Poll: Has any of your clients asked you to lower your rates due to financial restraints? Téma indítója: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Has any of your clients asked you to lower your rates due to financial restraints?".
This poll was originally submitted by Claudio Machado Junior. View the poll results »
| | | | | No, and I would refuse | May 7, 2021 |
I wasn’t asked to lower my rates by any of my customers since the beginning of COVID-19 outbreak, but I’ve noticed a big reduction on work in May last year and April this year. As I haven’t touched my rates for a while (at least since I moved from Belgium to Portugal in 2016), I had been planning to raise them but for obvious reasons I was forced to postpone this. Most of my new clients when they come to me seem to have done their homework and they already have a rough idea of my rates. I... See more I wasn’t asked to lower my rates by any of my customers since the beginning of COVID-19 outbreak, but I’ve noticed a big reduction on work in May last year and April this year. As I haven’t touched my rates for a while (at least since I moved from Belgium to Portugal in 2016), I had been planning to raise them but for obvious reasons I was forced to postpone this. Most of my new clients when they come to me seem to have done their homework and they already have a rough idea of my rates. If a previously good client is going through a rough patch, I may suggest extending the payment terms or even payment by installments but I will not lower my rates: a client that cannot pay will not be able to pay whatever the rate.
P.S. If you lower your rates what will happen when you decide to raise your rates back up when the downturn has passed? ▲ Collapse
| | | | | No, but I did anyway | May 7, 2021 |
I feel sorry for the agencies. They’re always so generous and loyal to their vendors, and I thought it was the least I could do in their time of need.
Where would we be without them?
| | | | Liena Vijupe 
Lettország
Local time: 12:57
Tag (2014 óta)
francia - lett
+ ...
Ice Scream wrote:
I feel sorry for the agencies. They’re always so generous and loyal to their vendors, and I thought it was the least I could do in their time of need.
Where would we be without them?
Hi Chris! Experimenting with new identities, eh? Is it the pandemic or some other crisis?
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Ventnai
Spanyolország
Local time: 11:57
német - angol
+ ...
One client which has become too big for its collective boots dropped the rates they paid last year to help them through the crisis. At the beginning of the year, their different vendor managers tried to pressurise me into accepting the rates permanently. I did not accept.
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Liena Vijupe wrote: Ice Scream wrote:
I feel sorry for the agencies. They’re always so generous and loyal to their vendors, and I thought it was the least I could do in their time of need.
Where would we be without them? Hi Chris! Experimenting with new identities, eh? Is it the pandemic or some other crisis?
George Clooney’s transformation is complete!
| | | | neilmac
Spanyolország
Local time: 11:57
spanyol - angol
+ ...
No, but I had a real struggle trying to raise my rates for one long-standing client to bring them into line with more recent customers. Eventually I managed to get them to accept a small increase, but they are still paying 20% less than newcomers. It's a small company and I don't think they are all that wealthy, and they also pay late, but I've been working with them so long that I am very familiar with the content and I can usually do it virtually on autopilot, so I'm not going to lose any slee... See more No, but I had a real struggle trying to raise my rates for one long-standing client to bring them into line with more recent customers. Eventually I managed to get them to accept a small increase, but they are still paying 20% less than newcomers. It's a small company and I don't think they are all that wealthy, and they also pay late, but I've been working with them so long that I am very familiar with the content and I can usually do it virtually on autopilot, so I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Tom in London
Egyesült Királyság
Local time: 10:57
Tag (2008 óta)
olasz - angol
Q: Has any of your clients asked you to lower your rates due to financial restraints?
A. They wouldn't dare, because they know I would refuse.
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| Now I understand ... | May 7, 2021 |
Ice Scream wrote:
my new very special person wrote this unexpected sentence:
Liena Vijupe wrote:
Hi Chris! Experimenting with new identities, eh? Is it the pandemic or some other crisis?
... who that person is you were referring to in another thread.
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Teresa Borges wrote:
P.S. If you lower your rates what will happen when you decide to raise your rates back up when the downturn has passed?
It reminds me of an agency I had been working with since my beginning, which unilaterally extended payment terms from 30 eom to 45 eom in 2009, an aftermath of the 2008 credit crunch crisis back then. We parted ways around 2012, not specifically for this), but last time I checked, it hadn't got back to 30 eom.
Philippe
| | | | Paul Dixon
Brazília
Local time: 06:57
portugál - angol
+ ...
| Yes - worse than before | May 7, 2021 |
The crisis in Brazil has tsunami'd its way through the country over at least the last five years. This has only got worse now with covid-19. Brazilian rates are among the lowest in the world, but still you get agencies asking for discounts of 80% or even more. I have even coined a term for such low rates: HISIP (hypoinfrasubindian), India being a country known for low rates.
There has been a slight improvement but still only microjobs. And then you have over 500 quotes for one job.
| | | | | YES, Down To ZERO | May 7, 2021 |
I received, all at once, the same email from an author, in triplicate, asking me to translate his book for FREE. If I had thought it would have done any good, I would have reported him to the website through which his request was sent.
[Edited at 2021-05-07 19:27 GMT]
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LIZ LI
Kína
Local time: 17:57
francia - kínai
+ ...
Seems like I should be grateful for not being asked...
I lose contact with some clients who sent me regularly assignments in Tourism & Hospitality for obvious reasons since beginning 2020.
I wasn't able to pick up the same workload of 2019 until mid 2020, and things keep changing in a positive way ever since then.
So no reason for a lower rate.
On the other hand, I've witnessed a huge demand in Gaming, HSE & Marketing from Chinese to a handful of languages, esp. Br... See more Seems like I should be grateful for not being asked...
I lose contact with some clients who sent me regularly assignments in Tourism & Hospitality for obvious reasons since beginning 2020.
I wasn't able to pick up the same workload of 2019 until mid 2020, and things keep changing in a positive way ever since then.
So no reason for a lower rate.
On the other hand, I've witnessed a huge demand in Gaming, HSE & Marketing from Chinese to a handful of languages, esp. Brazilian Portuguese & ASEAN languages.
Local agencies constantly ask for referrals in rarer language pairs. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Mario Freitas
Brazília
Local time: 06:57
Tag (2014 óta)
angol - portugál
+ ...
| This is pretty tricky | May 10, 2021 |
None of my clients ever accepted to readjust my rates before the crisis, so I'd never accept to lower them now because of the crisis. The crisis is there for them and for me as well.
However, the number of "tricks" used by the agencies to lower the rates without asking is astonishing. The first method was, of course, the discounts for repetitions and fuzzies. I'm accepting discounts for 100% and 101% repetitions, at 25% of the rate, and nothing beyond that. And some clients are locking 100... See more None of my clients ever accepted to readjust my rates before the crisis, so I'd never accept to lower them now because of the crisis. The crisis is there for them and for me as well.
However, the number of "tricks" used by the agencies to lower the rates without asking is astonishing. The first method was, of course, the discounts for repetitions and fuzzies. I'm accepting discounts for 100% and 101% repetitions, at 25% of the rate, and nothing beyond that. And some clients are locking 100% segments, so that they don't even enter the word count, which is also OK, since you don't even have to look at them. MTPE is also a big issue in that sense. And there are other tricks around. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Barbara Niessen
Németország
Local time: 11:57
Tag (2007 óta)
francia - német
+ ...
| Yes, big agencies did | May 17, 2021 |
Several big agencies did lower the rate for all their translators.
They are longtime and fair clients (so far) so I have not stopped working for them!
I think agencies in general lower their prizes via the Trados Fuzzy model and declaring translations as MTPE in recent times. But that's another chapter.... (
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