Blacklist C

Capita Translation and Interpreting (UK)

Greedy irresponsible company, now collapsing due to a BOYCOTT from interpreters

News 26/11/2013: 

http://www.exaronews.com/articles/4963/capita-contract-for-court-interpreters-veers-towards-collapse

It looks like this company is finally getting the backlash they deserve for its unprofessional practises and greediness. The boycott (due their decision to cut transport cost and low rates of 20 pounds an hour) of Interpreters has had a serious effect on their reputation and they are on the verge of collapsing. 

Their history so far: "Capita is the company that acquired Applied Language Solutions in Dec 2011.They subsequently were granted the exclusive interpreting contract for British criminal courts, and then bungled the job to a fair-the-well through poor decisions (cut interpreter rates, refusing to pay travel) and management, resulting in the current mess in court interpreting in the UK. I refuse to work with them on those grounds alone.They also have a poor payment record (to be fair, some of which was inherited from ALS) but there have also been several negative reports on Payment Practices and other forums since the takeover. Subscribers can see details on: 

http://www.paymentpractices.net/Subscribers/Agency.aspx?id=6242.

June 2014: Crapita rates:

"I was recently contacted by Capita for ongoing translation work for the Ministry of Justice at a fairly offensive rate of:

"These projects are paid at £50 per thousand words of translation and £2/4 per minute of audio for gist/full transcription"

I still wanted to give it a try, so I translated the test piece, passed, and was then asked to submit a (non-refundable) £75 Enhanced Criminal Bureau Check. Has any of you ever worked for this agency and do you think it is worth the investment?"  Link to discussion

CD Translations UK (Payment delays)

Report on LinkedIn: "I did my first job for this agency in May. Communication seemed really efficient and professional. They had no track record on The BlueBoard, nor on Translator's Café so I went a head, confident that no news is good news.
The invoice was sent a few days later and reception of said invoice confirmed.
In July, the invoice was 2 weeks overdue, so I sent them a reminder. Again the response was reassuring.
Yesterday, much to my dismay I find that the invoice still hasn't been paid. I send a new reminder threatening legal action, and get a prompt answer accusing me of not having responded to an e-mail sent from the accountant in July (an e-mail that never reached me). I do want to believe them, but being 2 months behind on a payment of 1300 Euros is not reassuring."

Payment issued 2 months 10 days late. Read this discussion on Linkedin

Century (UK) - Low rates (3 euro cents)

The translation was highly technical and these people had a "budget" of 3 cents per word (which, should work out at about 3 euros an hour). When this translator refused the job, so they granted her a generous 4 cts instead, which she again refused. It is not an unusual story but at least now you know what to expect from Century translations. Her story in French :

"Ils m'ont proposé 0,03 euro par mot source, de l'anglais au français, pour de la traduction très technique. Ils ont finalement accepté 0,04 à condition que je garantisse une bonne qualité... J'ai refusé bien sûr."

Choice Translations (to avoid)

Choice Translations Ltd, Macclesfield, Cheshire

Clarktranslation.com (Bianca Clark - non-payer)

Not to be confused with 'clarktranslations.net', which is a reputable company

"Fast forward to today, after numerous emails, phone calls and messages to which I and other translators who worked for this agency have received no replies, the website has now gone down and all emails are being bounced. My invoice is now over 2 months overdue and I'm really unhappy about this. For reference, the agency was Clark Translation, run by Bianca Clark. I've still not managed to get in contact with her and the invoice is still overdue, which is why I'm now putting her name and the name of the agency out there."

Read more on LinkedIn

Clarus Language Solutions - Valencia, CA, USA (Late payer)

From a Payment Practises site : " I did a couple of jobs for Clarus Language Solutions last year. Mike Devlin is very pleasant to work with, but I had to email him multiple times over several months in order to get paid.

Clevoo, Germany (non-payer)

Their "offer": 

"Clevoo was founded in Germany with the motto of
"facilitating the way you translate". You can visit our website to get a detailed information about us.

