Why do clients first ASK you to name your Rush Surcharge rate...and then act like it doesn't exist??
Thread poster: Adieu
Adieu
Adieu  Identity Verified
Ukrainian to English
+ ...
May 22, 2021

It is getting REALLY annoying to write yet another "Hi Dear PM, you forgot to add +30% rush rate, which is totally a thing and was YOUR company's policy and not at all my idea" email and then have to follow it up with a "c'mon seriously, y'all want another photograph of your own rate sheet form again?"

What gives?

I never even HAD a rush rate until clients' own forms made me fill in an arbitrary number.

But I did fill it in. Because they told me to. And th
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It is getting REALLY annoying to write yet another "Hi Dear PM, you forgot to add +30% rush rate, which is totally a thing and was YOUR company's policy and not at all my idea" email and then have to follow it up with a "c'mon seriously, y'all want another photograph of your own rate sheet form again?"

What gives?

I never even HAD a rush rate until clients' own forms made me fill in an arbitrary number.

But I did fill it in. Because they told me to. And they approved it.

So why am I stuck fighting the very people who instituted it to actually get it? I never even asked for it until they instructed me to pick a number.

[Edited at 2021-05-22 13:42 GMT]
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Peter Motte
 
Baran Keki
Baran Keki  Identity Verified
Türkiye
Local time: 12:37
Member
English to Turkish
Probably for the same reason May 23, 2021

why they ask your per word rates and enter them into their system (plunet) and then they offer you jobs with a fixed rate, which comes to less than half of your usual rate. It's just 'easier' for them (in the VM's words).

Peter Shortall
 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 10:37
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
I've never been in that situation May 23, 2021

I’m not fond of rush or express jobs and my long-standing customers know that. Even so I can’t say no to some of them and it will be an occasional favour. How much I’ll charge depends on the job as well as on the client and I’ll decide more or less on the fly. I don’t accept urgent deadlines, rush or express jobs from new clients, period.

Philip Lees
Ester Vidal
Robert Forstag
 
Robert Forstag
Robert Forstag  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 05:37
Spanish to English
+ ...
Do not quote general rush rates May 24, 2021

Teresa Borges wrote:

I’m not fond of rush or express jobs and my long-standing customers know that. Even so I can’t say no to some of them and it will be an occasional favour. How much I’ll charge depends on the job as well as on the client and I’ll decide more or less on the fly. I don’t accept urgent deadlines, rush or express jobs from new clients, period.


I myself used to love taking rush jobs (i.e., back when such jobs were on offer for a significant premium). My practice, though, was never to quote a rush rate, but only a regular rate - and then indicate that fees for rush jobs would depend on the urgency, difficulty, and inconvenience involved in a particular project.

I consider it more important than ever to follow this practice now, given the creeping disappearance of the very concept of a “rush job” - at least on the part of many agencies.

[Edited at 2021-05-24 20:01 GMT]


Christel Zipfel
Jorge Payan
Adieu
 


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Why do clients first ASK you to name your Rush Surcharge rate...and then act like it doesn't exist??







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