How Much Should You Be Paying a Locksmith for Emergency Entry?
So… You come home in the early hours after a great night out clubbing, you stagger out of the taxi and slowly make it down your drive, you get to the front door and realise that you can’t find your keys anywhere. What do you do?
This scenario happens the best of us and most of us spend the first 30 minutes or so wandering around our property trying windows etc until we finally decide it’s time to call a locksmith.
Finding a local locksmith is not the hassle it used to be before the internet when you had to find a phone box or knock up a neighbour so you could ring directory enquiries for the number of a local locksmith.
Nowadays it’s just whipping out the good old Smart Phone that is always with us no matter what, and searching for a local locksmith. Think about it? When did you last leave your house without your mobile phone?
It doesn’t matter what you search, you can search locksmith, locksmith near me or even enter your location i.e. Locksmith Wigan, Locksmith Dumfries because Google’s local business algorithm knows that a locksmith is a local business rather than a national or international business and will return local results first.
The difference between modern days and the days before the internet isn’t simply about an increase in technology or about it being easier to find a trustworthy tradesman when you need one, such as local locksmith. It’s now also much easier to set up a business and tout for work, think about it? Pre internet you had to establish a business, get a business number and advertise for work, this all cost money.
Advertising was in the form of a listing in the phone book, an ad in the local newspaper or ads in business publications such as the yellow pages which all cost money. Nowadays people simply buy a PAYG mobile phone and tout for work for free on social media sites such as Facebook and here’s where the issue lies.
Because the industry is as yet unregulated anyone can claim to be a locksmith regardless or their skill level, work ethics and training. In fact there are many locksmiths touting for work who have either had zero training and just picked up a few tips by watching youtube videos or have taken one of the private, unofficial 1 or 3 day locksmith training courses. In the industry we call these “Crash Courses” and what they do is teach you just enough to “pass” as a locksmith.
The main skill a professional locksmith has is the ability to open a locked door without causing any damage; we call this “non destructive entry“. This skill is actually taught in the official Ofqual (Gov’t) locksmith training course that takes many months to complete and contains both practical and written modules.
The crash courses don’t teach non destructive entry, they don’t run for long enough, and instead show you students to drill a lock to open it. Now people might say that if you call a locksmith and he/she drills the lock then they have still gained access so what’s the problem?
What if you are locked out and you have a spare set of keys in the house or your parents have a spare set, it’s just that they live miles away and its 2am so you wouldn’t need a new lock if the locksmith could gain entry without damage.
If the locksmith drills out a perfectly good lock that you had spare keys for then as well as paying for the emergency call out and entry you now have to buy a new lock too, something you wouldn’t need to buy it you had called a professionally trained locksmith.
Also, a professionally trained locksmith is in the game for the long haul, they have paid for the official training course, which does cost more that the worthless crash course, they will have bought the correct equipment, lock picks, bypass tools and will be out to build up a reputation for themselves in the industry.
Whereas the amateur locksmith is just in it for the odd lockout job, doesn’t have specialist equipment, just a drill and some basic tools and will charge you as much as they can because the jobs they get are typically few and far between.
Most amateur locksmiths with draw you in with an advertised emergency entry fee that seems very reasonable, typically £49 or £59 but then when the invoice comes it also includes £120 for the drilling (like they had any other choice) £150 for the new lock (which would probably retail for around £20) and £80 for the fitting of the lock earning the rogue locksmiths over £400.
It’s extremely important to make sure that you are booking a professional locksmith, so look out for the term “non destructive entry” on their website and look for any reference to their training.
There are two recognised and regulated locksmith training courses in the UK