As for my request, we have recieved a document from a
worldwide recognized company in the construction field. Could you translate the document from Russian to English at 0.04$ per word ? The document contains 10.000 words and must be completed until
19.11.2014 at 11.00 am CET. If you are interested, feel free to send your CV to "saygin@clevoo.com".

I countered with my "best rate" of $0.14 per word and asked for 50% in advance, pointing out that it was an "urgent" job and that the company is not registered on ProZ.com.. I knew there was no chance I would be offered the job, and I probably wouldn't take it even at that rate because of the deadline. I just wanted to make a point that $0.04 per word is unacceptable." (source: Linkedin thread)

Email 20/01/15

I would like to add Clevoo Gmbh (which is already on your list) as a non-payer.

I was contacted by Mr Saygin through TCafe in late November and we agreed on a per 1000 source characters (no space) rate. I completed the project and was offered another one in early December. (Two scanned reports) 

I could not take on the entire project due to my schedule and said so to Mr Saygın but he offered me 80k characters from it (20 pages from each reports, I could not put them throught a CAT tool as they were scanned but my rough estimate is that there were about 8-10k character repetitions and about 15-20k character fuzzy matches) As I don't typically give discounts for scanned files and was offered 80k characters I took the project and delivered it.

Roughly a week after delivery, I was contacted by Mr Dereli (their CEO according to their Linkedin profile) who asked me not to invoice them for the parts I "copy&pasted." I declined and said that I would charge the originally agreed amount. I did not hear back from him and thought it was settled.

At the end of December I invoiced the original amount (in addition to other projects that we did together) after which he said that I was unprofessional for having invoiced the project twice(!) despite his warnings and that they would not be able to make any payment or send me any work unless I fixed my mistake.

I wrote a Blue Board entry at http://www.proz.com/blueboard/42080 and a bad rating at http://www.translatorscafe.com/cafe/MegaBBS/forumthread25196.htm regarding this issue and not only did he ask me to remove them but he also threathened me that they would write false-accusations on my LWA record unless I removed them.

I am now preparing to take legal action against them, which sadly seems to be the only viable option now.

I will provide updates on this matter."

Codemasters Software Ltd, UK (non payers)

Email 27/10/14:

I would like to share this information on your page:

"Codemasters Software Ltd., UK are non-payers. 

Finance manager Rashid Aracha does not answer e-mails. I have been waiting for payment of 4 invoices since May 2014. (Six months) Do not work for them, you will not get paid."

Email 17/12/14:

"Dear Translation Ethics Team,
I have the same experience as the first translator who reported Codemasters' practices (non-paying).

In July 2014 I was approached by their senior localisation manager, Daniel Schaefers (daniel.schaefers@codemasters.com), who was the main contact person, assisted by Amandine Mairiaux (amandine.mairiaux@codemasters.com). Schaefers negotiated the rates with me, accepted them and sent me the vendor's contract. Mairiaux was responsible for offering and confirming new orders as well as issuing job summaries at the end of each month which I used to issue my invoices for their financial department. Everything seemed fine initially - all translations were accepted and all have been used in their products and materials (although they modified a few sentences making them ungrammatical, clearly without any knowledge of the target language and without consulting it with me in the first place, but that's another issue).

However, the first response from their financial department (Jane Defeo <jane.defeo@codemasters.com>) concerning the first overdue invoice read:
"I am really sorry for the late response i have requested a payment date for these invoice but as yet have not received a date.
Once i have received a date i will let you know".

The only response afterwards (from softwareinvoices@codemasters.com) came a week later and was written in the same vein:
"I have pass a requested for a payment date for this invoice, once i have received the date i will let you know".

All three summary invoices I have issued for them were not paid at all (the first one is three months overdue now). The routine looks as follows: their localisation manager claims he doesn't know a thing and sends you back to their financial department, their financial department does not answer at all. Don't be deceived by their phony friendliness and relative (and gradually fading) prestige of their brand and ongoing releases of their new products. They simply do not pay translators and it seems they constantly seek new ones to work for free. I stopped working with them and I'm in the process of issuing legal actions against Codemasters. Stay away from them."

