I started working at Overtaal around 4 years ago, when they were recommended to me by respectable colleagues getting good rates and lots of jobs from them. I started out doing mostly EU translations (my field of expertise). I had a few set clients I worked for through them, and although they paid me much less than my colleagues, it was interesting work, I gained a lot of experience and the PMs seemed to genuinely care about quality and seemed to know what they were doing (they had held the EU contract for a long time and did a good job with these translations). Then, the EU contract ended and I started doing more other jobs for them, many in the medical field (which I have now gained a lot of expertise in, but was fairly inexperienced in at the time).
Gradually, more and more of the very competent Dutch PMs left and were replaced by young PMs from all over the world. Many of them are very nice, but explaining the intricacies of the Dutch language to them in English tends to lead to quite a bit of confusion. It is not uncommon for me to have to explain the Dutch instructions of the client to them. It also quite clear that they are being forced to lie to translators, offering them "better paying jobs in the future", that "this is a new client", that "we really don't have any budget for this, you'd be doing us a huge favour, we are looking for a very good translator for this text", or that "this proofreading will only take two hours" and it ends up taking 6.
Very often, I will accept a translation thinking they will pay the rate I agreed with them many years ago, only to have them tell me - after I've accepted - that "oh, but our budget for this translation is only xxx", where xxx is about half of my normal - already low - rate. Or I agree, and then I see on the PO that they used my starting rate, which has since been renegotiated, and when I point it out, they say "oops, I must have used your old rate, I'll just quickly change it".
I recently asked them if they could add a note in their new system not to send my translations for which they cannot offer my minimum rate, and I was told that "if there is a margin for negotiation, you can click negotiate and try to negotiate up to your minimum rate" and that this was "a lot less cumbersome than mailing back and forth". Negotiate *up* to my minimum rate? I have to say I was a little outraged...
A little while later I was contacted by the Barcelona office, to whom I'd been recommended by Overtaal, I filled out all of the paperwork, only to figure out afterwards that they could not offer more than their standard rate of 0.08 USD. I politely refused, saying that I did not want to work for such a rate and had no intention of having to negotiate every single job as I do with Overtaal nowadays, and they tried to pursuade me with nonsense arguments like "you'll be receiving a lot of work from us" (at 0.08 USD as a standard and therefore probably unattainable maximum rate? No thanks), "it'll be coming from the US, so you won't have to pay taxes" (I don't think they know how our tax system works... also, that means I'll just lose 10% on exchange rates and transfer fees again), etc. I refuted these arguments and haven't heard from them since.
They also seem to be working at ridiculous hours, it is not uncommon for me to get emails from them at 11pm on a Friday. I'm fine with working weekends and nights, but I do so because I choose to, because it is more convenient as I won't have as many distractions and people emailing me all of the time. I do not appreciate having to be reachable at any given time.
For anyone wanting to work for them, here's the gist of it:
They keep pushing for lower and lower rates, and have crossed the line of ridiculous rates quite a while ago.
They expect good quality translations for these rates, but have no idea what quality is (since most of the time they don't speak the target language).
They will hire anyone willing to work for their rates (as shown by the very poor quality of some of the translations I've proofread for them).
Although the PMs are nice, it is their job to try and scam you, and the constant emails back and forth are extremely time-consuming and tiring.
