[Glossika] The Glossika Thread

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
1

[Original Title: “Illegal company,GLOSSIKA,intimidates freelancers/competitors” – renamed by gus on 1 Dec 02]

An unregistered company called GLOSSIKA has recently stepped up its aggressive intimidation campaign against both freelancers and competitors it deems “undesired”.

“Undesired” in for GLOSSIKA means any professional translators or competitors who actually take honor in their work and try to provide good quality.

GLOSSIKA exists by not being registered, having no registered office, not paying any taxes and underpaying (on average they pay 50% under the market price) and paying their translators only partly or not at all (claiming bad quality as the reason).

This last few days a number of free-lancers that have spoken out to GLOSSIKA in public, as well as some competitors have “mysteriously” all been raided by either the police, the tax squad or immigration officials. Every time they were specifically after those that have spoken out.

In Taiwan some anonymous phone calls to the right place is all it takes to bring such a raid on…

Fair competition should be based on service, quality and pricing, and not on these mafia-like practices. The tactics GLOSSIKA is using damage both the industry in general as well as the reputation of foreign professionals in Taiwan.

I/we would like to collect more information of other people that have also had wonderful experiences with this illegal GLOSSIKA outfit, so that we can see how to tackle this baby…

If any of you have had dealings with GLOSSIKA, James/Jim/Michael/Peter Campbell or Fiona/Monique Campbell/Chui (forgive me if I forgot some aliases), please post these experiences here, or if you feel more comfortable, email them to: kill_glossika@yahoo.com

(I apologize for the yahoo handle, but it seems that a couple of dozen yahoo and hotmail handles with GLOSSIKA in it were all taken)

Needless to say that I strongly recommend all free-lancers not to work for an illegal outfit like GLOSSIKA. When they are going down, and they will, it would not help any freelancers to be in the fallout zone at that time…

If you are looking for translation work, there is a number of good, honest companies in Taiwan (can’t advertise them here) If you are interested, drop an email to the same address and I’ll email you contact info for some of these good companies.
:imp: :imp:

2

:frowning:
Unfortunately I have had some experience with Glossika too. I translated a manual for them a while ago. The manual was A-grade (I do a lot of free-lance translations for companies such as IBM and Sharp).

However, when it came to payment I was told the quality was too bad to be discussed. The best they were willing to offer was a 40% payment, and that I was lucky to get even that much for such crappy work.

When I complained I was told Glossika had decided not to cooperate with a bad translator like me anymore. Needless to say I am still waiting for payment (since early this year)

I hope that will help you to teach these guys a lesson in how to work honestly…

3

Well, I don’t want to “kill_Glossika” or anyone else, but I would appreciate it if they would get their facts straight and leave me alone (not necessarily in that order!)

They are claiming in an officially registered complaint letter to me that I was “denied employment” by them because of “insufficient credentials” (still trying to figure that one out!) – when what really happened was that they ceased returning e-mails when I informed them that, as an experienced and credentialed translator, I don’t do free samples for anyone. They claim that this “denial” of employment (check my tax records, guys – a trickle of freelance work for any individual client wouldn’t have made a dent given my financial position at that time; the lack of a response wasn’t really even worthy of notice) led me to become so incensed and infuriated that I then turned to libeling them. Hey, whatever. It’s a free country, you can think what you like, regardless of how illogical it is. For a freelancer with a couple of years behind him or her, any individual client is little more than a blip on the radar screen. That’s simple economics.

The most ironic thing is that, if they think they’re going to “get all my clients” or something, they will unfortunately be most disappointed, as I am a humble grad student these days, and am not actually translating on the Taiwan market. In fact, I haven’t been on the Taiwan translation market actively since 2000. Pretty much what the police found when they raided my apartment on Friday morning: simple foreigner, 100% legal, studying and working at a perfectly legal job that is not even a translation job. Now I ain’t sayin’ that Glossika et al. had anything to do with that raid, but you can draw your own conclusions. Complaint letter from them on Thursday, raid on Friday, after 8 years in Taiwan without so much as saying “hello” to a policeman?

