Things I learned from my first assignment

I had my first assignment and it was successful except for dealing with the Signing Company. I am going to think very hard about accepting another assignment with them.

  1. There are companies that have a user interface issue on finding out about assignments are glitchy. You can hit the “No” or “Yes” and have a reason and that reason will not be communicated. Particularly if it is a dollar amount. I said no to a rate and put in rate too low and the new rate. They waited an hour resent the assignment at the new rate. I then said yes, however, when they called me it magically went down to the lower number that I had said no to. I complained and they said, “You are new you should take it if you ever want to work.” I griped and took it.

  2. That same company gives you a user agreement for each assignment that is longer than Apple’s User Agreement. It is War and Peace sized you have to accept it every time you look at the assignment.

  3. That same company has a chatbox but does not read it. Why do that have it? It is where questions go to die. I called for questions and was on a very long hold or it went to voicemail. Several times.

  4. If you finally get through to them on the phone they will not answer your question they may bring up a new assignment that you can negotiate with there. I did that. The second assignment was 6 hours after the first. I thought that would be enough time. Then I brought up my question about the first assignment again and they sent me to the same voicemail box that I had previously left my question.

  5. You can be on time, Professional, complete the signing correctly, have a happy borrower and it does not matter to the Signing Company. It is more important to them that you read all and process all the fine print.

  6. If you have a deadline time to drop the documents to FedEx and cannot get a perfect untruncated letter to legal scanback in the stacking order in one pdf. Screw it. You are technically too challenged for this job. Do not call them for their preference of perfect single pdf that takes until next Tuesday to make, or send a scan then meet the Fed Ex deadline just say, “Why did I do this to myself?” I made the decision to send the imperfect scan back and meet the Fed Ex deadline. I uploaded the scanback and a called the voicemail box. I did get an email saying that the scanback was received. Being new I thought that that meant it was ok. So, I went to Fed Ex and made that deadline.

  7. I went to work on the second appointment. It was 9 hours since I had accepted it and I had 3 to go to make the documents and get there. Of course, there were no documents. I called, emailed, and chat boxed. I received an email saying the documents were delayed. The next hour, I receive another email saying the documents were delayed. I called and told them that I would need them by x time to make the appointment. At x time I called and they said to just hold on another 15 minutes. 15 minutes passes and no documents. I called them and said that I could not make the appointment on time without a helicopter so I should reschedule or cancel? They said, “we will call you back in 15 minutes”. In 15 minutes no documents came I got an email saying, “We have canceled with you.”

Alrighty then. One would think we were done.

  1. The scan back was rejected almost 4 hours after it was received and Fed Ex’d! They demanded a new scan and were surprisingly argumentative about it. I must have missed in that long User Acceptance that received does not mean accepted? Yes, that was my big mistake of the day. In my opinion, they made more mistakes than me. I am very happy that the second appointment was canceled.

Edited 12/11 They did pay me promptly. I was worried after reading all the nonpayment complaints on this forum.

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Well, Tracy, I want to first thank you for your sense of humor - I had several chuckles over this narrative and read some to my husband, who has seen me go through this time and again. I can only say this:: NOW YOU KNOW why we oldies but goodies keep preaching to make sure you price yourself accordingly…and don’t fall for " “You are new you should take it if you ever want to work.”

Service Link hit me with that once - my fee back then was $125 - she told me I needed to lower my fee to $80 or $85 in order to get work - I told her no thank you - you seldom call me anyway so when you need me my fee is $125 or higher. And I DID hear from them

Now you know…and I love this narrative. I hope all newbies read it…and heed the warning.

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I am sorry your first signing was a hassle with the signing company. To make things short here, I would just dump that company and dont except anymore from them. There are a lot of better companies to work with. I hope the pay was worth the hassle.

Hang in there. We have all been through this.

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Linda, Thank you I really needed to make someone laugh today. :slight_smile:

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Well put Linda. Now my fees are $150 for 1-2 signers to keep out the lowballers.

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I don’t do loan signings any more - haven’t for 4 years since I joined the Census Bureau - but I keep up with the industry and have thought about resurrecting my business - let me tell you, I would not put up with the BS I read about on these forums.

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It was really low because it ended up taking the whole day! Lesson learned.

In my best Charlie Brown voice "Good Grief" Tracy…

As @chrisparreira_mobile said, I would simply add them to my DNA list #DoNotAnswer
As @LindaH-FL said your narrative, while I’m sure was stressful to you… was a humorous and cause us to remember when we may have had a similar experience when we first came into the industry.

Signing companies are just like you, meaning they’re in the industry to make a profit. Seldom are you seen are thought of as a business partner, this is more like tinder for signing agents.

You’ll be okay, and there’s many more signing agencies and signing opportunities ahead for you.

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some companies “NPN” will do whatever they can to “NOT pay you” including making ridiculous request, until you realize you should have never accepted the assignment to begin with. Everyone should be leary, time is money, and we are the ones doing the work.

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Lesson learned. Thanks.:slight_smile:

Who the heck is this company? Think we’d all like to know so we don’t ever work with them.

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It is an easy one to figure out from this forum. Alot of people say that is where you get experience. I am not saying who the company is because I was 100% in the wrong by agreeing to take the assignment in the first place and not saying to them back, “No, I rejected it for the low pay first. I don’t think I want you to use me.” :slight_smile:

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Sounds like NotaryNo or C2C to me

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I bet is low ballers C2C :rofl::rofl::rofl:

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I don’t go out of the house for anything less than $200 plus added costs for scanbacks, same day signings, and out of town travel. Of course, it depends upon where you live. I live in Roanoke, VA. Out of town travel is a minimum of $100 or $100 per hour. I am working less and making more.

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My second assignment was for a lot more and with a different company. I would say on a scale of 1-10 compared to the first assignment it was 18,000,000 better.

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On the one pdf thing. I have a small hp printer that I use for scanning. It is slow and when I try and add more than about 35 pages by sliding them under, it often jams and makes a mess. I scan in smaller stacks and then use a merging program to combine the. Usually, I just label them scan1, scan 2, etc and rename the merged copy. I use freeware called silkdyssey. Works great!

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Yes, thank you, after that horrible experience. I searched the forum for the problem. Did you know that there is a piece for software for under $75 that will make one pdf or separate them? It is called Page Separator and it is made for Notaries! I bought that and have had two successful better-priced signings :slight_smile:

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