Seriously?

Notary Experiences
1

Disclaimer: This is me venting more than anything.

I was emailed Friday morning about a closing the upcoming Monday at 5 pm. The location is pretty much an hour away. Gave my fee and the response was Thank you!. I have done work with this Title Company before. Monday is here I receive no documents. I go about my day completing other closings. I no longer reach out to companies checking on docs as I truly feel it is wasted time that I am not being compensated for. Especially with the number of cancellations that have been occurring without notice lately. Anyway.

I go into my email at 4:43 pm and see that I received an email from the Title company at 4:07 pm stating, docs are here! I kindly reply. I do apologize but my schedule cannot accommodate late documents today. This location is an hour away.

Her: You tell me this 15 minutes for the appointment. Are you kidding me?

Me: You sent me documents 50 minutes before the closing that’s an hour away. Are you kidding me? Had you made me aware of late docs earlier I could have restructured my schedule to accommodate. At this point in the day, I cannot do that.

Her: Why would it be necessary to contact you? You knew of the location and time last week. Now there is a buyer waiting. Unacceptable.

Me: It was necessary for you to contact me to notify me of late docs and to see if I was able to accommodate a later closing time. I will not be held responsible for someone else dropping the ball. The location is not the issue here late docs are and that is no fault of mine. I refuse to be late for my other closings because of this.

Her: Again, unacceptable. There was no need to reach out to you. It’s NOT our fault. You said you would do it. You should have made me aware of your scheduling restrictions.

Me: I sure did at the time stated. I did not agree to do it 10 minutes later, an hour later, or 2 hours later. Then you send an email with the late docs. No phone call or anything. Clearly, my time and schedule are of no concern. Note taken.

Her: Unacceptable, I will find someone else.

Me: What’s unacceptable is your approach in this email. In my over 600 closings I have never had a company be rude to me for their tardiness. I have nothing to do with the lender or title being late with docs. It is your fault because you dropped the ball. You absolutely owe it to the person completing the closing updates if things aren’t going as planned. Again, work on your follow-through, and don’t email me again.

Has this ever happened to you?

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2

My only questions here are - did you agree to do the signing and did you let them know your drop dead time for docs for this particular signing (advise them of distance) -

From what I’m reading here, it sounds like they were under the impression that you accepted this signing. Since you’ve done work with this company before, professional courtesy would have you, at the least, following up with the company for docs later in the morning (only because you’ve worked with them before). I agree chasing a company for docs is a pain BUT if you agreed to do the signing, then that’s all part and parcel of the job - let them know your drop-dead time then check with them on status. Then if you don’t have them by your drop dead time, let company know then that your schedule is full and you can no longer accommodate due to late docs - instead of NO communication to them and now they’re left hanging out to dry 15 minutes before signing time

JMO and Sorry - that’s how I read this.

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Yes, an I was just as rude back to them. They snapped back to attention afterwards an its been smooth sailing ever since. I don’t care who you are, you don’t treat people like there less than human, our job is demanding enough. Kindness will get you a WHOLE lot further than just being rude or lack of understanding of day to day life an stress levels this job can bring not to add on more… Honestly you where nicer than me.

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4

I’ve had a few late doc situations recently and I feel your frustration. It shouldn’t be our responsibility to chase them down. SS/title companies should have some common courtesy and contact us if they know that the docs won’t be ready within 2 hours of the appointment, preferably with an ETA if at all possible.

Especially with these low-ball fees they offer, I’m reluctant to go above and beyond for $85. Like you said, chasing down docs is time wasted and time = money. If they want to pay the bare minimum, I’m going to give them the bare minimum. * shrug *

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Me: youre unnacceptable. (in my head) i wouldn’t even be replying to messages after that… sometimes they work under the impression that we have nothing else going on when that is not true

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I’m new to loan signings, but this reminds of an assignment I accepted last minute. I agree to take the assignment. Contact the borrower and confirm appointment. The signing is scheduled for that evening. I look for the documents I expect will be there—nothing. I did a bit of document chasing. Contact lender, by email and phone about the lack of documents. I tell the signer I’ll keep her posted, which I do. I even check for the documents a few times, hoping they’ll show up.

It turns out they hired a notary before the documents were ready, and all these phone calls I made were uncompensated time. I would have been ok with rescheduling, but the company decided to reschedule the signing and hire another notary.

The signer also found this a frustrating experience.

