Just complaining/ranting out loud...

[zeus777]

So I've been offering translations here at Fiverr for quite some time, and for the ones who's been hanging out here at the forum knows that every now and then I
complain about fake Google/AI /whatever translation app translators.
Sadly a lot of the buyers put a lot of trust ( or I guess blind faith) in them and believe/assume that the sellers are honest and skilled, and a lot of times they are fooled by the 5 star reviews. Sadly the fake seller I've been trying to report is a level 2 seller with a decent amount of 5 stars, so I can see why many people think this person is reliable.

A few weeks ago I was asked to proofread a translation, and yeah, sadly it was garbage quality. I asked who worked on the original translation, and surprise surprise, it was the fake seller mentioned above. I guess I'll try reporting this garbage seller once again but I get the feeling nothing will be done.
Anyway, I honestly told the buyer that the translation was bad, so this buyer decided to ask another translator. A few days later the translation was finished, and I was asked to proofread it. It was still very poor quality. I honestly told the buyer, and after a few messages back and forth, he finally decided to ask me to do the translation.
(....Honestly, he could have asked me from the very start but oh well 😅.)

I am of course upset with the fake sellers, but at the same time I am somewhat upset with the buyers too.
True, a lot of fake translators are level 1/2 sellers, they have a lot of 5 star reviews, so in most cases the buyers only sees the reviews and levels and never pay attention to the gig description and profile.

If the buyers actually took the time and read through the profile and gig description, they will spot a good number of grammar mistakes a lot of times.
I understand that in some cases the buyers are not native English speakers and therefore don't notice those mistakes but most of the buyers that asked me to proofread were native English speakers. If a "professional" "certified" translator had grammar mistakes in their gig description, that should be a huge red flag.
However this can be tricky because many fake seller simply copy/paste other native sellers' description so there are no mistakes in the description.
 

Buyers, be careful when ordering a translation gig. Read eeeeeeverything; their gig description, profile, and IF they have a negative review, even if it's just one or two of them,  read both the buyer and the seller's comments.

If the buyer says anything like  "I asked a native friend to check it and she said it was terrible" 

and the seller responds with "I do cant understand why she give me bad review I did work good" 

Just go look for another seller. Also don't forget to ask another person to proofread it.
 

OK, rant done. I'm going to get myself a doughnut. 

 

 

[newsmike]

On 5/12/2023 at 3:13 AM, zeus777 said:

So I've been offering translations here at Fiverr for quite some time, and for the ones who's been hanging out here at the forum knows that every now and then I
complain about fake Google/AI /whatever translation app translators.
Sadly a lot of the buyers put a lot of trust ( or I guess blind faith) in them and believe/assume that the sellers are honest and skilled, and a lot of times they are fooled by the 5 star reviews. Sadly the fake seller I've been trying to report is a level 2 seller with a decent amount of 5 stars, so I can see why many people think this person is reliable.

A few weeks ago I was asked to proofread a translation, and yeah, sadly it was garbage quality. I asked who worked on the original translation, and surprise surprise, it was the fake seller mentioned above. I guess I'll try reporting this garbage seller once again but I get the feeling nothing will be done.
Anyway, I honestly told the buyer that the translation was bad, so this buyer decided to ask another translator. A few days later the translation was finished, and I was asked to proofread it. It was still very poor quality. I honestly told the buyer, and after a few messages back and forth, he finally decided to ask me to do the translation.
(....Honestly, he could have asked me from the very start but oh well 😅.)

I am of course upset with the fake sellers, but at the same time I am somewhat upset with the buyers too.
True, a lot of fake translators are level 1/2 sellers, they have a lot of 5 star reviews, so in most cases the buyers only sees the reviews and levels and never pay attention to the gig description and profile.

If the buyers actually took the time and read through the profile and gig description, they will spot a good number of grammar mistakes a lot of times.
I understand that in some cases the buyers are not native English speakers and therefore don't notice those mistakes but most of the buyers that asked me to proofread were native English speakers. If a "professional" "certified" translator had grammar mistakes in their gig description, that should be a huge red flag.
However this can be tricky because many fake seller simply copy/paste other native sellers' description so there are no mistakes in the description.
 

Buyers, be careful when ordering a translation gig. Read eeeeeeverything; their gig description, profile, and IF they have a negative review, even if it's just one or two of them,  read both the buyer and the seller's comments.

If the buyer says anything like  "I asked a native friend to check it and she said it was terrible" 

and the seller responds with "I do cant understand why she give me bad review I did work good" 

Just go look for another seller. Also don't forget to ask another person to proofread it.
 

OK, rant done. I'm going to get myself a doughnut. 

 

 

Problem is that Fiverr is very aware of this problem, yet instead of vetting sellers, they do this.

[vovkaslovesnyy]

On 5/12/2023 at 11:13 AM, zeus777 said:

Sadly a lot of the buyers put a lot of trust ( or I guess blind faith) in them

Many buyers are well aware of what they do and just want to save money by using AI-services. 

One of my customers offered me to switch from translating his martial arts books to proofreading machine translations since it's cheaper for him. 

Shall I add that these books are then sold on famous platforms for real money?

On 5/12/2023 at 11:13 AM, zeus777 said:

IF they have a negative review

I have a handful of those (mostly from the period in my life when I wasn't able to deliver everything in time).

Once I was accused of using too many articles in English. 

So, as you said, it's always better to evaluate all aspects. 

On 5/12/2023 at 11:13 AM, zeus777 said:

I'm going to get myself a doughnut. 

I need one too since I had 3 orders cancelled with the following reason: 

 

Edited May 13, 2023 by vovkaslovesnyy

[zeus777]

14 hours ago, vovkaslovesnyy said:

I need one too since

I wish I can just sit down in a room with my cool fellow sellers, have coffee and doughnuts  ☕🍩and rant together for... and hour or two.
After that we can all go out for dinner and drinks. Boy that would be so much fun.

 

But seriously Fiverr, I know you can't be perfect and there will always be flaws, but you guys really need to do a better job with vetting the obviously bad sellers and problem buyers..

[robertvarga79]

On 5/14/2023 at 5:56 AM, zeus777 said:

But seriously Fiverr, I know you can't be perfect and there will always be flaws, but you guys really need to do a better job with vetting the obviously bad sellers and problem buyers..

Asking that would imply, with all respect to you, that you believe something like that was ever their intention. Once it was perhaps, long ago. Those times are long gone.
They can't even handle these pesky and annoying Telegram scammer accounts and have never been invested in sellers' further problems for at least the past five years. Are they mean, at Fiverr HQ? No. They are rather complacent.