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Sergey's avatar
Sergey G Community Member

Poor quality of a job by freelancer. What should I do?

I have posted a job to translate my documents from English to German. Today I have received the work, showed it to native German and the translation is awful! Looks like freelance just used google translate with minimal corrections and clearly he doesn't speek good German.

What should I do in this case? I do not need this translation. I definatelly will order new one but I don't want to pay for the current job.

25 REPLIES 25
John's avatar
John K Community Member

Sergey, if it was a fixed price contract, you can ask the freelancer to make changes, or just close the contract, assuming you haven't approved a milestone. If you approved the milestone, you probably have to dispute. If the job was hourly and the freelancer used time tracker, then you're not going to get your money back, unless the freelancer is willing to refund some or all of the money earned.

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"No good deed goes unpunished." -- Clare Boothe Luce
Prashant's avatar
Prashant P Community Member

The quality also depends on the price you paid.  Buyers should know that in the end you get what you pay.  There are many high quality German translators, but they do charge north of $50/hr.

Jennifer's avatar
Jennifer R Community Member


@Prashant P wrote:

The quality also depends on the price you paid.  Buyers should know that in the end you get what you pay.  There are many high quality German translators, but they do charge north of $50/hr.


That is not true. You find several highly qualified translators working for less as well as unqualified translators for more. The problem is that many clients cannot check the quality of a translation and give good reviews for a really bad job because it was quick and cheap.

 

Nicolae's avatar
Nicolae C Community Member

Prashant with respect i disagree deeply with your statement! When we look for a contractor we ask for an estimate! Is not about cheap or expensive! Give me a price you re comfortable with! Dont give me a price to get the job than use googke translate or cut corners and give me a shocking unacceptable product! I dont feel bad for canceling contracts when the freelancer is taking me for a fool. I was shocked with the quality of work produced by some and I underline some upwork freelancers! I think they should vet people more. Eg i was looking for a full stack developer, job was priced right but freelancer could not deliver the goods to the agreed timeline?! Why are they allowed to advertise services?! I doubt I ll he using such platforms again. Appalling! And no is not what you pay for, us contractors ask for quotes! Quote properly and bid on jobs you can actually do! Rant end
Sergey's avatar
Sergey G Community Member

Hi, thanks for a quick reply!

Yes, it was a fixed contract. I've send the documents in advanced and recieved a quote that I latelly agreed as a contract price.

I just send the message to the freelancer explaining why I cannot accept the job. As I understand, then I  need to cancel the contract and put the reason, right?

Jennifer's avatar
Jennifer R Community Member

I have never been in this situation but I guess you can refuse payment for a job that was not really done. Once the freelancer requests the payment to be released you have 2 weeks to check and approve the work. So if it is obviously a google translation with some minor corrections you can dispute the work. Does the freelancer give any proof for his/her qualification?

I think if you want to do a service for other client you should pay a small amount just to be able to leave a written warning for other clients in the feedback. The freelancer might even be happy to get away with some money not thinking of the review at that moment.

I am a translator English to German myself, native in both languages, have graduated as translator and some 20 years experience. I am struggeling on a daily basis to find client willing to pay a decent price for a translation because there are so many low price offers out now. A low price can be an indication for poor quality but a higher price does not necessarily indicates good quality.

Janean's avatar
Janean L Community Member

@ Jennifer --

 

Your English is quite good, but definitely not "native." 

Ramesh Kumar's avatar
Ramesh Kumar K Community Member

Like John said, if it is a hourly job, Filing a dispute through Upwork’s process must be based on the hours a freelancer has billed you for. That means cannot file a dispute  because you are not satisfied with the quality of the freelancer’s work. In those cases, you and your freelancer should discuss the matter and work together to resolve any issues. You can also request a refund from your freelancer. Still can’t resolve the issue and within 30 days of payment? Please contact customer support to learn about their mediation assistance.

Rene's avatar
Rene K Community Member

Many translation clients don't have the work proofread before closing a contract. It's a strategic mistake which leaves bozos with shiny feedback on their profiles.

