So Townsgate Closing services!
1.They don’t pay the best
2. It’s kind of a hassle to get paid and I think that’s by design
3. If they miss a payment it’s like pulling teeth to get paid
4. I have decided I will not take any more closings from them
I have had to track down payments on at least two occasions with email campaigns and sending communications up the chain of command for $90 (which is a high paying job for them)
You have to submit an invoice via their portal only after 3 days and if you miss it, they certainly won’t tell you. If it goes un-invoiced after 120 days (which is what happened to me) you can kiss that payment goodby unless you get on a serious email campaign warfare to get paid. Then they try to underpay the invoice hoping you will not notice. Not worth it with so many other signing services out there. Nobody has time for that. I think they count on notaries not paying attention and grab a bunch free notary services that way. I’m so annoyed at all the hoops I had to jump through to get paid! Yeah, done with them!
@Lori 
Thank You for sharing your direct experience with this business entity.
The details about the ‘hoops’ & requirements are quite helpful.
Absolutely LOVE the Title of your thread as it identifies the Topic & a includes a Summation! 
Awesome!
You’re so right about that being a Low-Ball Fee (only $90) as Townsgate typically has LARGE Refinance packages with Full Scan Backs.
WHOA !
@Lori Sounds like a sagacious business decision, considering all the details you’ve delineated above.
- So far, their Fees have been TOO LOW (even after counteroffering) to Accept a Signing Order from them . . . So,
appreciate your insights via your direct experience.
===>>> For Notary Cafe members who haven’t created a Schedule of Fees, Review this Notary Cafe thread for a helpful Guideline.
Your thread will be helpful to nearly all Notary Cafe members.
Yes, indeed. This company also has a reputation of throwing a notary under the bus. And a genuine lack of professional respect for notaries. I had a friend who worked for them, they were late delivering the documents. So my friend shows up at the clients house and the client was mad at thier service and several documents were incorrect. So then Townsgate tried to spin the situation and try to make my friend the scapegoat. The client was kind enough to provide a statement that he was mad at the company and not the notary. Well my friend never worked them any more. Many title companies and lenders only care about their own interests. You are expendable for the most part. Many of these companies have no loyalty and basically thinks that notaries are a bunch of clowns. Don’t let anyone put you down and have them respect you as the professional which you are. Goodnight.
$90 is not the highest paid job from Townsgate. I get what I ask for.
They handle billing the same way Mortgage Connect does. You use their template and you wait three business days to submit your invoice. I take an assignment prepare the invoice put the date I should invoice on my calendar and get paid in a week.
Have never been not paid. Fees are negotiated to make me accept the job. I don’t take low fees and then complain about accepting a low fee which is a me thing not a them thing.
The invoicing process isn’t easy but it’s not designed for us it’s designed for them. And they aren’t trying to not pay you.
@algalafa Understood
Many of us have seen this & read about this type of demeanor over the years across the nation with various business entities. Unprofessional manner in which to manage vendors.
@algalafa Perfect Paradigm to maintain!
I’m sure that their tactics work to some degree, as most notaries have multiple signings daily, and it’s easy to lose track of one particular payment. Since Townsgate is connected to Mortgage Connect, I mostly ignore their offers (pay way too low), so I have no direct experience with them. But yeah, the whole experience that you describe is way too much of a hassle.
Townsgate:
I get paid what I counter offer or I don’t take the job
I create the invoice with their spreadsheet when I receive the confirmation, save to desktop.
I wait 72 hours before submitting the invoice. I remove the invoice from my desktop when it’s successfully submitted.
I’ve always been paid when promised to be paid
I work for probably 15 different platforms. I don’t turn any of them off because of one experience that’s not perfect. But that’s just me, I guess. It’s all worth it to me.
@steves11 Concur 
percent
Like you, I always counteroffer with a reasonable Fee for the Professional Services requested; however, someone Accepts the Signing Order [SO] for the lowball fees that aren’t sufficient to cover the expenses for gasoline & Turnpike Fees. 
For those who Accept the lowball fees, it’s a costly business decision that will land HARD . . .
I can see how to submit via Mortgage Connect, but I don’t have the same option in Townsgate? I did e-mail an invoice to their vendorpayment@townsgateclosing.com email address, but I didn’t get any acknowledgement. I’m going to call tomorrow, but was curious if I was missing something.
I agree — this has been my exact experience with Townsgate Escrow. They operate very similar to Mortgage Connect.
The only thing I don’t like is having to remember to invoice them three days later. I honestly believe that delay is by design so that if you’re not extremely organized, it’s easy to forget to invoice and they save themselves some money. But at the end of the day, it is what it is — anytime I’ve completed the work and invoiced properly, they’ve always paid.
I prepare the invoice ssve it and put a reminder in my phone to submit it.
As a business rule, the company providing the product or service decides when they send an invoice and what their terms are. I really can’t think of any other business who allows the customer to dictate when they will accept an invoice and specify the format to be used.
as long as they’re automated processes result in payments that are on time I don’t really care.
So apparently I had to call and have them update my profile. I can see how to submit payment now!
contact vendor management and they will fix the issue you can invoice them thru the platform same as mc this message was for Tiffany2
I agree. They hope that you’ll forget to invoice them. That’s the only logical reason why they tell you to wait 3 days. It’s either that or possibly they want to wait until they’re sure that you didn’t make any errors that need correcting.
They do it so it lines up with the recission date they don’t pay a fee 100% if it cancels. It’s in their terms. I can’t get over notaries thinking a process is a burden not fair or unnecessary because it makes them do things a little different. Townsgate and MC keep me very busy. At the fees I publish. This isn’t a problem in my world.
Personally speaking, it’s not the 3 days that bother me. It’s what their fees are in the first place. You must live in a different world than the rest of us who deal with MC/Townsgate.
No, Steve, I have said this multiple times. I do not take any of their offers under $90. Period. Nothing. I get paid up to $175 based on location. There are lenders they do business with that seem to favor my work I do a ton of the HELOC orders. It’s not a different world. I’m having a 100% error free grade this month and they hire me all the time. I’m not going to chime in with all the negative feedback on anyone I do big business with. It’s counterproductive. If a notary never gets a counteroffer accepted and is on the forum talking about how lousy the company is - could those things possibly be connected?
I don’t know. You tell me. In the few orders that I actually have done for them, there were no issues that would cause them to give me a low rating. Are you suggesting that they read what people say about them on this forum and treat them accordingly? Anything is possible, but I somehow doubt that is the case. Whatever…..It would be nice to have profitable business from them but it’s not a make or break for me.