Wondering How Trustworthy This Firm Is? Polilingua Review Is at Your Service
This company was born in 2002, with translation being its major focus. Over the years, it expanded, so now more options are available. Polilingua has seven offices worldwide, including in such countries as the US, Spain, Italy, the UK, and others. There are plenty of online customer reviews about it, and for the most part, they are mixed. We were curious to see what our experience would be like, so we placed an order for review, too.
Getting Started with Polilingua.com Review: Services to Select From
By its own admission, Polilingua has begun its existence timidly. It only offered translation to its customers, but now its range of services has grown to a much bigger extent. Here are other options you could get in 100 languages.
- Transcription. Submit audio or video content to get their text extracted and translated into a language you prefer.
- Interpreting. Polilingua offers help physically, meaning that you could hire an interpreter close to you, or from distance, so if you need someone to help you with the phone call, these people will do it.
- Voice over. This service is for those who want Polilingua.com to add a voice to the background of their video.
- Subtitling. Customers who prefer to leave original voices in their videos could order subtitles.
- Transcreation. If your text or slogan is extremely nuanced (has many double meanings, unique nature, etc.), people from this company could recreate it in a target language, making sure the impact is the same.
- Desktop publishing. Polilingua covers the production of documents that heavily rely on graphics.
Our review team was surprised that localization isn’t covered as a separate service, but in our opinion, everything else compensates for it, so it didn’t affect our review of Polilingua. As clients, we asked for a general translation of a financial document. Our deadline was 16 days — that’s enough time for translators to complete our project. But apart from order placement, there are other important details.
How Much Will You Have to Pay?
Prices are an aspect that everyone wants to know more about. If the best German translation services cost a fortune, most people won’t be able to afford them. So, they’d be forced to look for another company. Since it is an old agency, we suspected that
Polilingua translation services would cost a lot. Unfortunately, our reviewers were right. But let’s tackle it step by step. The first thing they noticed was that prices are hidden. Clients cannot know how much they’ll be paying. This is a serious issue for those who need urgent assistance or have highly confidential documents. Imagine that you’re rapidly looking for the best translation company as time is ticking away. You find a firm, but it doesn’t indicate how much it charges. To learn that, you have to disclose details about your project, attach files, and then wait for a quote. It could take an hour, if not more. So, you’re wasting time without knowing whether you’ll like the price or not, and if you don’t, you will have to undergo the same process again. It’s very frustrating and tiresome.
Some Polilingua.com reviews mentioned that the prices are high, and unfortunately, we can confirm it. Our price for translation was $0.20 per one word. Considering that we had an average deadline, this is way too much. Sure, something like medical document translation services might be costly, but this sum was too high even for financial work. If you have a big project and a tight budget, you might have to try your luck elsewhere. This is definitely an expensive service.
Verdict on Quality Level
So, Polilingua.com: is it reliable? We had our doubts, and not just because of high prices. The content on the website has issues. The language sounds heavy, the phrasing is often awkward even if it is grammatically correct, and there are some typos, too. If the face of a firm looks like this, what could we expect from its services? From the upsides in our review: our order arrived on time. It was available for downloading the exact minute our deadline ran out. Punctuality is vital, so our reviewers marked it as an advantage. The quality, on the other hand, wasn’t nearly as good.
- Missing sentences were the biggest problem. We counted 42 phrases that weren’t present in translation even though they were a part of original document. This is a huge and outrageous number. We had no idea if our translator was this inattentive and lazy or if our file was given to a machine that ignored some bits due to a bug. In any case, we didn’t like it.
- We liked it even less when we realized how awkward the text sounds. Whatever Poli Lingua states, our order wasn’t done by a native speaker.
Our expert reviewers were forced to ask for revision. Luckily, no one argued with us. Managers quickly took matters into their hands, and 12 hours later, we had a perfectly translated financial document. So, this company does employ some great translators, but you could end up with someone unprofessional, too. Testimony we got from several Polilingua translation reviews confirms it. Everything depends on luck, which isn’t an appropriate business approach.
Upsides and Downsides: Which of Them Wins?
Polilingua is generally considered a respectable translation bureau. It’s been working for a long time, and it achieved some impressive results. But there is no denying that it also has some substantial problems. We’re going to list pros and cons we observed, leaving you to make your choice.
Pros
- Many services covered in 100 languages. Clients could order anything from Polilingua translations to interpreting and trans-creation. Subtitles, voice-over, and desktop publishing are also included. There are many languages supported, which leaves you a lot of space in terms of preferences.
- Helpful and dedicated managers. If you have questions or problems, these managers will try to solve them quickly. They might not respond right away, but we found their work diligent and responsible.
- Presence of great experts. Some translators in Polilingua are amazing at what they do. They understand their work languages, know the subject matter, and pour everything into their translation.
Cons
- Interface with language problems. Many pages on a company’s website are flawed. They have grammar and other technical issues, which damages the overall impression of Polilingua.
- Inflated prices. Like we stated in our Polilingua translations review, the prices here are overly high. Only some people could afford them — namely, either those with lots of money or those who don’t have a large project.
- Unreliable quality. Quality depends on whom your translator is going to be. The fact that someone who lacks professionalism and experience could take on your order is a bad sign. It means that you cannot know whether you’ll get the quality you want until your deadline comes to an end.
Our Recommendations & Other Polilingua Reviews
After our experience, we cannot recommend Polilingua to all. No, it’s not a bad service, but you could find much better options in the market. Services here are too expensive, and the worst thing is, there is no guarantee that you’ll get acceptable quality. This company does have great translators, but not all of them are experienced enough. You can expect your projects to come on time, but if quality suffers, you’ll have to spend more time waiting for a revision.
TranslationReport always strives to help you. If you are interested in finding the best technical translation services or adaptation into a specific language like best Indonesian translation services, all you have to do is look for more reviews. We have many of them written, and we keep them updated. It means that we’re going to test Polilingua again in the future to see if there were any changes — our platform offers only relevant info.