 

Upwork is full of bozo translators who are either, a) not native speakers of their target language, or, b) native speakers but who suck at writing. A good translator is someone who has a native command of their target language and who has excellent writing skills.

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"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless
Sergey's avatar
Sergey G Community Member

I didn’t approve the work yet. Decided to check with native speaking person before closure.

Out of interest I’ve checked the translation with google translate and the text by 95% is the same. So, from my perspective it is not simple “poor translation”, it is already a fraud...

Write feedback to freelancer, waited for one day, received no answer, closed the contract without payment, waiting for reaction.
Rene's avatar
Rene K Community Member


@Sergey G wrote:

Write feedback to freelancer, waited for one day, received no answer, closed the contract without payment, waiting for reaction.

 Beware, if the milestone was founded, it'll auto release. You may want to dispute it. Not all of it otherwise the feedback won't display on their profile.

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"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless
Bill's avatar
Bill H Community Member

Sergay,

 

I use Google Translate only when I already know the answer. That may sound strange, but in many languages there are multiple terms for the same thing, often with nuances. I'll check for other terms that I hadn't considered.

 

The other case is when I'm not certain of a verb's infinitive. Conjugation differs based on the infinitive. I speak French well enough to get arrested in at least eleven countries, but conjugating French verbs has been a life-long challenge.

 

Some percentage matfch with Google Translate is inevitable, even in an expert translation. 95% is just too much. Yes, pay something, and leave a scathing evaluation.

Jennifer's avatar
Jennifer R Community Member

Google translations into German are full of mistakes. Often pronomes are translated wrong and the sentence structure is off. You can try to use it as a dictionary but then you only get one translation that is probably wrong.

Luce's avatar
Luce N Community Member

Never had a look at Google translate. I don't expect much from it. 

 

If I were to hire a translator, I would check the feedback he or she were given, diplomas mentioned, results of tests. I would certainly not just look for cheap work, it's probably not worth it.

 

 

Jennifer's avatar
Jennifer R Community Member


@Luce N wrote:

Never had a look at Google translate. I don't expect much from it. 

 

If I were to hire a translator, I would check the feedback he or she were given, diplomas mentioned, results of tests. I would certainly not just look for cheap work, it's probably not worth it.

 

 


 When it is the first job with a freelancer who translates into a language you are not fluent in, I recomment to have it checked by a reliable translator. Never trust a translator you do not know.

 

Feedback: Many clients cannot really judge the quality of a translation and give 5* because it is so easy. You really have to search for worthy feedback.

Diplomas: My German degree (Diplom) equals a MA but is cannot be selected. I am not sure if they are checked at all.

Test results: Do you seriously trust a translator who is first place in the spelling test for THREE different languages and TWO translation test all below 20 minutes? That person is only no 1 when using google.

Luce's avatar
Luce N Community Member


@Jennifer R wrote:



 When it is the first job with a freelancer who translates into a language you are not fluent in, I recomment to have it checked by a reliable translator. Never trust a translator you do not know.

 

Feedback: Many clients cannot really judge the quality of a translation and give 5* because it is so easy. You really have to search for worthy feedback.

Diplomas: My German degree (Diplom) equals a MA but is cannot be selected. I am not sure if they are checked at all.

Test results: Do you seriously trust a translator who is first place in the spelling test for THREE different languages and TWO translation test all below 20 minutes? That person is only no 1 when using google.


I agree with you, it would be a good idea to have the first translations of a new freelancer checked.

Feedback: yes, these are not the most reliable opinions, but someone who has  done many translations for different clients and has good feedback can't be too bad.

Diplomas: I have the French equivalent of a MA and say so on my profile. I don't really understand why you say it can't be selected. What I mean is that in most instances, someone who has never studied translation is not a very good translator. As anything else, translation is something you learn to do.

Test results: yes, the tests are not very reliable, and some people are stupid enough to cheat on them. Have you had a look at the videos giving the answers to the tests on YouTube? However, when someone gets a really good result for a test done in very little time, chances are that person knows what he/she is doing.

