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m_hazelnut
Community Member

A Client is Trying to * Me

Hey guys, how are you?

 

I agreed with a customer, for a translation, to work at a rate of $0.01 per word. He had already paid $10 in escrow and was to pay more as we would see the exact number of words.

At the end of the day I had 1869 words. (Actually I had 1954, but he deleted my bracketed informative/supplementary comments to pay me less. **Edited for Community Guidelines** **bleep**.) So, he should pay me $18.69.

Well... after I sent him several messages he only let the escrow go. So I only received $10 instead of the $18.69, and it says my contract is terminated.

 

How to I ask for more money on the contract page? Or start a dispute?

 

Thank you in advance.

20 REPLIES 20
petra_r
Community Member


@Matthieu N wrote:

1) I agreed with a customer, for a translation, to work at a rate of $0.01 per word.

2) He had already paid $10 in escrow and was to pay more as we would see the exact number of words.

3) At the end of the day I had 1869 words. (Actually I had 1954, but he deleted my bracketed informative/supplementary comments to pay me less. **Edited for Community Guidelines** **bleep**.) So, he should pay me $18.69.

 

4) How to I ask for more money on the contract page? Or start a dispute?


 1) ----Edited--------- I think it's better for me not to comment on this..... ---------------

2) What do you mean "see the number of words?" Normally a translation word-count is based on the source text, not the target text.

3) Why would the client pay for "informative / supplementary comments?

4) You can't. If it wasn't funded you can't do a thing.

 

In future, only submit what is funded, so if 500 words are funded you submit the translation of 500 words.

 

I am really confused by your profile. Nothing (at all) on it hints at you being a translator, and my confusion is compounded by seeing you translate from German which it doesn't look like you actually even speak?

re: "my confusion is compounded by seeing you translate from German which it doesn't look like you actually even speak?"

 

Maybe the client changed the job title after hiring OP. I don't know whether it is OP's case, but if you look at my profile, you can see that I am doing a Japanese proofreading job. Smiley LOL


@Hiu Chun L wrote:

re: "my confusion is compounded by seeing you translate from German which it doesn't look like you actually even speak?"

 

Maybe the client changed the job title after hiring OP. I don't know whether it is OP's case, but if you look at my profile, you can see that I am doing a Japanese proofreading job. Smiley LOL


 The document that was to be translated is attached to the job posting. It is, without a shadow of a doubt, German.

lysis10
Community Member

lol good grief

 

well, it's an $8 lesson I guess. Pretty cheap.

iamchunchunchun
Community Member

The rate is usually calculated based on source document (at least it is always the case for me). I suggest you to do the same in the future, so that you will be able to avoid this kind of situation.

 

There is no way you can get the $8.69 back.

Client wasn't TRYING to shortchange (I'm surprised mods allowed "screw") you, he DID shortchange you. But maybe he outsmarted himself by haggling over your "bracketed informative/supplementary comments", assuming he really deleted them and didn't keep a backup copy, since he wasn't going to pay more than $10 anyway.

__________________________________________________
"No good deed goes unpunished." -- Clare Boothe Luce
petra_r
Community Member


@John K wrote:

But maybe he outsmarted himself by haggling over your "bracketed informative/supplementary comments", assuming he really deleted them and didn't keep a backup copy, since he wasn't going to pay more than $10 anyway.


 Supplementary bla bla on a translation is never chargeable.

 

I doubt the client deleted them, the client simply declined to pay for them, which is entirely correct.

 

When a translator makes notes in a translated copy (notes about the translation) that is not part of the wordcount and no client would ever pay for them. Translations are almost invariably charged by source word count, not by target word count, and stuff a translator chooses to add (comments about the text / explations / commentary that were not part of the original source text the freelancer was asked to translate) are never ever part of either word count (source or target)

iamchunchunchun
Community Member

I just took a look at OP's profile, and I believe I found the client he is talking about. Everything feels so strange:

 

1. The client was really asking the rate to be calculated based on the target language.

2. It is the first time in my life that I see such rate for a legal translation project.

3. It seems that OP was translating from French into English. Smiley Surprised

lol it's probably a farmer and it's gonna be funny if the real client speaks any of those languages lolololol

 

I'd love to be a fly on the wall for that convo.


