In amongst dentist drills and whirling blow dryers, we found a new translation agency lurking.
Would you trust a professional services business with an office like this?
We visited the office of a translation agency to check and found it was a virtual office. No one was there.
They obviously don’t expect any visitors as the office is locked and no lights are on – it’s an example of the proliferation of “fake” addresses and virtual offices on Google.
In recent months, we’ve found other translation services advertising non-existent addresses, creating fake locations and numbers for Australian states even down to suburbs. All smoke and mirrors. Often it is a one-man band with a website and google account. This raises the question: when does this cross the line into misleading and deceptive translation business practices?
Virtual offices provide small businesses with a professional address and meeting spaces. However, these services are now often used to create the illusion of multiple staffed offices.
Clients are at Risk
We have a client who was left high and dry for an imminent court case – the translation never arrived and they never answered their phone. The translation agency was in England!!
We know a translator who had translated reams of pages from German to English and hadn’t been paid in 6 months, only to find that the ‘agent’ wasn’t in Australia but in Indonesia and she had no recourse. They too never picked up the phone.
A law firm working at a Royal Commission hired an interpreter off Google only to find out that the US agent subcontracted the job to China and the interpreter was not qualified and had no idea about Australian legal process; the adjournment to secure a qualified Australian interpreter was costly we imagine.
How would you get your money back if the translation never comes? How would you deal with errors in your translation if the agent just disappears? How would you know if the interpreter is bungling your case?
Overseas agencies or unknown middlemen likely have no insurance protection should something go wrong. They are not part of our professional associations and adhere to no code of ethics. What if an interpreter was injured on your site? What if your legal translation was wrong and the client sued you? What if your confidentiality was breached?
We have one office in Australia and it is staffed by real people: our employees. You can reach us by phone, email, or in person.
Does this happen in your industry too?
There is a proliferation of Philippines outsourced teams and chat bots… feedback not great, poor connections and lack of training and care, but saving money on office space and local Australian staff.
There are many virtual offices with no one there but Google delivering enquiries to them.
If you look carefully, you can spot these ‘fakes’ from their websites. Here are a few clues:
- A long list of different phone numbers for each state in Australia.
- No address listed
- No pictures of offices or staff and stock photos
- Lots of keyword stuffing which they hope google will like
- Preferring to liaise by email or chat bot
- Deflecting if you want to visit them
Get the picture?
Like any professional service, word-of-mouth recommendations and research are important. Language matters; mistakes will be costly.
At CHIN, we welcome visitors – you can visit our team and office any time and when you do, you know that a local Australian-based human translator will look after you with care; no blow dryers in sight!