In Kharkov April 27 to May 24

[Mila]

 Kievstar is right in his earlier post. I take this very personally, but I never had any intentions of releasing personal information about my clients. I will address a few points that Asif and Robert and I agree on, to try and go point by point has become irrelevant. It will turn into a nothing but “he said” and “she said” argument:
 I am sorry Robert that for the $30/night you paid for an apartment in the center of Kharkov that you didn’t have a one piece mattress. I also regret you were not having the Internet for 2 days, but I never charged you more than $50 that we agreed upon. Robert complained about putting his age in the ad, it was my fault, I made a mistake.
 Asif, I am sorry that Anna was not the woman you thought she was. I tried to tell you many many times that she was only interested in receiving money from you. And she did lie to me about her child, I didn’t know she had one.
 All the rest of the complaints these men have, I never knew about. I would have been happy to solve any other problems if I would have known about them while they were here. Unfortunately, they went to a public forum made their complaints instead of giving me the chance to help them, when they were here.   
 I understand with having a business it is not always a profit. I have had clients in the past that I have lost money on. Thanks for reading and this is my final post on this thread.

[Taz]

If the "dogs of war" hadn't been called in, it might have been a more useful discussion. Lost in the translation (pardon the pun) was CCs attempt to openly discuss his issues. He did say positive things about Mila.

Many just seized on the negative and ignored the rest in their attempt to support Mila. While their support of Mila laudatory, it may not have served a useful purpose here. JD got totally shafted by the lack of pre-screening. A total waste of time and money for the ad campaign. I saw common  threads here as well. Each meeting, pre-screened properly or not, generates income for the terp. This make this ripe for corruption.

If you read one long thread I started, JD encountered a situation where a good terp had gone bad in Kharkov. Unfortunately NOBODY blue the whistle as they should have to the fact the terps services were clearly declining from what was once a flawless reputation. Who knows if that is the case here or not. It is too early to judge.

If you wanted to be anal about it, you could separate these roles so there would be no conflict of interest. Sort of like separating your auditing firm from the firm that actually does your books. Quite a common practice in the real world.

Your ad will attract all manner of women. A well written ad is nothing more than bait. Put the best/appropriate bait on the hook and hopefully you will attract the best "catch". It is up to the person running the ad (Mila) to make sure the catch fits the rules/parameters of the game warden (CC or Az). If not, she should throw them back. However she is rewarded (by terp fees) for every catch she brings back to the game warden EVEN IF it isn't a "legal" catch. This is where the conflict of interest really comes in. This is also where she didn't earn her fees.

Doo doo happens with respect to costs. If everyone starts to report they got "bumped" by Mila with costs, then there is a pattern here and I'd be concerned she was padding the bill. I think she has her heart in the right place. Her future actions will speak about her character in more depth.

[groovlstk]

Kievstar is right in his earlier post. I take this very personally, but I never had any intentions of releasing personal information about my clients. I will address a few points that Asif and Robert and I agree on, to try and go point by point has become irrelevant. It will turn into a nothing but “he said” and “she said” argument:
 I am sorry Robert that for the $30/night you paid for an apartment in the center of Kharkov that you didn’t have a one piece mattress. I also regret you were not having the Internet for 2 days, but I never charged you more than $50 that we agreed upon. Robert complained about putting his age in the ad, it was my fault, I made a mistake.
 Asif, I am sorry that Anna was not the woman you thought she was. I tried to tell you many many times that she was only interested in receiving money from you. And she did lie to me about her child, I didn’t know she had one.
 All the rest of the complaints these men have, I never knew about. I would have been happy to solve any other problems if I would have known about them while they were here. Unfortunately, they went to a public forum made their complaints instead of giving me the chance to help them, when they were here.   
 I understand with having a business it is not always a profit. I have had clients in the past that I have lost money on. Thanks for reading and this is my final post on this thread.

Class act. 

[facetrock]

Bravo Mila.

30 dollars a night in the center of the second largest city in Ukraine is one hell of a deal. I wouldnt care if it had a four piece mattress and I had to eat off paper plates for a price like that. And to think CC then stiffed her out of her translation fees. That would take bigger balls than I have to do something like that.

