3 hours & no rate con -- how to (professionally) tell broker off?

You know the first thing you needed to do is plug the addresses in (or at least the zip codes) while the agent was on the phone. That would have told you right away what the rate should be and negotiated it right from the start.

The second thing you need to do is move on, don't get emotional over this, it is business and you can always call the agent up and ask them what they may have that they need help with to get back on their radar. I've turned down a lot of "good paying" loads after thinking about it, I didn't care to find out that the agent wasn't the originating party nor they had all the info. I had one agent who called me, said he would have the load sent to me via email in 20 minutes and never heard from him - even after calling him back and leaving messages for him. So someone else called 3 hours after saying I would take the first load and took what they offered. About 20 minutes after that the first agent called said he is sending the confirmation over and I told him he promised 20 minutes, not almost 4 hours so I took another load - he wasn't happy but I told him that it was his fault and my truck doesn't sit and wait for anyone.

 

I know the feeling. I always feel relieved passing up $4,000 and sitting for the weekend. You showed them!