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Is $ 0.05 per source word a "fair amount" for translators?
Thread poster: Chiara Deaglio
S_G_C
S_G_C
Romania
Local time: 03:54
English to Romanian
Jokes or not... Jan 9, 2015

Bernhard Sulzer wrote:


Cheapstake? You mean cheapskate.
Who are you trying to defend?
I hold that USD .05/word is an absolute joke for any professional translator when it comes to typical translation work. Doesn't matter where you live. You're just being exploited.
It's very sad to see translators defend such practice here. The gap between people who know what they're worth and those who don't seems to widen here every day.

[Edited at 2014-12-07 18:17 GMT]


Well, I can tell you that in Romania, when working for domestic customers, the payment by source word is not the current practice. The payment for 2,000 characters with spaces, 1,800 characters without spaces, respectively, is. This is one page. And one may be offered 9 lei for one page (around 2 euros), 10, 12 or, if they are lucky, 15 lei.


 
Maija Cirule
Maija Cirule  Identity Verified
Latvia
Local time: 03:54
German to English
+ ...
Sorana, you are absolutely right Jan 9, 2015

Sorana_M. wrote:

Bernhard Sulzer wrote:


Cheapstake? You mean cheapskate.
Who are you trying to defend?
I hold that USD .05/word is an absolute joke for any professional translator when it comes to typical translation work. Doesn't matter where you live. You're just being exploited.
It's very sad to see translators defend such practice here. The gap between people who know what they're worth and those who don't seems to widen here every day.

[Edited at 2014-12-07 18:17 GMT]


Well, I can tell you that in Romania, when working for domestic customers, the payment by source word is not the current practice. The payment for 2,000 characters with spaces, 1,800 characters without spaces, respectively, is. This is one page. And one may be offered 9 lei for one page (around 2 euros), 10, 12 or, if they are lucky, 15 lei.


Similar practice takes place in Latvia, this is why I don't work with Latvian agencies at all and try to keep away from countries of former Soviet block except Hungary where agencies as well as direct customers are pleasure to deal with.


Oleksandr Ivanov
Yuka Cho
 
yu ouyang
yu ouyang  Identity Verified
Australia
Local time: 12:54
Chinese to English
+ ...
Query regarding Lingua Spring Translation Company Dec 26, 2019

I've done a job for the said company above. But just as I was about to find the company details to do an invoice, I couldn't get any access to their website, www.linguaspring.com even though I had no difficulties getting in yesterday. I wonder if any of my fellow Proz.com members have had experience dealing with them before and what seems to be the problem with their website now.

Any help would b
... See more
I've done a job for the said company above. But just as I was about to find the company details to do an invoice, I couldn't get any access to their website, www.linguaspring.com even though I had no difficulties getting in yesterday. I wonder if any of my fellow Proz.com members have had experience dealing with them before and what seems to be the problem with their website now.

Any help would be highly appreciated.
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yu ouyang
yu ouyang  Identity Verified
Australia
Local time: 12:54
Chinese to English
+ ...
0.05usd per source word? But what about 0.05 per cell in Excel? Dec 27, 2019

I've had a shocking experience of doing a checking job for a company based in America. They sent me an Excel file of 100 cells of 5400 English words in English translation. The quote they sent me was literally per cell 0.05$. As I wasn't careful about the wording, thinking it was per word, I took the job and spent hours completing it until I realised it was 0.05USD per cell for a job of 100 cells. That's 5 US dollars! And I've spent a whole afternoon and a whole morning working on it till I fini... See more
I've had a shocking experience of doing a checking job for a company based in America. They sent me an Excel file of 100 cells of 5400 English words in English translation. The quote they sent me was literally per cell 0.05$. As I wasn't careful about the wording, thinking it was per word, I took the job and spent hours completing it until I realised it was 0.05USD per cell for a job of 100 cells. That's 5 US dollars! And I've spent a whole afternoon and a whole morning working on it till I finished it.

When I sent the invoice to the company based on the word-count, not cell-count, and asked if that was correct they said no. But when I asked how much I should be invoicing them they did not tell me. Until this very moment, they still didn't tell me how much. Instead, they insisted that they have the job first. I withhold the job because I want to know how much exactly they want to pay me. If it is 5 USD for the 100 cells of 5400 English words, that would be a cruel joke. And it would be an insult to the translation as a profession.

Did any one of my fellow practitioners have a similar experience in this please? And how can one deal with such companies?

