Company contract asks for "3 year period of free revisions" Thread poster: Francisco Javier Crespo
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Hello folks!
I have recently applied for a freelance position with a company that advertised on this site, I passed their test, and I have now received a freelance contract to be signed. However, one of the clauses has me worried, since it essentially asks me to agree to perform changes to my translations for free, for a period of 3 years, as long as the source file remains unchanged.
The prospect of performing unlimited changes at no cost does not have me excited, but ... See more Hello folks!
I have recently applied for a freelance position with a company that advertised on this site, I passed their test, and I have now received a freelance contract to be signed. However, one of the clauses has me worried, since it essentially asks me to agree to perform changes to my translations for free, for a period of 3 years, as long as the source file remains unchanged.
The prospect of performing unlimited changes at no cost does not have me excited, but I was wondering if there is any real possibility of this occuring from your experience. I will forward my concerns on this to the company, but I wanted some opinions from colleagues to have a bit more of perspective.
Thanks in advance! ▲ Collapse
| | | | William Tierney 
United States
Local time: 01:26
Member (2002)
Arabic to English
| "Changes" or "Corrections" | Aug 4, 2023 |
You should provide a reasonable amount of time for the end-user to come back for corrections. I believe three months is sufficient. If your agreement says "changes," then the end-user/agency is asking for linguistic consulting for free. For instance, in a court case, a firm may want to use a certain term to strengthen their argument and come back to the translator to ensure this is semantically legitimate. This is added value, so it as a price of its own.
| | | | | Not a good idea | Aug 4, 2023 |
I would not agree to that. If there are mistakes, it is reasonable to fix them at no cost, but accepting free optional changes could result in a lot of wasted time if a client has a lot of preferences. Even worse, if their suggestions for changes are badly written, you'd also have to debate why it's not a good idea.
There is no good reason why they should not pay you for checking and implementing preferential changes. In your place, I would tell them that either that clause goes, or... See more I would not agree to that. If there are mistakes, it is reasonable to fix them at no cost, but accepting free optional changes could result in a lot of wasted time if a client has a lot of preferences. Even worse, if their suggestions for changes are badly written, you'd also have to debate why it's not a good idea.
There is no good reason why they should not pay you for checking and implementing preferential changes. In your place, I would tell them that either that clause goes, or I go. ▲ Collapse
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I find it hard to imagine a scenario where this would actually happen, but I wouldn’t agree to it. If they want to change anything they can do it and check it themselves.
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John Fossey
Canada
Local time: 01:26
Member (2008)
French to English
+ ...
| Probably minor | Aug 4, 2023 |
If it has happened to me, it was so minor that I don't remember it. I would have probably done it as a customer service. If the source text doesn't change and your translation was correct, revisions are unlikely.
On the other hand, potential clients that have unusual on-boarding contracts and procedures tend not to have any work to be done, after you jump through their hoops.
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I wonder if this is a standard contract sent to every freelancer they work with or a special contract sent to you given the fact that, according to your Proz profile, your experience amounts to 3 years. I wouldn’t accept it, but as you are starting out, try to figure out exactly what they want or to negotiate a lesser period…
| | | | | Thank you all! | Aug 4, 2023 |
Thank you all for your answers, they've all helped me reach an informed decision.
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida wrote:
I wonder if this is a standard contract sent to every freelancer they work with or a special contract sent to you given the fact that, according to your Proz profile, your experience amounts to 3 years. I wouldn’t accept it, but as you are starting out, try to figure out exactly what they want or to negotiate a lesser period…
I doubt my experience has any bearing on this, and it will definitely have no bearing on my final decision, but I still appreciate the hypothesis!
| | | | | Is it just a few tweaks? | Aug 4, 2023 |
Francisco Javier Crespo wrote:
as long as the source file remains unchanged.
So it's not free updates/changes or anything; the source is the same, & they want to be able to ask you to potentially change your translation of it.