Whatever. But I’ve never seen the value in harassing people for no good reason. It’s kind of like the terrorism thing – what do the terrorists really want? All non-Arabs out of the Middle East? Special labeling on pork products? They’ve never really said what they want, it’s just “die everybody else, especially Americans”. I almost feel sorry for people who are so full of rage that way. It certainly can’t make for a very pleasant life for them. Hopefully the folks at Glossika are not that way, or they are probably suffering from high blood pressure, ulcers and who knows what else. Not healthy, not at all. Live and let live, I say. Market forces will usually resolve matters of competition, if there is any competition involved in the first place.

4

I just checked out their Web site. They don’t seem to come right out and say where the office is, do they? In fact, I looked all over but couldn’t find but a phone number. Does anyone know who the managers are? Are they in any business organizations?

5

The information is publicly available on their site, but the link is light in color and is difficult to see. I don’t see any names, for sure, however, although I’ve got a couple of business cards from that company with names on them. They match some of the names listed above, sure 'nuff.

Here it is:

For requests within the United States, please leave a message or send a fax at: 1-800-356-3159.

Taiwan Branch:

Contact Numbers:
Customer Service / Translation / Design
From Abroad: +886-2-2690-2264
Within Taiwan: (02)-2690-2264

Fax number (please contact us by email or phone if your fax is in excess of 10 pages)
From Abroad: +886-2-2690-2368
Within Taiwan: (02)-2690-2368

Are you thinking of working for them? :smiley:

6

i just learned of another site that has a discussion bbs thing for translators, its called ProZ (www.proz.com) and to my surprise, it has a lot of postings about glossika. it seems like there are a lot of disputes with this company. in fact, people are saying a lot more negative things about them on proz than on segue, there is hardly anything on segue so i dont know why they would bother ironlady for libel?? you mean posting on segue, right? like so few people out of all the people in taiwan read it anyway! well, if anybody wants to check it out and see for themselves the html is

proz.com/?sp=search&include[forums]=1

or you can just go to their forums and search for the word ‘glossika’, you get a whole list.

about libel things, i like this quote that some guy named ‘michael stevens’ at glossika posted:

…there is a constitutional right to FREEDOM of speech in a FREE country.

Thats kinda interesting isnt it? so why are they picking on for saying what they think?[/b]

7

When Glossika is eventually forced to close down, won’t it simply resurface under a different name?

8

[quote=“Albert”]GLOSSIKA exists by not being registered, having no registered office, not paying any taxes and underpaying (on average they pay 50% under the market price) and paying their translators only partly or not at all (claiming bad quality as the reason).[/quote]Albert - You said that Glossika is illegal, unregistered and doesn’t pay taxes. Can you offer some proof of that?

For discussion about Glossika on ProZ click here.

Gossika’s company profile on Proz
Glossika’s own web site
Google search results for Glossika

By the way, good translation agencies in Taiwan can be made known to everybody by posting links to them on the Taiwan Foreign Language Editors’ Corner.

9

Interesting what google throws up…
Here’s a recent posting from said James Campbell

This is what I was talking about in my Minnan message yesterday:
there’s freedom in Taiwan, and I’ll talk in whatever language I wanna
talk and nobody can say anything about that. If I don’t want to speak
Chinese or English today, I don’t have to, and nobody can enforce a
language on you.
For example, this can be used greatly to your own advantage. In
August my company had a little legal situation. I met with my lawyer
and the prosecutor’s side in meetings several times. They always
discussed everything amongst themselves in Minnan, and we, in
English. I refused to speak Chinese or understand it, though I could
still understand their discussions which they didn’t know. In fact,
if they spoke to me in Chinese, I would mute it and not even have the
slightest reaction. This is a psychological advantage I could take
over them, causing them some amount of frustration and forcing them
to have to negotiate in a foreign language, or have to work through
an interpreter (an extra very expensive expense). Of course, they
chose to speak English, a very broken English, and at times, unable
to express or sound convincing.
Even though no agreement was ever reached, I’m in no position to
worry about it now. We have already submitted all proof and
documentation to the authorities that we have suffered a greater
monetary loss than the prosecutors can claim. And if they take us to
court, they’ll lose. We could even sue, but it’s not really worth the
return. So even now, the prosecutor is still very upset and
frustrated about not being able to come to a beneficial solution to
this matter. Since we have absolutely no obligation whatsoever, we do
not need to respond to any requests made by them or their lawyer.
They can’t sue, because they don’t even have a case anymore.

