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| Përdorues | Afishuesi i rubrikës: Jeff Whittaker Was I wrong to do this? |
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Jeff Whittaker 
Shtetet e Bashkuara të Amerikës
Local time: 17:58
  Anëtar qysh 2002
gjermanisht në anglisht
+ ...
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Today, a translation agency (with a high blueboard rating) contacted me and wanted me to translate a section of a 17,000-word project by tomorrow for the rate of .04 euros per word. Sad, but nothing new here. The sender was also using a g-mail account, so I have no idea if they were the real agency or just impersonating them. At any rate, based on the rate and deadline, it was obvious that I would never be working for this company. Therefore, I sent them a reply asking if they had a non-free e-mail account and stating that I could not accept their project because of the crazy deadline and I stated my rate for non-rush work which was more than double the rate they were offering.
What happened was that the PM sent this e-mail to 100s of other translators with all of their e-mail addresses visible in the "send to" line and I accidentally hit the REPLY ALL button, thus informing all of this agency's translators that the rate is too low. Oops.
[Edited at 2009-11-04 20:06 GMT]
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Trudy Peters
Shtetet e Bashkuara të Amerikës
Local time: 17:58
Anëtar
gjermanisht në anglisht
+ ...
| | You did them a favor :-) | Nov 4 |
You may have done the other addressees a favor!
Trudy
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patyjs
Meksikë
Local time: 16:58
Anëtar qysh 2007
spanjisht në anglisht
+ ...
| | A fortuitous accident, I'd say. | Nov 4 |
I'll wager 99% of those translators are wishing they were in a position to write a similar email and preparing their negotiating strategies for the next job.
Way to go, Jeff!
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Evija Rimšāne
Letoni
Local time: 00:58
Anëtar
anglisht në letonisht
+ ...
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Maybe it was your subconscious mind telling you to hit the Reply All button
Likewise, I believe it was the right thing to do, but to stay professional, I think I would send another email message to all the recipients and explain the situation.
[Edited at 2009-11-04 20:14 GMT]
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Jeff Whittaker
Shtetet e Bashkuara të Amerikës
Local time: 17:58
Anëtar qysh 2002
gjermanisht në anglisht
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER |
OMG: Now I am getting e-mails from the other translators who apparently think the job came from me, agreeing to these crazy terms. One person claims to be able to translate 7,000 words on a daily basis (7,000 words a day and she cannot even write a short e-mail without a mistake) and the other person is an attorney in the USA!:
"Hello Jeff,
I am available and please send me the deadline and one file as example ... my daily output is 6.000-7.000 words for Ge-En.
For any other question pls contact me."
"Hi Jeff:
I'll be free starting next Monday.
Kind regards"
XXXXXX
Attorney At Law, DAAD Certificate in German Law"
[Edited at 2009-11-04 20:18 GMT]
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Kevin Lossner
Gjermani
Local time: 23:58
Anëtar qysh 2003
gjermanisht në anglisht
| | I'll have to remember this one | Nov 4 |
For the PM to send a mail with all addresses openly displayed is pretty amazing in the first place. It's not rocket science to hide recipient addresses. Perhaps your mistake will be a learning experience for the PM. I'll have to try this myself sometime for laughs, though I'll be careful to set up a spam catcher mail account to deal with all the people aspiring to subcontracting at 2 cents per word.
Accidents happen, but I think this was more in the "happy accident" category. I'm sure you'll be entertained by the results for a while.
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Laurent KRAULAND
Francë
Local time: 23:58
Anëtar qysh 2007
gjermanisht në frëngjisht
+ ...
| | Accidentally on purpose? | Nov 4 |
I don't know about the configuration of your e-mail account, Jeff, but in mine I have to select either Reply or Reply to all before starting to compose the e-mail. So I guess this error came as an accident on purpose or a subconscious glitch (thanks, Granpa Sigmund!), IOW a much appreciated community service. 
Except if you start receiving (your last post appeared as I was typing my reply) replies from "translators" who don't even care to read the contents of messages as long as they understand there is a job at stake... Les risques du métier?
[Edited at 2009-11-04 20:37 GMT]
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Lany Chabot-Laroche
Kanada
Local time: 17:58
Anëtar qysh Oct 2009
anglisht në frëngjisht
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Funny that people are now replying to you... Although probably not so funny for you. Still, can't people see you were replying? Especially since you told you didn't want to be part of this.
