Late Cancellations are Putting Me in the Poorhouse!

The past month has been a nightmare of 4:55 pm cancellations for the next day, after I've already turned down six jobs, and then I end up with no job at all when it seems like everyone in town is taking a deposition. What is the deal? I know there are a lot of factors to cancellations, but I am beginning to think it's a trend due to the commitment-phobic state everyone is in nowadays. "Well, if I wake up in the morning and just don't feel like it, I won't go!" or maybe it really is some of the flimsy excuses I've heard this month, "We forgot to tell our client we were taking his deposition tomorrow and he can't come." This at 4:50 p.m., no kidding. My family and friends all say, "Y'all should charge cancellation fees!" I say, "Heck, we can hardly get them to pay the bills when we produce a nice trancript for them. They sure as heck won't pay a cancellation fee!" That, and all I know is, it is really hard to make decisions based on little or no information about upcoming jobs. How many of us have driven to East Jesus for a "fantastic" job, only to find out the witness has to wait for her husband to get home so he can drive her, so we sit and wait for two hours, she shows up and the depo takes thirty minutes? Two weeks ago I showed up for a court hearing -- had the summons in my hand -- and the courtroom was closed, locked and dark. Someone finally came down the hall and said, "You're not waiting for court, are you? Because he never has court on Fridays." The only thing that made me feel better was the defendant was there, did not know I had been hired for his case, so since his attorney didn't show up, I was able to calm him down and put him with the right people so he could find out what was going on with the case, poor man was a nervous wreck. I am starting to wonder if someone is trying to tell me something, like maybe it's time for a new career for me. I guess I'm going to hang in there for now. I feel like I am in my prime as a reporter, seriously. It would be a shame to waste all this talent, boys and girls, now wouldn't it?

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Comment by Sue Baker on June 25, 2008 at 8:02
Yep, Kyung, had I known then what I know now, I would've taken off the month of June!
Comment by Kyung on June 24, 2008 at 19:53
My problem is they keep rescheduling. Oh, we've decided to do it in July. Bah!!
Comment by Sue Baker on June 24, 2008 at 18:52
Thank you, ladies, for the shoulders to cry on. I feel better now!
Comment by Katy Cuellar on June 24, 2008 at 17:56
Hi Sue, the firm I work for confirms the job before they call me and schedule it, and that is the day before. It's not often that it will still cancel late the day before. If it cancels the next day when it's scheduled, they charge a cancellation fee.

Sometimes I'll get a call from a firm who'd like to schedule me for a job a week or so in advance, but I have to tell them I can't work that way, because I might end up with nothing, and if they still need a reporter on the day in question, to please call me the day before after it's been confirmed.

Before, when I used to schedule jobs days ahead, often the firm would forget they even asked me. I once lost an entire week of work that way, by agreeing way in advance, and then receiving no call at all.

Logistically, this puts a lot of pressure on the firms if all the jobs are confirmed for the next day and reporters need to be lined up, but that's part of what we pay them for, isn't it?

You're so right, though, that attorneys will reschedule these things at the drop of a hat.
Comment by Elizabeth A. Willis-Lewis on June 24, 2008 at 17:35
I laughed out loud at your "East Jesus" comment. I absolutely feel your pain. I am canceled on constantly at the last minute where it is too late to pick up anything else for the next day. I have thought we should charge a 24-hr cancellation fee. However, enforcing it is another story. Don't give up yet. Everything comes and goes in phases. Things will pick up again and you will be so busy you will be begging for jobs to cancel :)

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