ComTranslations, India 

Scammers: have their payment avoidance techniques and offer the insulting rate 2,5 dollars a min for subtitling

Contact person there: jagdeep.singh@comtranslations.com

Translator's report : "To request the payment of your current earnings, you need to have reached a minimum of $100 for translations and $50 for subtitling.) .... 

Ils paient USD 5,00 par chaque 2 minutes de sous-titres."

New thread: LinkedIn, april 2014

"Pay 3 cents a word, pretend there are problems with the quality to get a 50 per cent discount  and so on..."

Comment left  by D.C, 13/03/14:

"Hi all,
I was just just checking the list and saw that ComTranslations were mentioned for trying to avoid payment and ridiculous rates. I have had a short and not so sweet story with ComTranslations and they were a month overdue with paying my work of translating subtitles into Danish for House of Cards. Since the whole new season was just about to go public on Netflix on Feb 14, I sent them an email on Feb 12, telling them that my lawyer had advised me to get Netflix to hold back the Danish season because of their missing copyrights (belonging to me until full payment). I had my money in my account the next day. Just saying. You DO have weapons. ;-) "

Email 02/02/15

"When I started working for Comtranslations I did a quick check on the internet, found this but really nothing out of the ordinary, terrible pay of course but they seemed legit. They are not, they're awful.
They did not pay me in time, they were a month late (and they do not pay you until 90 days after your invoice gets approved anyway, so in this case 4 months after I hade submitted my claim) and their excuse was that they did not have the sufficient funds in USD at the time. After another month when I threatened to take legal acton they all of a sudden had the money. Now when another invoice is due they apparently (three months after the translation was done and approved AND broadcasted) have found lots of grammatical errors and other mistakes and will not pay until I have redone all of the episodes I have already translated, it's all a part of their agenda to avoid paying for the work that has been done. Please do NOT work for these people."  

5/05/15

'I am surprised that this black list still has no ComTranslations, Madrid (Spain). Actually, ComTranslations has 3 branches : United States, Spain and India. Apart from Jagdeep Singh, please be careful with Kelly O’Donovan (kelly.odonovan@comtranslations.com) and Samuel Sandifer (samuel.sandifer@comtranslations.com or info@comtranslations.com). Please also be careful with all emails sent by ComTranslations : they are the same scammer team! Many translators lose time and money because of this company.'

 

Common Space LLC  (Offensive rates)

"Common Space LLC's rates are offensive"

Context GmbH  (Non payer)

"We have had massive problems with payments. Big translations, but no money and a lot of excuses... Google listing n 1 ads"

Convocco (see ALS, same company)

Conyac, Japan (Tokyo) 

The're out CONya! Exploit low paid non-pros, insanely low 5 dollars per 1000 words, NOW charging their translfreelancers!

 

This is a scam agency that hires non-professionals (no degrees needed, pay them by "points" (500 signs: 5 dollars) and promises to be the fastest agency in the world. There is no email or adress to contact them on the website). Here are some shameless explanations on their website: 

 

"What is Conyac? > Conyac is a human-powered translation service that anyone can join.  

It's true, anyone can work for them, and i signed in 2 seconds without showing proof of my degrees.

 "Simple and Fast Translation:  >Where normal translation agency and online translation takes more than 3 hours to get your results back, "Conyac" can provide you with your results 15 minutes, the fastest. "

" There are thousands of translators from all over the world ready to process your request."

Mail received one week only after I signed in (with the intent of publishing more on this blog):

"Hello,

Thank you for signing up with Conyac.

We've noticed that you haven't logged in for a while.

Have a little spare time?

Why not translate at Conyac and earn yourself some extra money.

Link: https://conyac.cc/translators

Why translate at Conyac?

You can work as often as you want during your spare time.

If you have a laptop, a tablet or a smartphone, you can work from virtually anywhere.

Use your language skills to earn a little extra money during your free time."

 So yes, this is what it sounds like for them: a little job on the side for anyone with a tablet and vague notions of 2 languages. You have a little spare time, why not earn some wee pocket money? Pretty insulting...

