Unpaid repetitions .....

This morning there was a job offer on one of those translator sites.
It says there:
"There are 2866 words of which 1526 unpaid repetitions."
Yet, I suppose, those "unpaid repetitions" will need to be worked into some sort of file or delt otherwise with in a fashion, that requires human time and effort. Then "unpaid repetitions" means "unpaid work".

Naturally, the job offer continues:
"Payment is made within 60 days via Bank transfer for EU accounts or Paypal for non EU accounts (company located in France).
Please note we do not pay Paypal fees."

It takes half an eternity to get paid AND the translator has to bear all the burden of transfer fees.
Funny, if I as a customer order something over the net etc. *** I = the customer *** have to pay postage, handling and bank fees. Naturally.

So, why for heavens sake do I as a service provider have to cover all those expenses for the client; who is not even my direct client ?????

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Transperfect - "only" 40 USD ......

This just will not end.

The other day I was asked by mail, whether I could do a small (700 word) job, upon which I answered:

"Well, considering that I will be fined (TP calls that "handling fee") about 20 USD AND the bank will charge me 15 USD for putting the money into my account AND another fee for converting the funny printed paper called USD into YEN ... amounting to something like 40 USD ... I do not think there is much incentive for me to do your work."

Response from TP:
"I understand, I can give you 60 USD if you can make it now. It is a short file, is it fine?"

My response:
"YOU give me 60 USD and I have to pay you+Bank = 40 USD.
That leaves me with 20 USD.
For - calculate generously - 3.5 pages. That is 5.7 USD per page.
Would/could YOU work for that kind of money and still pay your rent???????"

Response from TP:
"Ah, sorry, I misunderstood that.
It is fine, I understand now.
Anyway, you don´t have to invoice every PO individually.
In other words, the best thing to do, in my opinion, is to get several POs, and when the amount is high enough you invoice all of them together, so you only lose 20 or 40 dollars for all of them together."


Isn't that wonderful! If I work for a Japanese company - they too are impertinent enough to bill me for the bank transfer! - I have to pay something between 1 and 5 USD. If I work for Transperfect I have to pay ***** ONLY ***** 10 times as much -> about 40 USD. Since they have a minimum for bank transfer of about 100 USD, that is I have to PAY them 40% of what should be the money I get for my work.
The percentage would change, if I would get let's say 10,000 USD (VERY!! unlikely), but even then would the bank fees be still 10 times as high as in Japan. Or when working for other companies anywhere in the world for that matter.
This strikes me as odd.
Is it only me?

Transperfect - the umbrella organization

English: Graph showing U.S. dollar and Japanese yen exchange rate from January, 1990. 日本語: 1990年1月からのアメリカドルと日本円の為替レートのグラフ。 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today I received a mail from one Japanese translation agency, that informed me, that they will next be operating "under the umbrella" of Transperfect. That makes them a:
affiliated business●affiliated enterprise●controlled company [corporation, firm]●subordinate business●subordinate company●subordinated firm

Wonderful. To me this looks like Transperfect "took then over" (more likely a "hostile takeover".

This means for translators working for that Japanese agency a 10-fold (!!!) increase in bank fees -> when working for a Japanese agency, they charge you the bank fees for the money transfer (which in itself is NOT very user-friendly), approximately 4-500 Yen. Working for Transperfect -> you are requested to set a minimum amount = default value 100 USD, for which Transperfect charges 20 USD. The bank here WILL (!) charge me at least another 15 USD for putting that money into your account AND another fee for converting USD into YEN.
So, let's say you do a 100-USD job. Then you will have to PAY 40 USD to get the 100 USD -> leaving you with 60 USD. For this job not less than 40% !!!!!!!!!! will be deducted from the value you have worked for.

Not to speak of the exchange rate. The mail said, the exchange rate valid on July 1 will be used for determining the "rates" and reviewed in case of "major fluctuations". No definition given for the latter concept.
Based on 27 years of experience (EXCLUSIVELY bad experiences working for Transperfect!) I am quite certain, that this means, the translator, the last and lowest part in this slave labor food chain, will have to bear ANY AND ALL extra costs arising from variations in the exchange rate. In the past I have NEVER (!) experienced, that those variations worked in my favor.

Isn't that nice.
Real incentive to work!