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7

Wow! You accepted the signing Friday morning for a Monday 5:00pm signing.
Them not having the documents in a timely manner is unacceptable. Don’t care who it is, lender, title co. SS.
What if you had 3 other signings from other SS the same day and ALL documents were sent to you 1 hour prior to signing for each and your drive time to each signing was 1 hour away.
This would be a hot mess. (I can see you getting hotter than fish grease) :joy:
I personally cannot stand unprofessionalism.
There’s a saying “people in their imperfection want others to be perfect”.
I think you handled it well. Who has time to babysit a SS asking when docs will be sent?
They knew full well when they sent the assignment that documents were not received by whomever. But yet they wanted to secure a notary for the signing and just think because you agreed to do the signing that you HAVE to do it no matter how late the documents are (you scolded them well). You’re a business owner just like they are and you’re not employed by them and you can run your business they way you like just like they can run theirs. Maybe one day soon they all will catch on that DOCS need to be sent in a timely manner from the lender, title or SS. You did well. :+1:t6:
Be blessed.

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I just had a frustrating experience. I was contacted last night about 2 signings today for a SS. I agreed to do them. It was late last night so I emailed a confirmation to both hoping that they would get back to me this morning. One of them did so, but I had to call the other again this morning. When I called the signer, I was told that another notary called an hour before me and said they were handling the signing and that I needed to fix this issue with the lender. Long story short, the SS double booked the signing and took the signing away. I made time in my schedule to accommodate this appointment now I’m out of the earning opportunity. I responded to their email, and told them this was very frustrating and asked for other opportunities to make up for this lost income! We will see how they handle it.

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Motivation to work locally and direct. Thats too many hoops to get the jobs done.

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That’s Sad. What a sad SS company double booking now to make sure the signing is done when they’re the ones who make majority of the mistakes like not making sure the lender give them docs in a timely manner before assigning a notary. Messy folks. Thank goodness you call to confirm, those messy folks was not gonna call you and let you know another notary had the assignment.
Be Blessed.

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This was through a local title company. That is what ground my gears even more.

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To be clear this title company is local. Also, I have yet to work with a company that hasn’t already figured out my distance in relation to the closing. They literally call me saying, oh it’s only 3 miles from you. My favorite is I know this is a bit of a ways away from you but I really need your help.

If I asked you could you take me to a Dr. appt Monday at 4pm. You say yes I can do that for $25 and I reply thank you Linda. Then on the said day you arrive at 4pm and I tell you oh I’m not ready. They told me not to arrive until 530pm. Who dropped the ball? I would feel that the onus fell on me to make you aware that I would be late. I needed you, you didn’t need me.

There are multiple viewpoints to any situation, so I do appreciate your opinion.

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13

I think you should have responded to the email when it came in. It seems curious that you were not looking for the docs at the time they were sent, ignoring the fact that you had a confirmed closing in process. I will judge my travel time and add a half hour. In your case I would have called for a document status ninety minutes before signing and told them that I need the documents immediately or I will have to cancel the appointment. I sympathize with your feelings on this. Communication breakdown.

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14

That is a very frustrating experience and I feel you are correct, our time is not valued. I had a signing company hire me for a signing 3 days in advance, I contacted the borrower and set everything up. The day prior to the signing the documents were sent over (great) the total package was over 350pgs. I waited until 2 hrs before the appointment before printing and prepared my packet. Less than 1 hr before the signing I receive an email the signing has been canceled because the lender could not verify the source of income-sorry. Since the signing was so close to my home (2mi) I did not care about travel, but the amount of paper and ink used and discarded was frustrating. To make it worse they wanted me to contact the borrower and tell him this (which I refused to do). I asked about compensation for printing (crickets).

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15

VERY happy you responded that way. Unfortunately, it takes up even more of your precious time to do so - however, if no one ever speaks up, nothing will change. It sometimes seems these companies mistakenly believe we are at their beckon call. For me, nothing could be further from the truth. These days I respond to such things just ONCE! Anything after that is just not worth MY valuable time.

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16

Hello. I’m sorry you went through that. I know how you feel. I found myself chasing them at times but I have learned to send them 2 messages minimum in response to late docs. I also contact the signer and let them know docs aren’t ready and for them to contact their loan officer for an update. At that point, I see how it goes. If I feel disregarded for too long, then I contact them and tell them I am no longer available and tell them I am disappointed that no communication was reciprocated and I don’t run my business like this. I’ve even blocked one company for their rudeness for hawking me hours later for my refusal. I happens but thankful it’s minimal occurance.

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17

was it BNN? lol
Yes this has happened to me SEVERAL times.
I have a list on my wall. Now I know who the late ones are.

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18

So a 2 hrs drive round trip & 30+ to sign docs.

$300.

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I agree with you’re local and direct. I’ve stopped taking long distance signings due to late documents. I have only two clients that’ll accommodate for last minute closings as they’ve always had the docs ready for down loading.

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Just the other day. Message was I/we need this asap. Me. great!!! look for Docs??? None to be found! Instant message- please remove me from this signing. Been doing singing for some time now and I am refusing to play the games anymore. The let me check if I can get your fee approved and I will call you back. Nope don’t call me back, when you find the cheaper Notary? fine, if ya don’t? email me the confirmation.

1 Like