The Company
The British Centre of Jesi says it has been in business since 1977 -- though it still hasn't translated its own website into English.
See my posting of January 8, 2008 for addition information.
What follows is proof that often there is no shame where most it ought to flourish.
The History
On March 11, 2008, Max Frangioni (jamax28@aol.com) sent me the following private message:
Hi,
i have a project 2900 words, word file, about wine fair.
delivery tomorrow 4pm wednesday 12th march.
total offered 118 usd.
This quote (for roughly 12 cartelle) works out to something like $9 per cartella or $0.04 per word.
Even the Indians pay better.
I contacted the company to complain (bitterly) about this offer and their repeated efforts to break the market, and Mr. Frangioni responded that he was reporting me to Proz.com (where he had harvested my address) for my lack of professionalism.Yes. Mine.
The Company
The British Centre of Jesi says it has been in business since 1977 -- though it still hasn't translated its own website into English.
They offer "fast, efficient service for documents of every kind (technical, scientific, legal, and business-related) in any foreign language," and, of course, they underscore their "collaboration" with native speakers.
The History
On January 8, 2008, the British Centre of Jesi posted a job to the Proz job board:
URGENT. ITALIAN INTO ENGLISH 1 PAGE
Though the job may well have been one printed page, the word count indicated in the posting was 550 words -- or approximately 2.5 "cartelle" of 1500 keystrokes each.
Payment was "15 usd" and the British Centre further promised:
"you will be offered other projects from our agency."
The rate quoted here, then, comes to approximately $6 per cartella. Note that, as of this writing, the British Centre's company profile on Proz.com indicates a "standard rate" of "0.04 Euro per word" for Italian->English translations.
Based on that, a job of 550 words should come in at a minimum of E. 22 or about $31.90 at today's exchange rate. There's no explanation for why this particular job -- marked URGENT! -- was priced so low.
I contacted the company about this job offer and their rates and received the following response:
you email, seems that you are quite bored. please just next time if u dont like the project and what offered, ignore them....and dont stress us with your tantrums.
