ISO 9001:2008 certified companies and free test translations

So they do have to evaluate you, however ISO says nothing about this evaluation being free (...)

MariusV wrote:

I am aware of the fact that one more topic about free test tranlations can be boring to the bone. Moreover, this issue might be discussed hundreds of times here and elsewhere. BUT I have one issue which is not quite clear for me and would be interesting to hear some advice or info from people who know more about it. The "usual story" - "We have a big project for us and we need you to do a free test translation of 300 words to be sure you are not a donkey. IF the test feedback is positive, we would be interested to cooperate with you"...Let's leave "ifs" and other boring issues aside...Just one practical situation - during the last 10 days I received 9 requests for cooperation (all "possible big projects" and etc.) with demands for these damned tests. The "math" is simple - 9 free tests 300 words each, 2700 words in total, or more than one working day...Just for "a possibility to cooperate" (on a "take or leave it" basis). The worst is wasting the time NOT on the free tests you have the right to take or not to take, but on the primary correspondence, negotiations, etc. AFTER WHICH it appears that you also need to do a test TOO (no one ever mentions this in the primary email). OK, you'd say - do not waste your time and do not waste our time if the policy of the agency is to demand these free tests (or free translations), and your "own" policy to tell them "You are ugly and your mother dresses you funny - I do not do tests and make no exceptions, I work for money and I do not ask you a test money transfer to meet my own policies for clients". But what embarrasses me most of all is an "explanation" like that:

"As we are ISO 9001:2008 certified company, our policy does not allow to
collaborate with vendors who haven't passed a test job for us, especially if
we talk about our key customers and big projects. We consider test jobs as a
normal work flow and not only our vendors provide them, also we perform test
translations for our prospect clients as well as for existing clients before
important projects."

"As we are ISO 9001:2008 certified company, our policy..."

So, if there is a specific requirement under ISO 9001:2008 to do free/unpaid tests? I understand ISO 9001:2008 is just a set of more or less generalized formal requirements and that is it...And if the policy of the AGENCY (not ISO) is to ask for a free test drink, why should they confuse people with their fairy tales about "possible big projects" or "ISO requirements" for free tests?

P.S. I feel that I'd stay away from these ISO certified agencies in the future. Seems to be a waste of time for formalities and no tangible results.





[Edited at 2009-08-14 09:48 GMT]

jabens wrote:



Per word rates might annoy one to no end, but are not sufficient for a complaint. Check the locale of those posters, and you might discover they're not from London or Paris or Stockholm or Riga.

Extremely rarely, great jobs will appear, i.e. no- lookup, high- volume, voice recognition- based work, I can hit 15 000 words a day with no hassle. I wont ask for 0.12 EUR there; the discount will be substantial. And the repeat work has convinced me that honesty is best for both.

More often, I will get "regular" jobs that turn out to be diagonal handwritten PDFs, a list of glossary terms (how outrageouly RUDE) , or "only translate the PINK text" or other jobs where the lions share of the work is not in the translation, and a per word rate is patently absurd.

As I have written before, our community must turn a collective cold shoulder to agencies that try to wrench the last crust of bread from the mouths of the struggling freelancers' children, whether the culprits are exploitative Far East middlemen offering European jobs at their local rates, and collectively go after shady nonpayers, test-translation con artists and so on....

But the per word rate is not a sufficient barometer.....