I'm shaking my head, too, Tammy, because I see the same thing. At an EOM like last month, they get desperate enough when their usual go-to people are busy. Eventually, some are forced to pay more to find someone who doesn't fill their calendar with low-paying $%&# work. Even then, they try to squeeze the last nickel out of us. (Makes me wonder what all that extra time costs them...)
Frankly, that argument to try to convince us to accept a signing at a paltry fee always amazes me. (Fortunately, I rarely hear from those companies anymore since most of them are sending email or text blasts and I can just delete...) IMO, here's how "We're only making $XXX." translates:
1. They did a terrible job negotiating to get this business.
2. They don't want to lose money on this assignment but don't care if we do and expect us to be OK with that.
3. They're oblivious to the fact that, for this one signing, they're just making some phone calls, but we are investing our supplies, gas, wear & tear on our vehicle and hours of our time for not much more (& sometimes even less) than what they're making on it.
4. Either they're clueless about running a business or they think we are. [Sadly, too often both are true.]
5. If #4 is true for them, our chances for getting paid timely, or even paid at all, aren't great.
There's probably more. I should add, that these thoughts are what's going through my head when I hear that, but not anything I would ever say to someone over the phone. I just let them know either what my fee would be or that we're too far apart to bother discussing and that it doesn't work for me.
[Just one caveat... I've heard this on a rare occasion from good signing services that usually meet my fee, and if it's a company I've had a good long term relationship with, I'll consider the particular circumstances to see if it makes sense. Sometimes I can say yes, usually not. And FWIW, there are very few companies out there that still fall into that category.]
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