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Poll: Have your clients ever made a mistake with your rates?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
SITE STAFF
Oct 18, 2021

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Have your clients ever made a mistake with your rates?".

This poll was originally submitted by Natalia Pedrosa. View the poll results »
 
Mario Freitas
Mario Freitas  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 13:41
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
All of these, plus some others Oct 18, 2021

I've been in the market for 33 years. It would be impossible not to have a few cases of errors in rates during this time. I have many.

Philippe Etienne
Christopher Schröder
Christine Andersen
 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 17:41
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Other Oct 19, 2021

As I have been working with the same client base for a long time, it hasn’t happened often. The only case I remember was a recent one: a translation agency which repeatedly sent POs with a lower editing rate than mine…
 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
Yes, all of the above Oct 19, 2021

One current client’s system can’t cope with paying a higher rate for one particular job, so they now pay me the higher rate for everything.

I ain’t complaining.
 
Marjolein Snippe
Marjolein Snippe  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 18:41
Member (2012)
English to Dutch
+ ...
Both ways Oct 19, 2021

One former client consistently put a lower rate on their POs than the agreed rate, so pretty much any PO had to be corrected before I started work. It kept me on my toes, but it also annoyed me. I was not sorry when they stopped sending me work.
I have one other client who tries this fairly regularly.

A couple of clients occasionally increase my rate - usually for a small project, and by a symbolic amount, but it always makes me smile. It works wonders for goodwill!
 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 18:41
French to English
. Oct 19, 2021

One dear client has forgotten a couple of times not to add VAT on to my bills (my status doesn't require it). We're all human.
 
Muriel Vasconcellos
Muriel Vasconcellos  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 09:41
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
Other Oct 20, 2021

So far, my clients have stuck with their contractual rates.

I did have the opposite experience when I hired a translator. She quoted me an hourly rate for revision and a per word rate for translation, then forgot and charged me the hourly rate for translation, moving the decimal 2 places to the left. It was more than double what she had quoted for her per word rate.

[Edited at 2021-10-20 00:47 GMT]
 


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Poll: Have your clients ever made a mistake with your rates?






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