In case someone doesn't know any history about ATM, I can say a little about them, as they were my first client about 10-12 years ago. I believe they were jut getting started in the vendor management business.
That's how I got started doing title searches. Before that I was doing only State and County civil. They were a great company back then. Very helpful, paid on time. We had a great relationship. I expanded my business to 5 other states at their request and was doing a huge businss with them. We recruited and trained many people to do title searches for us.
About 3 years ago we noticed their work was slacking off. We were only getting only about 1/10th of the work we usually got. And it was only nightmare orders in out of the way counties that we had to pay a premium price for. They became very demanding and it was like pulling teeth to get paid on time and some invoices they just ignored.
I did a little research on my own and discovered these independent contractors that we recruited and trained for years had been recruited by them. Nice. Nothing we could do of course, It's just the way things are. I was glad at least the people we trained still had an income coming in. And we moved on. We still have a thriving business and have had and have new ATM companies that give us a lot of business.
I have just learned that most clients are not loyal, no matter how great your services are. Seems like in this day and age the $$ is the important thing.
I've seen in the 12 years we have been doing title searches the fees have gone from $100+ (and glad to pay the fee) down to $35 to $50. We still have one company that pays us $65 for searches.
It's kind of sad, I believe we put our financial lives on the line every time we accept an order. But things change (sigh).
Sorry to be so lengthy, just had a lot on my chest.

Good luck,
Sharon

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