| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3] > | Not getting paid for large jobs due to very subjective issues Thread poster: Tai Fu
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As others have already said we are not allowed to name names, so it’s best deleting the agency name to avoid your thread being trashed for not complying with the site rules.
| | | | Zea_Mays 
Italy
Local time: 11:12
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
| nonpayment report | Oct 30, 2023 |
Have you considered to file a nonpayment report to Proz?
I don't know how this works, perhaps through a support ticket, but some fellow translator may know what you'd need to do.
| | | | Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 11:12
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
Non-payment report steps:
- go to BB and click “leave review”
- if you leave all 1s, the system will prompt you with “does this company owe you money” or something like that
- click that, provide details, amount owed, what happened, etc. (this data is not public, it will just be sent to ProZ)
- click submit BB entry
- done, just need to wait to hear back from ProZ
| | | | Tai Fu
United States
Local time: 02:12
English to Chinese
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TOPIC STARTER
Lingua 5B wrote:
Non-payment report steps:
- go to BB and click “leave review”
- if you leave all 1s, the system will prompt you with “does this company owe you money” or something like that
- click that, provide details, amount owed, what happened, etc. (this data is not public, it will just be sent to ProZ)
- click submit BB entry
- done, just need to wait to hear back from ProZ
I filed non payment to proZ before, it absolutely goes nowhere and I do not ever hear from ProZ.
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| The "client" | Oct 31, 2023 |
But do you know who this end client is?
Because if you do, you can tell the agency that if they do not pay you by X date, you are going to have to let the client know.
The one time (so far) I had to resort to saying this, the money landed into my bank account so fast that the bank clerk's wig flew off of his head.
You are in the right, so be fearless.
| | | | Tai Fu
United States
Local time: 02:12
English to Chinese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Maria G. Grassi, M.A. wrote:
But do you know who this end client is?
Because if you do, you can tell the agency that if they do not pay you by X date, you are going to have to let the client know.
The one time (so far) I had to resort to saying this, the money landed into my bank account so fast that the bank clerk's wig flew off of his head.
You are in the right, so be fearless.
I do not know.
I know it's a patent, so not sure how I can find out.
I've let them know that I will be contacting the police or their department of labor (whatever this is) about this.
I never met any translation agencies that lets on who their end client is. I can perhaps find out who the inventor based on the patent number and drop them a line.
Not gotten any replies so far.
Last time this happened it was a translation agency in Gaza. Based on current event you can guess how that went. I've left a low LWA and a nonpayment report, a month later they paid but it was half the amount we agreed on. I guess it's better than nothing.
Going to quarantine the middle east from now on, but nothing stops them from misrepresenting. Wagner Consulting for example claims to be based in the US but we have no idea what their real location is. They are banned from the site by the way, I did a 200 dollar job for them that they never paid for.
I should add in 2010 when I started not paying was almost never heard of, but this gets worse and worse as time goes on. But most translation agencies and whatnot have a bad habit of poor communication, and scams really comes to mind when they do this, but to date I've never met any agency that was good about communicating.
I'm sorry but the Blueboard is inadequate protection for freelancers. They can change names/places almost as quickly as it takes to read this sentence. We need better protection, considering that I'd have to pay a lot of money to use the site.
[Edited at 2023-10-31 09:01 GMT]
| | | | | The "client" | Oct 31, 2023 |
Tai Fu wrote:
I do not know.
I know it's a patent, so not sure how I can find out.
I'm sorry to hear this. I guess that one time I was lucky because I had translated some documents with the company's name all over them.
Hopefully someone else can help you track down the client based on the information you shared.
Good luck, don't give up.
| | | | Tai Fu
United States
Local time: 02:12
English to Chinese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Maria G. Grassi, M.A. wrote: Tai Fu wrote:
I do not know.
I know it's a patent, so not sure how I can find out. I'm sorry to hear this. I guess that one time I was lucky because I had translated some documents with the company's name all over them. Hopefully someone else can help you track down the client based on the information you shared. Good luck, don't give up.
Well, I'm sure I can find out who the inventor is and go from there. Or find their corresponding Chinese patent number and find out who filed it.
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Frank Zou
China
Local time: 17:12
Member (2016)
Chinese to English
+ ...
It's a bad company. I worked for them once or twice. The rate was extremely low. Never worked for them again. They still email me from time to time but I never reply.
Tai Fu wrote: Iulia Parvu wrote:
Find emails of as many people working in the agency as possible and reach out to all. Perhaps you get to the right person.