[Doll]

yes but she was also doing the ad campaign and that is where both Asif and CC are feeling the got shortchanged.  If all she was providing was translation it would be a completely different story.

Ad campaign has nothing to do with personal information. Sculpto, dear, it is about time to stop thinking of A-R marriages like it is shopping.

[Doll]

thousands? please...

No kidding. My friend is the owner of the agency- they do this pre-screening and the memebership is $3 000 dollar

It was clearly NOT just for translation, the service did also involve placing and and administering responses to the ads.

Show me. Any body has the link to this agency?

  It was not mentioned whether pre-screening was part of the deal.

Then is IS NOT.

If it were, we are talking about this:



Hello, I am replying to the ad
- thank you, some quick questions please, do you have children?
yes
- thank you for the response, but the gentleman is not interested in meeting a lady with children

BS

[Doll]

you realize I am agreeing with you don't you??

Oh, sorry! Didn't realize it 

[Taz]

Bravo Mila.

30 dollars a night in the center of the second largest city in Ukraine is one hell of a deal. I wouldnt care if it had a four piece mattress and I had to eat off paper plates for a price like that. And to think CC then stiffed her out of her translation fees. That would take bigger balls than I have to do something like that. That is about a $1,000 for the month.

This isn't quite as good a deal as it seems. Rents have fallen AND (most importantly) it was for a long-term (month) rental. I have found rates much more negotiable when doing a long term. I rented an apartment that was practically on Red Square (1 street over but on the water) for $45/night. This was an amazing deal and much cheaper then the $100/night I was quoted for a "daily" rental.

This is a situation though where having someone local to help you can be a great aid. In spite of that I've often come across as good a deals on the Internet as friends could find for me locally by different sources. I prefer to use both options to have the broadest selection.

As Dan says, never pre-pay too far ahead for an apartment. I typically do 2 days max and prefer to do 1 day in advance until I get a feel for the apartment and its agent. By doing this I've saved myself major trouble.

[facetrock]

Well Taz do you think its a good deal or not. Do you think Mila made money off the apartment?

[Taz]

I think it was a good to average deal. I have no idea if Mila made money on it. Was it possible yes. Was it a lot? Unlikely. I tend to be cautious about these things rather than overly concerned. If I expect, then I inspect.

Again I'll say, I don't think Mila is a bad person. Her business acumen needs help. I am not opposed to compensating people for their time and services. I don't begrudge any terp making a commission off an apartment rental. I just don't want to feel I got shafted in the deal. I tend to be very generous with my compensation in the first place. If they rip me off, they will definitely lose out on repeat business.

Other than Mila's threat to divulge info, I didn't see anything that couldn't have been resolved by better communication by BOTH parties. If she is active in the local area, then she probably has her "favorite" apartments and a good relationship with some of the owners. This is where terps can definitely add value IF they don't shaft their customers. I don't think she did that with CC.

[Daveman]

No kidding. My friend is the owner of the agency- they do this pre-screening and the memebership is $3 000 dollar

ridiculous

Show me. Any body has the link to this agency?

posted by kievstar somewhere

Then is IS NOT.

wrong again

BS

absurd.

[Doll]

absurd.

This is exactly what I said- BS.

[Daveman]

Kievstar is right in his earlier post. I take this very personally, but I never had any intentions of releasing personal information about my clients. I will address a few points that Asif and Robert and I agree on, to try and go point by point has become irrelevant. It will turn into a nothing but “he said” and “she said” argument:
 I am sorry Robert that for the $30/night you paid for an apartment in the center of Kharkov that you didn’t have a one piece mattress. I also regret you were not having the Internet for 2 days, but I never charged you more than $50 that we agreed upon. Robert complained about putting his age in the ad, it was my fault, I made a mistake.
 Asif, I am sorry that Anna was not the woman you thought she was. I tried to tell you many many times that she was only interested in receiving money from you. And she did lie to me about her child, I didn’t know she had one.
 All the rest of the complaints these men have, I never knew about. I would have been happy to solve any other problems if I would have known about them while they were here. Unfortunately, they went to a public forum made their complaints instead of giving me the chance to help them, when they were here.   
 I understand with having a business it is not always a profit. I have had clients in the past that I have lost money on. Thanks for reading and this is my final post on this thread.

