| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Flat rate or rate range/tiered rates? Thread poster: Tom Stevens
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AndersonT (X) 
United States
Local time: 18:43
German to English
| All the same, isn't it? | Mar 11, 2019 |
Chris S wrote: Maxi Schwarz wrote:
All my clients, including agencies, receive individual quotes. There is no time consumption on their part. That’s a good world to be in and not dissimilar to mine, but we’re well established and I think that makes a big difference. Even then, most agencies won’t really want to wait for translator after translator to produce a quote that suits their budget when they can have all the prices in front of them at the start.
I'm not sure about others, but 99% of the time an agency request to me looks like "hey I have this file *attached* -> Are you available? -> ....
I don't see why an individual quote would take much longer than just a regular "Yes, I can take it..." reply.
For one, I am reanalyzing everything any agency sends to me anyways. I've had too many bad experiences, with and without malice on the part of the PM, to just accept stuff without checking it first. To that effect, in my world at least, the time difference between just replying "yes I can take it" and actually quoting is negligible at best.
| | | | | Calculating a price takes time, except for very small, simple jobs | Mar 11, 2019 |
WH&A wrote:
...
I'm not sure about others, but 99% of the time an agency request to me looks like "hey I have this file *attached* -> Are you available? -> ....
I don't see why an individual quote would take much longer than just a regular "Yes, I can take it..." reply.
For one, I am reanalyzing everything any agency sends to me anyways. I've had too many bad experiences, with and without malice on the part of the PM, to just accept stuff without checking it first. To that effect, in my world at least, the time difference between just replying "yes I can take it" and actually quoting is negligible at best.
I agree with some reservation. I check the files through before finally accepting the job, but very often, when I know the agency and the end client, it is just a quick check to make sure there is nothing unexpected. Having a flat rate makes it very quick and easy to say yes or no to a job.
If I actually have to decide on a rate and make an offer, it may take me some time to go through the text, possibly analyse it in Trados, and work out a price. Of course, I do it for new clients, but it takes longer than a simple yes or no to a regular.
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Brendan McNally wrote:
One of the sections asks:
1 Tarif pour moins de 15 000 mots
2 Tarif de 15 000 à 100 000 mots
3 Si minimum
For questions 1 and 3, my instinct is to go with the rates on the ProZ rates calculator for FR>EN, ie hourly rate €0.11, minimum €0.08 those. Does anyone have advice about this, or about whether to set a different price for the word count in question 2.
The idea is that you give them a discount for large jobs (less research, less dead time, etc). Some here (including me) would argue that it works the other way around (ties you down too much), but for a beginner I suppose any work is good work, and a big project is gold dust, so why not.
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Maxi Schwarz wrote:
I don't understand the "wait for translator after translator" part, or even the "wait" part. My agency clients contact me, ask me fee, and often the go ahead is immediate or within half an hour. There is no "translator after translator" either.
There will be if their translators are busy, which they should be if they are any good. So by the time they finally get a quote off the fifth one, the end-customer has got bored and gone elsewhere.
they are entrusting work to strangers (every time?). How reliable can that be?
No, they have a pool of 50 pre-approved translators so they can just automate everything and save time and money by asking all of them with one email and choosing the cheapest. It makes sense for everyday translations.
The "budget" of the agency is the amount that agency has quoted - and that quote usually comes after contacting the person doing the work.
I really don't think that's typical. They will want to quote a price straight away.
It clearly works for you, but I wouldn't recommend it for 99% of translators on here.
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AndersonT (X)
United States
Local time: 18:43
German to English
| somewhat agree ... | Mar 11, 2019 |
Christine Andersen wrote:
- snip -
If I actually have to decide on a rate and make an offer, it may take me some time to go through the text, possibly analyse it in Trados, and work out a price. Of course, I do it for new clients, but it takes longer than a simple yes or no to a regular.
I hear you on this one. I guess I've just grown quite paranoid where trusting someone else's analyses is concerned. And I'm not even talking about malice or fraudulent intent. But alas, I've basically seen it all, accidental analyzing with the wrong TM, cross-file matches included when the matches actually came from a batch assigned to another translator to flat-out missing X k. words embedded in bitmaps ... been there, done that.
Nothing sucks more than accepting a presumably easy job, to then run into deadline troubles because someone along the supply chain made an innocent mistake.
So yeah, I get what you are saying and I agree to some extent. I guess I'm just farther on the better-safe-than-sorry side.
I guess I also like to think that those clients that come back again and again prefer to wait a couple more minutes for me than throwing it at the first-available/cheapest quote. But that may just be my oversized ego
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