Rates for Providing CART, Realtime Get discounted if you have an Eqpt Failure

[Western New York Court Reporting]

If your equipment fails while providing realtime, should the reporter still get paid the full rate? Should your billing rate be discounted for equipment failures?

Should your rate be discounted because of delay in services during an equipment failure?

What are your thoughts on this? Has anyone ever had this happen?

[LizBeth]

Since I was only subbing, I don't know about pay rates for equipment failures. However, I do remember my realtime was quirky within the first half hour of a three-hour lecture. I don't know about other CAT softwares, but in Eclipse once the realtime is disconnected, that's it. You have to re-open the file. I did this at least once along with a lot of other troubleshooting. Luckily I thought to bring a tape recorder. There was another class right after that one with the same client so I told him I would be right back. Thank goodness the class was at the same school where I'm taking CR classes! I ran in the lab and grabbed a spare steno machine, realtime cable, and charger, then darted to the room where the next class was, and immediately started my recorder while setting everything up.
It was a total pain, but I expressed my apologies to the client and informed him I would have the transcript for him the next day so he could read up. Talk about embarrassing! It must have been okay, though. If there was a problem I would have heard about it through the channels. I just stayed as calm as I could and did took charge of the situation. After the second class was over, I think I cried, but it turned out okay. I still work there!