Let's just tell the entire story. All of this had been completely blown out of proportion. Barbara was sent a check in December of last year. She misplaced the check and wanted us to send her another one. Due to her misplacing it and the books being with our accountant/ year end etc.. We informed her that we would need to charge the $25 to her. Not something we had done before but was forced to do, due to the timeline in which this occured, and only after her rude phone call to our office. She got irate, instead of asking for us to make an exception this time. Had we been dealing with a notary that wanted to discuss the situation instead of argueing, this might have turned out different. We cancelld the check and sent her out a new one right before we got our books back and the accountant had printed all of the 1099's. And in regards to the reason why we did that, it was mostly because we had several notaries that preferred getting them for their own records. We had no idea that any of the notaries were going to get upset about it. The IRS states that you can choose to send them out under $600 if you wish to. It is not required for the notaries who made less, to actually use them to file. It was more of a courteousy to those who wanted them.
And in regards to the constant posting of our emails. If you were called a c**t and screamed at by another notary, how would you react? We are irate at the language Brian Lynch, "Calinotary" used, who ironically has never even worked for us before. But for those of you who are married, how would your spouse react? As you can plainly see from ALL of the emails we have sent to the notaries venting on this site, we have never once called anyone names. It only seems natural that if a notary has enough time to post negative notes over and over, day after day, on this site that they have way too much time on their hands, doesn't it? We are not a company that does not pay our notaries. We are very busy with our clients and due to our volume, some invoices do get overlooked and can possibly go a few days past due. Is that really a reason to call people names and harrass them? Why should some of these notaries give ALL notaries a bad name? What some notaries are failing to see is that the signing agency is in the middle. We invoice the client and if the check is not cut out of escrow, we have to fight to get the notary paid. What we did say to Brian Lynch "Calinotary" is that the lenders, loan officers and brokers don't find any urgency in assuring the notary is paid once they have received their commissions. We have been struggling with some of our smaller clients for months to pay on past due invoices. Many times we end up paying out of our own funds to make sure the notary on file is paid. Yes it may come a little later than we all expect but we make a serious effort to collect on the invoices before we have to result in taking a loss on the deal. We have never flat out refused to pay a notary for a trip fee or completed signing. With that in mind, you may be able to understand why we can't pay for the cancelled checks for every notary who looses their payment. The loss would just further push us into the red. Our profit is not substantial enough to handle it.
As you all have heard once in your life, there is two sides to every story and don't beleive everything that you read. An irate notary can blow anything out of proportion and get everyone riled up over something that could have been resolved with a simple and patient conversation. Of the 900 notaries we used in 2005, the vast majority of them are professionals and call to discuss any issues they may want to resolve. At one time, there was little competition for notaries and signing agents in most areas. Now it is more competative and jobs can be few and far between for some. Either way, as a notary there is a certain amount of professionalism and ethics required to hold the position of a state appointed representative. It shouldn't be given to anyone who can pass the test and pay the fee. And from the comments and attitude posted on this forum, it appears there are many out there that are a notary just because they can be. Yes this response is long but this back and forth has gone on long enough with us being silent and taking the brunt of the rude comments. All we ask is that if you are just reading this and not Barb or Calinotary who has taken the facts and twisted them, you see the whole picture, not just the outline they have drawn for you. We are not struggling to hire notaries, we just don't appreciate the magnitude this story has come to. Thank for listening. |