It does happen. I had one where the client wanted shorter sentences. Another one time they found a minor error in the first para and basically said "review it before we look any further" - I was annoyed at myself as much as anything.
Such requests seem reasonable to me, as part of after-sales service as it were. although I might not think so if it happened under some pretext or other every single time, of course. Or perhaps 2 years 11 months after delivery, come to that.
I'd be tempted to agree & then see how it goes. If it happens too often or they are too demanding, you can always decline future projects (assuming you haven't signed anything to the contrary, which might in itself be something that would dissuade me, anyway).
It might be something, it might be nothing.
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| Everyone has access to this site... | Aug 5, 2023 |
... so maybe this is not the best place to discuss this?!
Enjoy,
C
| | | | | Probably not! | Aug 5, 2023 |
Cilian O'Tuama wrote:
... so maybe this is not the best place to discuss this?!
Enjoy,
C
However, when I weighed my concerns about the company reading this post against those of stepping into this clause blind, I simply decided the latter were more important. I don't think it's too condemnable to ask colleagues to make an informed legal decision, and I did not call any names.
If you know a better place to ask, I'm all ears though!
| | | | Kay Denney
France
Local time: 07:26
French to English
William Tierney wrote:
You should provide a reasonable amount of time for the end-user to come back for corrections. I believe three months is sufficient.
Three months is probably reasonable for large translations. If the translation is a just a half-page, I'd say three days is plenty. Then again there is surely not enough material in a half-page to be quibbling for more than three days. If the client takes more time getting back to you with requests for revision than you took to translate their text, I don't think that's in the least bit reasonable. They want you to work at breakneck speed then take their sweet time pulling your work apart? No way.
I have had clients asking whether I could put this instead of that, and taking a look at the source text, I 'll tell them, well it would be grammatically correct, but it would no longer be a translation of the source text, so no. That basically means they have changed the source text but don't want to admit to it, and they're trying to get you to approve the new text for free.
Francisco, I always tell my clients that after-sales is included in the price. I'd rather they came back and asked a question than change my text off their own bat and introduce an error. I tell them we can both learn from discussing whatever they don't like in my work. They know more about their product than me, and that's normal. I know more about language than them, and that's normal too. Communication is the way.
I have never put a limit on the number of questions or set a deadline. They rarely come back with questions, and if they do it's usually within a couple of weeks after delivery. At the agency, we had a few who didn't say anything about quality until the boss started chasing them to pay the bill. We asked for a file showing all the corrections they made to our text, but those cases mostly proved to be feeble attempts to get out of paying rather than serious quality problems.
We had one client, a government agency that had experienced serious quality problems with their previous agency. Their staff would query a lot in the first few months. Then gradually they asked fewer and fewer questions as they realised I knew my stuff and had done the research and looked long and hard at their website. When I started freelancing, I contacted them and they started giving me work because they knew that I could do a good job for them. And they send me interesting stuff and pay a handsome rate! So putting up with all their questions in the beginning proved to be a great long-term investment. But even with this client, who was clearly the most difficult client I had ever dealt with, they hardly ever came back with questions more than three weeks later.
So yeah, I'd definitely change that to three months rather than three years, because that would imply endless haggling is possible. And make sure that your rate takes into account that you have a potential three months of haggling after each delivery.
| | | | Kay Denney
France
Local time: 07:26
French to English
Cilian O'Tuama wrote:
... so maybe this is not the best place to discuss this?!
Enjoy,
C
I have a tendency to overthink and get paranoid, but I think my clients have better things to do than read whatever I post here, and their English isn't good enough to follow most of it anyway.
And since I never name my clients, I can always say "I wasn't talking about you".
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Corrections, 3 months... changes are paid for!
| | | | Zea_Mays
Italy
Local time: 07:27
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
| My experience | Aug 5, 2023 |
I never saw such a contract (and would ask to change this),
but I collaborate with an agency where for each job you'll find the note
"including 2 rounds of client feedback", but there's rarely such feedback.
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