Prashant's avatar
Prashant P Community Member


@Luce N wrote:

Never had a look at Google translate. I don't expect much from it. 

 


 Actually, it is not that bad if i just want spend a buck or two for a 10 page translation.

Luce's avatar
Luce N Community Member


@Prashant P wrote:



 Actually, it is not that bad if i just want spend a buck or two for a 10 page translation.


 How do you know Google translate is not that bad?

 

But I must admit that as I really don't like the company Google, and I try to avoid using Google products.

 

Prashant's avatar
Prashant P Community Member


@Luce N wrote:

@Prashant P wrote:



 Actually, it is not that bad if i just want spend a buck or two for a 10 page translation.


 How do you know Google translate is not that bad?

 


 Well some of the non English websites i visit on Chrome.  it has that thing that asks me do you want to translate this page?  And does the translation for me and I can read/understand the page.   

Luce's avatar
Luce N Community Member


@Prashant P wrote:

@Luce N wrote:

@Prashant P wrote:



 Actually, it is not that bad if i just want spend a buck or two for a 10 page translation.


 How do you know Google translate is not that bad?

 


 Well some of the non English websites i visit on Chrome.  it has that thing that asks me do you want to translate this page?  And does the translation for me and I can read/understand the page.   


 OK, but to me the fact that you understand a text doesn't mean the translation is good. I'm good at guessing what people who don't master one of the languages I speak mean, this doesn't mean what they are saying is in an excellent use of that language....

Rene's avatar
Rene K Community Member


@Prashant P wrote:


 Well some of the non English websites i visit on Chrome.  it has that thing that asks me do you want to translate this page?  And does the translation for me and I can read/understand the page.   


Which means that the translation may be accurate, even though you can't really tell if you can't read the source language, but machine translation may be accurate. It doesn't mean it is good in the sense it would be usable in business, because very often it is very awkward to read.

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"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless
Prashant's avatar
Prashant P Community Member


@Rene K wrote:

@Prashant P wrote:


 


Which means that the translation may be accurate, even though you can't really tell if you can't read the source language, but machine translation may be accurate. It doesn't mean it is good in the sense it would be usable in business, because very often it is very awkward to read.


 Good point and I understand that Rene.  The point I was trying to make is that if I am going to pay $1 for a 10 page translation, Google translation is not bad.  If I was going to Pay $40/hr to Petra the quality would be superb.

 

Stil in general Natural Language Processing(inference/translation....) has advanced way beyond the early stages where all they did was matched the words from disctionary.

Rene's avatar
Rene K Community Member


@Prashant P wrote:


 


 > The point I was trying to make is that if I am going to pay $1 for a 10 page translation, Google translation is not bad.  

 

Absolutely. But only if you knew upfront that you will receive a machine translation. If the translator promises Petra-level translation and they just use a machine translator, you are being scammed.

 

> Stil in general Natural Language Processing(inference/translation....) has advanced way beyond the early stages where all they did was matched the words from disctionary.

 

Depends on the language pair. Works nice in English to French with short sentences, but not that much in other languages. It is not usable out of the box, but translators can use it as pre-translation and focus on post machine translation editing (PMTE). Which may or may not be an efficient method, depending on what you are translating. A time saver for technical translations, not that much for literature and marketing.

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"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless
Prashant's avatar
Prashant P Community Member


@Rene K wrote:

> Stil in general Natural Language Processing(inference/translation....) has advanced way beyond the early stages where all they did was matched the words from disctionary.

 

Depends on the language pair. Works nice in English to French with short sentences, but not that much in other languages. It is not usable out of the box, but translators can use it as pre-translation and focus on post machine translation editing (PMTE). Which may or may not be an efficient method, depending on what you are translating. A time saver for technical translations, not that much for literature and marketing.


 Agree again.  Even for technical translation it may be good to get general 'feel' for the article, but if I were to write step-by-step instructions for something it may not be as good.