Help Resources

Should I ever discount a fixed-fee request?

We leave it to you to answer this question. Just make sure to state your policy clearly in both your lookup descriptions and in your “Store Policies” text.

As you decide on your policy, you might want to consider the following kinds of questions:

• How do time and expenses differ, if at all, for “found” and “not found” results? For example, if a death certificate request involves an index search followed by death certificate retrieval, does a “not found” result take significantly less time than a “found” result? What about a “not found” for an obituary search? Does it take more or less time than a “found” result?
• Was the “not found” result beyond your control? What if you visit a library and discover that the microfilm you need to do a search is missing? What should you charge your client then?