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It takes two to tango and there is room for improvement on the side of
Jennifer's company and on the translation company's end.
Having said that, the service provider is ultimately on the hook for
providing the client with the expected service, quality, and deliverables.
"Expected" is the key word here. How do you know and establish what is
expected?
As Wil points out, a complex project will require dozens of details to be
discussed and agreed-upon. Some translation/localization companies use
forms or questionnaires to gather this information while others use the
pricing proposal to document all of the assumptions underlying the quote.
And then there are those companies that don't verify assumptions but simply
do it their way.
Needless to say, Jennifer, stay away from these companies. Translation is a
competitive field and you should insist on not just linguistic quality but
also DTP excellence and first-class service.
Andres
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ForeignExchange Translations, Inc.
Multilingual Compliance Management
888.454.0787 http://www.fxtrans.com