Soldato
He's embarrassed and want's it to go away. Deal with it for him.
Locksmith question
- Thread starter neocon
- Start date
Soldato
Yeah but look at the company formation documents, there is an address in North London and another one up north.
I can't do a charge back though
Associate
Can you contact me. What happened was a scam. I can walk you through this.
Surely it's as simple as calling the bank? they have fraud/scam teams
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Caporegime
Yep utterly scammed.
Disgusting
Disgusting
Associate
Find a way to connect with me. They once charged an old lady £3000. I will walk you through this to get a chargeback.Does £1456 sound too much for replacing a lock that had a front door key snapped in it? I think my elderly father was scammed.
![PXL-20240319-120258162-2.jpg[img]](https://i.ibb.co/ZL0PBfV/PXL-20240319-120258162-2.jpg[img])
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That same company?
Sounds like a good one for Rogue Traders! Maybe they would be interested to hear from you.
Seriously though I would do everything in my power to get back at them by a) recovering money and b) making sure they suffer reputationally and legally and c) to try to help others not get done. Absolutely disgusting.
Seriously though I would do everything in my power to get back at them by a) recovering money and b) making sure they suffer reputationally and legally and c) to try to help others not get done. Absolutely disgusting.
Associate
No sure, I spoke with a mate that used to be a locksmith.
Does your father have the parts that he replaced it with? From what I was told just 5mins ago if the key broke they would attempt to not damage anything if they cant they would then just swap the barrel max £30 to £100 plus the call out fee.
Was told 100% scam.
Also time time of call out is important, but it wouldn't even reach £500 for London.
What you need is picture of door, picture of parts they left.
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Associate
call him back say the other door is broken now too and be ready
Bet they took any evidence with them.
Associate
was the door shut and locked ? sounds like it so a bit of labour for sure, i have changed the locks on front door and patio doors and it was 2 screws and you get a few keys with it too if i remmeber correctly.
Soldato
As someone who offers this service to my clients that is a complete and utter scam.
Call out is fine.
Labour to open the door is OTT, it does depend on what locks he had to defeat but that should be half that tops.
Without knowing the door and locks I can't say what it should cost but it looks like its a multipoint locking door which will likely have a euro cylinder. Now if the multipoint mechanism needed replacing then depending on the system they can range from £100 to £400+ but no way a locksmith carries the expensive end of the spectrum as that tends to be for either rare as only one company makes it or high security. Euro profile cylinders are not that expensive to trade but after mark up you should expect to be looking at £50-80.
Fitting and adjustment is OTT as well.
The fact they aren't VAT registered raises a red flag for me as well.
Sorry you dad got scammed. Hope he can get some of that back.
Call out is fine.
Labour to open the door is OTT, it does depend on what locks he had to defeat but that should be half that tops.
Without knowing the door and locks I can't say what it should cost but it looks like its a multipoint locking door which will likely have a euro cylinder. Now if the multipoint mechanism needed replacing then depending on the system they can range from £100 to £400+ but no way a locksmith carries the expensive end of the spectrum as that tends to be for either rare as only one company makes it or high security. Euro profile cylinders are not that expensive to trade but after mark up you should expect to be looking at £50-80.
Fitting and adjustment is OTT as well.
The fact they aren't VAT registered raises a red flag for me as well.
Sorry you dad got scammed. Hope he can get some of that back.
First thing I'd do is phone around a few other locksmiths to get an idea of what they'd charge to do the same job, my guess is they'll all quote you less but it should give you an idea of what it should have cost. I'd then phone the locksmiths who did the job, tell them who you are and that you think they've overcharged because other locksmiths quoted you between X & Y, see what they say the 'reasons' are for why they've charged £xxx more than what other smiths have quoted.Does £1456 sound too much for replacing a lock that had a front door key snapped in it? I think my elderly father was scammed.
From there I'd say it depends on how they deal with your query and the 'reasons' they give.
E: To be clear if that's a bog standard locksmith call out there's little question over whether they've taken advantage of your old man, however you really need to give them the chance to explain themselves and/or understand what, how, why they arrived at that price before you can challenge them.
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Associate
shocking feel for the old man, get it sorted.
Soldato
- Joined
- 6 Sep 2016
- Posts
- 9,528
We paid £75 for new lock, emergency call out, and that was on a bank holiday
Soldato
You can't, unless you are on his account as someone they can speak to - best you can hope for, is to contact them whilst with him; explain his difficulties, and maybe they will be willing to deal with you after getting his approval.
My FIL isn't tech savvy and had his ebay account stolen, and they initially refused to deal with me, but after we called them and he did the initial bits, I was then able to take the lead and get things sorted.
Worth a punt, along with the great advice others have given - hopefully your old man won't give up hope, as standing his ground could save someone else this misfortune