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After my introductory posting under “New members” this is going to be my first “real” thread, so please be gentle. 
[Background]As I have pointed out in my introduction, I’m a technical translator, mainly translating from English to German, my mother-tongue. As such I also work for agencies, which basically do the administrative stuff (and sometimes QA) while handing out the actual translation to guys and gals like me. Clients of such agencies are mostly companies that need one document translated into several different languages (think operating instructions, for example) and don’t want to go translator-hunting for each and every language. The agency choses a suitable translator from their database, gets back the finished document from said translator and return is to the client, after performing their own duties (QA, DTP …). All communication between client and translator usually happens via the agency.[/Background]
A few years ago I get a proofreading order from my favorite agency. This is basically the finished PDF version of a translation I have done in the past (usually plus material that has been re-cycled from the previous version of the product and which I have thus probably not seen before), which I have to check for any and all mistakes, be it spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes, missing sentences, mistranslations, layout problems … you name it. The agency issues a purchase order (PO) for my hourly rate based on the number of pages in said PDF divided by 10. So I have to read 10 pages per hour, which in 99% of the time is a generous estimate and usually it takes me considerably less time to finish such an order. But would I be posting this here, if this was the case here?
So the first thing I notice is that the page count between the English and German version of the PDF differs by about 10 pages. That’s not unusual because the German texts tend to get longer because of the behemoth called German grammar. Some parts in the English PDF have been marked as “no need to check this”, so I think that the work-estimate will work after all and get to work on this order. I read page after page after page and find mistake after mistake after mistake, realizing that I have never seen the majority of this text before. So my translation (the text I recognize as being my work is absolutely fine) has been incorporated into pages and pages from some other manual which obviously has never been proofread before. So for every mistake I find, I have to mark it, add a running number, enter the number along with the wrong and correct text into an Excel-sheet and maybe even add a comment describing the mistake if it isn’t obvious. As you can imagine, this puts quite a dent in my timing schedule.
About 2/3 through the order I have to admit that I will never be able to finish the order within the client’s time estimate. As the purchase order is my basis for invoicing my work, I have to get approval for anything going over the total given. So I get back to the project manager (PM) at the agency, explaining the discrepancy between the two page counts and the constantly rising number of errors I keep finding and asking if I should stop at the time mark they have set or if I should finish the order and take note of the additional time spent, that is not covered by the PO. The PM can’t reach the client (it’s Friday and they are a couple of time zones ahead of us), but tells me to finish the order as requested and let her know about the additional time spent, she’ll update the PO with the actual time spent.
So I finish my work, return the necessary files and inform the PM about the time it really took me to complete the order. I think nothing more of it, because I know all the PMs of this agency and everybody is always nice and helpful and there have never been any problems so far.
About two weeks later I feel the need to issue some invoices (as I really like to get paid for my work and nobody pays me a dime without a proper invoice
) and get to work listing all the projects for this agency. Oh wait … I never received the updated PO, so I can’t claim the correct amount for the order. I contact the PM, asking her to please send me the updated PO so that I can properly invoice everything. She gets back to me telling me that I will receive the updated PO from her colleague, confirming the time spent once more. The next day I hear back from her colleague: They have been in contact with the client and the client is refusing to pay more than the estimate given at the start of the project. I write back to tell him, that usually the estimate is pretty generous for me, but in this case … and I again explain about the different page counts and the ginormous number of mistakes I had to correct. The PM writes back telling me that the client claims that they always state the page count for the English version, because that’s what I have to check. At this point my mind comes to a screeching halt. Wait. What? 
So they want to tell me that I can check the German translation just by reading the English version and because the English version is shorter, the additional pages don’t count? I try to wrap my mind around this and failing to do so, I express my consternation to the PM, who is just as unhappy about the situation as I am. He promises to resolve the situation somehow and to get back to me as soon as possible.
A few days go by and finally I receive an updated PO for my work. The PM explains that the client is adamant about not paying even one cent more than the estimate, but that the agency will cover the difference themselves because they value me and my work and are well aware of the fact that I did deliver good work and even obtained the OK from the original PM when it became clear that the estimate wouldn’t cover the whole work. I thanked the PM for all his efforts, but I was still fuming over the client’s reaction. As I was not keen on repeating such an experience I then informed the PM to please updated their database: I was still willing to do translations for said client, but asked them to please find other translators from now on for all the client’s proofreading-orders.
This was the first (and so far only) time that I had to “cut off” a client due to their unwillingness to own up to the bad quality of their own work. I’d be happy if this would remain the only one.
To everybody who made it to this point: Thanks a lot for bearing with me through my first thread on CS.com. I hope my explanations of my work didn’t bore you to death; I tried to only include what’s necessary to understanding my line of work/the story/my irritation.
Tl;dr – I had a hard time getting paid for work I did, because my end client preferred to ignore the fact that they provided substandard material.