Your feedback or help would be greatly appreciated.
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Robert Rietvelt
Robert Rietvelt  Identity Verified
Local time: 02:54
Member (2006)
Spanish to Dutch
+ ...
Take your loss and move on Dec 27, 2019

yu ouyang wrote:

I've had a shocking experience of doing a checking job for a company based in America. They sent me an Excel file of 100 cells of 5400 English words in English translation. The quote they sent me was literally per cell 0.05$. As I wasn't careful about the wording, thinking it was per word, I took the job and spent hours completing it until I realised it was 0.05USD per cell for a job of 100 cells. That's 5 US dollars! And I've spent a whole afternoon and a whole morning working on it till I finished it.

When I sent the invoice to the company based on the word-count, not cell-count, and asked if that was correct they said no. But when I asked how much I should be invoicing them they did not tell me. Until this very moment, they still didn't tell me how much. Instead, they insisted that they have the job first. I withhold the job because I want to know how much exactly they want to pay me. If it is 5 USD for the 100 cells of 5400 English words, that would be a cruel joke. And it would be an insult to the translation as a profession.

Did any one of my fellow practitioners have a similar experience in this please? And how can one deal with such companies?

Your feedback or help would be greatly appreciated.


First of all, 0.05 per cell is an outrage, and my first thought would be f... them, forget the files and bye, bye, but we are professionals, so...

... they told you their price, you accepted it, (any way you look at it, it is your own fault, you should have read their conditions better), so send the files, accept your loss, stop working with this client and move on. See it as an 'expensive" lesson learnt.

[Edited at 2019-12-27 13:21 GMT]


Kevin Fulton
Wout Van den Broeck (X)
yu ouyang
Sheila Wilson
 
Sandra & Kenneth Grossman
Sandra & Kenneth Grossman  Identity Verified
Israel
Local time: 04:54
French to English
+ ...
Don't Dec 27, 2019

Have they sent you an official company PO including all the job details, payment terms and company address and tax identification?
No, they haven't.
You have no idea who they really are.
Until they do, you are not obligated to deliver anything.
This appears to be a scam and you are probably not their first victim.

This is clearly abusive,

HTH,
Sandra


yu ouyang
 
yu ouyang
yu ouyang  Identity Verified
Australia
Local time: 12:54
Chinese to English
+ ...
Thank you, Robert and Sandra. Dec 27, 2019

That's right. No delivery. I didn't look carefully and I was to blame for thinking it's per word payment as I haven't done an Excel job for years. At least I've learnt my lesson. But the most curious thing is 2 days ago I could access the company website www.linaguaspring.com but since yesterday morning I have not been able to get in at all.

Both of your advice is much appreciated.


 
DZiW (X)
DZiW (X)
Ukraine
English to Russian
+ ...
Money matters Dec 28, 2019

While common sense and due diligence is a must, the problem is not just $0.05×300word making some $15 per hour GROSS, but (1) a sponger-transitional "discount grid" lowering the rate much under $0.01/w flat and (2) unfavorable per-cell (=per-line or per-paragraph!) rates totaling fairly even lower to the bottom-feeding.

yu ouyang
 
yu ouyang
yu ouyang  Identity Verified
Australia
Local time: 12:54
Chinese to English
+ ...
The company is Lingua Spring Translation Service at www.linguaspring.com Dec 28, 2019

And it has disappeared altogether, to which one can't access any longer. I have not given them the complete job. I thought of offering it as a freebie to them but gave up on the idea. Why would I offer freebies to the swindlers like that? 100 cells in Excel paid 0.05 per cell? That's 5 US dollars, for a job that cost me a morning and an afternoon to go through, nearly 8 hours! In good faith, I sent them two screenshots, of the first few cells and the last few cells just to show I've done the jo... See more
And it has disappeared altogether, to which one can't access any longer. I have not given them the complete job. I thought of offering it as a freebie to them but gave up on the idea. Why would I offer freebies to the swindlers like that? 100 cells in Excel paid 0.05 per cell? That's 5 US dollars, for a job that cost me a morning and an afternoon to go through, nearly 8 hours! In good faith, I sent them two screenshots, of the first few cells and the last few cells just to show I've done the job. And despite their constant call for the job, I refused to deliver or else I would have done a good service for them that is a bad service for myself. The point? None at all. But my concern is that they will go on swindling and targeting their next victim, with 5 USD for 100 cells of 5455 English words. It's lower than a slave's rates, which is why, to the last, the person handling the job never told me how much she is going to pay me for the job.

Not again on my part and thank you all for your good advice.
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Magnus Rubensson
 
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Is $ 0.05 per source word a "fair amount" for translators?







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