is beginning to burn….as are several other recent developments. SS wants to know if I can do a refi (how many pages to print, review?) in ‘city’ (which is a really big zip code that could mean across the street or an hour away?) for some ridiculous lowball amount that I can only see after scrolling seems like forever thru ‘if this or that or something else, various states oddities, who to contact if it goes south, etc, etc. etc. 99% of which does not matter unless we GET THE JOB. Pages of irrelevant info provided, but the info that we need to make an informed decision? Nah, that ain’t there.
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Yes, it is frustrating. When a signing service will not or cannot provide specific details I need to provide them an accurate rate quote for the loan signing they are trying to schedule with me, I assume the worst and quote based on assumptions. Assume it is an hour away. Assume it is 300 pages. Assume scanbacks are required.
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Bad state of a business when accepting an order feels more like a scam or has to be treated as tho’ it is.
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For sure. Those platform orders where you have to scroll 10 screens of boilerplate info and instructions just to get to the accept/reject/counter options – it’s crazy. Why can’t they just tell us up front the type of loan signing, page count estimate, signing address, and whether scanbacks are required. Literally that is all we need to know in order to give them a precise rate quote.
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The ‘selling point’ of platforms was to make it easier to find a notary. When they first began, they DID provide the needed info upfront: When, what, exactly where…and fee offered. Page count was THE unknown except for a few who provided an estimate or range. This approach practically guaranteed that they’d get the closest notary & most likely cheapest cuz gas/time is a BIG factor in a quote. Now it seems they’ve totally lost sight of the primary objective and have unwittingly turned it into a bizarre auction where the bidders (US) have no idea what they bid on–just hope that it’s OK. I wonder if their ‘give this back’s have increased tremendously. If not, it can only mean there’s a lot of newbs working just to keep dreaming about the future (tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow–NEVER TODAY.
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Date/Time is also necessary for me to determine if I even am interested in a job or not.
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If they told us everything we needed to know up front, they would get far fewer notaries bidding on jobs, which would drive fees up.
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I disagree. They might get fewer notaries bidding, but the ones who do probably really want the job because it’s nearby and they are probably cheaper than the notary who’d have to drive an hour just to get to location. Seems to me that it would be a win/win.
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That’s assuming there are notaries nearby who want the job and are willing to take it for the amount offered. I never lament not getting a job an hour drive away. If I bid on it at all, it will be for a fee that they probably won’t accept anyway.
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Not including the pages that we will need to print has been one of my biggest complaints. If the SS doesn’t know, they should find out and post it with the request. I don’t like surprises and often I am surprised at the number of pages to print.
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@Arichter , I recently posted about having a similar experience, and I’ve come to suspect that these companies intentionally use this kind of approach, providing minimal essential information and overwhelming users with irrelevant details, as a deliberate strategy. My suspicion is that they do this to ultimately suppress the signing fees they offer and generate a highly competitive environment among signing agents, driving down the overall compensation we receive for our services.
I have found I know from a service what kind of package or if they indicate the lender I sort of know.
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HAHA yes of course we must consider our own calendar, but even if I am not available for that specific date/time, I still give them a quote and advise the first date/time that I would be available to do the signing, in case there is flexibility (or in case they can’t find anyone else to do it.)
I’ve tried doing that but I’ve never had anyone change the date/time of the signing to accommodate my schedule. I guess that if they absolutely couldn’t find someone for the date/time they scheduled they might change it, but I haven’t seen that yet. There’s always “someone” that will take it as they blasted it out there.
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No, they don’t change it to accommodate my schedule either. But in the event they cannot find anyone else to do it, I try to help them out by letting them know my first availability. (With the caveat that if it can be assigned to me in next 10minutes, go ahead and send it to me, otherwise call back to confirm I am still available.) It has happened to me with late night signing requests.
Sometimes in this area, the date and time will change because they just can’t get it filled.
Seems like back to school took some mobile notaries out of the game here. It’s been busy.
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I always ask for the zip code as I know my ares pretty well. Then if approved and I get notified that the amount of pages to print is excessive (over 500 for printing two sets) I contact the SS to renegotiate my fee. If they are unwilling to do that I resign myself from the signing. It’s my money buying the paper, toner etc. and if they want me to do if for less then they have to compensate me for it.
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And now, some of these blast requests require notaries to sign-in to see the information. Why, it is a request for service; it doesn’t have any personal or sensitive information. JOT is one of the platforms requiring sign-in only to find out the location, time, day, details, FEE, are a no-go.
A somewhat related question: What does First American Title gain by developing and owning JOT? What does Fidelity National Title gain by owning BancServ?
They can be selective about notaries. I don’t have to sign in to either of those to respond to offers.
I don’t have to log in to Jot to see or to reply. Curious.