Would you like your windows cleaned, free of charge? Why not call several cleaning services and ask each one to do a few windows for you as a test. Just tell them that if you like the result, you will award them the whole project.
Need a new set of tyres for your car? Ask a bunch of different dealers to give you one tyre each as a sample. Of course, if you like that sample, you will buy the entire set from that shop (as if). When you have received four sample tyres, you are done. If this is unsuccessful, ask the dealers at least to let you try their tyre for a month. The downside here is that you would need 48 shops per year, instead of just four per set of tyres. (Also, if you drive a full trailer rather than a saloon car, you will need extra persuasive talents.)
How about examining the accounts of your business? Have twelve auditors do one month each, as a sample, of course. Hungry? If you live in a city, make a list of 365 restaurants and grocery stores. Visit one a day, ask for a meal and promise to come back every so often if you like its taste. Need surgery or dental work? Round clinics until you find one who will perform it as a free sample.
Not realistic, you say? Well, some translation agencies certainly are fond of these tactics. Every now and then, someone notices that a “translation test” he or she had performed for such an agency, free of charge, has become part of a translated publication. People still try the same old scheme. “Could you please translate pages x to y, as a sample? This is just a formality. Of course we cannot pay you.” (The credit reports for some of these agencies suggest that they do not pay their invoices much anyway, so there.)
In any case, the idea of using an unproctored test as a preventive quality control is flawed to the point of uselessness; if an incompetent person wanted to pass a “translation test”, they could simply have a professional translate the text for them.
What do you think? Your comments are welcome! (Uh-oh, now the lights went out. I guess it is time to for me to call the next power company on my list of testees… ☺)
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