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Translation - art & business » Being independent »
Should I tell the customer about a possibly outdated text?
Thread poster: Heinrich Pesch

Heinrich Pesch  Identity Verified
Finland
Local time: 02:02
Member (2003)
Finnish to German
+ ...
Oct 29, 2018

I'm working on a text for marketing, and now towards the end in the file there is a buying guide included, probably from an external site. At one instance it says: Updated 2008. So its completely out of date (electronics).
Do you thing I should tell the customer about it or just keep my mouth shut?
 

Jennifer Forbes  Identity Verified
Local time: 00:02
Member (2006)
French to English
+ ...
Yes Oct 29, 2018

I think I'd point out to the client that the buying guide appears to be 10 years out of date and then say that of course you'll translate it if the client is happy with that.
Also, it occurs to me that perhaps "updated 2008" could be a typo for "updated 2018".

Morano El-Kholy
Vera Schoen
Ester Vidal
Kay-Viktor Stegemann
Nikki Scott-Despaigne
Teresa Borges
Dmytro Nehrii
 

Agata Bąk
Poland
Local time: 01:02
Member (2016)
English to Polish
+ ...
No Oct 29, 2018

It all depends on if the client is the source (author) or the target audience of the document. Generally, I would assume that the client is aware of the contents of the document and I would assume an unbiased approach.
Good luck!

Sandra& Kenneth
 

Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 00:02
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
Definitely Oct 29, 2018

If you mention it, the worst that can happen is that you waste five minutes of the client's time, and the best result is that you have a very hapy client who is very thankful to have chosen such a diligent business partner.

If you don't mention it, the worst scenario could mean that you spend a lot of time translating something that the client didn't want translated. Okay, it wasn't your fault, but the client isn't going to be happy about wasting money. Even if they're fair about it... See more
If you mention it, the worst that can happen is that you waste five minutes of the client's time, and the best result is that you have a very hapy client who is very thankful to have chosen such a diligent business partner.

If you don't mention it, the worst scenario could mean that you spend a lot of time translating something that the client didn't want translated. Okay, it wasn't your fault, but the client isn't going to be happy about wasting money. Even if they're fair about it and pay, the incident will still leave its mark. In the best case scenario, of course, they'll never know you even paused to consider the possibility but just got on with your work. ▲ Collapse


Nikki Scott-Despaigne
Sabrina Bruna
Teresa Borges
Dominique Durand
Christine Andersen
Susannalangs
Josephine Cassar
 

Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 00:02
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Reason Oct 29, 2018

Heinrich Pesch wrote:

I'm working on a text for marketing, and now towards the end in the file there is a buying guide included, probably from an external site. At one instance it says: Updated 2008. So its completely out of date (electronics).
Do you thing I should tell the customer about it or just keep my mouth shut?


I can think of many reasons why even though it's out of date, your client needs that 2008 document to be translated.

Peter Shortall
Josephine Cassar
 

Ricki Farn
Germany
Local time: 01:02
Member (2005)
English to German
Yes Oct 29, 2018

I always let my clients know whatever grabs my attention while translating, and an outdated text/reference is certainly one of these things.

As Sheila said, there's a certain probability they will find this information useful. Why waste a nonzero probability?

Tradupro17
 

Heinrich Pesch  Identity Verified
Finland
Local time: 02:02
Member (2003)
Finnish to German
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you all for your opinion. Oct 29, 2018

I had finished the file this morning when the PM inquired why I had not sent the translation last Friday. She had told me deadline was tomorrow Tuesday, no mentioning of any other date. So I send the file off to her, all translated. It was for a flat rate, so I just let it as it was. Probably someone down the row will find out that part of it is about 10 years old television sets.
 


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