Who owns Notary Cafe? Can they create a 1-5 star Rating system on this site for NOTARIES ONLY to have an easier place to rate and compare Signing services and platforms?
ESPECIALLY With the addition of RON and all these RON platforms, many of them are wonderful and many try to take advantage of the Notary.
I think its very important to think about even if you don’t do RON because these companies can seriously impact what we all make. RON will become more popular as its safer and more secure, for both the client and Notary. Also, The desire to “work from home” is MANIC from a society of Millienials DESPERATE to make income without having to pay childcare.
Poverty will accept any payments they can get, to feed their kids.
However, New and Desperate Notaries like myself, will of course try to review platforms first before they hop on just any site and start work. However the only reviews you can find online are articals written by the platforms themselves, or You tube videos which could possibly be sponsored.
Any other rating apps, involve the public of clients as well.
If new notaries could see a 1-5 star rating from the Notary community, on best pay and platforms, that helps funnel them to a place where they will be paid decent aswell, along with any other great benifits that a platform could provide. This decreases the risk of Notorial rates going down by new notaries excepting low pay platforms, not knowing any better.
We discuss these things here, so its the perfect site to have something like this. Would be nice to have a place where we can see a more organized list and overall ratings of all platforms and signing services from Notaries only on the best platforms to work for.
I bet the NNA would notice it too and Possible list what the Notaies like. These services and platforms would also be able to see their competition aswell which would provide more financial protection, in favor of the Notary, to help keep our rates fair.
Excellent rationale presented for justification of the expenditure.
You will probably receive a better response by communicating with the Staff directly. See the Contact Us page for myriad answers to Frequently Asked Questions [FAQs] as well as the submission form to send them a message.
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FYI: Considering the low annual Regular and/or Pro Membership fees, you may also want to include the suggestion that Notary Cafe members might consider accepting a higher Pro Membership fee to add this strongly needed benefit of membership.
Tangentially, software design alterations to an existing platform can simultaneously develop ‘bugs’ that impair the proper functioning. So, you may receive some ‘push back’ or it may fall on deaf ears with no response whatsoever . . . (the reception received by many previously submitted excellent suggestions).
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As Notary Cafe is a public forum, a method of viable accountability will need to be implemented to ensure that the submitted “direct experiences” are from In Real Life [IRL], not from a bot or family member or from an employee of that platform, etc.
So, as you can quickly see . . . there are no ‘easy’ answers . . .
This site used to have a “Complaint Board” where notaries could post payment issues and complaints about companies and the companies had the opportunity to respond and address the issues. Several years ago, the site was revamped and the Complaint Board was not included any longer.
I’m not sure why, but I do know there are several features that this new system does not accommodate (like we asked if the posters’ state could show under their name/avatar when they post). Personally, I think the admins and owners don’t want to be involved in disputes with companies - when posters complain about a company, many times Admin hears about it from the company itself…leading to some comments and posts requiring removal.
There IS a notary here who has a site for complaints…if you’re not finding what you’re looking for here (which is readily available through the search function) - perhaps develop a site that will bring you the information you need? Just a thought.
Thank you for your suggestion. I understand your desire to have an easy to reference source of knowledge about the companies who may offer assignments.
Our forums are provided as a place where users can discuss industry business. However, Nthese discussions are seperate from our main business of managing your profiles and helping to facilitate the signing packages.
The information provided here in the forums is user supplied. As @LindaH-FL pointed out, complaints about certain companies can result in them contacting us in an attempt to remove any damaging remarks. As we are not present at signings, we have no way of verifying the facts of what may or may not have happened at any particular assignment, making it impossible to determine who is “at fault” in a given situation.
We moderate posts when personal attacks or abusive language is present, but we do not facilitate or verify the information provided here. If we were to institute a ranking system that we are tasked with managing, we would then be responsible for the content and liable in cases where false accusations occur. However, our intent with the forum is only to offer a place to allow you to share information with each other.
Again, our primary focus is to help connect you with those in need of your services. There are legal cases in review with state and federal courts that have direct impact on the host’s responsibility regarding what is presented by users. Until those laws are more clearly defined, our approach is to remain as “hands off” as possible.
I hope this information is helpful in explaining why there is not a formal, structured ranking system is use for forum content.
The truth of the situation is that making major modifications to an old and outdated software platform is a risky and extremely expensive proposition. On any site that has been around for as long as this one has, the software is basically “what you see is what you get”. Nobody in their right mind is going to start messing with it. The cost would be prohibitive compared to any projected revenue that would result from it.