If nothing happens, rate them 1* everywhere you can (Proz, Google, Trustpilot, etc.).
And, of course, make their name public here.
If nothing works, at least you helped other peers stay away from them. Agency's name is The Translation Gate. Big company, or whatever. The real deal, not people claiming to be them. They have other companies connected to them, like Europe Localize (but I never get work from them, only when I get payment from them through paypal, it's under Europe Localize). I asked them if Columbus Lang is connected to them and they denied it, but according to their ProZ profile, they are connected. They appear to have a good track record, perhaps they got taken by new management who decided to scam people over time? I just don't know how it makes any sense, having paid me probably thousands of dollars over time only to scam me this once. I left a note on their BB but it seems the rule cannot contain recommendations to others. Means you can't say "do not accept xxx job from them". If we're going to pay to use the site then the site needs to offer more protection to freelancers, like Fiverr. They're still offering me job, under different PM. I told them I'm not doing anymore jobs until they pay me for this one. They never responded after that other than the accounting department saying it's on "hold". [Edited at 2023-10-30 13:08 GMT]
| | | | Tai Fu
United States
Local time: 02:12
English to Chinese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Told them that I will start notifying regulatory agencies in their country, as well as the inventor/whoever filed the patent of their nonpayment and they told me they'll work on getting me paid. Will see about this.
Any tips on how I can get direct clients? Because I don't know how otherwise. I'm not good at marketing at all.
| | | | | I've actually used this company, their partner, for an agency with an HQ in Europe, | Nov 1, 2023 |
fearing the agency might be close to bankruptcy and wanting to get my money out asap, at least 90% of it.
https://oddcoll.com/debt-collection-in-egypt/
They are based out of Sweden but have partners globally, in many countries, and apparently even in Egypt. I paid 10%, and this was in 2021, now it's either 19.5% for all, or Egypt is 19.5% for some reason, but if you... See more fearing the agency might be close to bankruptcy and wanting to get my money out asap, at least 90% of it.
https://oddcoll.com/debt-collection-in-egypt/
They are based out of Sweden but have partners globally, in many countries, and apparently even in Egypt. I paid 10%, and this was in 2021, now it's either 19.5% for all, or Egypt is 19.5% for some reason, but if you feel you won't get paid at all, 80% of 3k is better than nothing.
I think I know which agency you mean. They keep trying to send me work, at a lower rate than I've told them I work for. From time to time my spam filter fails to pick their email up and they end up in my inbox, I then look them up on BB forgetting who they are, and I've noticed they are now getting bad marks for non-payment.
If the link gets removed, or you want any help with reading their BB, PM me.
I do think you should invest in a membership here. No point being on proz.com if you won't get a membership. You might as well not be here. 120 USD for a privilege to post your non-payment issue at the BB is worth it, most non payers do pay after a poor review. You can also get in touch with some very decent agencies, through the jobs section. None of them will ask you to churn out 30k words in a week, I'm afraid, but what they do ask you to do for them, they will pay a fair rate for and pay on time or sooner.
I am telling you the difference between being a paid member and not being one. Before I invested in a membership, I ended up in a similar position you're in now, and after I became a member, I had every opportunity to filter the non payers out and I have.
I do hope you get all or at least most of your money!
Off-topic: Often I hear how much other people in my pairs work for and think I am doing extremely well for myself. Then I hear about these 30K in a week jobs and I think, oh wow! No one ever asks me to do 30K in a week, and, to be fair, if they did, I'd say 'no, cannot be done'. I'm not trying to be rude to you, OP, I just don't know what to feel about how I am doing in this industry any more. Are some people in my pair getting all the 30K jobs because of their low rates? Is it really time to go and do something else?
Edit: Oddcoll was extremely professional and straightforward. I've uploaded the invoice. They got back to me telling me their partner based out of the country where the agency HQ was located will get in touch, he did, and I was paid 3 days later. I don't understand when translators say someone is legally out of reach. No one is out of reach, every country has debt collectors.
[Edited at 2023-11-01 12:07 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Tai Fu
United States
Local time: 02:12
English to Chinese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
I've signed up for the site at one time, back in 2011 or 2010 or something. At the time it was 75 dollars.
When I signed up I got not a single job AT ALL. I really thought signing up would vastly boost the amount of jobs I got, but it did absolutely nothing. At the time the jobs paid about the same but the volume was much higher, that I was able to survive a bit, but I went the whole year without a single job.
