Posted by DeliveryBoy on 8/24/06 2:00am
Msg #140473

No-Pay No-Sign/Fund Policy

Well, I tried... Closeline sent me an order and I replied to their confirmation with my own terms. (Their confirmations all make reference to their infamous contract that says you won't be paid if it doesn't close/fund).

I have a confirmation that says I charge full fees for no-signs/funds. I also wrote the terms of the agreement, and put in a reduced trip fee for a no-sign. I asked them to respond and agree to the terms or we would have no deal and I would not do the closing. What did they do? Nothing.

Same thing that happened with Closings on Call. They just don't respond and act like it's confirmed with their terms. A day goes by and it's getting close to closing time. I have it down as cancelled on my schedule. I get a barrage of phone calls and e-mails. I reply again with my terms. This time I say must have a yes or no answer within 30 minutes or I can’t do this closing. It goes out of the scheduler’s hands and she acts like I never raised the no-sign/fund issue. Somebody else from the company starts in. Panic mode now. They are furious and act like I just backed out of the closing. I get the you dropped the ball and will be blackballed forever speech again.

After the fact, I get an email saying that I'm now on the "do not call list" for Closeline. Finally get an answer to my question about making an exception to the no-pay policy. She says "no, I can't do that." Huge waste of my time and a drain on my energy level. Turned off my phone and computer and quit for the day... don't want to deal with any more closings for awhile. Does anybody else get this? (They ignore your question and just act like you agreed to their terms).

Probably the scheduler has no control over policy and supervisors are unwilling to budge for this company. I guess you just can't ever accept closings from companies with the hard-line no-pay policy -- it's just a waste of time to ask them to make an exception.

So far I only know of 2 companies that does this Closeline and COC. Closeline is a/k/a PES, Montgomery Home Title, Titlemainia, etc. Are there any others? I don’t want to go through this again.

-DB

Reply by Glenn Strickler on 8/24/06 2:27am
Msg #140478

Here is a copy of an email I received when I changed the contract that they sent me. I think it is time to name names .......

Glen,
We have processed your payment on the _______ signing.
But unfortunately, we will no longer be able to use you.
The contract that you faxed back to us, you made changes
to our policy.

Your Business is Valuable to Us!!



Svitlana Guy

NotariesExpress

(707) 628-5650 Phone
(866) 355-6236 Fax
P.O. Box 747
Vallejo, CA 94590

Reply by DeliveryBoy on 8/24/06 2:38am
Msg #140479

NotariesExpress, got it. I assume they have a no-pay no-sign/fund policy on their contract? Don't want to Blackball anybody unfairly.

I hate it when they are so inflexible. Any contract can be modified afterwards. Some require modifications to be in writing, so I require email confirmations. I ignore the introductory contracts (if any) and start over with a new contract (a confirmation) for each closing. Love it when phone schedulers in some cubicle somewhere think that their company policy rules are "state law" in CA.

I hate to be such a stickler up front because it scares away new clients. What's the mean between the extremes of hard-a** and sucker?

Most companies will at least guarantee a trip fee if you ask them up front, to get you to do the closing. Huffy and puffy yes, but will do it if they have to. Does anybody else find the condescending attitude demeaning to you as a “professional?” I guess some of them see us as basically just pizza hut delivery drivers (no offense to PH drivers).

-DB

No-pay policy:
1). Closeline/PES
2). COC
3). NE?

Reply by Glenn Strickler on 8/24/06 10:38am
Msg #140553

Yes, they have it in their contract. This particular policy of some companies drives me nuts. You have done the work, sent the documents, completed the assignment without error, then in a couple of days the BO exercises their RTC usually because of an incompetent loan officer and they want to tag us. Not right.

Reply by Mysti_FL on 8/25/06 8:56pm
Msg #141047

It aggrevates me to no end. But I have learned to keep my prices relatively high and skip working for too many signing services. Even title companies will many times tell you that they cannot pay or will pay only a small "trip" fee on a cancellation even after you have done the job. A lot of times this is because they don't have a pot of money set aside for this purpose (which the better run companies do from what I understand....they may pad their fees for those loans that don't close)

I find though that so long as they are paying my price, I can eat that one closing at a lousy $50 and I can still earn a living. This is usually from those companies that will meet my fee and by the way, COC is one of them.

Just a thought.

Reply by Svitlana NotariesExpress on 9/8/06 1:06pm
Msg #144530

Glen,
The issue is that you changed the contract after you've performed the signing. The contract was sent to you via email at the same time as the signing confirmation. You could have called us and advised us that you had problems with our contract, and we could of either worked them out or hired a new notary. You can not do the signing and change the contract the day after. We have worked with other notaries and changed our contract in some cases...but we need to be aware of it prior to the signing.
We would have been more than happy to speak with you about this....if you would have called.

Reply by Glenn Strickler on 9/8/06 5:22pm
Msg #144587

All due respect, but ....

You hired me to do the signing and the signing was finished without a contract. The signing was completed without error and I would have expected payment even if the BO had exercised their RTC.

The contract would have been for future signings and it is your right to say no just as it is my right to let people know who has the policy of not paying for work performed.

The practice of some services not to pay if the BO exercises their RTC needs to stop and it just may here in California within the next few months. It puts undue pressure on some notaries not to be impartial. I have seen it happen.

Sincerely,

Glenn Strickler