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 
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10 Responses to “Client ranting about translation service”
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Thank you, Susanne!
Du hast mein Bild von Übersetzern wieder ein wenig aufgebessert…
Hi Susanne,
Unbelievable! I’m really ashamed that this person calls himself a professional translator. But I hope Thomas Kilian (by the way, that’s a good blog!) won’t think we translators are all like that. Some of us are, you know, quite pleasant to interact with and don’t even demand our clients should speak our native language.
Have a nice weekend!
I do know this specific translator, and unfortunately this behavior is rather typical of him. I’ve had a few years of correspondence with him, and numerous clients of mine have had unfortunate contacts with him. He is one of those persons who is miserably unsuccessful and blames the world rather than look at what he could do to improve himself and his business. After years of occasional correspondence in which I made tactful suggestions about possible marketing approaches (he favored mass spam and odd experiments with Google), he snapped one day and berated me in a very nasty way for promising him work but never following through. (I never made such a promise. I have never seen the man’s work, but I dislike his attitude so much that I would not hire him if I had to.) He went on to rant about how so many translators talk about how it is possible to earn a good living, but people also talk about the Loch Ness Monster. “Show me the Loch Ness Monster!” he wrote, basically calling my bluff. Well, my patience with this idiot was pretty much at an end, so I did exactly as he requested. I sent him my detailed German business plan with all my private financial information and certified accountant’s statements. He went nuclear, of course, but it was fun to watch in a sick sort of way.
Wow, that was an interesting post. I have seen the gentleman’s posts on various Zahlungspraxis groups but have never had any contact with him. Kevin, you are absolutely precious. The cited excerpts from the e-mails remind me of another translator who shall remain nameless who got kicked off the GLD list and just about every other translation site for bad behavior. Would it kill people to show a little respect to colleagues and possible clients?
It amazes me how some translators are absolutely overwhelmed with work while others complain about having no work. Sending out resumes and being easy to work with would be a great start.
Very interesting - I have blogged it. I only know the translator in question from his participation in KudoZ on ProZ, where I didn’t always agree with his answers.
That German marketing blog that Susanne linked looks rather good. I particularly liked some of the more recent posts like Altkundenmagnet and the comments about people blaming the great “crisis” for any trouble they have.
Unfortunately, there are all too many people with attitudes like our “colleague” RS. (Most of them, fortunately, are not in desperate need of psychiatric help.) If you look at the forums in places like ProZ, where I hang out more often than I really should as part of some research work for a writing project, every week you’ll see new threads with titles like “Have you been forced to cut your rates yet?”. Or the usual perennial bitching about how hard it is to acquire new customers. (Once in a while I’ll look at the profiles and CVs of the loudest complainers, and the problems become apparent quickly.)
Their perpetual negative attitudes and unwillingness to confront basic business issues in a realistic way are really poisonous. That’s true whether you are a freelancer or an employee I think. Who the Hell wants to work with someone who has an attitude like that? And these Sad Sacks cause unnecessary consternation and panic among others whose confidence is a bit shaky and offer them excuses to avoid taking necessary steps.
Wow, this translator’s behavior certainly gives our recent experience a run for its money. We blogged about something very similar to this a few weeks ago, where a translator based in Austria berated one of our favorite clients (who is the world’s nicest guy). The translator’s unacceptable behavior luckily had professional consequences and resulted in a warning from the translator organization, as it should have.
The sad thing is that it is people like the two folks we just mentioned who sometimes manage to taint our profession’s image. Luckily, the very vast majority of translators are serious professionals, and I am proud and honored to be part of a strong professional group. In our business, your reputation is one of your most important assets, and I am delighted to see that unprofessional folks quickly get the reputation they deserve.
@Kevin: Danke für die Blumen!
Ich weiß nicht, ob das so eine gute Idee ist, eine Privatperson namentlich in einem derartigen Blogpost zu nennen und zum Affen zu machen, egal ob vielleicht zu Recht .
Zudem auch nicht ungefährlich, da kann man auch mal an den Falschen geraten, aber unabhängig von der Rechtslage. Es gibt offenbar Leute, die machen sowas und denken sich nicht mal was dabei, und es gibt Leute wie mich, die machen sowas bestimmt nicht.
Das steht erstmal an erster Stelle, alle anderen Fragen danach, ohne Namen von Privatpersonen. Ich kann’s kaum glauben, dass das hier einfach so durchgeht.
I don’t really agree - to me, he is not a private person but a company representative who is talking to a client on behalf of the company. I would not have used his full name in a blog post (and I didn’t) but nevertheless I believe the translator did not show good judgment during the email conversation.
My main point: we translators talk about clients being rude, demanding or condescending to us - this was just an example from the other POV.