What Just Happened.......?

We sent our documents up to a courier service in Sacramento to have them apostilled, shortening the time down from 2 weeks to 2 days. I called them the day we sent them (yesterday) to let them know that we were sending them up and to expect them overnighted and in hand the next morning. I asked what the fee was, and I was told $45. That sounded fine with me, so off we sent them, relieved that they were finally out of our hands. I got a call from the courier service this morning, saying that they had received the package, but there was a problem with the payment. We had included a check for $540 for the apostille fees ($20 per document x 27 documents) plus a check to the courier service for $45. The message said that the fee was $45 per document! (What?!) But since I had so many documents, he could knock it down to $30 each. Needless to say, this floored me. I proceeded to do something that looked like something between earnest prayer and a nervous breakdown. I just kept saying to myself "$45 each?! EACH?!" Just to clarify what the courier service does, they take the documents from their office to the third floor of the Secretary of State's office a few blocks away and hand them across the desk to the worker. Then they pick them back up the next day when they are completed and take them back to their office to mail them back to us in our prepaid FedEx envelope. I called Sara at home, at which point she proceeded to mirror my response in all its eloquence. So I called back as soon as I got off the phone with Sara. Here's the conversation that ensued to the best of my recolection this morning (everything in parenthesis shows my thoughts, while the quotes show the dialogue):

"Hi, this is Jeremy Park. I'm returning your call from earlier this morning. I got your message about the fees and I guess I misunderstood. I thought it was $45 for the whole service. Does that $45 include the $20 apostille fee for each document?"

"No, that is just for the service."

(You've got to be kidding me! That's over $1200 just for service fees, in addition to the $540 fee to the Secretary of State!) "Wow, I didn't realize that it was that expensive. If I had known that it was going to cost this much, I probably would have made the drive up from San Diego myself."

"Since you have so many documents, I could do them for $10 each."

(That's a big drop!) "That's still $270. I'm not sure if I want to do that."

"Do you want me to send them back to you?"

"Can you hang on to them until I talk to my wife and we can confirm what we want to do. We might just drive up and do them ourselves. I have to decide what we're going to do."

"Listen. I'm just going to drop them off for you."

"No. Let me talk to my wife first..."

"I don't want you to drive up all the way from San Diego. I'll just drop them off for no charge."

"That's not what I want. I understand that this is your business and you can't do this for free. I understand that what you charge is what you charge. I just need to figure this out."

"I'll just drop them off for free."

"That's not how I want to do it. You need to be paid for your service."

"I'm just going to drop them off."

"Let me talk to my wife and see what we can do."

"I don't see what the problem is. I'm just going to drop them off no charge."

"But.........(what's going on?)........I'm not sure..........."

"I'm going to drop them off. Just know that in the future that our charge is for each document."

"I'm ..........."

"OK?"

"OK. Thank you........"

(What just happened?)

From that point until now I have been swimming in a fog, trying to figure out how we went from $1215 in courier fees to $0 during a conversation that took the better part of 60 seconds. But I believe it can be summed up best in the words of my two oldest sons. This conversation is heresay as I was at work waiting from a call-back from the courier service.

(Sara sitting outside in tears)
I: "Don't worry mommy. God's going to take care of it."

B: (Begins to sing) "Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all of your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths. Don't worry about tomorrow. He's got it under control. Just trust in the Lord with all your heart, and He will carry you through."

What else can I say?

JP