What would you have done in this situation?
Today I want to share a real situation that taught me a very valuable lesson as the owner of a signing service. If you’ve been following along, I’m pretty sure you remember this case. I’m sharing this openly because I believe there’s value in being transparent about the decisions we make, especially the ones we would handle differently. We were handling a closing where scanbacks were required. The notary did not scan the documents and instead dropped the package. When Title informed us that they needed the scanned documents in order to fund the transaction, we immediately reached out to the notary. She went back to retrieve the package to scan it, but then told us her scanner was too slow and that it would take about two hours, which would miss the funding cutoff time. At that point, the notary offered to scan the documents at FedEx, with an approximate cost of $105, but only if we confirmed reimbursement. This is where I made the wrong decision. I chose not to approve that cost, thinking it wasn’t something we typically cover and that we could manage the situation another way. We informed Title that the package would be delivered without scanbacks. The next day, the package arrived… and the client was not only frustrated about the missing scanbacks, but also identified multiple execution issues, including incomplete documents, notarizations without proper signatures, and a missing witness that had been requested and paid for. The notary later communicated directly with my client and explained that:• The scanbacks were not completed because the $105 fee was not approved• She did have a second witness present but did not receive instructions on how to document their attendance• The assignment was time-consuming and costly on her end, considering paper, printing, scanning, gas, and mileage for a $100 fee At that point, my client was very clear with me: my decision had a bigger impact on the outcome than the notary’s mistakes. And you know what… they were right.