[Background]As I have pointed out in my introduction, I’m a technical translator, mainly translating from English to German, my mother-tongue. As such I also work for agencies, which basically do the administrative stuff (and sometimes QA) while handing out the actual translation to guys and gals like me. Clients of such agencies are mostly companies that need one document translated into several different languages (think operating instructions, for example) and don’t want to go translator-hunting for each and every language. The agency choses a suitable translator from their database, gets back the finished document from said translator and return is to the client, after performing their own duties (QA, DTP …). All communication between client and translator usually happens via the agency.[/Background]
A few years ago I get a proofreading order from my favorite agency. This is basically the finished PDF version of a translation I have done in the past (usually plus material that has been re-cycled from the previous version of the product and which I have thus probably not seen before), which I have to check for any and all mistakes, be it spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes, missing sentences, mistranslations, layout problems … you name it. The agency issues a purchase order (PO) for my hourly rate based on the number of pages in said PDF divided by 10. So I have to read 10 pages per hour, which in 99% of the time is a generous estimate and usually it takes me considerably less time to finish such an order. But would I be posting this here, if this was the case here?
So the first thing I notice is that the page count between the English and German version of the PDF differs by about 10 pages. That’s not unusual because the German texts tend to get longer because of the behemoth called German grammar. Some parts in the English PDF have been marked as “no need to check this”, so I think that the work-estimate will work after all and get to work on this order. I read page after page after page and find mistake after mistake after mistake, realizing that I have never seen the majority of this text before. So my translation (the text I recognize as being my work is absolutely fine) has been incorporated into pages and pages from some other manual which obviously has never been proofread before. So for every mistake I find, I have to mark it, add a running number, enter the number along with the wrong and correct text into an Excel-sheet and maybe even add a comment describing the mistake if it isn’t obvious. As you can imagine, this puts quite a dent in my timing schedule.
About 2/3 through the order I have to admit that I will never be able to finish the order within the client’s time estimate. As the purchase order is my basis for invoicing my work, I have to get approval for anything going over the total given. So I get back to the project manager (PM) at the agency, explaining the discrepancy between the two page counts and the constantly rising number of errors I keep finding and asking if I should stop at the time mark they have set or if I should finish the order and take note of the additional time spent, that is not covered by the PO. The PM can’t reach the client (it’s Friday and they are a couple of time zones ahead of us), but tells me to finish the order as requested and let her know about the additional time spent, she’ll update the PO with the actual time spent.
So I finish my work, return the necessary files and inform the PM about the time it really took me to complete the order. I think nothing more of it, because I know all the PMs of this agency and everybody is always nice and helpful and there have never been any problems so far.
About two weeks later I feel the need to issue some invoices (as I really like to get paid for my work and nobody pays me a dime without a proper invoice
) and get to work listing all the projects for this agency. Oh wait … I never received the updated PO, so I can’t claim the correct amount for the order. I contact the PM, asking her to please send me the updated PO so that I can properly invoice everything. She gets back to me telling me that I will receive the updated PO from her colleague, confirming the time spent once more. The next day I hear back from her colleague: They have been in contact with the client and the client is refusing to pay more than the estimate given at the start of the project. I write back to tell him, that usually the estimate is pretty generous for me, but in this case … and I again explain about the different page counts and the ginormous number of mistakes I had to correct. The PM writes back telling me that the client claims that they always state the page count for the English version, because that’s what I have to check. At this point my mind comes to a screeching halt. Wait. What? So they want to tell me that I can check the German translation just by reading the English version and because the English version is shorter, the additional pages don’t count? I try to wrap my mind around this and failing to do so, I express my consternation to the PM, who is just as unhappy about the situation as I am. He promises to resolve the situation somehow and to get back to me as soon as possible.A few days go by and finally I receive an updated PO for my work. The PM explains that the client is adamant about not paying even one cent more than the estimate, but that the agency will cover the difference themselves because they value me and my work and are well aware of the fact that I did deliver good work and even obtained the OK from the original PM when it became clear that the estimate wouldn’t cover the whole work. I thanked the PM for all his efforts, but I was still fuming over the client’s reaction. As I was not keen on repeating such an experience I then informed the PM to please updated their database: I was still willing to do translations for said client, but asked them to please find other translators from now on for all the client’s proofreading-orders.
This was the first (and so far only) time that I had to “cut off” a client due to their unwillingness to own up to the bad quality of their own work. I’d be happy if this would remain the only one.
To everybody who made it to this point: Thanks a lot for bearing with me through my first thread on CS.com. I hope my explanations of my work didn’t bore you to death; I tried to only include what’s necessary to understanding my line of work/the story/my irritation.
Tl;dr – I had a hard time getting paid for work I did, because my end client preferred to ignore the fact that they provided substandard material.
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