I had a bit of a meltdown last week due to my biggest pet peeve. Waiting for documents. I always make it clear that I need the docs 24 hours prior to signing so I can print, review, and mark the documents. I want the signers to know they are working with a professional and nothing says AMATURE like a closer fumbling through docs, or even worse, printing them while the signer is sitting at my desk. I’d also like to ask the companies that hire us: “Have you ever had printer problems?” Here is the actual exchange I had during last weeks meltdown, it also covers poor communications:
“Robert, I will reach out to title regarding docs. Do you always require docs 24 hours prior to signing time?”
YES I do. I want to be professional and you want docs signed correctly. If every notary took the time to go through the docs prior to signing there would be far less mistakes and scans would be less necessary. I like to put the little “sign here” stickers on before meet and if something in the docs is confusing to me I want to call you and ask about it. Regretfully many signing companies DON"T answer phone calls and we have to guess. It is extremely disappointing when some companies use portals and make demands of us but won’t even give us a phone call or let us call them. To us notaries this is a very one sided operation. Threating demands for perfection from us (or or commission gets cut) yet some signing companies are so darn lazy they don’t answer phone calls. I want 24 hours so I can overcome a few of the obstacles we face out in the field.
