Pearl Linguistics files for bankruptcy

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Eleonora Chyc
Eleonora Chyc  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:31
Russian to Ukrainian
+ ...
Wow Mar 6, 2017

Wow!

 
Enrique Bjarne Strand Ferrer
Enrique Bjarne Strand Ferrer
Spain
Local time: 13:31
Member (2017)
English to Norwegian
+ ...
Wow ! Mar 6, 2017

Eleonora Chyc wrote:

Wow!


"As recently as January 2017, Pearl Linguistics emerged as one of the winning bidders for the GBP 100m (maximum) framework contract to provide interpretation and translation services to the UK’s National Health Service."


 
Sohail Moghal
Sohail Moghal
Pakistan
Local time: 17:31
English to Urdu
+ ...
Are there any options for claiming our dues? Mar 7, 2017

Pearl owes my Jan and Feb payments but I'm not based in UK. What remedies are available for me to recover my dues?

 
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 13:31
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Outrageous Mar 7, 2017

What I find particularly outrageous is that companies keep ordering goods or services from their suppliers when they already know that they were in deep financial trouble. What kind of ethics is that?

 
Mervyn Henderson (X)
Mervyn Henderson (X)  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 13:31
Spanish to English
+ ...
Pearl Linguistics? Mar 7, 2017

The name rings a bell, but I've never worked for them.

As for the ethics, Tomás, pretty flawed on the one hand, but I suppose the logic is that if you stop receiving supplies, you can't operate and you'll never recover. And meanwhile, you can go to the bank for a loan (only joking!).

Or, if you ARE a bank, you just ask the government for some dosh to pay all the top brass and tide you over for a month or so, or a quarter or so, or a year or so, or a decade or so. As y
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The name rings a bell, but I've never worked for them.

As for the ethics, Tomás, pretty flawed on the one hand, but I suppose the logic is that if you stop receiving supplies, you can't operate and you'll never recover. And meanwhile, you can go to the bank for a loan (only joking!).

Or, if you ARE a bank, you just ask the government for some dosh to pay all the top brass and tide you over for a month or so, or a quarter or so, or a year or so, or a decade or so. As you know, in fact, living where you live, where one bank went through something like 40 share capital increases in 10 years and a bailout too, and it all came to nothing in the end because it's just a matter of time before it's swallowed up by another bank - the only question is, which one.
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Ramunas Kontrimas
Ramunas Kontrimas  Identity Verified
Lithuania
Local time: 14:31
English to Lithuanian
+ ...
I'd say "What took them so long?". Good riddance Mar 7, 2017

Eleonora Chyc wrote:

Wow!


 
mariealpilles
mariealpilles  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 13:31
Member (2014)
English to French
+ ...
Pearl Linguistics Mar 7, 2017

They have been going down the slippery path for some time, paying less and less, claiming all sorts of excuses not to pay properly, etc. A sure sign. That on top of their PMs changing very often. I stopped doing work for them a few years ago because of their behaviour.

 
Dan Lucas
Dan Lucas  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:31
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
Harsh lesson: only work with decent agencies Mar 7, 2017

ramunas26 wrote:
I'd say "What took them so long?". Good riddance

Ratings even on the notoriously optimistic Blue Board were ominously variable, while the (plentiful) feedback on the far more reliable paymentpractices.net was very poor even before this latest development.

Everything screams "Avoid!", so why do people work with such agencies? One look at the record shows that other freelancers had to fight tooth and nail for their money - what makes those who accepted jobs from Pearl think it would be any different for them, even if Pearl hadn't gone bankrupt? SMH...

Only work with agencies that have shining ratings on the Blue Board, at a minimum, preferably backed up by another source such as paymentpractices.net, the Zahlungspraxis mailing list or word-of-mouth. That's the lesson.

Dan


 
polskiexpert
polskiexpert
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:31
Member (2010)
Polish to English
+ ...
Surprise! Mar 13, 2017

Thanks for posting. Pearl L. had always been a slow payer, however I am surprised as the company seemed to do [pretty] well... Another language company which felt the pinch! Sorry to hear it... and probably a great number of linguists won't get paid on time or at all...Pearl L. does not owe me money (luckily!), but I am still waiting to hear back from an agency which went bust a few years ago...

 
Adam Warren
Adam Warren  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 13:31
Member (2005)
French to English
There appears to be a pattern: remember ALS/Capita? Mar 17, 2017

There is a flaw in the solution of awarding a contract to a single blanket language-service contractor to the public services: lack of competition, entailing the risk of complacency and slipping standards.

In the case of ALS/Capita, I understand that, prior to the contract award, ITI had proposed a resource-pooling service, but its solution was turned down. British justice suffered from the fall in standards as by its practices, the language services contractor deterred its good fre
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There is a flaw in the solution of awarding a contract to a single blanket language-service contractor to the public services: lack of competition, entailing the risk of complacency and slipping standards.

In the case of ALS/Capita, I understand that, prior to the contract award, ITI had proposed a resource-pooling service, but its solution was turned down. British justice suffered from the fall in standards as by its practices, the language services contractor deterred its good freelance resources, and was in some cases reduced to calling in unprofessional people with limited expertise, who failed to turn up, or otherwise performed unsatisfactorily.

This pattern appears in some respects to have repeated itself in the present instance. It's surprising that the British authorities haven't learnt the lessons from the earlier misadventure. Perhaps the ITI was on the right track.

With kind regards.
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Tomas Mosler, DipTrans IoLET MCIL MITI
Tomas Mosler, DipTrans IoLET MCIL MITI  Identity Verified
Czech Republic
Local time: 13:31
Member (2008)
English to Czech
SITE LOCALIZER
claims Mar 27, 2017

Sohail Moghal wrote:

Pearl owes my Jan and Feb payments but I'm not based in UK. What remedies are available for me to recover my dues?

You might try to submit your claim here:
http://www.pwc.co.uk/services/business-recovery/administrations/pearl-linguistics-limited--in-liquidation--the-company-.html


 
Patrick Wahl
Patrick Wahl  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 09:31
Portuguese to German
+ ...
Thank you Tomas Mar 28, 2017

They owe me 2000 bucks....

 


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Pearl Linguistics files for bankruptcy







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