Poll: When was the last time you had to "fire" a client? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "When was the last time you had to "fire" a client?".
View the poll results »
| | | | Kay Denney 
France
Local time: 07:26
French to English
Well I didn't actually "fire" the client. I'm just never available for work they might send me. They had dragged their feet over paying a bill. Admittedly I had made a mistake in it, but they could have got back to me and asked me to correct it. Instead they just left it unpaid and ignored all my reminders until I got angry and said I wouldn't do any more work for them until it was paid. This was a problem since I was working on an ongoing project for them. Even then I just got a cryptic "there'... See more Well I didn't actually "fire" the client. I'm just never available for work they might send me. They had dragged their feet over paying a bill. Admittedly I had made a mistake in it, but they could have got back to me and asked me to correct it. Instead they just left it unpaid and ignored all my reminders until I got angry and said I wouldn't do any more work for them until it was paid. This was a problem since I was working on an ongoing project for them. Even then I just got a cryptic "there's a mistake" rather than "it was supposed to be X amount not Y" so I had to check absolutely everything myself on a bill for several different jobs.
Compared to the agency who paid me even for a job I forgot to bill... ▲ Collapse
| | | | Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 07:26
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
+ ...
Until now: never. I've had my quarrels with clients that consistently paid late, and on a few rare occasions in the past two decades I threatened to end the collaboration, but eventually they always paid and ultimately they all became timely payers.
| | | | Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 07:26
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
| Not only late payers | Oct 10, 2023 |
I may also "avoid" clients who are badly organized, or simply don't know what they are doing such as hiring extremely cheap reviewers, etc. Or they constantly reorganize processes to save money. Not strictly related to late payments.
They will sometimes just fall on the bottom of my priority list, not simply fired.
One category that I completely dismissed are those with automated systems and mass emails where they hire someone in nanoseconds. I never respond to those.
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I have never “fired” a client, but I made myself unavailable and stopped working with some clients. In over 30 years I only had 6 non-payment issues (4 agencies and 2 direct clients). One of these was a dodgy agency (they pretend I never worked for them) and the amount was too small for me to bother any more with it; all the remaining invoices have been paid (some with interest), though I needed the help of my lawyer for 2 of them.
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 06:26
Member (2008)
Italian to English
ProZ.com Staff wrote:
This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "When was the last time you had to "fire" a client?". View the poll results »
I've got one in my sights right now. Haven't pulled the trigger yet...
| | | | Dan Lucas
United Kingdom
Local time: 06:26
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
| A month or so ago | Oct 10, 2023 |
I was approached by a client back in 2016, with whom I worked for two or three years. He was reliable and hard-working, but when it came to proofing it got very difficult. He habitually made dozens of minor, very subjective edits to the text, but wanted me to check all his changes, because he is not a native speaker of English. In some cases this extended to him changing the position of commas.
My approach is that I fix mistakes promptly and free of charge (of course!) but if the cl... See more I was approached by a client back in 2016, with whom I worked for two or three years. He was reliable and hard-working, but when it came to proofing it got very difficult. He habitually made dozens of minor, very subjective edits to the text, but wanted me to check all his changes, because he is not a native speaker of English. In some cases this extended to him changing the position of commas.
My approach is that I fix mistakes promptly and free of charge (of course!) but if the client makes subjective edits, they take responsibility for the change. This difference of opinion increasingly caused friction between, us so we stopped working with each other by unspoken mutual consent.
A couple of years ago he approached me and implored me to work with him again, because he was really struggling to get enough translation capacity. I thought I would give it another go, and I really made an effort, but it was the same problem as before: a significant additional burden caused by arbitrary changes that he then wanted me to check and approve. I calculated that I was spending about as much time on unpaid editing as I was on translation, so my effective rate (which was decent) was halved. Our relationship became quite tense again.
Now, I'm pretty sure he thinks I was being unreasonable, but I have several other clients working in exactly the same space (his competitors, in other words) and none of them took this approach. If they had substantive questions or concerns, they would ask me, and I would explain my thinking and if necessary change things or make corrections. Usually there were no queries at all.
Conversely, for the same subject matter and the same kind of documents this particular client was generating literally an order of magnitude more checkpoints than other clients. Often his projects were smaller, so the comparison was even more stark. And these other, less-demanding clients sent me a lot more work than he did!