If you are looking for "pocket money" here is what you ll get with them:

"you got a new translation request on Conyac.

From: English

To: French

Letters: 662

Reward: 66

https://conyac.cc/questions/158378/work?utm_medium=email&utm_source=conyac

----------------------------------------------------

Many translators are waiting for your review. Review for them now 

  English => French

  https://conyac.cc/translations/12215/reviews"

So 10 points for each 100 letters, that means you'll need to translate 5000 letters to get the 500 points which are worth 5 dollars. So 5000 signs = roughly 1000 words, that's about 5 dollars per 1000 words instead of 120 dollars (normal pro price). It would be much more profitable doing nothing. 

New: Read here all about Conyac they try to con you with their test system

February 2015: 

<Notice>Starting from today, Conyac will take a fee for Market Applications

Thank you for always using Conyac.(日本語続きます)
Since the Market feature has been released, from today, Conyac will take the application fee as below when you get a job on Conyac Market.
Please keep in mind that there will be an application fee when you apply.

If you live in Japan・・・10% fee ＋ Consumption tax
If you live outside of Japan・・・10%
※For example, if you apply for $100, you will get $90.

If you are handling a job right now, please contact to the requester directly about the application fee.

If you have anything unclear about the Market feature, please also check the Market FAQ below.
http://help.conyac.cc/customer/en/portal/topics/740432

Thank you,
Conyac Team

Copypanthers, Istanbul, Turkey 

Crowdsourcer, promise peanuts, and don't pay them + don't pay "reps", ie -30%

Another intruding broker with low practices. A virtual company with  5000 likes on Facebook. Thanks Facebook for making all this crowdsourcing possible. Their modo: "Let's put everyone (Translators, proofreaders and writers) in the same basket, pay them peanuts, and stuff our pockets in the meantime".

Comment from translator: "They pay translators per hour and charge clients per word.What they are doing is using people with no experience or skills and 'train' them to become 'great' translators."

Website: "Our offer is simple: we help you monetize your language assets: you can work as much as you want and we pay you 30.5 Turkish Lira (±11 Euro) per hour. It's also great as an extra boost for your income. Register now at http://www.copypanthers.com  Translator, proofreader and writer jobs. Sign up and get work today! copypanthers.com

If language is your thing, whether it is as a writer, translator or proofreader, we have the jobs for you! Sign up and start getting jobs this week. *****"

Read more on LinkedIn

Recent report: "Their rates are indeed ridiculously dump-priced (less than 0,03e per source word). I have to admit I've done some work for them since I have quite little experience as a freelance translator with translating as a main occupation. In addition to their low rates, their word counting practices were to me surprising: they counted almost a third as repeats, even when I had to revise and edit the "repeats" for suitability in context and click through the whole document. And as a topping, the peanuts they'd pay for several hours of work, they haven't paid yet...
I prefer to be anonymous but thought it's worth having word spread. Thanks for your blog. It helps me a lot in this jungle. "

Corporate translations (pharmaceutical), USA.  

Loss of professionalism: fixed price, no selection anymore, rushed translations

Now assigning projects to the first translator available: turnaround time becomes the most important factor. They just select a translation selecting the most suitable translator. Here is their announcement:

"Corporate Translations has recently been selected as the preferred supplier for a number of large pharmaceutical companies and their clinical research organizations. As a result, we have more work to outsource to our freelance linguists.
Being a preferred supplier of translation services to major pharmaceutical companies comes with additional commitments such as stable pricing and faster translation turnaround times. In order to meet these commitments, Corporate Translations is currently improving its process for placing projects with individual translators in order to accommodate these important customers. Reducing the amount of time spent placing translations will provide you with more job opportunities and more time to complete the translations.

Corporate Translations will now be issuing service requests in a slightly different way. Service requests will now be offered to you at a flat rate, which will be clearly marked on the request. In addition, these service requests will be offered to a small group of linguists at one time with an acceptance deadline. The first linguist to commit to the service request will be issued a purchase order signifying that they have been assigned the project. This will result in service requests being placed sooner, allowing you the maximum amount of time possible to complete the translation task and still meet the client's deadline."

