I was approached by a client out of Detroit a few years ago, about paying  their third party vendor, who would be acting as a conduit for all their work,  a per title fee to get the work in the first place.

There was no guarantee by them or their vendor, that I would be reimbursed those fees for the deals that didn't close; nor was there any sort of guarantee, that if this company went out of business that I would be reimbursed my upfront fees for the title orders. 

I declined their offer. 

I believe that other people took them up on it & I seem to remember many, many posts on SOT about what a nightmare it was to get paid by the 3rd party vendor. 

My opinion & it's only my opinion, is that we shouldn't have to bid to buy work from companies.  They either want to place an order or they don't & bullying us into paying for the priviledge doesn't fly for me.  If NCO has had a 77% drop in the last 3 years, this seems like desperation on their part.