The moment the membership lapsed, I got jobs.
S... See more I've signed up for the site at one time, back in 2011 or 2010 or something. At the time it was 75 dollars.
When I signed up I got not a single job AT ALL. I really thought signing up would vastly boost the amount of jobs I got, but it did absolutely nothing. At the time the jobs paid about the same but the volume was much higher, that I was able to survive a bit, but I went the whole year without a single job.
The moment the membership lapsed, I got jobs.
So seriously ProZ needs to convince me harder why I should sign up when I did so in the past it did absolutely nothing to boost the amount of jobs I got.
By the way at that time you were able to use Brownez points to see BB entries, one entry at a time. You don't need to see the entire BB to know if an agency is crap, just look at a few.
But they took that away now.
All membership did for me is being able to look at BB entries, that's it. It supposedly put my profile at the top and would get me more jobs, but in practice it made zero difference. You could answer job posts, however even ProZ said that vast majority of jobs do not occur on the job board.
PS: They are going to pay me for the job(s) that was unrelated to the one they "rejected" for whatever. If they will do that I will consider the matter closed, as this is half of what they owe me.
If they do not, or drags their feet about this, then I'll be sure to hit up that collection agency for the full 3000 dollar amount.
[Edited at 2023-11-01 12:12 GMT]
[Edited at 2023-11-01 12:13 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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| You, of course, know what works for you best! | Nov 1, 2023 |
Tai Fu wrote:
I've signed up for the site at one time, back in 2011 or 2010 or something. At the time it was 75 dollars.
When I signed up I got not a single job AT ALL. I really thought signing up would vastly boost the amount of jobs I got, but it did absolutely nothing. At the time the jobs paid about the same but the volume was much higher, that I was able to survive a bit, but I went the whole year without a single job.
The moment the membership lapsed, I got jobs.
So seriously ProZ needs to convince me harder why I should sign up when I did so in the past it did absolutely nothing to boost the amount of jobs I got.
By the way at that time you were able to use Brownez points to see BB entries, one entry at a time. You don't need to see the entire BB to know if an agency is crap, just look at a few.
But they took that away now.
All membership did for me is being able to look at BB entries, that's it. It supposedly put my profile at the top and would get me more jobs, but in practice it made zero difference. You could answer job posts, however even ProZ said that vast majority of jobs do not occur on the job board.
PS: They are going to pay me for the job(s) that was unrelated to the one they "rejected" for whatever. If they will do that I will consider the matter closed, as this is half of what they owe me.
If they do not, or drags their feet about this, then I'll be sure to hit up that collection agency for the full 3000 dollar amount.
[Edited at 2023-11-01 12:12 GMT]
[Edited at 2023-11-01 12:13 GMT]
Let me just say that you don't have to wait for PMs to find you, which does happen to me, and I'm sure to other paid members. You can reply to job yourself. A good agency, that might have jobs in your pair, will post once or twice until they find 2 good translators and proofreaders for your pair, and then they will no longer post. Unlike the regular posters who clearly struggle to hold on to collaborators, and then you can skip those entirely.
I do think you getting jobs right after your membership expired happened despite your membership expiring no because of it, but far be it from me to try convincing anyone of anything. I wish you the best in all your endeavours.
Edit: I looked at your profile, and you seem to do this part-time and perhaps from the angle of a very talented amateur, in which case you might be right not to invest in a membership. The kind of agencies you will be hired by, as a very talented non-professional in the field, you better have a payment collection plan other than 'oopsie daisy I guess they aren't paying'. So, a debt collecting agency might serve you well.
Have you ever tried sprucing up your proz.com page a bit? Talking more about your translation experience and what you bring to the table as a translator? I don't think any PM reading your page really cares how well you repair musical instruments, they'd want to see something regarding how well you can render Chinese into English. Perhaps add some sample translations and a nice text in which you explain your translation process in your own words? What makes you competent in Chinese, and what makes you competent in English, and then your competency in the translation fields you work in—where does it come from?
Use your own words, that's marketing for you. Say something good about your competencies on your profile page. It's a start.
[Edited at 2023-11-01 13:26 GMT]
| | | | Monica RW
Local time: 11:12
Member (2015)
English to Polish
+ ...
| Tai Fu
United States
Local time: 02:12
English to Chinese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
I'll keep that in mind. They said payment for the unrelated job is on the way. Will see if I get it in the next week. If not then I'll go the collection agency route/small claims.
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