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Poll: When you send your translation work, do most of your clients confirm they have received it?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
SITE STAFF
Oct 10, 2008

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "When you send your translation work, do most of your clients confirm they have received it?".

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A forum topic will appear each time a new poll is run. For more information, see: http://proz.com/topic/33629


 
Jon O (X)
Jon O (X)  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:24
Dutch to English
+ ...
invoices Oct 10, 2008

Yes, most of my clients confirm when I send them a translation but many don't when I send them an invoice, they don't seem as happy to receive them for some reason..

[Edited at 2008-10-10 18:28]


 
John Rawlins
John Rawlins  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 12:24
Spanish to English
+ ...
Yes, because I ask for confirmation Oct 10, 2008

Yes, clients always confirm - but I always add the words 'please confirm safe arrival' at end of every email with a delivery attachment.

If I don't receive a confirmation, then I get on the phone.


 
Valentina Parisi
Valentina Parisi  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 12:24
English to Italian
+ ...
yes Oct 10, 2008

John Rawlins wrote:

Yes, clients always confirm - but I always add the words 'please confirm safe arrival' at end of every email with a delivery attachment.

If I don't receive a confirmation, then I get on the phone.


I do exactly the same, and receive confirmation from clients.


 
Nathalie White
Nathalie White  Identity Verified
Ireland
Local time: 11:24
English to French
+ ...
No - clients too busy to confirm Oct 10, 2008

Amongst other things, I actually spent the whole day ranting (to myself or poor hubby) about clients who don't acknowledge receipt of my work.

This is extremely frustrating... I have been working since June with the same client and have provided them with regular deliveries (once or twice a week at most) but they keep ignoring either my questions or receipt of the work I sent.

It is all the more frustrating as it always seem urgent... but when the work has been delivere
... See more
Amongst other things, I actually spent the whole day ranting (to myself or poor hubby) about clients who don't acknowledge receipt of my work.

This is extremely frustrating... I have been working since June with the same client and have provided them with regular deliveries (once or twice a week at most) but they keep ignoring either my questions or receipt of the work I sent.

It is all the more frustrating as it always seem urgent... but when the work has been delivered, no confirmation, nothing.

I'm not asking for 'thank you' (even though it wouldn't hurt) but at least something along the lines 'files received'.

IMHO, it only takes 2 seconds to type... My client told me this morning that she did not have time to acknowledge receipt of all her emails as she receives so many and is so busy.

Well, this might be true but so am I. Yet, I still manage to answer to all emails to acknowledge receipt of a document. Even it is with a simple 'received, many thanks'.

I'll try asking for a confirmation or a read receipt next time...
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andres-larsen
andres-larsen
Venezuela
Local time: 07:24
Spanish to English
+ ...
I always require customers to confirm receipt of my translations Oct 10, 2008

I always require customers to confirm receipt of my translations

 
business idiom
business idiom  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 06:24
Italian to English
+ ...
Only if I ask for it directly Oct 10, 2008

Nathalie White wrote:

I'm not asking for 'thank you' (even though it wouldn't hurt) but at least something along the lines 'files received'.

IMHO, it only takes 2 seconds to type...

I'll try asking for a confirmation or a read receipt next time...



Although I prefer receiving an email from my contact person at the other end letting me know that the files have been received in good order, I always try to remember to ask for a "return receipt" using my email client.

That way all that the client has to do is is click a button, when they receive the deliverables, and a message gets bounced back automatically to me, letting me know that my email was received.

I'm not expecting a "thank you"; a "paper trail" in the form of the return receipt or an acknowledgment by email (dated and stamped) is more meaningful to me.


 
Reed James
Reed James
Chile
Local time: 08:24
Member (2005)
Spanish to English
Human nature Oct 10, 2008

Most people who send me work acknowledge receipt. I don't fret over those who do not as long as there is no confusion. They will let me know if the don't receive the file because I have learned that most people contact you when they need something from you and that I am not necessarily to expect communication when they already have what they want.

 
diana bb
diana bb  Identity Verified
Lithuania
Local time: 13:24
English to Lithuanian
+ ...
Yes, they do Oct 10, 2008

viva96 wrote:

John Rawlins wrote:

Yes, clients always confirm - but I always add the words 'please confirm safe arrival' at end of every email with a delivery attachment.

If I don't receive a confirmation, then I get on the phone.


I do exactly the same, and receive confirmation from clients.


Because, like viva96 and John, I always ask them to.


 
Elin Davies
Elin Davies  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Member (2008)
English to Welsh
+ ...
Me too... Oct 10, 2008

diana bb wrote:

viva96 wrote:

John Rawlins wrote:

Yes, clients always confirm - but I always add the words 'please confirm safe arrival' at end of every email with a delivery attachment.

If I don't receive a confirmation, then I get on the phone.


