Translation agencies blacklist




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87 comments:

Anonymous said...

A very useful list! As the French say: "Un homme prevenu en vaut deux". Just in case...Thank you.

Mark Saw said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Thanks for this list. Very helpful to navigate in the agencies jungle

Translationethics said...

You're very welcome!

Unknown said...

Vincenza Frioli
I thank you very much for having shared this list and for your commitment.

Anonymous said...

¡Gracias! Datos super interesantes...Los compartiré en mi Facepage...https://www.facebook.com/pages/Luisa-Vey%C3%A1n-Santana-Traductora-e-Int%C3%A9rprete/208366759283037

Unknown said...

im interested in know information about spanish agencies. THANKS

Translationethics said...

Hi! I am also interested in getting more information on them, as I believe there are many spanish translators viewing this page. I have had italian translators sending their own blacklists hence the high representation of italian agnecies in the blacklist. Feel free to share them with me by private email, thanks!

Lasse said...

Thank you for the list. I have actually worked for several of these companies, and share your judgement.

Anonymous said...

IT would be very important to add a date to any company issue to track the history of the related problem

João Roque Dias said...

Thank you for publishing this valuable information. And, thank you also for mentioning my TRANSLATOR SCAMMERS DIRECTORY.

Translationethics said...

Thanks for your support Joao and for initiating your blog I recommend it to everyone in the business as it's a precious resource. Keep up the good work!

Aurora Humarán said...

THANK YOU!
I have already subscribed, and liked you in FB.

Krzysiek said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Claudia said...

Excellent! Thank you!

Anonymous said...

I want to add a translation agency in Argentina called TRADUXPRESS. this woman is called Marita Sanchez, or Maria Concepcion or M. Schmidt. She didn't finish payment, never sent invoices or answered calls or e-mails. Her address is a fake.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing the list. It confirms my experience of Capita (formerly ALS) and thebigword.

Renate Radziwill-Rall said...

Great, thank you. I will contribute to this.

Anonymous said...

I want to add a translation agency in Barcelona : AGENCIA GMCA, the man is called Mauricio Fuertes (ag.gmca@gmail.com). He asked me a short translation but he didn't pay me and never answered my e-mails. Others translators had the same bad experience.

Anonymous said...

I was surprised not to find SEPROTEC in your list. A Spanish agency, it has spread all over the world, with headquarters in the world's most expensive cities. It has won all public tenders from the Spanish Ministry of Justice and Police for years, paying court and police interpreters 8 euro per hour rates while the Spanish Administration was paying them 50 euro per interpreting hour.
Recently, they campaigned to get Translation and Interpreting BA students to do their work placements with them, offering a 300 per month fee and promising to hire them as in-house staff after the placement. Students were asked to do legal translation, which in Spain is a regulated profession that only sworn translators can perform.
Recently the Supreme Court in Catalonia has admitted a sue against them for presenting false documents in order to win public tenders in the Spanish administration; these are precisely the CV's of qualified translators and interpreters who never worked for them.

Translationethics said...

I have not found much information but I'd be willing to publish your comment if you provide links/additional documentation on these. Thanks

Translationethics said...

Feel free to send an email with more info on them (translationethics@gmail.com)

Unknown said...

Thank you for this precious list,, have added this to my personal list. I would like to add BEOIMPIGRA or IMPIGRA owned by Svetlana Vraneš from Serbia - a major non-payer (owes many sworn translators thousands of Euros) - I have been contacted by some of the mentioned agencies, but, fortunately, saw their rating as non-payers and refused to work with them. I can heartily advise all colleagues to accept the practice of checking all new job offers against such lists & directories before accepting any jobs - not to be afraid that they'll loose it for a bit later reply. However, be careful with auto-refusal: not all the listed are scammers or non-payers - some of them just offer lower rates which they pay regularly (though a bit later, sometimes). Dixit, for example, pays regularly, and their rates are decent for the small jobs they offer - the problem with them is that their jobs are auctioned and one should react within seconds after receiving job notification-I lost many in a few seconds.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Who qualifies for this list?
Any agency paying unfair retribution
What is an unfair retribution/low rate ?
A minimum rate for someone living in Europe should be 10 Eurocent per word.


