Possible unpleasant situations when applying online Thread poster: Iuliana Bozkurt
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Iuliana Bozkurt 
Romania
Local time: 08:14
Member (2008)
English to Romanian
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Over the last few days, I launched a personal promotion campaign. And I was very happy to see that many agencies that I contacted or on whose sites I registered contacted me back and were interested in my profile. Obviously, I felt very motivated and impressed by the proactive attitude of these business professionals. I am sure that you know what I mean, if you ever tried to promote yourself in this way too.
Still, there is one thing that I did not understand and maybe you could share with... See more Over the last few days, I launched a personal promotion campaign. And I was very happy to see that many agencies that I contacted or on whose sites I registered contacted me back and were interested in my profile. Obviously, I felt very motivated and impressed by the proactive attitude of these business professionals. I am sure that you know what I mean, if you ever tried to promote yourself in this way too.
Still, there is one thing that I did not understand and maybe you could share with me some ideas: I contacted a large translation agency that seemed interested in my profile. They replied me back a couple of days ago, later in the evening (somewhere between 18.00 and 19.00). Of course, I was no longer at the office. The next day, I saw their e-mail and it contained several questions. But I also had 18 pages to deliver by the end of that day for another client. And I said to myself: well, I will reply later on, in the evening, because I don't want to write my e-mail in a hurry and make a bad impression. AND... here is the nice thing... after a couple of hours, in the afternoon, I received a sarcastic e-mail from this company telling me that they did not need my services any longer!!! I immediately informed the gentleman who sent me the nice e-mail that I would reply to him later on in the evening, as I was overloaded with work and I needed to deliver on time. But, unfortunately, no sign of life from him anymore. Was it my mistake, you think, or maybe large translation companies treat their (potential) collaborators with disrespect?
[Edited at 2010-06-03 13:18 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Alex Eames
Local time: 06:14
English to Polish
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| You didn't do anything wrong by prioritising your commitments | Jun 8, 2010 |
Sounds to me like you had a potential client who "self-filtered" before being able to cause you any trouble.
A lucky escape for you. You should feel happy about avoiding having to work with such a person.
Alex Eames
http://www.translatortips.com
helping translators do better business
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I usually try to reply to all e-mails as fast as I can. Maybe you should have sent a short reply stating just that you will reply later do to that and that.
Anyhow I agree with Alex. There are people at companies that think that we only stay and wait for their e-mails. Better not having to deal with this kind of people.
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 07:14
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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Iuliana Isac wrote:
They replied me back a couple of days ago, later in the evening (somewhere between 18.00 and 19.00). Of course, I was no longer at the office. The next day, I saw their e-mail and it contained several questions.
You should have replied as soon as possible, even if only to tell them that you're so busy that you can only answer their mail much later. Keeping potential clients in the dark won't make you any friends. The client has no idea whether you had received his mail or what your intentions are with regard to answering his questions, and if you don't tell him, it means you're leaving him hanging.
after a couple of hours, in the afternoon, I received a sarcastic e-mail from this company telling me that they did not need my services any longer!!!
Are you sure it was sarcastic? I find it a good thing that this client had actually written back to you to tell you that the job is no longer available. This is good for you because now you won't spend time unnecessarily answering questions about a job that is no longer available.
I immediately informed the gentleman who sent me the nice e-mail that I would reply to him later on in the evening, as I was overloaded with work and I needed to deliver on time. But, unfortunately, no sign of life from him anymore.
Did you ask him to confirm receipt of your mail? If not, then why do you expect him to reply? You said that you would send a longer mail later in the evening, and he is probably waiting for that mail before he responds. In a sense, he is doing exactly what you did (not letting the other party know that his message will be attended to later), but for some reason you find *your* actions reasonable and *his* exact same actions unreasonable.
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Iuliana Bozkurt
Romania
Local time: 08:14
Member (2008)
English to Romanian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Some extra details | Jun 9, 2010 |
Hi Samuel,
you have an intresting and pertinent point of view, but it does not quite apply to my situation because, as a matter of fact, there was no specific job proposal involved. On Monday I sent an instant application to this company (in fact to 50 companies at the same time), which sounded like ''In case you ever need my services, please do not hesitate to contact me...''.
And I received an e-mail a couple of days later, in which Mr. S. was asking me to provide de... See more Hi Samuel,
you have an intresting and pertinent point of view, but it does not quite apply to my situation because, as a matter of fact, there was no specific job proposal involved. On Monday I sent an instant application to this company (in fact to 50 companies at the same time), which sounded like ''In case you ever need my services, please do not hesitate to contact me...''.
And I received an e-mail a couple of days later, in which Mr. S. was asking me to provide details about my major projects (this was happening at the end of the business day). Of course, this is quite a challenging e-mail, in my opinion, as I had to review my major past projects and give accurate details about pricing, delivery dates, beneficiary, number of words and so on... Imagine reading that at 9 a.m. when you have two urgent deliveries by the end of the afternoon.
And I intended to write him the e-mail later on, that day, after the deliveries. Unfortunately, as I mentioned before, the gentleman grew very impatient and sent me the smashing e-mail at 4 p.m.- We no longer need your services!!! What services? Was there a job proposal that I was not aware of? He was just asking me a general question and he did not even specify that he needed my urgent reply to it.
Only when I saw this reaction, I informed him that I would write him back, IF HE STILL WANTED ME TO. Of course, he was too pissed off to even reply back. I think that the two other colleagues who replied to this post are right, if you witness unreasonable behaviors from your clients, behaviors that they cannot explain or that you cannot negotiate, it is better not to engage in a collaboration with them. Imagine such a person would assign a task to you, to be delivered in 2 days, and the next day he gets hysteric and asks why you have not delivered it yet, as you should be ahead of the delivery schedule. Unbelievable as it may seem, I once worked for such a translation agency, not for long, thanks God But that is another story ▲ Collapse
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