Locksmith Call Centers, Time To Take Action | Locksmith Blog

Avoiding National Locksmith Call Centers!

Working as a locksmith it is becoming increasingly common to meet customers who have been ripped off or left unhappy with the work, some even fearing that they may have disclosed security information to untrustworthy individuals. Victims of the money grabbing national call center operations that charge ludicrous hidden fees and charge for unnecessary work.

So what the hell is going on here?

Large national locksmith chains spend millions of pounds each year on advertising. They buy up multiple pages of adverts in physical directories using different company names and redirect phone numbers to appear local and dupe the customers into believing they are dealing with a genuine local locksmith. This massive expenditure is passed directly onto the customers who would be lucky to ever pay less than £100 for the simplest of jobs and anywhere upto £500 (one of the worst I heard of).

More often than not the 'locksmith' or engineer as they like to refer to them as, typically with less than a few months experience under the belt, will be dispatched from their nearest point, which could be miiiiiiiiiiiles away. The customer is always reassured they will be no more than 30 mins away, but this is rarely the case and I have met customers that were left stranded for hours before eventually trying to cancel. At this point they have usually already taken note of your card details and will bill you for their call out anyway despite failing to show.

If they actually show up to do the work it is usually of poor standard due to the locksmiths lack of experience. I have been to jobs where they have fled tail between legs after wrecking door mechanisms and claiming they need to order parts.

Why don't they employ real locksmiths?

Truth is, no half decent locksmith in Cannock would entertain them. Firstly he would be working for a small percentage of the job. Secondly, who wants to help a competitor take work from their own area?

Having had the misfortune of working for several of these national locksmiths in my earlier years I quickly decided that I did not want to be the person handing over ridiculous bills to the elderly, having to beg the call center to pay me my money on time and work for peanuts.

We need to educate our customers on the best ways to avoid these national scammers to ensure we do not all get tarred with the same brush. It is not acceptable and we must make a stand.
Adding this banner onto your webpage along with a summary of what it is about will help customers make the right choice, choose a local locksmith and avoid being the next victim.