Client ranting about translation service
We all hear ourselves and fellow translators rant on about clients, how stupid and obnoxious they sometimes are - I guess that is a common thing in all professions. On the other hand, we rarely hear people rant about us and our service.
I ran into a blog post by Thomas Kilian who posted about the email conversation he had with a fellow translator. He got a couple of unsolicited offers (and if you read my previous post, you know how I feel about cold calls, cold emails aren’t much different). While I do not know this specific translator, I have to admit that his replies were a little, well - read for yourself: Entspammung vor dem Wochenende - blog post is German, sorry for that.
BTW, I don’t think either of them was right or wrong, but man, did that go wrong :p
Thomas, if you read this, most of us are actually pretty nice and competent. Feel free to ask me if you ever need a good, friendly translator - you name the topic 
Cold callers asking for call-back
Is this normal? I am receiving an unsolicited call from a translation agency which I have never done business with. The name appeared on the caller ID so I didn’t pick up. The caller left a message, asking me to call him back. Is this normal? Why would I want to call him back? Usually, cold callers will just try again, but not ask you to call them.
I hope this doesn’t go around, and next I have Planned Parenthood, the local Police Department, the local Fire Department, Clean Water Action, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and what not call and ask me to call them back. Now, don’t get me wrong - I would like to get this message and then be able to decide whether I call back or not. And of course, if I DON’T call back, they should take the hint that I am not interested. But they don’t and just keep calling.
In recent days, this procedure and the whole “charities begging for money thing” has actually turned me away from giving money to anyone. If you give something once, they will call you every other month and ask for more. And they will not take No for an answer.