Sorry, but this statement is too extreme.
I work at 6.5 to 9 eurocent with European and non European agencies, and I don't think those agencies should qualify for this black list, nor those rates are unfair.

Unknown said...

Thank you very much for this list!! Really interesting!!

Unknown said...

Hi there,
I am a professional translator and I would like to thank you for this great resource. Regarding Seprotec, the problem is they still operate mainly in Spain, so a lot of the information regarding their activities is mainly in Spanish. They have, however, been linked to severe shortcomings in court interpreting services in high-profile cases (the Prestige oil spill, the Operación Puerto doping scandal), as well as poor rates and delayed payment. See below some articles in Spanish:
http://www.asetrad.org/index.asp?op=12&detalle=272&pag=y
http://www.europapress.es/madrid/noticia-seprotec-defiende-informe-luna-asegurando-presta-servicios-toda-normalidad-madrid-20100212132625.html
http://www.alejandrocarantonna.es/blog/2010/02/11/seprotec-mon-amour/
http://accionsindicalenseprotec.blogspot.es/

Translationethics said...

Hello, 10 cents is what we should get paid. I agree that this does not correspond to the reality of things but as freelancers, we should make an effort to choose our rates ourselves. Also you will notice I am not listing agencies offering between 6 and 9 cents, that would be most of them;) however rates under 6 cents are unacceptable, for European translators that is, in my opinion, especially when you take off taxes. That's almost voluntary work.

Translationethics said...

Please provide more info by email, thanks!

P Diane Schneider said...

http://mltnews.com/mlt-resident-pleads-guilty-theft-charges-state-labor-industries-billing-case/#.UpLJe-opmYM.email

Unknown said...

This is an interesting list, but I think you should warn people not to take its content too serioulsy. The bad experiences of a few people must indeed be taken into consideration, but they do not mean a company has to be completely avoided because of these bad experiences. For exapmple, I work for Protranslating, and I have never been offered a rate of US$0,04. When I started, with no experience at all exept for university classes, they offered me US$0,10, for translation only (no editing, no formating of documents). I've been working for them for three years now, I am paid by the week (US$750), I am treated professionnaly and I work within a great team of people. My project manager changed once, only because the former one changed job for personnal reasons.

All that to say that I love that company and wouldn't work for any other one. I am not saying the person who complained is lying, but they just had a bad experience. People, give these companies a chance and see for yourself.

Translationethics said...

Hi José, thanks for sharing!

Translationethics said...

Hi Aurore, your experience is very relevant here, because it shows that low rates are not a fatality, and that if someone gets a bad rate with one agency, it's only because he or she accepted it! Agencies don't indeed pay everyone the same thing: therefore we should always negociate higher rates, whatever our language pair is!

Translationethics said...

Thank you Diane!

Valeria said...

I confirm position of ARAXI TRADUCTIONS - FRANCE. They owe me almost € 1600 and have totally disappeared from the internet! I am presently asking a lawyer to get information about them...
VTM TRADUCE di Valeria Maria Tafel - Pisa (Italy

Unknown said...

Hello dear colleagues (un)fortunately I'm not the only translator in that case: Araxi owes me almost 1,800€, Valeria you summarized it all... Do they still exist... I'm still sending emails almost everyday and posting bad comments and complaints on every useful website. Thinking of getting a lawyer too but I've never done this before, if you have any advice, we could help each other maybe! All the best. Eva Delacoute

Anonymous said...

Eva, Valeria, get together and share the legal costs, search out others who are owed monies from this agency and you become more powerful. Individually you will be at the bottom of the creditors list and receive nothing (if you ever track them down and win), as a group your total debt will be higher pushing you up the creditors list. Just an idea.

Anonymous said...

Thank you very much for this valuable list.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Hi, Even I want to know about PantransNet of Korea. are they paying? just want to know in detail.

