Poll: Oops. You just sent out an urgent quote with a typo. Now what? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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Julian Holmes 
Japan
Local time: 20:44
Member (2011)
Japanese to English
| A Golden Rule | Jun 17, 2012 |
regarding damage control is to do it as quickly as possible.
End of matter 
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Mary Worby
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:44
German to English
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Interlangue (X)
Angola
Local time: 13:44
English to French
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Mary Worby wrote:
I don't send out quotes!
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| Fix it if it's serious | Jun 17, 2012 |
I wouldn't bother to fix it unless it referred to the terms of the agreement. But if I sent a correction, of course I'd apologize.
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neilmac
Spain
Local time: 13:44
Spanish to English
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Most of my clients are direct and I have a friendly relationship with them - and they are usually in a hurry and sometimes make mistakes too - so if it isn't terribly important I might not do anything about it, since I don't need to impress them of my "professionalism" by always being 100% correct in emails or correspondence. The know that my translations are usually up to scratch so it's not really an issue.
However, just the other day I sent one off with the wrong deadline date ... See more Most of my clients are direct and I have a friendly relationship with them - and they are usually in a hurry and sometimes make mistakes too - so if it isn't terribly important I might not do anything about it, since I don't need to impress them of my "professionalism" by always being 100% correct in emails or correspondence. The know that my translations are usually up to scratch so it's not really an issue.
However, just the other day I sent one off with the wrong deadline date (I'd overwritten the previous estimate for the same client but in my haste forgot to change the date) and I sent off the corrected version 5 minutes later. Panic over ▲ Collapse
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Thayenga
Germany
Local time: 13:44
Member (2009)
English to German
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This did happen a while back.
I immediately resend the quote after having moved the "." one diget to the left, e. g. correcting an outrageous rate to my normal rate, and apologized for this "typo".
The new! client accepted my apology and... I got the job.
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Robert Forstag
United States
Local time: 07:44
Spanish to English
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| These things happen | Jun 17, 2012 |
In line with what Muriel and Neil have said, this is something I would only bother to correct if it impacted substantially on the terms of agreement (e.g., price or deadline).
For me it is hard to imagine anyone doing otherwise. Compulsively re-sending an e-mail because of a couple of insubstantial typos (for example) seems silly.
Once again, not real scintillating discussion material here....
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| Oops, it happened | Jun 17, 2012 |
at least twice: incorrect number of words + wrong pair of languages in different quotes. I resent the quotes as soon as realized my mistakes (in a matter of minutes) and apologized for the "typos"...
[Edited at 2012-06-17 14:58 GMT]
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| Depending how critical the typo was... | Jun 17, 2012 |
Al my cleints konw I can't type, and teh spellchecker is set to Danish (and not idiotproof anyway...)
Although I do check my e-mails, they are not faultless.
But as others have mentioned, a zero too many or too few, or anything that could cause confusion does need clearing up, and the sooner the better.
My commonest error is to forget to attach the files... and that DOES have to be dealt with immediately  ... See more Al my cleints konw I can't type, and teh spellchecker is set to Danish (and not idiotproof anyway...)
Although I do check my e-mails, they are not faultless.
But as others have mentioned, a zero too many or too few, or anything that could cause confusion does need clearing up, and the sooner the better.
My commonest error is to forget to attach the files... and that DOES have to be dealt with immediately ▲ Collapse
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Helen Hagon
Local time: 12:44
Member (2011)
Russian to English
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| Depends on severity of error | Jun 17, 2012 |
I recently sent a quote in which I misspelled the customer's name. I corrected it straight away and resent it with an apology. Luckily I still got the job.
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Sometimes, if you notice an error in an email quickly enough after clicking the 'send' button, you can take it back, correct it and resend it (so that the recipient only receives the correct version). Gmail, for example, has an unsend add-on in Labs, I think.
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Mario Chavez (X)
Local time: 07:44
English to Spanish
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| Depends on the typo | Jun 17, 2012 |
Do we micromanage ourselves to that point that we'll spend extra time to write a corrected quote plus an apology? It depends on the size of the damage. Not to sound blasé, but most customers are very forgiving of typos, as long as we give them actionable information, are responsive and perform to our best.
The easiest course of action is to transfer our own view of perfectionism on others, such as "should I use the simple perfect tense or a more elaborate one?" If a letter, email o... See more Do we micromanage ourselves to that point that we'll spend extra time to write a corrected quote plus an apology? It depends on the size of the damage. Not to sound blasé, but most customers are very forgiving of typos, as long as we give them actionable information, are responsive and perform to our best.
The easiest course of action is to transfer our own view of perfectionism on others, such as "should I use the simple perfect tense or a more elaborate one?" If a letter, email or quote has just one typo, let it be, or resend with a correction, quickly (as Julian said) but without an apology. If the message has more than one typo, and if it distorts the meaning, then spend time to rewrite accordingly.
But damage control may be a moot point if the quote has many typos. As a customer, I would conclude I don't want to hire you because you don't respect me enough to take the time necessary to write a proper quote. ▲ Collapse
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