ENGLISH > TRANSLATION
Yes, I work constantly with various translation agencies around the world, but only the good ones. I consider good agencies those that actually add value by offering quality services to their end-client, where I can be a real team player.
I don't work with agencies whose sole interest is to sell expensively and buy cheap outsourced translation services, who do no more than pushing computer files back and forth. I also don't work with agencies that live exclusively on cash flow resulting from collecting payment in advance or upon delivery, and then paying their vendors months later, possibly with the up-front payment for the next job, that might not be there.
Why resort to a (good!) translation agency?
If you are not in the trade, maybe you'll find - or even know - one or another translator who works with some specific language, maybe not the one you are looking for. For sworn translations in Brazil it's easy to find a certified public translator elsewhere on this site; any Brazilian certified/sworn translator will be properly accredited, and should offer you the same terms.
But what about other cases? There are many worldwide translator search web sites on the www. However if you are not in the trade, what will guarantee that you'll find an adequate translator for your needs, offering you a good cost/benefit ratio?
A translation agency might help you in some aspects:
Convenience - They might handle all the material pickup/delivery logistics for you.
Adequacy - Having a good translators database, they will be able to find the most adequate one for you in terms of language pair, subject matter, type of material, desired format, and so on.
Turnkey delivery - A translation agency might coordinate supplemental services, such as formatting, desktop publishing, video dubbing or subtitling, multilingual web site structuring, and many others.
Delivery time - The agency is able to check, among a list of adequate translators, which will be available to meet the desired deadline. They may set up a team, split the job among several translators, and later reassemble it.
Quality - If you need extremely high quality standards, for instance, if thousands of copies of the translation are to be printed, an agency may team up a translator and a reviewer/editor to ensure that no detail will slip by human error.
Wide coverage - If one text has to be translated into different languages, an agency may coordinate the work among various translators, dealing with each one individually.
Nevertheless some care should be taken upon selecting a translation agency. Using the resources provided by the Internet, it's very easy for one individual, even having a full-time day job, to set up a web site just as impressive as mine here*, and pretend to be a large translation firm. All that person needs is to find a bunch of cheap translators, care little about quality, and resell their work with staggering profits, by simply forwarding files back and forth.
*Taking the chance: I don't outsource translation work If it's anything I can't or shouldn't do, my choice is to refer to colleagues (if I know of any that would be adequate for that job), and step out from the process.
There is one method that cannot be guaranteed as effective, but it does help a bit... If you are seeking a translation agency on the web, don't get overwhelmed by what they say about the quality they offer. Visit their translator recruitment page and check how they select the people who will actually make this quality come true... or not.
Once I read the following on the recruitment web page of an US-based translation agency:
"If you charge [half my standard rate] or close to that, don't bother e-mailing me your resumé. No matter what's your language pair or specialty, I can get much cheaper people to do it."