J. Roque Dias said...

About 24 Translate Agency / Reham (in fact, Reham Abu Ghali): besides their insulting rates, these people belong to the Language Met / Translation Secrets / MuchDo scamming ring, which base their "operation" on the stealing and hijacking to translators CVs. More info on my TRANSLATOR SCAMMERS DIRECTORY (see Note 52): http://www.jrdias.com/jrd-translator-scammers.htm

Anonymous said...

Elanex should not be on the blacklist.

They are the only agency I know that is willing to pay you before they get paid by their clients. Rates are good and PMs are some of the best I've worked with.

As for that contract, it refers to exact and fuzzy matches they generate with their in-house program. It has nothing to do with translators using CAT tools.

Translationethics said...

Dear 30B7.... , I know plenty of agencies willing to pay translators before they get paid by their clients. In fact it is ILLEGAL not to pay a contractor until you get paid by your client. The fact that an agency doesn't get paid is their problem, not the translators. Not paying a translator is service theft. Let's admit you are an agency: if you decide of a low overall budget price before finding a translator for it: it's your problem if you can't find one, and if the work you get is unprofessional, well, don't be surprised, its your recruiting that is at fault. Hire better translators next time. If your client doesn't like the translation, that's because he's no fool, and it's because you're at fault in recruiting incompetent contractors. Recruitment is what you DO right? since you don't know much about the language work or actual translation insights.

So if the client doesn't pay, that is also the result of the risks you took by trying to provide cheap translation and get a commission on this small price. But you still owe the incompetent translator what you bought from them, a cheap service. Not paying them is service theft. Paying them too late is an infraction too. Does that make sense to you?

The other problem reported with Elanex: they impose CAT tools discounts. It should be discussed with the translator not imposed. So it HAS something to do with the translators because they paid even less.

But please if anything was misunderstood, don't hesitate to be more specific.

Translationethics said...

Thanks Joao, I've added your comment under their section.

Unknown said...

BE AWARE OF DODGY TRANSLATION MILLS http://www.worldnewstomorrow.com/?p=8466

Unknown said...

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. ;-)

Ròisein said...

Hi

I saw that you have listed Diamond Translation. I was offered normal rates by this agency, did lots of work for them (and am still to this date fighting for payment). But recently, the same "project manager" (only with a different spelling) seems to have forgotten he has already "used me", started sending POs from a different company altogether, CristalTrans, which is also a scam. I have foudn several websites which discuss this issue, so be careful! They also seem to have a profile on Proz.

Ana said...

What is the suggestion for a freelance starting in the business? I have a degree in Translation, 4 years in college, but only now, after 8 years, I started working as a full-time translator. For me, the rate of 0.03 euros seems to be fair for someone starting to get experience. In Brazil it would be around 5k reais a month, which seems not too bad until you build your own list of clients and get enough experience to be able to charge more. I have come across companies offering 0.007 dollars a word. That is absurd indeed. Could you give me some advice?

Translationethics said...

Ana, I mentioned rates at the beginning of the list. 10 cents per word is decent but 3 isn't... Just ask the professional association in your country what the standards are. Because you are providing cheap labour and breaking the market. But in some countries it might seem acceptable. Not in Europe. Half of what you make goes to tax too. Better raise up that bar very quick and you'll be doing yourself and your fellow translators a favour.

Ana said...

10 cents euros in Brazil is the standard rate, agencies charge the client that, which is 0,35 reais a word. So, if I do not have experience, I cannot charge that yet, right? I completely agree that, for very experienced translators, 3 cents of euros is too low, especially if you live in Europe, but I don't think some agencies should be in the black list for only having low rates. It is up to the translator to accept it or not. The new translators have to start in some way and those agencies give them that opportunity. Trainee translators in Brazil, working in-house, make 400 euros in Brazil, totally absurd! Nobody can pay bills with that, but most of the great translators started out like that. Sure, I would love to be making 10 cents of euros a word and I am working my way there, but it seems impossible for me to even have an opportunity charging that. I am just saying that there are not a lot of fair opportunities either for new translators with a Bachelor's degree, but with no practical experience. How can we change that? We don't even have the chance to show our talent or good skills charging 10 cents. After a year working for 3 to 5 cents, maybe we can charge 10. So, that is why it is not fair to include such agencies in the black list for only having low rates. If they don't pay, are rude, unprofessional or humiliate the translators, that is something else. It is easy for the translators that already have years of experience to criticize. I work for an agency that made available to me 4 types of CAT tools and said I could use them to work with other agencies without any problem and they pay 3 cents of euros a word. Because of those CAT tools that I could not afford, I got approved in another agency that pays 5 cents. How can I complain about that? Once I show my work, have enough years of experience and have enough references, I believe I can charge 10 cents (in Brazil, only to direct clients). I am just venting the lack of opportunities for new translators like me. I appreciate if the experienced ones can give me advices and I do value all the great translators and do think we all should have fair rates, even the unexperienced ones.

