| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4] > | Poll: What would you do if you were overpaid by mistake? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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Michael Harris 
Germany
Local time: 23:54
Member (2006)
German to English
Inform them first and then agree how to return it.
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Iulia Parvu wrote: Edith van der Have wrote: ... by responses like 'It depends on the client'. What kind of 'professionalism' is that? Of course, if you don't realise, that's a different story altogether. But knowing and not returning the money or asking them to withdraw it from your next invoice's payment (which has the same result)?  At least no one answered 'I'd keep the money' (not yet anyway) 
In the meantime, 1.8% have
| | | | Metin Demirel
Türkiye
Local time: 00:54
Member (2018)
Italian to Turkish
+ ...
| I was going to | Apr 21, 2023 |
Once a client had asked me for a discount for a relatively bigger project and we had agreed on it. But the automation system issued a PO with my standard rate resulting in a 300 EUR difference. I informed them and they corrected the PO.
| | | | | Why are they still a client? | Apr 21, 2023 |
Baran Keki wrote:
What if you were paid twice for the same job by an agency that is a notoriously late payer/non-payer and replies to your reminders weeks later?
Why would you go on accepting jobs from a client like that?
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It happened to me once, and returning the extra money (obviously the only professional option) turned out to be a huge hassle. This was in the days before Wise and the bank charges were non-trivial. As the error was theirs, I saw no reason why I should be out of pocket, so I had to determine all the charges, exchange losses, and so on and deduct them from the amount refunded. While this was going on the client's accounts department were quite unpleasant about it, as if it was my fault (though th... See more It happened to me once, and returning the extra money (obviously the only professional option) turned out to be a huge hassle. This was in the days before Wise and the bank charges were non-trivial. As the error was theirs, I saw no reason why I should be out of pocket, so I had to determine all the charges, exchange losses, and so on and deduct them from the amount refunded. While this was going on the client's accounts department were quite unpleasant about it, as if it was my fault (though the PM had been very nice).
All this for a job worth a couple of hundred Euros. It was the first job I did for that client ... and the last. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 00:54
Member
English to Turkish
| I no longer work with them | Apr 21, 2023 |
Philip Lees wrote:
Why would you go on accepting jobs from a client like that?
That agency from Denmark (let's call them, for convenience's sake, ConvenientTranslate) was a good client back in the day, and one of my first clients when moving from in-house to freelance translation (of course I didn't know better in those days rate-wise, but they were paying on time at least). They became a notorious late payer in the last 2-3 years, and that job was the last one I did for them around that time (I had to send numerous reminders for a couple of jobs previously as well). Anyways they paid twice the amount for that last job, and I thought "serves the c*nts right". They didn't contact me for any jobs for nearly two years after that (thank God), but at the beginning of this year they realized their error and started harassing me, asking me to pay back the overpaid amount. I was amused (delighted actually) to see them contact me regularly (looking forward to and replying to my emails promptly, whereas back in the day they would take their sweet time to get back to my reminders). It was pathetic that they fought tooth and nail for 100 EUR (shows you how desperate they are financially). In the end I paid them back their effing money to get rid of them. Not because of any moral obligation (they deserve no morals in my book), I just didn't want any complications going forward (I don't trust Keki & Associates to do well in a European court to be honest).
| | | | Gitte Hovedskov (X)
Denmark
Local time: 23:54
English to Danish
+ ...
| Let the client know and send them a credit note | Apr 21, 2023 |
Isn't that what businesses do??
| | | | | On the subject of honesty… | Apr 21, 2023 |
I wonder how many of the oh-so scrupulously honest virtue signallers here also volunteer to their customers that they use MT?
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| Of course I'd keep the money | Apr 21, 2023 |
Overpayment doesn't exist if you're talking about my services: they are invaluable. If someone paid me twice the amount quoted, I'd just take it as a bonus for doing my job to a super-high standard of quality. If anyone thinks I'm serious – well, I'm not. Never happened to me. Does anyone want to overpay me? You're welcome. The most desirable kind of pay is one where I don't have to do anything to earn it
| | | | Liena Vijupe
Latvia
Local time: 00:54
Member (2014)
French to Latvian
+ ...
Baran Keki wrote:
That agency from Denmark (let's call them, for convenience's sake, ConvenientTranslate)
I was contacted by an agency from Denmark with a similar name earlier this year! They wanted me to do a super urgent test and I didn't like it, but things were a bit slow at the time, the test was easy and everything else looked good, so I decided to give it a try. Didn't hear back until a couple months later when they contacted me again asking for another test for a different client. I pointed out that I had already done one and still haven't heard anything back, despite it having been so urgent. Then they said I had failed the test and apologized for not letting me know sooner. When I was curious about how exactly did I fail that particular test they sent me the file which was full of insignificant corrections, some of which even introduced errors... It was so ridiculous I was rather amused than mad. Dodged a bullet, clearly!
| | | | Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 00:54
Member
English to Turkish
| Easy come Easy go | Apr 21, 2023 |
Liena Vijupe wrote:
I was contacted by an agency from Denmark with a similar name earlier this year! They wanted me to do a super urgent test and I didn't like it, but things were a bit slow at the time, the test was easy and everything else looked good, so I decided to give it a try. Didn't hear back until a couple months later when they contacted me again asking for another test for a different client. I pointed out that I had already done one and still haven't heard anything back, despite it having been so urgent. Then they said I had failed the test and apologized for not letting me know sooner. When I was curious about how exactly did I fail that particular test they sent me the file which was full of insignificant corrections, some of which even introduced errors... It was so ridiculous I was rather amused than mad. Dodged a bullet, clearly!
That sounds like a close shave... I had no idea as to the extent of their dishonesty (honesty is the best policy, my eye!). They're consistently getting low ratings on BB, best to give them a wide berth.
Btw, I asked them to work off the debt, even offered to throw in a few extra hundred words for free, but they insisted on getting their precious money back, saying that my "account was inactive as I didn't get any assignments over a year"! So they automatically suspend your account when you don't get any assignments, what kind of agency does that? The temptation to say 'go f*ck yourselves then!' was so irresistible, but I showed restraint to my credit (for whatever that's worth) and at the detriment of my bank account...
[Edited at 2023-04-21 10:33 GMT]
| | | | | Honesty IS the best policy!!!! | Apr 21, 2023 |
Baran Keki wrote: honesty is the best policy, my eye!
Have a good look at the title of this forum. It is about US, not about THEM!
[Edited at 2023-04-21 12:07 GMT]
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Mónica Algazi
Uruguay
Local time: 18:54
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
| Not long ago, | Apr 21, 2023 |
a regular client paid me more than what I had charged him for a linguistic research assignment, as he understood it was fair to do so. Once he explained this to me, I accepted and thanked him for his appreciation of my work.
| | | | | I told the client first | Apr 21, 2023 |
I only had an experience like this once. Firstly, I told the client about it, then I offered the client to return the money.
| | | | | It happened to me | Apr 23, 2023 |
Baran Keki wrote:
What if you were paid twice for the same job by an agency that is a notoriously late payer/non-payer and replies to your reminders weeks later? Would honesty still be the best policy then or would you consider that some sort of poetic justice?
It happened to me and I immediately informed them e returned the money. They are the dishonest and I am the honest, no matter what. The best "sort of poetic justice" is to quit them, which I did (an extremely late payer with a rude and agressive accountant).
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