@Hiu Chun L wrote:

I just took a look at OP's profile, and I believe I found the client he is talking about. Everything feels so strange:

 

1. The client was really asking the rate to be calculated based on the target language.

2. It is the first time in my life that I see such rate for a legal translation project.

3. It seems that OP was translating from French into English. Smiley Surprised


The OP is not a translator at all. Just a dude who tries to get few pennies here and there. Yeah, I guess that the final client will get what they paid for.

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"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless
VladimirG
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Matthieu,

 

Please communicate with your client directly regarding the disagreement that arose on your contract and note that only Milestones for which Escrow is funded are covered by Upwork Payment Protection, and can be disputed. Please check this Help article for more information.

 

~ Vladimir
Upwork
m_hazelnut
Community Member

Thank you for your answers.

 

To clarify a few things:

 

- Yes, this rate is definitely cheap. But I think you all know how difficult it is at the beginning. There are vastly more freelancers trying to get hired than offers. When you start, unless you're cheap (or communicating pretty well, or lucky), you don't get hired. Some say you have to work cheaply at the beginning to build a profile with a number of positive feedback and a threshold in earned money before you manage to get something bigger.

 

- On my profile, two contracts look like they are going on: "French to English translation" and "Urgent: German to French translation".
The job I am talking about here is the first.

The second has been ended more than a month ago. The client paid me but forgot to end the contract. I've poked him several times already, he didn't answer. Well, since he paid his due, the most important is all and well.

- Too bad for the rate. At least now I know more exactly how the contract works (agreeing on the number of words and wage BEFORE, counting words from the source document). Some clients are definitely reckless. He is from **Edited for Community Guidelines**. Before him I saw another **Edited for Community Guidelines** client forgetting his password and paying fees to repost his notice, one month after he already posted it... just saying, so that people avoid wasting time with unscrupulous or unserious clients.

Yeah but what the beep are you doing translating from German?


@Petra R wrote:

Yeah but what the beep are you doing translating from German?


Same reason he translates into English. Money. A little bit of Google Translator does wonders 🙂 

-----------
"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless


@Matthieu N wrote:

 

 

- Yes, this rate is definitely cheap. But I think you all know how difficult it is at the beginning. There are vastly more freelancers trying to get hired than offers. When you start, unless you're cheap (or communicating pretty well, or lucky), you don't get hired. Some say you have to work cheaply at the beginning to build a profile with a number of positive feedback and a threshold in earned money before you manage to get something bigger.

 

This is a very damaging misconception that gets circulated through the forums again and again. The only thing working for pennies does in terms of helping you "get started" is build a history of the lowest-end jobs that says to good clients that you aren't in their leaque and to mid-level clients that they shouldn't have to pay you any more than the last guy did.

 


@Matthieu N wrote:

When you start, unless you're cheap (or communicating pretty well, ), you don't get hired.

 Have you considered "communicating pretty well?"

I simply cannot understand how it is that the OP who appears to have impeccable academic qualifications is pleading the case for ridiculous starter offers.

 

I don't even have an MA (although I have years of translation experience) and my rates (quite low IMO) start at $0.08 per word  - and those rates would  be the same wherever I lived in the world.

 

And as others have said - translator's notes are not added to the mix; they are a part of it.


@Nichola L wrote:

I simply cannot understand how it is that the OP who appears to have impeccable academic qualifications is pleading the case for ridiculous starter offers.

 

I don't even have an MA (although I have years of translation experience) and my rates (quite low IMO) start at $0.08 per word  - and those rates would  be the same wherever I lived in the world.


 Nichola, I hear what you are saying to a point, but I think you are comparing apples to oranges.

 

"Impeccable academic qualifications" only count in the field they apply to.

 

Say you had a PHD in Astro-Physics, would that qualify you to charge high rates as a pizza-cook?

If you're a champion racehorse-trainer, can you charge a high price to decorate someone's kitchen based on your horseracing background?

 

I have seen plenty of 1 cent a word translations where the client was clearly ripped off 😉

lysis10
Community Member

lol I knew it was gonna be VLAD DADDY who removed "screw." He no likey that word.

yitwail
Community Member

Wonder if this famous Man Ray photo will be permitted?

8e405cc36d0e3763f7c0f6fa67a85590--plant-art-man-ray.jpg

__________________________________________________
"No good deed goes unpunished." -- Clare Boothe Luce