Comments on: When is it worth quibbling over word count?

By: MT

MT — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:26:28 +0000

There’s the issue of good will with the client. For the most part, I agree with Melissa, Susanne and Ryan et al. that it all works out fine in the end. I win with some jobs and the client wins with others.

If I consistently have problems with one client’s word counts, which has happened, we work out a solution. Often I charge the troublesome client 1¢/word more to cover my increased cost of doing business with them (time spent counting words, arguing about word counts, words left uncounted, etc.) That worked out great.

Plus I always tell clients, “If I have to type it, you have to pay me my normal rate.” Same is true for numbers and spaces and however many times I have to type [illegible].

My goal is for my net pay at the end of the job (once the phone/fax bill, wire transfer fees, etc. are paid) to equal my desired translation per word rate. If I end up getting a lower than desired rate when all is said and done, I charge that client a higher per word rate on the next job.

By: Riccardo

Riccardo — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:49:05 +0000

For established customers, I only check their word count once in a while “to keep them honest”. If I detect a very small difference (100 words or so), I may let it go, but will warn them of larger differences (in their favor as well as in mine).

By: jillsommer

jillsommer — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:33:30 +0000

Hi folks, Wow, fabulous comments and dialog going on here! There were no numbers in my case – just straight text. I have heard of clients not wanting to pay for numbers. Trados doesn’t count numbers, so that essentially is what happens if you accept the Analysis word count.

I’ve also heard of German clients not wanting to pay for the empty space after a period (Germans charge by the line – character count with spaces divided by 50 or 55). One translator I know actually then delivered his translation without any spaces. The client changed their tune rather quickly…

By: IcoText

IcoText — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 09:48:26 +0000

Somewhere I read that someone told his or her client that if the client did not want to include numbers in the word count then they should not mind not having numbers included in the translation – ok, so it’s not a real serious suggestion, but made me want to stick to my principles anyway – good luck!
Cheerio,
Dierk

By: Corinne McKay

Corinne McKay — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 04:23:41 +0000

In general I agree with the “sometimes in your favor, sometimes in the client’s” idea, and also try to remind myself of all the times I’ve been paid for the full word count on a document that had a lot of repetition or was substantially similar to another document I had translated. The only exception is, as Ryan mentioned, a client who wants to be ‘comped’ things like numbers or text in English that they ask me to retype. I always clarify that “I’m happy to reproduce those items, but at my regular rate.” Great post!

By: J-chusetts

J-chusetts — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 04:17:44 +0000

When I am faced with this issue as a management counterpart in this situation, I do check the word counts again to make sure there are not any errors, but one also has to keep in mind that each client counts their words differently, and check their leverage (if any) in different ways to make things more beneficial to themselves including this information in the contract that you sign. However, if your client doesn’t use a TM tool for leverage, you might want to consider, if you do use it yourself, how much money you are getting simply because they don’t leverage and try to save money that way. I recently did a freelance job that was the same thing, translation through a back end. I translated 25k words, but since I didn’t have use a TM I didn’t get the leverage from the ongoing translations that I was doing, I would estimate that about 7K of this was repetition. However, I got paid full price for all of the words. So, I think you might want to take that into account, but also remember that we as freelancers deserve to be paid for the work we put into the projects that we receive, for the translation and the admin time that we put in and for fixing the mistakes the client makes.

By: Ryan Ginstrom

Ryan Ginstrom — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 03:45:53 +0000

I would also not quibble, but if the client consistently had lower word counts, I’d either start managing the text myself in my CAT tool, or ask the client to send me the text they actually counted (e.g. as plain text). This could help to show me where the differences lie.

One thing I’ve seen some clients try to do is remove numbers and the like from the word count. I always refuse to accept this, but if the client insisted then maybe I would offer to leave the numbers out of all future translations.

By: Susanne Aldridge III

Susanne Aldridge III — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 01:08:42 +0000

I agree with Melissa – I believe it comes out even in the end, law of large numbers. Or compare it to the sandwich landing with the butter-side down – you only remember or notice when it goes bad.
Just don’t let it get to the point where you feel everyone is short changing you

By: kslossner

kslossner — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:30:54 +0000

I used to let this sort of thing go, but lately I am insistent on billing the word counts that I determine. This is because I have noticed consistent counting errors from some PMs which might only be 5 or 10 euros a pop but add up to 100 or more in the course of a month. “Kleinvieh macht ja auch Mist” and paying attention to small details like this, documenting them carefully and communicating them politely is necessary to protect your margins. Many PMs simply do not understand the techniques for counting files with any sort of compositional oddities, and it’s up to us to get the counts right. In cases of very long, complex documents, I’ll convert the whole mess to a PDF and save out the text (if there are no bitmaps – embedded objects are otherwise usually accounted for) just as a second means of checking a count. Or OCR the thing.

By: jillsommer

jillsommer — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:21:08 +0000

Hi Melissa,

Yes, these online surveys are input directly into an interface on the end client’s website. Sometimes I export them into Excel, paste them in Word and translate them with Trados, but only when I have worked on the survey before. Thanks for making me feel better about my decision. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving.

Sincerely,
Jill