Things came to a head in the summer during a large project where he wanted me to submit almost daily instalments (which I did) and to field a huge number of "inquiries" on each. It got to the point that I got a sinking feeling every time I saw an email from him appear in my inbox. I told him that he either needed to change his approach to be more selective about the questions he sent me, or get a new translator. I was probably a bit brusque, but being polite wasn't working.
Initially he tried to insist on continuing as we were, but I made it clear it was one or the other and he eventually managed to find a different freelancer. He's a decent guy, and I wish him well in his business, but we just aren't compatible. Presumably his other translators have somehow found ways to make it work, or maybe they are short of orders and have no choice but to grit their teeth.
I feel much, much happier now that we have discontinued the relationship, and I suspect he does too. Why did I persist so long? Because I felt I should not give up just because it wasn't easy, because I felt I should assign some capacity to smaller firms like his, and because in general I want more rather than fewer clients.
For me, being able to choose my projects and clients is a huge benefit of freelancing. I strongly recommend to other translators that they politely fire clients who make their lives difficult.
Regards,
Dan ▲ Collapse
| | | | Romeo Baldovino
Philippines
Local time: 14:26
Member (2014)
English to Tagalog
+ ...
| Never, but not available | Oct 10, 2023 |
I just don't accept the projects they offer if I'm busy. Those are clients with very low rates.
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Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 07:26
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
| Some comments | Oct 10, 2023 |
Dan Lucas wrote:
I was approached by a client back in 2016, with
Conversely, for the same subject matter and the same kind of documents this particular client was generating literally an order of magnitude more checkpoints t eral I want more rather than fewer clients.
For me, being able to choose my projects and clients is a huge benefit of freelancing. I strongly recommend to other translators that they politely fire clients who make their lives difficult.
Regards,
Dan
All this is also partially our fault because we never stipulate or lay out business terms in advance. Example: "Revisions are limited to X amount, in Y scenario." Maybe this would scare away a client in advance, but perhaps you may have such terms prepared that you can copy-paste to an unreasonable client citing your terms or policies when they start acting unreasonably.
Yes, I had $100 projects that would suck out more of my energy than $2000 projects, precisely because of the way they had been organized. Many times this was due to unreasonable amount of revisions and/or cumbersome revision processes. I think you did the right thing, we as freelancers, always have to manage/save our energy and peace of mind the best way possible.
| | | | Daryo
United Kingdom
Local time: 06:26
Serbian to English
+ ...
unless you count as "firing" not accepting any proposal from people who I consider as unnecessary non-payment risk I can do without.
| | | | | One year ago | Oct 11, 2023 |
This was a minimum fee job with a formerly reliable agency in the US. This time, they told me they were unable to pay me via PayPal, but they couldn't provide a coherent reason. The person in their accounts department who informed me of this was apparently unable to write or understand the English language with any degree of proficiency (and she thought Nairobi was a country).
When I escalated the issue to the agency's management they proposed to pay me by cheque (or "check"), appar... See more This was a minimum fee job with a formerly reliable agency in the US. This time, they told me they were unable to pay me via PayPal, but they couldn't provide a coherent reason. The person in their accounts department who informed me of this was apparently unable to write or understand the English language with any degree of proficiency (and she thought Nairobi was a country).
When I escalated the issue to the agency's management they proposed to pay me by cheque (or "check"), apparently unaware of the implications of such a proposal in our business. After about a month going backwards and forwards, I got them to donate the $40 to charity and take me off their books.
I think that in every case where I've sacked a client it's been because of incompetence in their accounts department. I wonder where they get these people from. I have twice had to explain to supposedly experienced accounting staff what an IBAN code is and what information it contains. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Danielle Crouch
Germany
Local time: 07:26
Member (2019)
German to English
+ ...
| "Fired" over rate increases | Oct 11, 2023 |
I've "fired" several clients over the past few years, and it's always been because they have not accepted my rate increase. I have been surprised in a few cases how insistent the client was that I continue to work at my old rate, even after I'd made it clear in several emails that my previous rate was no longer on the table.
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Gianni Pastore
Italy
Local time: 07:26
Member (2007)
English to Italian
I am lately getting rid of agencies whose job management system is too complex if compared to the amount of work I got. Just not worth the hassle.
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