Now you're down $3,000. Like I said, risk management.
Despite appearances I am sympathetic to your plight, and I can understand that you're feeling bitter right now, but owning our mistakes is a precondition for doing better next time.
Dan
| | | | Tai Fu
United States
Local time: 07:02
English to Chinese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Is there any way to report it to the police in their country that they're running a scam? I mean there's gotta be some kind of law against whatever they're doing?
If nothing else it would force them to move.
| | | | Iulia Parvu
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:02
Member (2022)
English to Romanian
+ ...
| What I would do | Oct 30, 2023 |
Find emails of as many people working in the agency as possible and reach out to all. Perhaps you get to the right person.
If nothing happens, rate them 1* everywhere you can (Proz, Google, Trustpilot, etc.).
And, of course, make their name public here.
If nothing works, at least you helped other peers stay away from them.
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| Work upstream | Oct 30, 2023 |
Contact THEIR clients, if you have any idea what who they are. Worked for me once or twice.
| | | | | Post removed: This post was hidden by a moderator or staff member because it was not in line with site rule | | Have you not seen the reviews? | Oct 30, 2023 |
Just check Glassdoor. It's full of warnings, dating back to 2020 (ex. "Don't work for them! They don't pay.")
I'm very sorry this happened to you but you should always check the reviews before accepting work from an unknown agency. Btw, I have never heard of this agency before so I doubt they are that "big".
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