| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Off topic: your most desperate job.. Thread poster: Francesca Battaglia
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Nesrin 
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:16
English to Arabic
+ ...
| That drives me MAD!!! | Jun 11, 2007 |
One day, at the end of OCTOBER, the client sends me an email: "Could you please send me the file again, I can't seem to open it..."
Your case is pretty extreme of course, but I've seen that a few times. The client insists that a job is urgent and the deadline is not negotiable. Then, a week later or so, they come back requesting a minor change, or ask me to add a paragraph, or I find that it only just came back from the proofreader!
I wish they'd be more honest about deadlines, cause that way translators just won't take them seriously anymore.
| | | | | The translator's deadline isn't always the project deadline | Jun 11, 2007 |
I'm not defending the agency who didn't even open the "urgent" file until two months later, because that's just ridculous. But when a client asks for changes or additions after the deadline on an urgent project, it doesn't necesarily mean they were lying about how urgent it was.
Projects aren't sent back to the client as soon as the agency gets it back from the translator. The agency also has to allow time after translation for proofreading, and possibly for desktop publishing and f... See more I'm not defending the agency who didn't even open the "urgent" file until two months later, because that's just ridculous. But when a client asks for changes or additions after the deadline on an urgent project, it doesn't necesarily mean they were lying about how urgent it was.
Projects aren't sent back to the client as soon as the agency gets it back from the translator. The agency also has to allow time after translation for proofreading, and possibly for desktop publishing and format proofreading. During that time after translation, questions may come up, or the client may add or delete information, which then requires the translator's help again. It doesn't mean the deadline the translator was given was wrong or arbitrary.
For example, let's say a client gives a rush job to an agency and says the job needs translation, proofreading and DTP and it MUST be delivered by June 30th. The agency may tell the translator that the project has to be completed no later than June 25th, because they still need time before the 30th to proof, DTP and check the final. If they contact that translator after the 25th with questions or changes, it doesn't necessarily mean the translation has been sitting in someone's inbox for a few days getting ignored.
I have managed huge projects in the past that went into multiple languagues and that required A LOT of work after translation - in fact, I would say the translation was a minor part of the job compared to the DTP and format proofing. In those jobs, the translator's deadline was always way before the actual project deadline (weeks, even months in advance), but it was still an urgent translation job because if the translators delievered late, it messed up our whole schedule after that, and ultimately affected our ability to deliver the project to the client on time. And when you have projects of that size that take that long to complete, the client will most likely make changes to the source documents while the agency is working on them (or even after the final project has been delievered). We would sometimes have to contact translators weeks after their deadline had passed because the client had changed something.
Nesrin wrote:
One day, at the end of OCTOBER, the client sends me an email: "Could you please send me the file again, I can't seem to open it..."
Your case is pretty extreme of course, but I've seen that a few times. The client insists that a job is urgent and the deadline is not negotiable. Then, a week later or so, they come back requesting a minor change, or ask me to add a paragraph, or I find that it only just came back from the proofreader! I wish they'd be more honest about deadlines, cause that way translators just won't take them seriously anymore. ▲ Collapse
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Tina Colquhoun wrote: There is this thing called the Internet which will provide you with all the vacuousness and time-wasting options you want!!  Tina
Excuse me, but....isn't this Internet, or are we in the Twilight Zone?
| | | | | Can't think of any desperate ones | Jun 11, 2007 |
I can't say I have ever accepted any really desperate ones to date. Come è il tempo dalle tue parti Francesca?
Rob
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| Sometimes they check NDA fulfillment | Jun 11, 2007 |
Many years ago I translated some rather sensitive anti-fraud procedures for a major international credit card company. No formal NDA, just obviously implicit trust.
Maybe half a year later they called me that they needed the files again. I really didn't have them any more; deleted them as soon as they told me were satisfied with the job, and I was satisfied from their payment. So I told them.
On the next day they sent me the floppies (it was before the Internet) by mess... See more Many years ago I translated some rather sensitive anti-fraud procedures for a major international credit card company. No formal NDA, just obviously implicit trust.
Maybe half a year later they called me that they needed the files again. I really didn't have them any more; deleted them as soon as they told me were satisfied with the job, and I was satisfied from their payment. So I told them.
On the next day they sent me the floppies (it was before the Internet) by messenger and asked for a few additions. In the meantime I had probably been rated as "trustworthy", so they sent me other similar jobs.
[]s
Jose'
Joeri Van Liefferinge (King Darling Communications) wrote:
[snip]
But in the end, we managed to get the job done in time, and I sent it back to the client before the deadline. He didn't even bother to confirm that he had received the email. All this was in early August.
[snip]
One day, at the end of OCTOBER, the client sends me an email: "Could you please send me the file again, I can't seem to open it..."
[snip]
"I am sorry, but for confidentiality reasons, I delete all client files after two months," there would have been nothing they could have done about it...
Joeri ▲ Collapse
| | | | | tempo matto! | Jun 12, 2007 |
lingomania wrote:
I can't say I have ever accepted any really desperate ones to date. Come è il tempo dalle tue parti Francesca?
Rob
oh Rob, qua il tempo è davvero matto! Un'ora c'è il sole e 40 gradi, poco dopo c'è la tempesta..l'unica cosa costante è l'afa opprimente. E lì da te?
Fra
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