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I’m kind of confused Thread poster: Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
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I was contacted yesterday through Proz by an agency asking my availability for a French-Portuguese translation (my answer with my availability and rate was met with dead silence). The email came apparently from an Australian agency with offices in Sydney and Warsaw which has an excellent BB (all 5s), I googled them, visited their website and everything seemed to check out correctly, but the fact that they asked if I “support American time zones” made me slightly wary and so I looked up the I... See more I was contacted yesterday through Proz by an agency asking my availability for a French-Portuguese translation (my answer with my availability and rate was met with dead silence). The email came apparently from an Australian agency with offices in Sydney and Warsaw which has an excellent BB (all 5s), I googled them, visited their website and everything seemed to check out correctly, but the fact that they asked if I “support American time zones” made me slightly wary and so I looked up the IP address which revealed the geolocation: the Netherlands. What do you think? Could this be just globalization at work or was it an attempt to scam me?
P.S. I'm not sure this is the right place for my posting, feel free to move it, if necessary... ▲ Collapse
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A US agency I've worked for since 2018 has PMs in Italy, the UK, Japan, Argentina and of course the US, so I wouldn't turn down an agency only because of different geographic locations.
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Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida wrote:
I was contacted yesterday through Proz by an agency asking my availability for a French-Portuguese translation (my answer with my availability and rate was met with dead silence). The email came apparently from an Australian agency with offices in Sydney and Warsaw which has an excellent BB (all 5s), I googled them, visited their website and everything seemed to check out correctly, but the fact that they asked if I “support American time zones” made me slightly wary and so I looked up the IP address which revealed the geolocation: the Netherlands. What do you think? Could this be just globalization at work or was it an attempt to scam me?
P.S. I'm not sure this is the right place for my posting, feel free to move it, if necessary...
I get mails from Netflix saying that my account was activated from Morocco, Lebanon, Algeria and other places worldwide whereas it's just my daughter living 10 km from my place using VPN. Could it be that the agency is using a VPN?
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Samuel Murray 
Netherlands
Local time: 20:38
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida wrote:
The fact that they asked if I “support American time zones” made me slightly wary and so I looked up the IP address which revealed the geolocation: the Netherlands.
Although the Netherlands is a vassal of the United States, we are in two entirely different time zones. More likely they have a couple of PMs working the evening shift and they're hoping for a translator who can respond to urgent queries at such odd hours.
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Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 20:38
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
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| Not necessarily suspicous | Jan 11, 2023 |
There may be various reasons for this. The end client may be in the US and they may need feedback in real time or quick turnaround. Or PMs may be based in the US. For example, you can tell them you support US zones outside your sleep/evening hours.
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So, in your opinion, it’s just globalization at work and not necessarily suspicious. But shouldn’t this be clear from the offset? I have been working with two or three agencies which have personnel “all over the world” but usually they start by explaining how they work and I have no problem with that...
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Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 20:38
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
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Ask them if they could explain why US zones are relevant for the project as you can’t connect the dots from what’s been presented to you.
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Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida wrote:
So, in your opinion, it’s just globalization at work and not necessarily suspicious. But shouldn’t this be clear from the offset? I have been working with two or three agencies which have personnel “all over the world” but usually they start by explaining how they work and I have no problem with that...
I don't think a company needs to justify its structure from the outset. They are just buying a service, not taking you on as an employee. There is nothing suspicious about having presence in a few countries today. But one can always ask. I'm sure they're happy to reply if things are in order.
I wouldn't automatically use this as a criterion for due diligence unless something looked fishy. It's more important to check the company in the Blue Board, Payment Practices and other places.
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Lingua 5B wrote:
Ask them if they could explain why US zones are relevant for the project as you can’t connect the dots from what’s been presented to you.
I’m no longer interested in working with them. I couldn’t accept their low rates and their long payment terms…
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Axelle H.
France
Local time: 20:38
English to French
They contacted me as well.
But their email reminder because I didn't respond fast enough for their test and conditions without a hello, thank you and regards... It didn't make me want to work with them.
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Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 20:38
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
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Axelle H. wrote:
They contacted me as well.
But their email reminder because I didn't respond fast enough for their test and conditions without a hello, thank you and regards... It didn't make me want to work with them.
A free test would be an automatic NO from me as well.
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| Many PM are working as freelancer | Jan 11, 2023 |
PMs are everywhere. There are no more full time PM, everyone is a freelancer and they come from China but they work for US agencies. I don't have 1 PM which is working from the offices so far.
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milena ferrante wrote:
PMs are everywhere. There are no more full time PM, everyone is a freelancer and they come from China but they work for US agencies. I don't have 1 PM which is working from the offices so far.
Thanks for this useful information. I'll tell my US agency's employed Argentinian PMs in Argentina and a Spanish agency's PMs working in the agency's offices that they are really Chinese freelancers and must be seriously confused if they think they are from Argentina and European countries, respectively. I'm sure they'll truly appreciate this clarification of their status.
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Michael Newton
United States
Local time: 14:38
Japanese to English
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A number of agencies require that the translator be located in the "European time zone" or the "Pacific time zone". They are interested in immediate contact.
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jyuan_us
United States
Local time: 14:38
Member (2005)
English to Chinese
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milena ferrante wrote:
PMs are everywhere. There are no more full time PM, everyone is a freelancer and they come from China but they work for US agencies. I don't have 1 PM which is working from the offices so far.
I think US agencies tend to hire native English speakers as PMs, because they cannot afford the communication mistakes that non-native PMs are prone to make. Also, I have never come across any US-based agencies using freelancers as project managers. Some agencies have PMs working remotely but these PMs are salaried employees, be they full-time or part time. They are not freelance project managers.
[Edited at 2023-01-11 19:44 GMT]
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