Translationethics said...

Hi Ana,
This rate I mention is for Europe as I said, since I don't know other markets. If life is cheaper in other countries, then it's possible to make a living on a lower rate. I agree that it is not easy to start with high rate. But 7 cents is not high where i live. It's bordeline low. It is then important to keep raising your rates all the time, because you are your own boss at the end of the day, and no one will if you don't. As long as you don't get stuck in the low rates forever, because that is a major risk when you give your client bad habits. When I started, the situation was already bad, but I set my min at 6,5 cents a word with agencies and 10 with direct clients, then raised my rates progressively, because I could not stand the feeling of being willingly exploited. The mistake is to position yourself as a cheap/beginner translator. It lowers your reputation from scratch. Then I also don't believe that new transators are less valuable than experienced ones. When you start, you are even more concerned about the quality and the result, since you're trying to impress, and you give your best. I do not think people under 30 are ready for translation. It requires some life experience and maturity, so I'm not sure someone fresh out of college with no life experience in the country of their source language can be good at all, honestly. When I started 3 years ago was already very experienced in both my languages, with a literary and linguistic background, life abroad and such, so the translations were quite good from the beginning. I did not struggle to understand the source language. Anyway about low rates, I could not provide poor quality because I got a miserable pay, that is just out of the question for me, so I don't take low paying jobs and now fix my min rate to 8 cents. That still equals overall to a min wage where I live. My only advice to beginners is just to not accept the low paying jobs. The worst you can do to your pairs is to provide great quality to a low paying client. That really ruins the market, and settles them in, gives them more clients. It's pretty mad but frankly, if you're going to accept a low rate, you are way better off providing a crap translation and ruin the low payers' reputation. I'm not really sure what else to add, that was just my own perspective of things. Hope this helps, Ana

Ana said...

I completely agree with you! I am just starting in the career as a full-time translator and graduated in 2005. I have years of experience working for multinational companies, dealing with English the majority of the time, have also lived abroad for years and am over 30. Still, it is not good enough in the beginning. Well, at least I am starting to have great feedback and I hope I can start charging 10 cents soon. Thank you so much for all the comments and I do love your blog!

Anonymous said...

Hi, I just added a link to your blacklist to the "due diligence" page of my blog. http://dbaplanb.wordpress.com/the-how/due-diligence-links/
Thanks for taking the time to compile and maintain this list!
Paula

A.D. said...

Hi there, interesting page to read. Just thought I'd note that the above entry for the translation company thebigword Group says their "profit" was US$65M, and gives a link to the source of that information; however, the link page notes that the "revenue", not "profit", of thebigword Group was US$65M. Since profit generally means revenue minus expenses, I think their profit would have been less (possibly a lot less) than US$65M.
It seems that in the link page, revenue (from the year 2011) was used as a yardstick to make a list of the 100 largest providers of language services and technology, not to list which language providers made the most profit (as largest revenue does not necessarily mean largest profit).
Not trying to defend thebigword Group - just think it's a good idea for info here to be as accurate as possible, so the site maintains credibility.
I don't know much about thebigword Group, but last year and this year I received a couple of unsolicited job offer emails purporting to be from their Japan office. The emails said that a new employee of thebigword who I did work for at another company had given thebigword my contact details. I did not give the person they named permission to hand out my contact details, so I thought it was rather unprofessional of that person to tell thebigword my details and for thebigword to use them to contact me. Of course, if the job offers had been attractive, I might have overlooked their unprofessionalism:), but they were not.