Mila,
Excellent commentary and response. Professional and classy.  As I mentioned somewhere (only god know where at this point), I would not hesitate to recommend your services in Kharkiv or to contact you myself if I am ever out that way again.  I can't really give better kudos than that.  My only suggestion for the future would be to communicate more with your clients, that is, ask more pointed questions.  Yes, it is the client's responsibility to convey his/her expectations/requirements/desires but also as the provider of a service, sometimes you have to dig a little to get this information. A little digging on the front side as well as follow-up questioning (iron maiden interrogation sometimes   ) during the stay can eliminate a lot of hassle on the back side.  

Good luck
Dave

[Daveman]

This is exactly what I said- BS.

That's exactly what I said - absurd.

[Doll]

That's exactly what I said - absurd.

of course

[Daveman]

of course

kanyechna  

[Sculpto]

Oh, sorry! Didn't realize it 

hahahaha!  Doll.. I am the LAST one who was ever shopping for a wife.. get it out of your head dear.  

[Doll]

Dave, what kind of "digging" are you talking about( in you reply to Mila)?

[Doll]

hahahaha!  Doll.. I am the LAST one who was ever shopping for a wife.. get it out of your head dear.  

I didn't mean your shopping, sweetie 

[Sculpto]

ok all good.. hahah and we are all more or less speaking the same language and look how easily things are misunderstood or misinterpreted.. then throw in assumptions and expectations and its easy to see how messes get started. 

[Daveman]

Dave, what kind of "digging" are you talking about( in you reply to Mila)?

My apologies for the ambiguity...

What I meant was (and this is from years as a contractor and dealing with clients).. often times clients will not convey exactly what they expect, but leave it to the contractor to kinda figure it out.  Pointed questions, and then more questions can "dig" into the brain of the client to get the real expectations, so then she can say "that's not part of what I do", or "yes, I can do that, but it costs extra".. etc etc... basically she can ensure that she *forces*, gently of course, the client to express more precisely exactly what he/she expects her to do.  It's kind of a standard practice, at least here, when dealing with clients and goes a long way to eliminate potential problems.

[Doll]

My apologies for the ambiguity...

What I meant was (and this is from years as a contractor and dealing with clients).. often times clients will not convey exactly what they expect, but leave it to the contractor to kinda figure it out.  Pointed questions, and then more questions can "dig" into the brain of the client to get the real expectations, so then she can say "that's not part of what I do", or "yes, I can do that, but it costs extra".. etc etc... basically she can ensure that she *forces*, gently of course, the client to express more precisely exactly what he/she expects her to do.  It's kind of a standard practice, at least here, when dealing with clients and goes a long way to eliminate potential problems.

Pointed question about what?
Are you aware of the fact that the interpreter's job is to interpret and nothing else?

[Daveman]

Ok, he had it cheap 
Matchmaking costs a lot and I am not sure it is legal to provide this kind of information to the "payer"

Ah, now I see where we were discussing apples vs oranges...

You were referring to a serious pre-screening service where many requirements are researched prior to meeting. Yes, this kind of service is expensive.

I was discussing simply asking a few questions to be sure that the lady met the minimal requirements of the small personal ad, basically nothing by comparison...

perhaps my use of the term pre-screening led to the confusion.  

[Daveman]

Pointed question about what?
Are you aware of the fact that the interpreter's job is to interpret and nothing else?

Yes I am.

Are you aware that this is not the only service she provides? that the clients used her other service of placing local personal ads?

[Sculpto]

Dave.. I totally know what you mean about probing th customer.. god i have to do that in a very detailed and specific way.  Not that kitchens are rocket science, but, there are a lot of small details and room for error if the clients desires are not specified carefully and clearly.  I go through extensive process to make sure everyone is one the same page. 

It would seem logical to me that someone who is making a business of arranging things for people would want to take that extra step and not to leave anything to chance.  Since they are also dealing with very strong human emotions.. the desire for love and the end to lonliness it would be that much more important to make sure the details are verified so there is very very little room for error. 

BTW.. does the concept of "Murphy's Law" exist in the FSU?  Murphy is my enemy!    I bet Dave knows EXACTLY what I mean.