Banned outsourcer with good recent BB record
Thread poster: wonita (X)
wonita (X)
wonita (X)
China
Local time: 23:04
Apr 9, 2009

I was contacted by an outsourcer in France for an urgent job a few weeks ago. The deadline had been too tough for me, so I turned down the job politely. Afterwards, I checked its BB records, and it is indeed unique: The agency was banned from Proz.com due to bad payment practice several years ago; however, its recent BB entries, since 2 years or so, are strikingly positive with only 5s and merits.

Has any of you worked for outsourcers with similar BB records? What's your experience
... See more
I was contacted by an outsourcer in France for an urgent job a few weeks ago. The deadline had been too tough for me, so I turned down the job politely. Afterwards, I checked its BB records, and it is indeed unique: The agency was banned from Proz.com due to bad payment practice several years ago; however, its recent BB entries, since 2 years or so, are strikingly positive with only 5s and merits.

Has any of you worked for outsourcers with similar BB records? What's your experience with such outsourcers?


[Edited at 2009-04-09 14:07 GMT]
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Cristiana Coblis
Cristiana Coblis  Identity Verified
Romania
Local time: 04:04
Member (2004)
English to Romanian
+ ...
I usually double check Apr 9, 2009

In such cases, and when I find the company has records on the lower side, I double check or cross-check with their records in other similar services. Reasons for the ratings registered can vary widely and may sometimes be subjective, I usually read the comments and draw my own conclusions. I worked for companies with lower or mixed records in BB and they proved to be great clients, accepted high rates and pay on time, they are polite and have interesting projects. Then again, I worked with some ... See more
In such cases, and when I find the company has records on the lower side, I double check or cross-check with their records in other similar services. Reasons for the ratings registered can vary widely and may sometimes be subjective, I usually read the comments and draw my own conclusions. I worked for companies with lower or mixed records in BB and they proved to be great clients, accepted high rates and pay on time, they are polite and have interesting projects. Then again, I worked with some that had 4-ish BB record and had bad experiences. It really depends and I doubt you can draw a general conclusion from that alone. Sometimes I feel it's worth a try, sometimes I don't, but I generally make my own decisions based on a number of factors, including payment and practices records. I tend to draw the line at good practices towards freelancers, as I am not that strict on payment terms anyway. I never worked for a company that had been banned before I worked with them. I have seen some cases of companies going through tough times then recovering, but... you have to take decisions on a case by case basis.

In my experience, it's best to take such records, from whichever service, with a grain of salt and come to your own conclusions and decisions

Good luck to you.

[Editat la 2009-04-10 16:26 GMT]
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Michele Johnson
Michele Johnson  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 03:04
German to English
+ ...
Cross-check, consider raters & country Apr 9, 2009

Like Cristiana, I would certainly cross-check with other sources of information. Also, consider whether the people who subsequently rated the company are reliable, respectable, experienced colleagues, not just straw men set up or sponsored by the company, i.e. how long have the raters been at proz.com, how many kudoz points do they have, etc. Finally, I'd think about whether I am fluent in that country's language, how familiar I am with delinquent payment collection procedures/courts there, etc.... See more
Like Cristiana, I would certainly cross-check with other sources of information. Also, consider whether the people who subsequently rated the company are reliable, respectable, experienced colleagues, not just straw men set up or sponsored by the company, i.e. how long have the raters been at proz.com, how many kudoz points do they have, etc. Finally, I'd think about whether I am fluent in that country's language, how familiar I am with delinquent payment collection procedures/courts there, etc. I just don't want to see you post "Need help collecting payment in France" somewhere down the line Probably the only time I might risk it is if I was desperate and the company was in Germany...Collapse


 
Peter Close
Peter Close  Identity Verified
Local time: 04:04
Member (2012)
Greek to English
Some agencies with bad payment records offer translators money … Sep 25, 2017

I am afraid that I have worked for three such agencies recently. On each occasion, I made the mistake of believing that the company would not be likely to behave in a way that would damage its reputation further. Some companies appear to have been banned from posting jobs on Proz more than once or twice and one such company recently offered me money ‘in compensation’ if I would remove my negative reference and replace it with a positive one. A few months ago, another company offered me a goo... See more
I am afraid that I have worked for three such agencies recently. On each occasion, I made the mistake of believing that the company would not be likely to behave in a way that would damage its reputation further. Some companies appear to have been banned from posting jobs on Proz more than once or twice and one such company recently offered me money ‘in compensation’ if I would remove my negative reference and replace it with a positive one. A few months ago, another company offered me a good WWA reference if I would provide it with a positive reference. If other companies are doing this, this could be a reason why companies with many low LWA scores suddenly appear to be getting much higher scores.

Please note though that bad-paying outsourcers are much more likely to delay or default on payments to translators who work in language pairs for which the number of available translators greatly outweighs the demand for translations and are likely to pay the translators that they need regularly much more promptly than the translators that they do not need regularly.
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Jennifer Forbes
Jennifer Forbes  Identity Verified
Local time: 02:04
French to English
+ ...
In memoriam
Report them to Proz Sep 25, 2017

Please, for all our sakes, inform Proz about the outsourcer who recently offered you money if you would remove your negative entry from the Blue Board and replace it with a positive one. I'm pretty certain that behaviour is strictly against the Blue Board rules. Moreover, it diminishes the value of the Blue Board for everyone.
With dodgy outsourcers like the one you mention, even if you did as they asked, could you be certain they'd pay you the "bribe" anyway? They probably wouldn't - and
... See more
Please, for all our sakes, inform Proz about the outsourcer who recently offered you money if you would remove your negative entry from the Blue Board and replace it with a positive one. I'm pretty certain that behaviour is strictly against the Blue Board rules. Moreover, it diminishes the value of the Blue Board for everyone.
With dodgy outsourcers like the one you mention, even if you did as they asked, could you be certain they'd pay you the "bribe" anyway? They probably wouldn't - and then, according to the BB rules, you wouldn't be allowed to make another entry for some time. Nice!
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Valery Kaminski
Valery Kaminski  Identity Verified
Belarus
Local time: 05:04
English to Russian
+ ...
Final conviction? Sep 25, 2017

I work with an outsourcer whose BB record in the past was quite negative because of their payment practices. Translators had to wait for months for their money and send numerous reminders. The company was banned from posting jobs at Proz. I had to contact people in their finance department to push through my invoices.

However, some years ago they reshuffled that department and now it works like a clock. So I guess there might be other cases like this when previously bad reputation
... See more
I work with an outsourcer whose BB record in the past was quite negative because of their payment practices. Translators had to wait for months for their money and send numerous reminders. The company was banned from posting jobs at Proz. I had to contact people in their finance department to push through my invoices.

However, some years ago they reshuffled that department and now it works like a clock. So I guess there might be other cases like this when previously bad reputation improves over time...
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Banned outsourcer with good recent BB record







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