Alessandro Seren Rosso said...

I can only conferm the bad record regarding TEK Translations. They still owe me about €650 of work I did for them in 2012-2013...

Unknown said...

Hi all, I have a bad experience with an industrial company in Dubai called Al Baddad International, I advise never to do any translation works for them. They have been delaying my payments for more than 4 months.

Anonymous said...

MyGengo and Conyac are not that bad, though it is true that Conyac gives ridiculous rate and the working flow is questionable. But I have been working for Gengo for 2 years now and they always treat me professionally (I personally don't mind with USD 0.08/word for pro translation in my language pair English-Indonesian). Gengo always pay their translator on time and they respond to our inquiries immediately and with satisfying response.
Conyac, however low the rate is, is truted too, I never have any problem with my payment. Their workflow needs a lot of improvement though.

Now I just joined OneSky on April, the contract said that the translators are paid within 40 days after the end of each month. But they delayed my payment until now and I haven't received my April's due. The support team emailed me and told me that they are having some issue with Paypal. I don't know whether OneSky is a non-payer or legit.

Unknown said...

Brilliant piece of information,Thanks a lot for sharing.

Unknown said...

translate plus have been mentioned here as trying to push prices down.
Their latest trick is:
You do not lower the prices, they accept. Next, they do their proofing on the uncleaned files and when They send you their 'final' check it is another set of bilingual files. They ignore your warnings as to these are not the clean files.
In the end they will send you a letter that due to quality issues the will reduce the invoice by 20% and thus get the rate they asked you to reduce to up front. And if you try to answer this last letter, the person having written it is on her annual leave. Last but not least during a project the project managers may rotate several time in my case there were three.

Wulf-Dieter Krüger

Unknown said...

Hi. First of all thanks for this blog, it really is helpful. I confirm the recent Lionbridge inclusion. In fact, I am the translator who made that post in LinkedIn. Thanks for an outstanding work!

Peter said...

An agency in a country with a different cost of living that happens to offer what you consider a low rate, is NO reason to blacklist them. None at all. I am very disappointed to see this. They may still be perfectly professional and reliable.

Unknown said...

If a company pays a low rate, it is up to the individual to negotiate the rate as service provider; what I hate most is non-payment and that is where the crux of the matter lies. There are translation companies that pay a decent rate, and pay on time, and they are mentioned here. I had no problem with them at all-Elvita Puke, even ISO have good jobs and pay the fees, besides the software and have translators whose work is reviewed by proofreaders, whereas other agencies who do not employ proofreaders, so translation goes directly to the client and is rejected of not found "good" do not get a mention.

Unknown said...

I've just discovered your blog, very useful, I have had dealings with some of them but only Diamond translation whose PM is Tom Orlando still owes me 1300€.
Again, excellent an very useful site.

João said...

Yep, Lingua and Mr. Altintas (it's a one man show) is a crooked scheme. Had to contact the company I made the work for and threaten him with police charges + attorney action to be paid a lousy 500 € sum. Avoid this scammer at all costs.

Unknown said...

Hi JUST A WARNING TO ALL TRANSLATORS!!

ANY EMAILS OR POST RECEIVED OFF "DAVID JONES" IN REGARDS TO VERITAS ARE FAKE. DAVID JONES DOES NOT EXIST. This is a former employee who was dismissed on the grounds of Gross Misconduct and is executing a vendetta against the company.

This "David Jones" is NOT on the translators side. They have attempted to have the company Wound Up in the UK which means that a company would cease training and no one gets paid. This person DOES NOT CARE about you. This person has no interest in getting you paid. This person only wishes to destroy the lives of the former director, her THREE Children (one of which is 4 months old!) and her Husband.

I will repeat this to you - if this person was so interested in helping why would they attempt to close the company to prevent the company from trading and getting you paid?

All translators affected by the change have been contacted and advised of the situation.

Unknown said...

Hello!

This list has become a major reference point post-MA so thank you! I just received an email via ProZ from an Italian company called Studio Elle (www.studio-elle.it) offering €0.045 a word for translating and €0.015 for proofreading. WHAT an offer! I think that deserves a mention on your list...