I do exactly the same, and receive confirmation from clients.


Because, like viva96 and John, I always ask them to.


I ask for confirmation because it puts my mind at ease, makes me feel I've signed off properly, and ensures that they can't quibble about payment due to late delivery if they don't receive it due to a problem with their email system. I have one client who sometimes receives emails instantly, and other times hours later (which on a Friday afternoon could mean that they don't get it until the following Monday), so if I don't hear from them before the deadline hour I contact them again to check, and if that get nothing I'll phone. It's as much for my sake (the payment issue) as it is theirs (things do go missing even with cyber post).

On the flipside, I do have other clients who never, ever acknowledge receipt, but I know them well enough to realise that if they hadn't got it they'd be after me and they'd never try and swindle me either.


 
Kristina Radziulyte
Kristina Radziulyte  Identity Verified
Lithuania
Local time: 13:24
Member (2006)
English to Lithuanian
+ ...

MODERATOR
same story Oct 10, 2008

Nathalie White wrote:

Amongst other things, I actually spent the whole day ranting (to myself or poor hubby) about clients who don't acknowledge receipt of my work.

This is extremely frustrating... I have been working since June with the same client and have provided them with regular deliveries (once or twice a week at most) but they keep ignoring either my questions or receipt of the work I sent.

It is all the more frustrating as it always seem urgent... but when the work has been delivered, no confirmation, nothing.

I'm not asking for 'thank you' (even though it wouldn't hurt) but at least something along the lines 'files received'.

IMHO, it only takes 2 seconds to type... My client told me this morning that she did not have time to acknowledge receipt of all her emails as she receives so many and is so busy.

Well, this might be true but so am I. Yet, I still manage to answer to all emails to acknowledge receipt of a document. Even it is with a simple 'received, many thanks'.

I'll try asking for a confirmation or a read receipt next time...



Same story, same explanation: "we are too busy” + “and if we do not reply, please consider your mail as received"(!).
By the way, I always add those words “please kindly confirm safe reception”, and I additionally ask for an automatic read receipt - it doesn’t help much either.
That's why I've suggested this poll. In fact, I just wanted to know "Is it me or something’s wrong with the world today”:)
What a relief to know I am not alone. Thanks Nathalie for sharing your experience!


 
Sophie Dzhygir
Sophie Dzhygir  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 12:24
German to French
+ ...
Most of them Oct 10, 2008

Reed D. James wrote:

Most people who send me work acknowledge receipt. I don't fret over those who do not as long as there is no confusion. They will let me know if the don't receive the file because I have learned that most people contact you when they need something from you and that I am not necessarily to expect communication when they already have what they want.
Same here. I have stopped requiring explicitely a confirmation (which I used to do), I often use the read receipt function of my client (except when I know in advance that the customer will anyway reply, or on contrary when he will anyway not send the receipt).


 
José Henrique Lamensdorf
José Henrique Lamensdorf  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 08:24
English to Portuguese
+ ...
In memoriam
Too many don't Oct 10, 2008

They often are so happy that they get it (usually before the preset deadline) that they don't bother to confirm. But some are worse.

I had one case when the PM sent me an e-mail one week after the deadline, saying she hadn't received my file by e-mail. I had to point to her that she was the one who instructed me NOT to e-mail it, but to upload it to an FTP site, which I had done ten days earlier, i.e. three days before the deadline.

Another one, I sent a subtitled DVD b
... See more
They often are so happy that they get it (usually before the preset deadline) that they don't bother to confirm. But some are worse.

I had one case when the PM sent me an e-mail one week after the deadline, saying she hadn't received my file by e-mail. I had to point to her that she was the one who instructed me NOT to e-mail it, but to upload it to an FTP site, which I had done ten days earlier, i.e. three days before the deadline.

Another one, I sent a subtitled DVD by registered express mail, tracked it, and saw it had been delivered. A week after the actual delivery, she called me on Skype, asking me if I was having trouble with it. Some detective work on her building revealed that it had been delivered to an adjoining office, and nobody bothered to read who it was addressed to. It had been on some disorganized secretary's desk all the time.

So it's rush! rush! rush! when they ask for the job, but then they relax... until well after they've received it.
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M. Anna Kańduła
M. Anna Kańduła  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:24
English to Polish
Yes, except one Oct 10, 2008

Most of them do, they acknowledge even invoices.

Only one does not does confirm receipt of email. And I don't like it, as I never know they got it or not, and as long as I am sure my client got the translation I don't feel like my project is finished.


Anni


 
Yaotl Altan
Yaotl Altan  Identity Verified
Mexico
Local time: 05:24
Member (2006)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Other Oct 10, 2008

Sometimes they confirm, sometimes they don't.

 
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Poll: When you send your translation work, do most of your clients confirm they have received it?






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