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ON the ground that "it's only 10 seconds" or "it's only some lowly disgruntled employee moaning"?
Some business that is well aware that having disgruntled employees, even at the bottom of the food chain, is not good for business paid some specialised agency to conduct this survey.
My guess is: they want to know the results. I'm sure they would be very pleased to learn that at the end of the process, in the last step, the translator decided on its own which answers could be simply ignored ...
Another aspect, as much important: if you get in the habit of giving up at the first sign of difficulties, what you are going to do when you have difficulties with an essential part of the ST that you must get right? Call at your rescue all the skills that you have honed while simply avoiding too much exertion?
BTW it's a perfectly "articulate" answer - the meaning is crystal clear if you are used to everyday French and know the context - the logic of how salespeople operate.
Francis Murphy (X)
Canada
Not worth the time
17:53 May 1, 2019
This employee spent perhaps 10 seconds writing down an inarticulate answer. If this were for a witness statement in a trial, it would be worth trying to figure it all out. For this situation, I would add "[incomprehensible expression]" to the translation.
Ph_B (X)
France
au niveau du menton
17:42 May 1, 2019
I've never heard this in this context, in France anyway, but then I may not have heard everything. I would agree if we had jusqu'au ("up to"), but here we have au niveau du, which as a native speaker I understand to mean "regarding" (spoken French). Now the other possibility is that the employee used au niveau du and actually meant jusqu'au. It wouldn't be the first time that we have to deal with less than accurate (especially spoken) French but I still find mentioning any menton rather odd - the only phrase using it that I can think of with this kind of meaning is S'en mettre/En avoir jusqu'au menton but this conveys a feeling of satisfaction, which is obviously not the case here. I would check with the client, if possible.
That was how I read it too :) - as did my French husband.
Francis Murphy (X)
Canada
Agree, up to his neck
16:40 May 1, 2019
I agree with Louise Taylor. The quote is from an employee, complaining about billing. It is colloquial. I had almost answered it this way yesterday, but deleted. Not a common expression, but "up to the chin" is used sometimes, more to describe distance or height. I guess the situation here is that the auto manufacturer's customer service is dealing with a situation and applying charges against the dealership that are excessive. The employee at the dealership is complaining about it.
Indeed it fits with my suggestion have to bear the cost (of the financial set-up).
Ph_B (X)
France
17:44 Apr 30, 2019
"The dealer should not be penalised with regard to the amount" or whatever a native speaker would say. This is spoken French, and au niveau de makes it a little bit colloquial - one of those annoying phrases you hear all the time in all sorts of circumstances. See Margaret Morrison's answer below.
No Louise, this is nonsense in commercial talk, whether colloquial or not. Pénalisé au niveau de must refer to some kind of financial term which menton is and has never been. Ask any native speaker and he will tell you the same. The only far fetched possibility would be that there is a dealer in the city of Menton and that would be au niveau "de Menton" and certainly not "du menton".
peer agreement (net): +2
