| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | A Dirty Little Secret About Pricing Thread poster: Jeff Whittaker
|
|---|
| Some good points | Dec 24, 2013 |
There are some good points there.
Clients often have some ideas of a fixed budget that are either arbitrary or based on some factors that are rather impenetrable to us (without asking the client where the number comes form).
It's also true that some people happily accept higher prices calculated on the basis of different units.
Finally, yeah, it's possible for larger, more affluent clients to be cheaper.
Personally, I don't work for anybody who... See more There are some good points there.
Clients often have some ideas of a fixed budget that are either arbitrary or based on some factors that are rather impenetrable to us (without asking the client where the number comes form).
It's also true that some people happily accept higher prices calculated on the basis of different units.
Finally, yeah, it's possible for larger, more affluent clients to be cheaper.
Personally, I don't work for anybody who just simply decrees a low price for translators and apparently believes that the company name and reputation will do the magic, as in make people want to work for them. I've been explaining this to agencies asking about my rates, as in, if the end client is a public utility or a government or religious institution things look a bit different than if we're dealing with a huge corporation that wants a low price and believes it can dictate it.
Regarding the hassle or high expectations, it's often not there in the higher-paying regions. Off the top of my head, I'd expect a high-paying business client to be able to judge quality somewhat but at the same time rely on such a common-sense subjective and intuitive evaluation than a bothersome QA procedure or arbitrary preferential changes or corrections for the worse.
Personally, I can't normally get the rates I'd like to be earning, but I have enough leverage to skip annoying direct clients. As in, I'm in the spot where raising the rates isn't easy, but there is at the same time enough potential workload to be somewhat choosy. Hence, I can skip high-maintenance jobs or collaboration with difficult end clients (or entire agencies even, at least some of them). ▲ Collapse
| | | |
Yes, and many of them are emptied only once or twice a day. Not quick enough in many cases.
| | | | Robert Forstag 
United States
Local time: 18:42
Spanish to English
+ ...
| It's a bit like asking a landscape artist to rake your leaves | Dec 24, 2013 |
LilianBNekipelo wrote:
$120 for a notarized Birth Certificate (without an Apostille) it is a total rip-of in my opinion. People may charge prices like that, if they have nothing to translate and they want to make their money somehow. You don't really have to go to the post office to mail a Birth Certificate -- to a Notary, yes, but I don't think we should charge more than $20-$50 for that. Sometimes they are slightly hard to find, but it usually doesn't take more than half an hour to find one who wants to notarize -- some are scared to notarize, for some reason. They just keep the title and notarize for their boss.
In general, I can't disagree, in the narrow sense of the labor/time involved. But in terms of what makes it worthwhile to me, $120.00 is a reasonable price for such work, and I don't feel guilty about quoting it. As I wrote in my original post, prospective clients are free to accept or reject my rate. It also should be remembered that there are a limited number of people who have the certification normally required to do such translations.
And, by the by, good luck to any freelancer who relies for his or her income on a substantial proportion of birth certificates, diplomas, and other minimal jobs, each of which typically require separate invoicing, and trips to a notary and post office.
In the final analysis, unless someone has a special deal involving the translation of batches of such documents, these kinds of jobs are really grunt work best suited to beginners and the thoroughly desperate.
[Edited at 2013-12-24 18:09 GMT]
| | | | Jeff Whittaker
United States
Local time: 18:42
Spanish to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
I charge a minimum fee of $100.00 for birth, marriage and death certificates (and those dreaded school transcripts) WITHOUT notarization to agencies and $150.00 for individuals.
I do not think it is a rip-off, but it does tend to simplify your life because you don't have to deal with all those small (and many times time-consuming) jobs.
LilianBNekipelo wrote:
$120 for a notarized Birth Certificate (without an Apostille) it is a total rip-of in my opinion.
| | |
|
|
|
Vanda Nissen
Australia
Local time: 09:42
English to Russian
+ ...
| It's an exaggeration. | Dec 25, 2013 |
Gudrun Wolfrath wrote:
Yes, and many of them are emptied only once or twice a day. Not quick enough in many cases.
For birth certificates? Posting through a usual post box is not quick enough? It's an exaggeration.
We do translations for immigration purposes, and we have never had a single customer complaining about 1-2 day's delivery.
| | | |
no, it is not. In some cases a day makes a difference.
| | | | Vanda Nissen
Australia
Local time: 09:42
English to Russian
+ ...
Gudrun Wolfrath wrote:
no, it is not. In some cases a day makes a difference.
Key words here - some cases, I can even add rare cases, exceptions can only prove the rule.
My husband once had a customer who had to drive around 100 km on Sunday evening in order to get his birth certificate translated by Monday morning but the vast majority of customers would be perfectly satisfied with sending their birth certificates via usual post.
| | | |
this is about all kinds of certified translations (of e. g. birth certificates).
| | |
|
|
|
Vanda Nissen
Australia
Local time: 09:42
English to Russian
+ ...
Gudrun Wolfrath wrote:
this is about all kinds of certified translations (of e. g. birth certificates).
This was your original statement:
"Of course you have to go to the post office to send a certified birth certificate, which has to bear your signature and stamp".
Then you admitted that only "in some cases a day makes a difference".
Now, suddenly, we are talking about all kinds of certified translations although the original point was about charging 120 USD per certified birth certificate because you absolutely have to go to the post office, and as LilianBNekipelo has correctly pointed out, it is really unnecessary in most cases.
We can, of course, go further and say that putting a stamp on a translation also requires efforts (mine, for example, is on a shelf so I need to make three steps for picking it up) but it doesn't look right.
| | | |
"Of course you have to go to the post office to send a certified birth certificate, which has to bear your signature and stamp".
It is obvious that this holds true for any kind of CERTIFIED translation.
During the last few weeks, for example, I had to rush to the poste office several times (certified translation of documents needed by a lawyer).
It is also obvious that the frequency varies.
| | | | | Pages in topic: < [1 2] | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » A Dirty Little Secret About Pricing | CafeTran Espresso | You've never met a CAT tool this clever!
Translate faster & easier, using a sophisticated CAT tool built by a translator / developer.
Accept jobs from clients who use Trados, MemoQ, Wordfast & major CAT tools.
Download and start using CafeTran Espresso -- for free
Buy now! » |
| | Pastey | Your smart companion app
Pastey is an innovative desktop application that bridges the gap between human expertise and artificial intelligence. With intuitive keyboard shortcuts, Pastey transforms your source text into AI-powered draft translations.
Find out more » |
|
| | | | X Sign in to your ProZ.com account... | | | | | |
Login to reply/comment 
Translation news
