Why call a local Edinburgh Locksmith?
Why call a local Edinburgh Locksmith (OR why you shouldn’t use a National Locksmith Company)?
Ever tried to call a local Edinburgh Locksmith found on the Internet?
The chances are that many advertised aren’t local.
Competition between Locksmiths is high, so there is no wonder that some national companies are targeting a city like Edinburgh and pretending to be genuinely a local Edinburgh Locksmith.
Here’s a worst case scenario.
You’re locked out your house
You find and call a local Edinburgh Locksmith at the top of the internet listing adverts.
You believe they’re a local Edinburgh Locksmith because they have a local phone number (though in reality it’s rented, so NOT local).
You speak to a pleasant-sounding lady, who doesn’t seem to sound local or understand much about locks (because she’s working from a call-centre somewhere within the UK, and not in a local Edinburgh Locksmith office).
She explains that she needs to take your payment details upfront and charge you after the job is completed, but they will make sure the Locksmith is with you within 30mins.
After an hour or so, the Locksmith has not arrived.
When he does arrive, he doesn’t seem overly sure of how best to proceed. This is because he’s only recently finished training as a Locksmith and is unable to work out what is required.
He drills the lock and….
Being inexperienced takes longer than the more usual ‘non-destructive entry’ that a genuinely experienced Locksmith from Edinburgh would be likely to use, or at least attempt in the first instance.
Remember you’re paying by the hour too, so the longer they take, the better for them. Additionally, ‘nondestructive entry’ is unlikely to cause unnecessary damage to your door. Now the door is open, but the Locksmith doesn’t have a suitable replacement lock with him because it’s ‘unusual.’ Most genuine Locksmiths will have something suitable with them, but as yours is ‘unusual’ they have the opportunity to inflate charges by selling you a more expensive lock that ‘may fit’, though there are accounts of Nationals leaving before making your door secure (under pressure to get to the next job or they make such a mess of your job it’s too difficult to rectify in a short enough time). We have heard of a recent trend where they will just break a window to get in, and then charge you for the repair. At this point you tell them to leave. They’ve already got your payment details and are likely to charge more than they stated, but they don’t care, and most will have got you to sign paperwork when they arrive.
So remember:-
- They can take longer to arrive!
- They take payment up front!
- They don’t always know what they’re doing, because of their inexperience, so they are literally practising on your door with the potential to cause damage unnecessarily, and you are paying for the privilege!
- They may charge up to three times what a genuine local Edinburgh Locksmith would because the Call-centre needs to make money and the guy that shows up needs to make money. (the cost is normally split 60% to call-centre & 40% to the “Locksmith” that shows up).
To avoid this distress and expense call a local Edinburgh Locksmith Capital Lock Services 0131 610 0470.