The Locksmith
Locksmith Charley calls in from Mike's Market in Cookeville, TN to join Andrew and Andrew of Andrews Lock and Key for this edition of The Locksmith Show. Charley is on a journey traveling across the United States after picking up a new locksmith vehicle in Massachusetts and has been making his way back networking with other locksmiths on his way. Charley decided to hold out on explaining too many details about his new locksmith vehicle until it has the vehicle wrapping for Locksmith Charley and is in a displayable condition.
The locksmiths talk about their YouTube video of catching an unscrupulous locksmith whose company quoted $43 over the phone to unlock a vehicle but once the job was complete ended up invoicing the consumer for over $280. This video was posted a little over a month ago and currently has 64,000 views with a lot of fun comments of some people who love us and some people who hate us. They believe that the dislikes are mainly coming from the scammers or people who don't exactly understand what the principle of the video was. Andrew, the owner of Andrews Lock and Key clarifies some things he said in the video and talks about how he received a phone call from who said to be the unscrupulous locksmiths dad saying that there was a privacy concern. The locksmiths talk about the laws in Arizona that make it legal to record anything in public to a certain extent but how YouTube has a Privacy Policy that says federal, state, and local law is trumped by YouTube's guideline. Andrew did decide to blur out the license plate of the vehicle for the so-called locksmith that arrived out of respect because the intention isn't to try to hurt anybody but to inform the consumer on how these guys operate and what to look out for.
Charley mentions how the Attorney General office isn't doing anything in regards to this issue, and how when the consumer gets scammed they immediately take to Google, Yelp, or whatever social media site to complain instead of taking the proper measures to build a paper trail report of what these scamming locksmiths are doing. They discuss how if the guy would have called there is a possibility that Andrew may have offered him a job or at least helped him out of the situation he was in with the scammers. The principle of the video being made that the locksmiths hope to push to the consumer is that the company the guy called quoted him $43 over the phone and then added an additional $240 for security equipment and liability issues because that is what he is trained to do.
They reiterate the importance of "BUYER BEWARE" and making sure that you do your research before hiring anyone to complete a professional service job for you. There was a story out of San Antonio with a girl named Crystal who locked her keys in her car late one Friday night and took to the locksmiths favorite place, Google. She was looking for a cheap service and found an ad saying $10 service call, but once it was all said and done, the total was $210. Always be weary when you call a locksmith company and the dispatch service or locksmith doesn't give you an exact price on what the service will cost.
Happy Memorial Day weekend to everybody and please remember to pay your respect to the people who sacrificed their lives to give us the freedom we have today!