I am probably going to be blasted for this comment, but I spoke with the person who sent the e-mail directly.   My initial comment to him was that "I guess the real world is the same as elementary school, one person screws up and everyone suffers."  I have a friendly business relationship with most people in this company, and it appears exactly as was stated in the e-mail - that several abstractors completely ignored their request for specificity with the tax searches, so they did, in fact, hire a national company that deals with real estate taxes only. 

I, however, also advised that I would not be accepting the fee reduction.  He advised, as he probably did to you, Scott, that there was not a problem with the searches I had submitted.  However, a couple of "hits" for erroneous information or lack of information completely, is what triggered this business decision.  Whether or not the fees will actually be reduced is yet to be seen.

Anita