Keep up the good work!

Anom said...

To Richard Stephens – regarding Planet Veritas (formerly Veritas Language Solutions),

Veritas owes money to a lot of translators http://www.proz.com/blueboard/25193

Translators rely on their income to support their families. It is a little weak to try and garner sympathy for a director who has wilfully defrauded dozens of translators; translators who would have fallen behind on mortgage repayments or may have not been able to support their families. The heartbreak and misery this company has caused should be an embarrassment for the director. Veritas Language Solutions is going insolvent and I doubt any of the translators will receive money once higher ranking creditors have been paid. Planet Veritas is an attempt to continue the fraud and take advantage of more translators.

Directors making a quick buck at the expense of others are not welcome in this industry, hence why this site exists.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Unknown said...

Thanks for this, I'm making sure to spread it everywhere I can!

I'm waiting payment (1500 euros, plus some more that I haven't invoiced yet for a total of about 2000 euros) by one of these agencies and they're already 2-3 weeks late than initially promised.

I was SO scared to find their name the more I scrolled down, and BOOM here they are. Damn it. I'm still keeping some hope because they're listed for low rates here and not for non-payment (the rates I had negotiated were much higher than what's reported here).
Unfortunately though, the guy who's responsible for payments is totally ignoring my emails.

Will keep you posted in case I have to take further action so you can add a NON-PAYER! next to their name.

And also, I have just replied to anad posted by Planet Veritas after seeing their ad on Proz. Their website really looks good... so I'm really happy to have seen their name here!

They ALL need to be boycotted!


Martina
www.movingwordstranslations.com

Unknown said...

PS. I'm shocked to see HOW MANY agencies in this list are based in the UK!!!, US, Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, Italy (not so shocked ...)!

What a shame!

الترجمة من و إلى العربية حول العالم said...

Dear Sirs,
This is Hanan Edwar an English < > Arabic translator.
I have done several translation project for Sentrodil company.
Owner and CEO:MURAT BILGUTAY
His email: murat@sentrodil.com

Now I have been cheated by them

Please help me to ​get my money back.

Also to ware my fellow colleague worldwide.

I have proven data..emails and invoices to proof my situation.

Sentrodil is a translation company in Turkey.
I have served them for years.

Not paying my fees, which exceed $1650 since June 2014.

I keep sending professional and polite emails and get no reply.

I have even contacted the owner directly and he never replies.

Their related sites and official websites as follows:

SENTRODİL AVRUPA:
Büyükdere Cad. Emlak Kredi Blokları A-1 Blok K.4 D.18 Levent / İSTANBUL
Tel : 0212 282 45 44
Fax: 0212 282 44 06

SENTRODİL ASYA:
Atatürk Cad. Sıtkıbey Plaza No:82 K:15 D:37-38 Kozyatağı / İSTANBUL
Tel : 0216 410 79 77
Fax: 0216 410 80 57

SENTRODİL İZMİR:
Tepekule Kongre ve Sergi Merkezi, Adalet Mah. Anadolu Cad. No:40 Kat:8 Ofis:802 35530, Bayraklı / İZMİR
Tel : 0232 486 85 15
Fax: 0232 486 85 13
البريد الاليكتروني info@sentrodil.com
سنترو بالطرف الاوروبي

https://www.facebook.com/sentrodil
http://www.proz.com/profile/1383044
http://www.translationdirectory.com/agencies/sentrodil.php
http://www.ekolay.net/firma/sentrodil-13520
http://www.woorank.com/en/www/sentrodil.com
http://www.sentrosimultane.com/

Unknown said...

What shocks me is that translators complain about low rates which they ight accept/reject, but then, when they themselves outsource work, they are ready to pay peanuts, and this has nothing to do with where they are living; I have seen translators in Germany/France offering such low rates even to Europeans when they outsource work, but then expect to be paid acceptable rates. Shocking indeed

kenax said...

