Poll: Has any of your clients asked you to lower your rates due to financial restraints?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
SITE STAFF
May 7, 2021

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 »



AjiYerima
FREIHEIT UDDIN JALAL UDDIN
 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 23:53
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
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?
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Peter Shortall
Susanna Martoni
Nathalie Bullen
Christopher Schröder
Giovana Zaltron
Yetta Jensen Bogarde
Alison Jenner
 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
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?


P.L.F. Persio
Mervyn Henderson (X)
Matthias Brombach
Mirelluk
FREIHEIT UDDIN JALAL UDDIN
 
Liena Vijupe
Liena Vijupe  Identity Verified
Latvia
Local time: 01:53
Member (2014)
French to Latvian
+ ...
off-topic May 7, 2021

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?


P.L.F. Persio
neilmac
Mervyn Henderson (X)
Matthias Brombach
Angus Stewart
Tom in London
Christopher Schröder
 
Ventnai
Ventnai  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 00:53
German to English
+ ...
One client May 7, 2021

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.

P.L.F. Persio
Elena Feriani
Tom in London
Yaotl Altan
FREIHEIT UDDIN JALAL UDDIN
María José Domínguez Camba
 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 23:53
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
LOL! May 7, 2021

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!


P.L.F. Persio
Liena Vijupe
Mervyn Henderson (X)
Christopher Schröder
Aline Amorim
 
neilmac
neilmac
Spain
Local time: 00:53
Spanish to English
+ ...
Other May 7, 2021

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


Mervyn Henderson (X)
P.L.F. Persio
Christine Andersen
 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 23:53
Member (2008)
Italian to English
No May 7, 2021

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.


P.L.F. Persio
 
Matthias Brombach
Matthias Brombach  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 00:53
Member (2007)
Dutch to German
+ ...
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.


P.L.F. Persio
 
Philippe Etienne
Philippe Etienne  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 00:53
Member
English to French
You bet May 7, 2021

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
Paul Dixon  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 20:53
Portuguese to English
+ ...
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.


 
Barbara Cochran, MFA
Barbara Cochran, MFA  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 19:53
Spanish to English
+ ...
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]


 
LIZ LI
LIZ LI  Identity Verified
China
Local time: 07:53
French to Chinese
+ ...
Why a title May 8, 2021

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.
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Mario Freitas
Mario Freitas  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 20:53
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
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.
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Barbara Niessen
 
Barbara Niessen
Barbara Niessen  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 00:53
Member (2007)
French to German
+ ...
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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Poll: Has any of your clients asked you to lower your rates due to financial restraints?






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