Posts Tagged ‘rip-off’

There Are No National Locksmith Companies

Posted in entertainment, locksmithing on June 4th, 2009 by The Locksmith – 2 Comments

Or, Avoiding Being Ripped Off, Part 2

If you look in the Yellow Pages (and in other places) for a locksmith (or plumber, etc.) you will find a whole bunch of large adverts at the front of the section. These are the adverts of the “nationals”. Think about how much money they’ve spent on those adverts all over the country: how are they going to recoup that money? From you.

Ask yourself if they are going to employ a large workforce of locksmiths ready to get to anywhere in the country in a reasonably short time. No they’re not. In fact they’re not going to employ any locksmiths (or plumbers, etc.) at all. They will either be franchises or they will be call centres. And in the case of locksmiths they won’t be franchises, they’ll be call centres. Ask yourself how they’re going to recoup the cost of the call centre. From you.

These national call centres are simply going to farm the work out to their list of local locksmiths. And that will be a local locksmiths only if you’re lucky; it could very well be the nearest botcher with a nothing but a drill if you’re unlucky. The “nationals” themselves won’t be at all unhappy if “their” locksmiths tend to drill everything as it increases their margin. Some nationals, although not all thank goodness, even get cross when locksmiths pick locks open to resolve lockouts and lock sales are lost.

So why take pot luck on which local tradesperson or botcher is called? Why pay a margin to a call centre? Call a local locksmith directly yourself.

How can you tell they’re local? Look at the phone number. Or if it’s an 0800 number look at the fax number. If you’re considering a locksmith that appears to be called FastLocks (Battersea) but the telephone numbers are Leicester or 087… numbers you could be forgiven for suspecting they’re not really based in Battersea.

Know Your Locks

Posted in advice, locksmithing on May 28th, 2009 by The Locksmith – Be the first to comment

Or, Avoiding Being Ripped Off, Part 1

It’s worth making a note of what locks you have. If you have a multi-point lock, it’s also worth ensuring that you are completely familiar with the handle up and handle down behaviour of both the inside and the outside handle.

For example if you know that your latch lock is a reasonably-recent Yale (or ERA or Legge or Union) with no inside keyhole then if you lock yourself out and a so-called locksmith turns up saying, “I know they quoted you £70 but that’s a special lock and we’re going to have to x and then y, and it’s going to cost you £175″, you will be able to put them right or refuse to pay anything and call someone else.

Perhaps you know that you have a multi-point lock and that although the outside handle won’t withdraw the latch, the inside handle will. In that case, if the wind or the dog should slam the door while you’re outside chatting to the postman, and a so-called locksmith turns up saying, “That’ll have to be drilled, and therefore it’s going to cost you …”, you may be in a position to say, “Why?” and “Oh no it shouldn’t.”

So what locks might genuinely provoke a sharp intake of breath and be more costly to lock yourself out with? That would include Ingersolls, Bramahs, Cisa dimple cylinders, most dimple cylinders in fact, most Banhams and Yale or ERA latches with big chunky escutcheons outside and keyholes in their inside handles. (What is a dimple cylinder? Unlike typical cylinder keys where there are valleys and peaks along the edge of the key, these keys have dimples in their faces.)

One more example of a special lock would be a Chubb Ava latch. These are mildly unusual and can be quite expensive to lock yourself out with. The key is very distinctive: it is cylindrical with flats at various angles. And inside there is a roundish plastic knob with a keyhole in its centre.