I’m even willing to go to the extreme where I refuse to speak and
understand English in such negotiations. In a free country nobody has
the right to force me to speak in any language. Even the law is
willing to make itself understood in foreign languages if necessary.
So if I were to do this, it means that in order for negotiations
could even begin, they would have to find a way to communicate with
us, and since it would be going through a third party, it would make
it very difficult on them psychologically.
Actually, as a defendant, trying to negotiate with me and get answers
out of me would be very difficult, because even if they could get an
interpreter, I would just as quickly switch languages. When I do open
my mouth I might even mix all my languages together into one
sentence. They would need a team of interpreters to communicate with
me.

BTW, I found this at groups.yahoo.com/group/foreignla … ssage/2885

K

10

Even a recent search of segue showed posts from LAST year about Glossika

segue.com.tw/viewtopic.php?t … t=glossika

You’ll find people complaining then.

K

11

I believe that in the United States, linguistic behavior such as that described in “James Campbell’s” post (deliberate obtuseness and switching from one language to another) would be quickly handled with a swift contempt of court charge. Judges generally don’t like having their time wasted. All the lawyers in question have to do is close down negotiations and go into litigation, and let the judge handle it, which after all is his or her role. A few days in jail on a contempt of court charge might refresh the knowledge a person like James has of English or any other language in his repertoire, I daresay, were he in that sort of situation. :laughing:

12

I think it is a little odd they don’t have a street address. That’s a tip-off right there they could be a little flaky.

13

Their phone number suggests their office is in Hsichih.

14

Goodness, did you want their street address?

They were kind enough to include it on the nice threatening letter they sent me a few days back. Of course, it’s hard to know whether this is the real physical address or whether it’s just the registered address for the company (oops, forgot – when the company isn’t registered, that’s not much of a problem is it!!! :wink: ) because often in Taiwan a company will register using one address and actually do business at another, to save money.

Anyway, if you are in the Hsichih area, by all means take a delicious cold Ovaltine, or perhaps some seasonal fruit, over to the nice folks at:

[color=red]21F, No. 165, Xintai 5 Lu, Sec 1, Xizhi, Taipei County
(21 F, No. 165, Hsintai 5 Rd., Sec. 1, Hsihchih, Taipei County)
台北縣汐止市新台五路一段165號21F[/color]

In case you get lost, the Chinese name of their company seems to be 雅捷, although evidently you couldn’t prove that by the Taiwan government.

15

I have a card for Glossika Translation Agency, James M. Campbell, President, listing their specifics slightly differently:

(221) 11F, No. 93, Hsintai 5 Rd., Sec. 2, Hsichih
phone: 2690-2264
fax: 2690-2368

16

This should be good

17

That was ‘pretty’ good. Could have been better.
:smiley:

18

‘Glossika’,

Please do not post the same topic to more than one forum.

19

Sorry Glossika dude, though this domain name ends with a .tw extension, this site is hosted in the U.S of A. under the jurisdiction of United States laws. Yes, that land famous for free speech.

Didn’t your lawyers tell you that? At least get your facts right before spewing your drivel.

20

Seems like the poor Glossika folks have a penchant for digging their own graves.
You should have left well enough alone and things may have blown over, but noooooooooo, you’re fighting tooth and nail and displaying the mania that you’ve been accused of on this site, and others.

Glossika may well be on their way to bankruptcy. Or a name change! Ha!
You reap what you sow. Toodles!
:smiling_imp: :smiling_imp: :smiling_imp: :smiling_imp: :smiling_imp: