I'm looking for opinions on this event so that if something similar happens in the future, I can respond accordingly. My apologies that this is long. I'm trying to include enough details to present a fair recounting of events:
Tue Jun 30: I accept a seller's pack signing scheduled for July 3 through agency's app for $80. I know this is a lowish rate, but seller's package from this title company rarely exceed 50 pages and take me more than 20-30 minutes. It was just around the corner from another signing I had scheduled so seemed like a nice, tight way to pick up a little more income on a legal holiday.
Wed Jul 1 (late afternoon): Title uploads docs to secure server. I see notification that they've been sent but I had a lot of evening appointments and didn't have time to get to them. I will own this was an oversight on my part and I should have looked immediately.
Thurs Jul 2: Also busy from morning to early evening. I sat down around 7 PM to download docs for the few signings I have the following day. Seller's pack I was expecting to weigh in around 50 pages actually turns out to be two packages, each 260+ pages with a lot of possible duplication. I send message to title and agency that night saying that I need confirmation these are correct because something is very off and I need verification before I print up 1000+ pages (I don't even mention the fee. of course, if they had responded it was as intended, I had planned to ask for $250). I also send a text to the signers to let them know that the package is substantially larger than I was expecting and would require more time than originally scheduled if correct, but that I'm trying to confirm with title. I get no response from signers, and an automated message from title that the are closed down for the holiday weekend but gives me a number to call on Friday for "urgent matters." I decide I'll call in the morning.
Fri Jul 3: I wake up at 7AM to a text from the signers saying that they would like to reschedule for Monday on the separate advice of their agent who also reviewed the documents and believed they contained errors, stating explicitly they want the weekend to review all the documents. I send a message back up to the agency and title telling them that the signers are declining to sign that day on the advice of their agent, separate of the document issue, and to please advise. Here, perhaps, I should have also called the "urgent matters" phone number, but the agency also tells me to cancel the appointment for Friday and reschedule for Monday.
Mon Jul 6: In the morning, I get a barrage of emails from the title officer (some only to me, some also copied to the agency) saying I had no right to cancel the appointment, that the documents were right, that the appointment was for two separate properties (even though the address and APN were the same, so not sure on that), and included 60 pages of executable documents and the other 200 were the signer's archival and supplemental documents, and that I must go see them ASAP that morning with all 500 printed pages at the original fee. I tell her that even if I had printed the documents, the signers themselves declined on the advice of their agent to meet on Friday, and it wouldn't have happened. She claims that she just spoke with them and they didn't say that. I sent her the screen capture of the text message from the signers specifically stating it.
I tell title and agency I'll meet with them with both document stacks, but only for $200 (lower than original counter because it would be half as many pages I originally thought). Agency responds to title in the interim that the ordering officer should have specified it was for two different properties and that the uploads would include executable and archival copies. Title officer tells agency that that's ridiculous, that title ALWAYS send through packages this way (a lie, as I've been working with the agency and title company for 15 years and that's NEVER happened), and that she's never experienced such incompetence and that this could have been resolved if I had just called the "urgent matters" contact on Friday. I reiterate that the SIGNERS TOLD ME THEY WOULD NOT SIGN UNTIL MONDAY. Agency calls me (obviously they didn't want this in writing) saying the title officer is being ridiculous and no, this isn't their standard procedure, but of course, they don't want to lose a client and can I do it for $150?
Nope, turned it down. Told agency I'd do it for that much if it was just the two sets of 60 pages but I wasn't going to print up 500 pages and spend up to an hour+ for that fee, and have my professionalism openly demeaned to boot. Of course, title officer had some choice words on that. |
