Hi, I can't see how old this thread is, and who posted it; I am new here.

But I offer my humble opinion:

The english text you cited is quite bad (linguistically, grammatically) and simple (style), and sounds quite fishy; just too general.

For a "big company", they should have better communication, and offer serious (and SPECIFIC) terms to you.

If they have "no complaints about payment" and "you can see IN internet", then they should have the trust to pay you up front for the samples, and trust YOU to refund them, if your work was not acceptable. You could offer them that, with specific conditions. Did they comment on the quality of your first (xls-sheet) translation? Were they satisfied?

For a "big company" looking for quality translation, a small amount as down-payment should not be a risk, nor an issue.

Once you both agree on your terms and amount of work, off course the payment schedule with min. amounts of 400 USD should be fine, I think. But for starters, they should recognize your value and offer to pay you first, as you are a "small" freelancer who cannot work for free. If they do not understand that, they are the wrong customer...

If you have really "checked" their web-site and think it is a good and serious company, you could call thier accounts dept. and ask some questions:

e.g.: how you can invoice them, details of what to put into your invoice, etc.

During that conversation, you could casually ask about any min. limit of transfering money, and what bank details they require, etc.

(Nowadays, int'l money transfer is not expensive between most western countries, aswell as SE-Asia. So for an amount of a few hundred USD, the banking fees are very small, maybe 10-20 USD.)

What I am suggesting is, that you don't rely on emails, but really CALL them and speak with someone responsible.

Also, you cold translate one relevant paragraph of the word.doc as a final sample, and offer the rest after payment.

Good Luck!

rgds,

FRITZ

Hi Fritz. Welcome to TC.

The thread was started on Wednesday, December 14, 2011 05:44 GMT by Laurent Chevrette. All you have to do is go to page 1 (which can be located on the top left or bottom left of the page) and there locate the first post:  http://www.translatorscafe.com/cafe/MegaBBS/thread-view.asp?threadid=19913&start=1

HTH

Nanna