Working as a locksmith can be a very rewarding and lucrative career, regrettably not all locksmiths where created equally and the few bad ones can spoil the reputation and the character of the many.
Initially there is that dreaded ‘call out charge’ that some locksmiths insist on charging whether they fix your problem or not. This charge was once a standard charge they everybody added and not just locksmiths, it was routine for many so called emergency service industries to add on a call out charge to the bill, namely tradesmen such as plumbers, electricians, roofers, drain companies, tree surgeons and many more, and note that I use the past tense and said that this charge ‘was once’ a standard charge because it simply doesn’t have a place in modern economics.
The reason professional locksmiths no longer charge a call out fee
There are in fact a couple of reasons that genuine, professional locksmiths don’t charge these types of fees any more, one reason is the rise in competition, if your competitor isn’t charging these extras then he or she is going to get all the work as no one in their right mind is going to choose the company that charges extras over the one that doesn’t, unless the charge is sneakily hidden.
Another reason is the rise in popularity of the internet and searching online, now this might seem a bit bizarre, why would the internet influence a locksmith’s decision to charge extras and call out fees? Plain answer… feedback and online reviews. There are now lots of places where you can leave a review for a company or tradesmen and if all your reviews lean towards the fact that you add on extras and charge inflated call our fees then your reviews are going to be poor which can definitely effect your business in this day and age.
So what about the locksmiths who still try and charge a call out fee?
Even though the evidence in this editorial points to the fact that no locksmith should be charging call out fees any longer some locksmiths regrettably still do, so lets see why they do and how they seem to still get away with it?
The reality is that not every locksmith touting to do business on the internet is a legitimate, professionally trained locksmith, some ‘locksmiths’ are actually untrained, amateurs who have merely watched a few youtube videos and bought some inexpensive kit off the internet and it’s these kind of ‘have a go’ locksmiths who usually offer extremely discounted prices on their website or in their newspaper and shop window ads and then push up the final bill with loads of hidden extras and high call out fees, they do this since it is the only way they can get work and for many of them it’s not even their full time job so repeat work or a good character doesn’t matter to them, one off clients are fine.
The other types of locksmiths who still charge call out fees are the large nationwide companies that seem to have popped up all over the UK in recent years. The truth is that these nationwide locksmith companies are not locksmiths at all, nor do they have locksmiths all over the UK like they claim to have, they are just call centres who take a cut and on occasion an annual fee for passing you onto an genuine locksmith.
What tends to happen is that they get in touch with small independent locksmiths from all over the UK offering to do all the promotion and advertising and find them work, the trouble is that the call centre, sorry, nationwide locksmith company want their own massive cut so the prices are usually 3 or 4 times or even more than those charged by independent locksmiths.
Another problem with nationwide locksmith companies is that it’s typically the untrained amateurs who sign up with them because they can find work themselves, this adds insult to injury as you are paying more money for a inferior job.
So as a rule no locksmith should be charging call out fees any longer or adding shameful extras to their bills, things like fuel, out of hour’s fees etc, these are all made up fees to boost the final invoice. If you need a locksmith then ring an independent one so you know that you are speaking to a qualified locksmith who can give you a price and time frame over the phone before you commit to the job… and good luck.
Are you looking for a genuine emergency locksmith in your area?
glocksandsecurity.co.uk Are available 24/7 and cover most of Renfrewshire and Ayrshire including
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