Pages in topic:   [1 2] >
How can I give negative feedback to translator's WWA
Thread poster: Saiwai Translation Services
Saiwai Translation Services
Saiwai Translation Services  Identity Verified
Japan
Japanese to English
+ ...
Nov 8, 2015

I tried it but could not find it. There is only "Yes" option in WWA.
If translators can give negative feedback to Client's Blue Board, why not the client?

Request ProZ.com to make an option for negative entries at translator's WWA as soon as possible.

Thanks,


 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 21:30
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
That is a ProZ.com decision Nov 8, 2015

Saiwai Translation Services wrote:
If translators can give negative feedback to client's Blue Board, why not the client?


Because ProZ.com decided that it should be so. It has been so since 2006, if I'm not mistaken. I'm not sure why it is like that, though.

[Edited at 2015-11-08 16:43 GMT]


 
LEXpert
LEXpert  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 15:30
Member (2008)
Croatian to English
+ ...
Issue of fairness and disproportionate effect Nov 8, 2015

You shouldn't be able to leave a negative WWA because there is a gross disparity between the effect of an LWA on an agency and the effect of a WWA on a translator. In your case, with the amount of LWA you have, a poor LWA would only result in a minor blip in your average. Even if you didn't have a good LWA to start with, it probably wouldn't even matter since plenty of companies with abysmal LWAs seem to have no problem finding translators to work for them. OTOH, a single negative WWA can derai... See more
You shouldn't be able to leave a negative WWA because there is a gross disparity between the effect of an LWA on an agency and the effect of a WWA on a translator. In your case, with the amount of LWA you have, a poor LWA would only result in a minor blip in your average. Even if you didn't have a good LWA to start with, it probably wouldn't even matter since plenty of companies with abysmal LWAs seem to have no problem finding translators to work for them. OTOH, a single negative WWA can derail a translator's entire career and ruin whatever livelihood they have. Is that really what you want? Isn't it sufficient just to never use them again?Collapse


 
philgoddard
philgoddard
United States
German to English
+ ...
I prefer the situation as it is... Nov 8, 2015

... but the poster does have a point. It's a bit like a North Korean election where there's only one candidate on the ballot paper.

Rudolf says "plenty of companies with abysmal LWAs seem to have no problem finding translators to work for them", but that's only because those translators haven't read the LWAs.

I also don't agree that "a single negative WWA can derail a translator's entire career and ruin whatever livelihood they have". It's only if you consistently get b
... See more
... but the poster does have a point. It's a bit like a North Korean election where there's only one candidate on the ballot paper.

Rudolf says "plenty of companies with abysmal LWAs seem to have no problem finding translators to work for them", but that's only because those translators haven't read the LWAs.

I also don't agree that "a single negative WWA can derail a translator's entire career and ruin whatever livelihood they have". It's only if you consistently get bad reviews that people will have second thoughts about using you.

We are one-person businesses, but so are many agencies. We should be able to take negative as well as positive comments, and at the moment it's not a level playing field.
Collapse


 
Michael Newton
Michael Newton  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 16:30
Japanese to English
+ ...
Feedback on translator Nov 8, 2015

The best way to avoid poor work is to thoroughly vet the translator before issuing a purchase order. More important: pay the translator a professional rate, especially for a complex language like Japanese. Remember: if you pay peanuts, do not be surprised if you get monkeys.

 
Beatriz Ramírez de Haro
Beatriz Ramírez de Haro  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 21:30
Member (2008)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Leave as is Nov 8, 2015

Translators might refrain from posting negative feedback on the Blue Board for fear of retaliation.

 
jyuan_us
jyuan_us  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 16:30
Member (2005)
English to Chinese
+ ...
What will be your basis for giving a negative WWA to a translator? Nov 9, 2015

philgoddard wrote:

... but the poster does have a point. It's a bit like a North Korean election where there's only one candidate on the ballot paper.

Rudolf says "plenty of companies with abysmal LWAs seem to have no problem finding translators to work for them", but that's only because those translators haven't read the LWAs.

I also don't agree that "a single negative WWA can derail a translator's entire career and ruin whatever livelihood they have". It's only if you consistently get bad reviews that people will have second thoughts about using you.

We are one-person businesses, but so are many agencies. We should be able to take negative as well as positive comments, and at the moment it's not a level playing field.



Low quality? How would you judge if a translation is in low quality? who will be the judge? An extremely good translation can be assessed as extremely poor by some peer translators for the purpose of their own gains. Who would you trust if you are the owner of a translation agency?



[Edited at 2015-11-09 04:59 GMT]


 
Andrea Halbritter
Andrea Halbritter  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 21:30
French to German
+ ...
Not possible Nov 9, 2015

As others already said you can not leave a negative comment on a translator.

The best way to get a good translation is to choose your translator carefully, have a look at his/her WWAs, be sure to offer him/her a project in a field he/she knows to deal with, offer a good rate etc.


 
Zhihua Liu
Zhihua Liu
China
Local time: 04:30
English to Chinese
+ ...
Agree Nov 9, 2015

Michael Newton wrote:

The best way to avoid poor work is to thoroughly vet the translator before issuing a purchase order. More important: pay the translator a professional rate, especially for a complex language like Japanese. Remember: if you pay peanuts, do not be surprised if you get monkeys.


That's right.


 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 21:30
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Can one give a "yes but" WWA? Nov 9, 2015

Andrea Halbritter wrote:
As others already said you can not leave a negative comment on a translator.


