LanguageLine.com

Writing Language Line Reviews

After getting multiple requests from several of our audience members asking us to research and write the Language Line Solutions review, we caved and started our evaluation process. Here are the steps that were taken to learn as much as possible.

At first, our team researched the company online. We checked the Language Line Solutions reviews left by previous customers and translators who have worked for Language Line at some point. As we found out, customer reviews were mixed, employees’ comments were mostly poor. A check of the BBB website showed that the company has no activity there, neither positive nor negative kind. This surprised us because Language Line was founded in 1982! It is one of the oldest translation companies we’ve encountered. It was started to help cultivate understanding between police officers and refugees, and since then, it’s grown a lot. Currently, it claims to work on more than 40 million requests every year, with 12, 000 interpreters being ready to assist as needed. In 2016, it was purchased by another company and kept wondering whether it had an impact on its quality. After conducting this preliminary investigation, we ordered translation services from this firm, uploading a business-oriented document of 10 pages to assess the quality of its work, pricing, and other factors. The review below reflects both our experience as well as the information we gathered.

Services Offered

Languageline.com provides assistance with over 240 languages. This number is very impressive and highlights growth and professionalism of services. Whatever language pair you need, whether it’s something as rare as Vietnamese translation or something as complex as Arabic translation services, you’ll find help here. As for other services, Language Line provides a huge number of them with a specific focus placed on interpretation, particularly via the phone. But you can also order remote as well as in-person interpretation. In addition, the agency provides translation and localization services, specializing in a variety of diverse industries. Technical or legal translations, medical, business, financial, or government sectors — everything is covered. If you have a video game and want to share it with other populations, Language Line.com could swiftly adapt it — or at least, this is what it promises. Training and testing for interpreters are available to make sure they correspond to required industry standards. For this review, we placed an order and asked for professional business translation services from English to Hindi.

Prices and Add Ons

There are no prices advertised on the company's website. Instead, you must request a quote. We were upset by this because it’s one of our major pet peeves. We don’t believe the customers should be forced to provide their personal data in order to learn how much they'll pay if they decide to hire this service, after all. We also don’t condone the policy of forcing people to upload potentially confidential files if they are still uncertain about placing an order. What if they think prices are too high? They can’t get their files back, which is enough to make them feel insecure. So, we treated this factor as a disadvantage.

Of course, we complied with the rules to properly complete this Languageline Solutions review. While the price for our order was not exorbitant, it was still on the higher side of normal. For our business document, we paid $0.13 for one word. Pricing stage damaged our positive impression of the firm to an extent.

Quality of Services at Language Line

This is obviously the most important factor, and we were really counting on Language Line to meet or even exceed our expectations. The order arrived on time but when we sent it to our Hindi expert, feedback was mixed. When reading Language Line Solutions reviews before, we noticed how some customers complained about inaccuracy of specialized translated phrases. This was our problem, too. Business terminology was ignored, so their translated version was not completed by an expert in this field. It means that despite the fact that we specifically selected business industry, our experts didn’t have sufficient knowledge. A few sentences were missing while one was made up. We didn’t get why our translator added it there since it didn’t make much sense.

Support team was polite but distant. They didn’t apologize or offer a discount for mistakes we’ve found, but they did approve our revision request. This is another reason for our dissatisfaction. Some LanguageLine reviews mentioned late revisions, and our opinions coincided here. Deadline was missed — our file came very late, almost two days after it was promised. If we were real clients with an urgent business meeting planned, we would have faced severe problems due to this company’s failure to keep its promises. There was no explanation or apology for their delay once again, nor were we warned that anything was wrong. On the other hand, revised file looked much better than the first version, so at least quality improved. But overall, our team remained disappointed.

Pros & Cons

If you aren’t a fan of detailed descriptions, you can check the list below. We’re summarizing all pros and cons our experts have identified after testing Language Line services.

Pros:

• Many Services Offered. Whatever you need, this firm is almost guaranteed to provide it.
• Record Number of 240 Languages Supported. Even rare language pairs are covered.
• Solid Background and Good Reputation. After working for more than 3 decades, Language Line has established itself as a reliable service provider.
• Knowledgeable Experts. Our revised document looked fine, so clearly, this agency employs some good experts.

Cons:

• Lack of Upfront Pricing & Prices Are Too High. Prices should be accessible right away and they should correspond to quality.
• Possibility of Poor Translation. It seems like a lottery since our order was done badly — quality improved only after revision.
• Missed Deadline. The initial order arrived timely, but revision was late.
• Distracted Customer Service. Operators were very distant and not entirely helpful.

Language Line Solutions Review: Final Evaluation

While some people had excellent experiences with this company, ours was mostly mixed. We expected more from Language Line. Technically, revised document we got was decent, which allows including this firm into the best quality translation services list, but things aren’t that simple. There were many drawbacks, and the first file sent was unprofessional, so we can’t be certain you’ll be lucky from your first try. We’re considering testing this service once more to solidify our findings. Meanwhile, read even more Language Line reviews, think carefully, and make a decision. The good thing is, you can always ask for revision or refund if things go badly.