French Translation FAQ's

What about Quality, Price and Confidentiality?
How can I be sure that your work is of highest quality?
Do you use machine translation software to localize?
How do you price your work?
Are there any hidden charges?
How is the invoice calculated?
How do you ensure confidentiality of my information?

I am ready to start a project
Will you give me an obligation free quote before the start of the project?
How can I send my documents to you?
How much will my project cost?
What turnaround time can I expect?

What about Quality, Price and Confidentiality?

How can I be sure that your work is of the highest quality?
Translation Services is committed to providing its clients with the highest quality translation services by assigning a project manager and a team of language professionals to each client's project.

Do you use machine translation software to translate?

Just try dumping a few sentences into the many software packages available on the Internet—go back and forth into the languages and see the mess that can be created! Now imagine those sentences representing company in foreign markets. We have re-translated many documents/websites that were simply translated wrong, causing serious credibility issues, cost overruns, etc, all because it was not done right the first time.

How do you price your work?
Written translation projects are based on the document word count of the target language. Rates differ from European and Asian languages, normal and rush jobs, small and volume assignments. We will give you a fixed quote upon learning the details about your project. To obtain a quote within 24 hours, please e-mail or call for details.
If you wish to translate your website, send us your web site address (URL). We will review your site, request any additional information and then provide you with a complete estimate.

Are there any hidden charges?
No. You only pay for the work that was completed. We will provide a per word cost for your project; an estimate for the total cost of the translation will be sent to you, for your approval and we guarantee not to alter it once it it has been accepted, as long as you don't change the source material. With Translation Services, you won't ever face any unexpected charges!

How is the final invoice calculated?
You will be billed as per your estimate. If there was no 'fixed' word count established, we take a verifiable electronic word count of the target language file (save for a few languages such as Japanese and Chinese where we use the verifiable source language count) and multiply this count by the per word rate given in our initial quote. You will ONLY pay for the number of words in the target language – there are no hidden fees.

How do you ensure confidentiality of my information?
All Translation Service’s translators and interpreters are bonded by the Translators' Professional Code of Ethics set by professional translators associations around the world. This implies full confidentiality and non-disclosure of clients' information. However upon request, Translation Services will sign 'Client Specific' confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements with both the translator(s) and client(s).

I am ready to start a project

Will you give me an obligation free quote before the start of the project?
Yes. We aim to deliver accurate quotes within 2 working hours of any clients request – without obligation, of course. Simple follow the instructions on our Quotation page - its simple and fast.

How can I send my documents to you?
You can send the documents to us by e-mail, fax or regular mail. For large documents, we may assign Secure FTP space for you, if you don't have one available.
If you have the document available in electronic format, we would prefer that you e-mail it. Please attach the document to your email message and specify your project requirements. When we look at your document in electronic format, we will give you a fixed quote for its translation.

If, however, you only have a hard copy of the original document, please fax it to us at (905) 279-0618. For large-size documents, you will need to fax us just a few representative pages. We will provide you with an approximate quote based on those sample pages.

You can always mail the document to us if you have it only in the hard copy and need to get a fixed quote for its translation for budgeting purposes.

How much will my project cost?
You will need to send the document to us along with your project requirements. The documents can be sent to us in three different ways. We will review your documents and provide you with a quote usually within hours – we will notify you if we need more time. If you have an urgent project, please call us and we will see if we can help you.
We will assign a project manager to you once we start working on your project. This person will be in contact with you regarding your project requirements, expected turnaround time and other issues. You will be able to contact the project manager with any questions that you may have during the course of your project.

What turnaround time can I expect?
This will depend on the size and complexity of your project and the number of languages into which the documents need to be translated into. Keep in mind that a typical translation process involves several steps: project evaluation, translation, editing and proofreading. Remember ALL these steps are included in your quote; some companies may charge extra for some of these services.
We will estimate the turnaround time for your project based on your documents and project requirements. Our record for meeting deadlines is excellent - even when the deadline is a tight one! We are proud to say, that we have yet to miss a deadline...if we can't meet your deadline, we will not take on your project.

I want to learn more about your translation process.

Who will manage my project at your office?
We will assign a project manager to you once we start working on your project. This person will be in contact with you regarding your project requirements, expected turnaround time and other issues. You will be able to contact the project manager with any questions that you may have during the course of your project.

How do you select the team for my project?
All our language professionals are certified, accredited and/or hold linguistic degrees. When selecting a team for your project, we make sure that our translators have the language expertise as well as the in-depth technical experience to handle your unique subject matter.

What are the steps of the translation process?
A typical translation process involves several steps: at the time an estimate is provided to you, the project has been evaluated for type of terminology, language, localization ( audience). Once we have your acceptance of the cost and turnaround time, the documents are sent to the assigned translator, then it is sent to a proofreader and editing is done if necessary. Documents also receive basic document formatting at this final stage. Then, documents are returned to you.

How will you deliver the finished project to me?
There are various ways that a translation can be delivered to you: electronic/ soft copy that you will desktop publish and/or print, printed hard copy, ready for photocopying ,CD Rom, or via FTP for you to download. We will deliver the documents to you according to your requirements.

I would like to translate my website.

How much will it cost to translate my website?
If you have an existing website, you will need to give us its Internet address (URL) for us to review it. We will then ask you to provide us with the latest archive of your site or its specific portion that you want translated. We will then give you a quote on translating the text. Finally, we will produce a comprehensive proposal within 24 hours that will specify website translation stages, turnaround time, and costs. You must specify whether you want graphical text included or excluded in our calculations.

How exactly do you translate website's?
We take your existing website and download all text/graphics, etc that is language dependent. We confirm with the client the exact requirements, and then we translate it and culturally adapt the text, localize graphics wording and finally ensure your Webmaster has accurately made all substitutions. If you have online inquiry forms and order forms, we make them accessible in the appropriate foreign language(s).

I have a question about my project

I need to make changes to my project
To make changes after your project has been started, you will need to call your project manager at 905-896-8428. You can also send an email.
Most changes carry additional charges, so please keep this in mind when finalizing your requirements before assigning the project to us.