Have you noticed how many have not paid or closed their doors.
Question: if they can’t make it, keeping the majority of the fee.
How are the NSA’s expected to continue?
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There is dead silence from some companies who appear to me that they are on their last. The interest rates keep climbing and business is not booming. So the signing services are taking longer to pay because they are not doing well. Net 50 is the new 30! Sucks!!
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Continuing with 100% reliance on SS fees is probably a fairly futile approach right now.
Survival will require relationships and innovation, IMO.
But to your comment about SS closing their doors, perhaps we can begin a running warning posting of SSs that we believe might be OOB (by all reasonable measures of determination)? and then members here are better informed and can make a qualified decision if they want to accept a SS random offer from the list. We have a long standing “Bad Company List”, but this lists includes historically bad (slow pay, rude, maybe OOB, etc) but then there is real “BAD” (out of business, or jjust out of the business of paying Notaries, before they go belly-up BAD) We certainly don’t want to slander/liable ourselves if a SS is only struggling and behind, but if perhaps there are metrics we can deploy (not returning multiple calls over multiple weeks, number disconnected, emails not returned or bouncing, website down, signing platforms, title company have no contact and will not help, certified demand letters ignored, 60 days delinquent on payment and all other avenues exhausted, etc) which seemingly could confirm our concerns the SS is OOB.
Anyone’s thoughts??
These are the things I have found don’t work…complaining to BBB (they have no authority), also inquiring for assistance with the signing platform they hired us from doesn’t seem to work (I am being ghosted now by one of the major Platforms after a full week of inquiring by email to their support department into the OOB status and non-contact, non- payment by a SS on their platform). I do believe it might help for the future of keeping the owner of the SS that is non-paying and OOB, from re-establishing, or continuing to trolling for unsuspecting notaries (because of the illusion of legitimacy of the offer (resulting in getting paid) coming from a platform), might be to notify the SOS, which I plan to do this week, and see if a complaint against the “Notary” owning the business, could have any near term or future effect… and if they will even entertain such a complaint, of a violation of moral turpitude. I will advise in a follow-up to this thread in a few days…
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It kinda seems to me that many notaries accept orders from signing services (SS) that they are not well acquainted with (not talking about Amrock and the like). In the good ol’ days (2020-2021) one could grab a signing from almost any SS and get paid, with exceptions, of course. Today, not so much.
The complaints and frustrations continue to roll in. Every day, this forum is filled with 'em. So, here’s a tip from a relatively new notary with about 400 signings under my belt: Going forward, be awfully careful accepting jobs from SS you are unfamiliar with. The reputable ones are well-known and won’t stiff you. The ‘one-offs’ could burn you if you haven’t checked them out.
Everybody seems to have a complaint and everybody seems to have a cure for payment issues. Look around, folks! Business is awful out there and it will get much worse, I’m afraid. Don’t depend on the BBB or your Secretary of State for action on your little $100 no-payment dilemma. Ain’t gonna happen. State officials have told me that they don’t even yawn when they get these complaints. Guy says, “What do you expect us to do, yell ‘Saddle-up’ to the boys in the back room and hunt down those signing services with lights and siren? When you’ve got a $1million loss, send me an email and maybe we’ll call you back.”
OK, so there’s that. It might be time to write off your losses (you’ll survive) and apply your efforts to making your living the best way you know how. All businesses take losses and you should expect to have some. Move on and don’t waste hours of your precious time trying to track down $85 jobs stale from last August.
I have been stiffed for $50 (half of one fee) from Bi-lingual Brothers notary services (well-known flakes); I have collected on EVERY other fee since I got started two Christmases ago. The one’s I had to chase down, I did it by contacting the title company or the escrow officer or the lender, and, a few times, all three. It was a pain in the *** But, they did help me and I got paid! That method is probably still your best recourse.
Lastly, remember, you’re an independent agent and you have little useful protection against unscrupulous (4 "U"s in that word 
) signing services. And, the con-men are starting to show up big time. So, if it doesn’t look right (give it the ‘smell test’ [if I may mix the metaphor]) don’t take the job. If you don’t understand it or, if it’s too complicated or, if the caller is vague or distant or, if the time allotted for the job is weird or, if the package is 250 pages (times 2) for $80 or, if you have to drive in bad weather at 8:30 pm on a Friday evening or, if, if, if fill in the blank - DON’T take the job!! If you do and it doesn’t work out for ya, lick you wound, learn from your mistake and move on. Don’t waste your time!!
Now that business is slow, very slow, maybe it’s time to re-train into another line of work - just like you did when you became a notary! The fun days are over (thanks to the Fed) and they won’t be back for a long time.
Oh, by the way. . . Merry Christmas 
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Keep accurate records of the ‘no pays’ as they could be a written off as a business loss on your taxes.
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Agree ~ must be able to remarket our Notary skills for other type of signings. In addition to other GNW tripped over a need for people needing Resumes. I had been creating Resumes for friends and neighbors for free to help them out to get work and they referred me to so many people now also in the Resume writing business. So far everyone I have provided this service has been hired. Never know where life leads you 
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True words. I just realized this today. I will be avoiding signing services that I am not already familiar with.
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