I'm wondering two things:
1. Can a translator hide individual WWA entries, that he does not want the public to see?
2. Can a client leave a sting-in-the-tail comment that will pass the moderators? For example:

Willing to work with again: Yes
Comment: But only if we get jobs with much more flexible deadlines.

Willing to work with again: Yes
Comment: But only if we get jobs that require his peculiar writing style.

Willing to work with again: Yes
Comment: But only if we can find a very, very, very good proofreader.


 
Susana E. Cano Méndez
Susana E. Cano Méndez  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 21:30
French to Spanish
+ ...
Asymmetry Nov 9, 2015

Proz.com is "Serving the world's largest community of translators (...)" [http://www.proz.com/about/overview/]. So it's normal that Proz.com enables a "translators only" feature. On the other hand, this asymmetry is born, like many others, from the asymmetry in the industry, where agencies have more power than the translators and tend to *determine* the rates to the detriment of the translation professionals. I wouldn't make a big fuss though if things change in the future... on both sides.

 
Egmont Schröder
Egmont Schröder  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 21:30
Member (2013)
Chinese to German
+ ...
I am not sure if the blue board is working at all Nov 9, 2015

I just checked the blue board entry for an agency which offered me 0,26 USD per word English to German and 0,45 € per character for Chinese to German, both for very complex technical texts (I refused both of the jobs). They have an overall score of 4,7 (240 entries).

Even if they have super friendly PMs and pay immediately after they received the invoice, they should not get more than 3,0 or 2,5. The rate is simply the most important, and I really wonder how translators can make a
... See more
I just checked the blue board entry for an agency which offered me 0,26 USD per word English to German and 0,45 € per character for Chinese to German, both for very complex technical texts (I refused both of the jobs). They have an overall score of 4,7 (240 entries).

Even if they have super friendly PMs and pay immediately after they received the invoice, they should not get more than 3,0 or 2,5. The rate is simply the most important, and I really wonder how translators can make a living with these rates and how this agency can exist for such a long time.

I also found some good agencies through this rating system, but still: Why should the agencies be in a better position? I think that the blue board is only a subtle hint for a good client.
Collapse


 
jyuan_us
jyuan_us  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 16:30
Member (2005)
English to Chinese
+ ...
Really? Nov 9, 2015

Egmont Schröder wrote:

I just checked the blue board entry for an agency which offered me 0,26 USD per word English to German and 0,45 € per character for Chinese to German, both for very complex technical texts (I refused both of the jobs). They have an overall score of 4,7 (240 entries).


Refer them to me if they would pay that high. Did you mean 0.026 USD per word English to German and 0.045 € per character?


 
Álvaro Espantaleón Moreno
Álvaro Espantaleón Moreno  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 21:30
Member (2015)
English to Spanish
Lol Nov 9, 2015

Samuel Murray wrote:

Andrea Halbritter wrote:
As others already said you can not leave a negative comment on a translator.


I'm wondering two things:
1. Can a translator hide individual WWA entries, that he does not want the public to see?
2. Can a client leave a sting-in-the-tail comment that will pass the moderators? For example:

Willing to work with again: Yes
Comment: But only if we get jobs with much more flexible deadlines.

Willing to work with again: Yes
Comment: But only if we get jobs that require his peculiar writing style.

Willing to work with again: Yes
Comment: But only if we can find a very, very, very good proofreader.









As a matter of fact, I have one WWA that is a bit like that, just "helpful provider".


 
Egmont Schröder
Egmont Schröder  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 21:30
Member (2013)
Chinese to German
+ ...
I didn't want to discuss about prices Nov 11, 2015

Since this has been done excessively in other posts.


Refer them to me if they would pay that high. Did you mean 0.026 USD per word English to German and 0.045 € per character?


Are you sure? These rates are for English and Chinese to German (according to your profile you are only translating English), and they are nothing when you are living in Germany or Western Europe (where you deduct insurances, tax, ...). I don't think that conditions in Northern Ame
... See more
Since this has been done excessively in other posts.


Refer them to me if they would pay that high. Did you mean 0.026 USD per word English to German and 0.045 € per character?


Are you sure? These rates are for English and Chinese to German (according to your profile you are only translating English), and they are nothing when you are living in Germany or Western Europe (where you deduct insurances, tax, ...). I don't think that conditions in Northern America are much different, and I suppose that most of the German translators are living in theses countries.

But anyway, I wanted to tell a different story: When I was at the beginning of my translation career, I applied for a job and put a link to my ProZ page in the application.
During the interview it turned out that they really read the WWAs and were pretty impressed. I "forgot" to tell them that is it not possible to give a negative feedback.

WWAs can have an impact on a career after translations and on people who don't know what is going on in the translation industry, so they should stay positive.
Collapse


 
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 »

How can I give negative feedback to translator's WWA






TM-Town
Manage your TMs and Terms ... and boost your translation business

Are you ready for something fresh in the industry? TM-Town is a unique new site for you -- the freelance translator -- to store, manage and share translation memories (TMs) and glossaries...and potentially meet new clients on the basis of your prior work.

More info »
Trados Studio 2022 Freelance
The leading translation software used by over 270,000 translators.

Designed with your feedback in mind, Trados Studio 2022 delivers an unrivalled, powerful desktop and cloud solution, empowering you to work in the most efficient and cost-effective way.

More info »