Working as a locksmith is a premium service that many people imitate. All too often we hear locksmiths are expensive. Most of the time customers are concerned with the price, which is certainly a valid concern, but there is something else customers should be even more concerned with.
A Locksmith can get called for any number of services; programming a transponder key, rekeying a house, or unlocking a vehicle. Chances are, the customer doesn’t account for the materials, building overhead, insurance costs, and gas charges it takes to be driving around all day operating a legitimate locksmith business.
So when a customer looks in the phone book and sees “A1-AAA-Locksmith” and calls up to ask for a price to unlock their house or car, they will undoubtedly get a quote of about $19-$40. Doesn’t that sound great?! However, when that ‘locksmith’ arrives and uses a drill as the main method of unlocking your house or car, some red flags should be going off in the customers mind. Not to mention the $40 quote turns into a $450 bill! Like momma always said, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Locksmiths all over the country are trying to work collectively to fight these scammers, protect their businesses, as well as the protecting the consumer from being robbed in broad daylight.
A new development in the fight against illegal locksmiths was in the Virginia House of Delegates. Currently, locksmiths in Virginia must be licensed by the DCJS (Department of Criminal Justice). This requires locksmiths to be fingerprinted, have background checks and take locksmith training courses.
The Virginia Attorney General wanted to reclassify locksmiths as Independent Contractors. While this may seem like a minor reclassification, make no mistake it would be a huge error. This would make it even easier for scamming locksmiths to con you out of your hard earned money and make it even harder for all the honest Virginia locksmiths to make a living without spend additional money fighting these locksmiths and more money on legitimate advertising.
At the end of the day its about providing customers with exceptional professional locksmith service. American Lock & Key in Richmond Virginia is a certified member of the Department of Criminal Justice and a member of 1-800-UNLOCKS®.
As always, remember to call 1-800-UNLOCKS® for your local professional locksmith and thank you for reading.