At any rate, if the Agency didn't take the time to send all these addresses in blind carbon copy, that's just too bad for them, out of 100s of replies, this is bound to happen.
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Erica Salvaneschi
Mbretëria e Bashkuar
Local time: 22:58
anglisht në italisht
+ ...
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you can start your own brand new activity as an outsourcer now!
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Paul Cohen
Groenlandë
Local time: 19:58
Anëtar qysh 2006
gjermanisht në anglisht
+ ...
| | The Marvels of Modern Technology | Nov 4 |
Jeff Whittaker wrote:
OMG: Now I am getting e-mails from the other translators who apparently think the job came from me, agreeing to these crazy terms. |
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Amazing how quickly word spreads, isn’t it?
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Giuseppina Gatta, MA
Shtetet e Bashkuara të Amerikës
Local time: 14:58
Anëtar qysh 2005
anglisht në italisht
+ ...
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...at least I know now that also colleagues working with English as a target language are offered insulting rates. I thought this problem was only with the Italian language as a target...This does not make me very happy anyway though...
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Evija Rimšāne
Letoni
Local time: 00:58
Anëtar
anglisht në letonisht
+ ...
| | ...a bit off-topic... | Nov 4 |
Erica Salvaneschi wrote:
you can start your own brand new activity as an outsourcer now! |
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... and sell this project for 0.02 EUR per word I believe you'll still get a plenty of offers.
Kevin Lossner wrote:
For the PM to send a mail with all addresses openly displayed is pretty amazing in the first place. |
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Actually, as odd as it might seem, there is an agency I am collaborating with whose PMs do this all the time: they put all the recipients in the To line... Yeah, it's indeed quite amazing, but I guess I've got used to it.
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Madeleine MacRae Klintebo
Mbretëria e Bashkuar
Local time: 22:58
Anëtar
suedisht në anglisht
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| | Serious breach of data protection legislation | Nov 4 |
Jeff Whittaker wrote:
What happened was that the PM sent this e-mail to 100s of other translators with all of their e-mail addresses visible in the "send to" line and I accidentally hit the REPLY ALL button, thus informing all of this agency's translators that the rate is too low. Oops. [Edited at 2009-11-04 20:06 GMT] |
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Don't know about other jurisdictions, but in the EU the any company/organisation collecting personal data has to be registered with the relevant regulator. This includes registering the person ultimately responsible, for example, the head of compliance. For serious breaches, the ultimate penalty is generally imprisonment.
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Jeff Whittaker
Shtetet e Bashkuara të Amerikës
Local time: 17:58
Anëtar qysh 2002
gjermanisht në anglisht
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | | Response from another translator | Nov 4 |
Another translator sent a REPLY ALL message to the vendor and to all the other translators:
Dear XXX:
No respectable translator would work for that price, and if someone did, I would seriously doubt their expertise and competence as a translator. ESPECIALLY not for a rush job!! It's like anything else: if you want quality work and deliver a good product to the client, you can't pay your vendors peanuts!
Please do not contact me again unless you have a project that pays 10-15 cents per source word."
WAY TO GO!!!
[Edited at 2009-11-04 22:32 GMT]
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Pablo Bouvier
Spanjë
Local time: 23:58
gjermanisht në spanjisht
+ ...
| | Was I wrong to do this? | Nov 4 |
Jeff Whittaker wrote:
Today, a translation agency (with a high blueboard rating) contacted me and wanted me to translate a section of a 17,000-word project by tomorrow for the rate of .04 euros per word. Sad, but nothing new here. The sender was also using a g-mail account, so I have no idea if they were the real agency or just impersonating them. At any rate, based on the rate and deadline, it was obvious that I would never be working for this company. Therefore, I sent them a reply asking if they had a non-free e-mail account and stating that I could not accept their project because of the crazy deadline and I stated my rate for non-rush work which was more than double the rate they were offering.
What happened was that the PM sent this e-mail to 100s of other translators with all of their e-mail addresses visible in the "send to" line and I accidentally hit the REPLY ALL button, thus informing all of this agency's translators that the rate is too low. Oops.
[Edited at 2009-11-04 20:06 GMT] |
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Absolutely no, it is good to know who is dumping the prices in the translation market...
[Subject edited by staff or moderator 2009-11-04 22:54 GMT]
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