I think this list can apply to translators living in Western Europe, but may be unrealistic in many other countries. For 15 years that I lived in Prague I found it next to impossible to get an offer above 0.04 Euro per source word for Czech to native English translation. That was simply the going market rate. And lower prices could easily be found, especially from English into Czech. But living costs are much lower in the Czech Republic, so it really depends on where you live and the language combination.

wim said...

You can't say that translation rates should be €0.10. The market dictates the rate. €0.10 is an acceptable rate for German and French, but nobody is going to pay that for languages as Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese or Russian unless they are really desperate. The reality that these languages will not pay more then $0.06 to $0.08.

Unknown said...

Thanks for sharing the information. That’s a awesome article you posted. I found the post very useful as well as interesting. I will come back to read some more
Translation Agency  
  
 

Unknown said...

When I strated 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.

Francesca said...

Thank you so much for your list!

Language Insight contacted me and asked me to take a test longer than 700 words (medical - which is not my area of expertise btw). I spent a whole day trying my best to impress them. Only 3 hours after returning the test, they told me I had passed the test, providing me with their contract to sign. Before signing I asked some questions about payments/preferred currency/invoices etc...
I have never heard from them again.

The name of the VM was "Carlos"

From A to Z I've found 13 agencies to which I sent my CV. Luckily they were not categorised as "CV Thieves". However, I'll mark them in red in my spreadsheet.

Again, thank you very much for your useful list!

Anonymous said...

Thank you for your list! I should have seen it before! Sometimes, it's not just only a matter of rate, but also of bad practices (no answers to email, etc.), as you said. Rates are mugh higher here in Canada, I think, and we, certified translators, have a hard time with that rate downward pressure coming from China, maybe Europe, where qualified translators accept rates of $0.03, $0.04, etc. That's why I also did not renew my subscription with Proz.. ridiculous rates being offered there... Soon, we'll have to pay to get some work!

vt_translator said...

According to the non-payment issues caused by ComTranslations, please also be careful with Kelly O’’Donovan (kelly.odonovan@comtranslations.com) and Samuel Sandifer (samuel.sandifer@comtranslations.com or info@comtranslations.com) They are the same team!!! Apart from
Jagdeep Singh (jagdeep.singh@comtranslations.com), it's a risk to continue a translation project with Kelly O’’Donovan and Samuel Sandifer...

Unknown said...

I am suprised 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 need to lose time and money because of this company.

Lumierre said...

How can one add a new listing on this blog? I have worked with a company for about ten jobs and when I was asking for payment, they always said "we will do it a bit late" and then when I stopped working for them and specifically said I will not accept any other jobs until payment is done, they refused to pay all the jobs, in full, on "quality grounds". Their name is Smart Localization, registered in Israel, Jerusalem, by Natan Cohen.

emilioA said...

Real Translator® Jobs
It's a scam!!! They tempt you with relatively high price per word, and when you subscribe you have to "make a deposit" of US$ 250 for the software...
The names these thieves use are David Warzeg, James Cameron, extremeprofits.com, etc.

Apu Mridha said...

Hey,
Thank you for sharing such an amazing and informative post. Really enjoyed reading it. :)

Cem Bekis said...

Hello


Thank you for this invaluable blog.


If you want to learn more about Fake Online Translation Agencies from a senior and reliable insider, please visit:

http://www.cembekis.com/


(please look for "Fake Translation Agencies" title in my blog)


Thank you

JackXIII said...

I would like you to add sdk translations as i have done a job for them and now they don't even respond to my payment requests

Unknown said...

Attention all freelancers,
You are pretty much aware that we do not work for fun and that most of us do strive to collect the rent, utility bill fees, food, and endless life expenses, and know very well the size of efforts we make towards translating the selection of texts we receive from translation offices. Till this stage no issue may be triggered, but if translation offices that are registered in places like Dubai where the compliance with the law and ethics is a must adopt swindling as a style and do not pay freelance translators’ fees, the situation becomes so different. Al Dar Translation Services, a Dubai based company, is one of these thieves as they assign translation tasks to freelancers, but never pays them and the relationship ends as of the date on which the freelance translator’s invoice is mailed, and they stop answering his/her emails. So, be careful and don’t work for free!

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.