Cosmic Global  (Low rates and unsafe deals)

"Cosmic Global as a company is unfortunately a joke. I received a similar offer months ago asking if I could do a 250k word translation. Payment would have been 30 days AFTER I would have returned the whole translation.

very polite Cosmic Global: 0,04English -> Dutch -I think not !

...Kindly let us know if you could accept 0.04 Euro per word for translation.Hope to work with you in our project.Awaiting your response. Thanks & regards, Prasath. V Resource Dept Cosmic Global Limited"

Cosmopolitan Translation Bureau, Inc.

Chicago Illinois, USA (scam, non-payers)

http://cosmopolitantranslation.net

They accept a semi-decent rate, and are agreeable over the phone at first, sending newcomers to the market a lot of work all at once.  Then they don't pay.  They have no intention of ever paying.  

Phone calls were ignored, as were messages and emails.  The "secretary" was belligerent and rude over the phone.  

I finally got paid when I informed them I would be filing taxes (in the US) including a 1099 Business Loss form.  The US IRS considers any money not paid to me by Cosmopolitan to be income Cosmopolitan must declare.  I got a check within a week.  I posted about the situation on a Proz forum and immediately got several responses from people asking if it was Cosmopolitan.  After someone suggested the 1099 trick, many of us got paid.  Several interpreters in Chicago were attempting to put together a suit.  I know the company has had to change names a few times because it has been sued before."

S.S, Email 14/04/14

Coté, Pierre, Montréal (Non-payer)

From WPPF, 7649:

"Coté has been refusing to pay $3000 several years ago.
I managed to find his (undisclosed) new address and sue him formally. Eventually an audience is scheduled in Montreal, in October. Any details about him (possible misconduct elsewhere, professional details etc.) are welcome. And reciprocally I can supply details. Please contact me personally.
Thanks
JFD"

Cristal Traduceri (Low rates)

Another shameless translation agency - from Romania: Cristal Traduceri offering € 0.02 to € 0.045 per word for IT-related translations in...

Email 12/01/15:

"I have read you Website and noticed that a few people got taken by CristalTrans.com. After many months of research I have found the real identity of the fraudster and I would like as many victims as possible to contact me so we can sue the bastard who took us for a ride. I was defrauded of 24,000 USD…

Please can you either contact them or post something to that effect.

It wouldn’t be much but if one of these guy goes to prison, maybe we can slow down their expansion. Please advise."

Sincerely,

Sylvie Chartier, CD, C. Tr./trad. a.

(Contact Sylvie through her website)

Crystal Hues, India (Low rates)

Read report

Cutting Edge

Very low rates amongst others

"This agency will pay you 0.02 USD per word for medical files."  http://www.translatorscafe.com/cafe/tools.asp?pn=fameagencies

Email 7/11/14:

"I was a long term employee there, it was so disgusting i couldnt help quitting. Just google "watch out for cosmic global " it will direct you to another translator's experience. I was very much working there when that disgusting incident happened. 

Here is how they withold translators payments.  They have a bunch of editors who are asked to cook up quality reports and also supposed adverse feedbacks from clients are forwarded to the translators and their payments are cancelled. Plus they deduct taxes despite their cheap rates and the taxes dont go to the government.

It is a company which was created to cover the income tax frauds of its parent company i.e tulsyan steel. It has the worst employment practices. People who are knowledgable are not hired, and useless cheap quality workers are hired.  

Its CEO Raman Talwar is the greatest fraud at loggerheads with the law yet to be discovered.  They have a one room office with a single computer at UK which they claim as the front office. 

Their labor turnover is horrendous.

They hire cheap translators and turnout shoddy stuff, have some kind of staff to check the quality, invariably they lose clients like anything.

Though it is a loss making company they have a few stooges in their office who are paid hefty for licking Raman Talwar's boots.  

Worst of all They have a sick casting couch culture."