No beating intended for you.  I should remember that sometimes if I reply the person thinks I'm replying to them ONLY.  I was talking about the industry as a whole.  Beating down wasn't my intention--it was actually LIFTING UP!  To see ourselves as valuable.  To hold our heads higher and speak without our voices cracking when we tell someone with unreasonable expectations--NO!  Or when we have to call an iffy client and refuse an order.  We have every right to make that decision in our businesses and we should say so with pride that we aren't going to be taken advantage of.  Remember, I was taken in by CRS too.  I got into it with them in the Spring, but what makes me different from some others is that I had ALREADY cut them off before I got into it on the forum.  And I have cut off or declined to work from others.  Being owed money doesn't make you a bad business person--every business experiences this issue.  The issue I was speaking to is that so many abstractors continue to work for companies that have a horrible reputation because they don't think they deserve better.  Yes, you were stiffed for payment by a company.  But instead of feeling beat down, feel empowered that NEVER again will you allow a company to sweet talk, make excuses, etc.  No pay-e, no work-e.  But in the next couple of days you should evaluate your business and make decisions for accepting work/clients going forward.  Here are a few of the policies my husband and I agreed to from the beginning:

1.  We won't do this if we can't make a living.  We aren't out to be rich and have our own plane or play golf 3 days a week--but middle class would be nice.

2.  We don't lower fees--EVER.  We MIGHT do a "favor" for a client on a case by case basis--such as not charging for a no find, not charging a trip fee if we were going there anyway, etc.  But a blanket request to lower fees to GET or KEEP business is NO!

3.  We don't fill out other companies' special forms.  We have spent money to have a computerized report done that is in almost all cases more comprehensive and more professional than a hand-written report on someone else's forms--so we don't do it.  If they won't except our form, we don't do their work. 

4.  Lastly, we don't care what the deadline is if we can't submit a report we are confident is accurate.  Usually we don't have problems with meeting deadlines.  But ALSO we don't accept work from companies that demand unreasonable turn-around times.  If they call and ask, we say--sorry, can't help you. 

This isn't a post based on this topic--so again--I don't want you to feel beaten down--but really a rallying call to all abstractors that it IS ok to see yourselves as a business owner, an executive, a CEO--and its ok to act like it.