Help! London mumsnetters

[CoolHonda]

My young adult DD has just moved into her first flat in London. She is a long way from us and is struggling a bit. She came home and found her doorlock had jammed and called out an emergency locksmith. The locksmith was there for 20 minutes. Burst the door open (has left it damaged) but did replace the lock. She was charged £600!
This is a LOT more than she would have been charged here in her home town. Is this acceptable for London prices? Are we naive being shocked by this price? Can any of you kind London mumsnetters advise if this is within the price range? Thank you

Christ, I’m in Ealing and paid £150 for an emergency locksmith call out. That seems astronomical.

They must have written a breakdown of costs? Call out charge, hourly rate, lock replacement and VAT?

It seems very high. Has she already paid it? Did she ask prices while calling out. What time was it? If night time I would expect it to be expensive. Can she get some back from insurance? I assume she owns, otherwise she would have done it through the landlord/ letting agency.

Erm, it is what I would expect to be charged if I called them out in the middle of the night at no notice and if they brought a whole new lock if I didn't check the cost first
Ringing the first emergency locksmith number on Google and not checking the cost first will always result in being ripped off sadly. Ditto plumbers etc.

The locksmith website I used did actually make it clear that you should ask them for a coat breakdown when calling, not when they arrive/you come to pay.

Not unheard of, sadly. Locksmiths are very expensive, and unfortunately many have a reputation for ripping customers off.

She should ask for a breakdown of costs and if it’s excessive, challenge them.

I saw a thread on our local NextDokr recently of somebody complaining of similar, and there were quickly upwards of 100 posts saying similar about that firm. Chances are their business will have dropped off.

*cost breakdown

Thanks Smidgen and Diana. Not night-time, it was about 9am this morning. She was panicking and just paid it. She is not very worldly wise and just paid it on his portable card reader.
She owns so may be able to claim on insurance but I wanted to find out the going rate before taking it further.
I think she has fallen into the clutches of a cowboy who saw a rather naive girl with a country accent and just went for the full rip-off.

I have never paid more than £150ish for this kind of thing

Sadly, I think she’s been ripped off and needs to learn some street smarts fast. I say that as a country girl who moved here ten years ago!

Burst the door open?!

So he had to fix the door?

£150 cost me. But he didn’t burst through the door. He’s a locksmith.

My dd’s boyfriend was a locksmith and he said this is extortionate. He would have charged £150 max.

£150 def roughly the going rate. But agree with PP, why would he have had to bust the door? The whole point is to get through the lock, as he’s a locksmith.

I’ve had emergency locksmith service in west London and he replaced the whole lock on our back door. It was £225. At night I would expect a service charge of up to £50 — £75 at a push. Assuming it was not a Banham or similarly expensive lock I think your daughter was charged an astronomical price.

Hmm good point if it was a Banham.

We live in London and have a Banham door and speaking from experience the initial weekend call out charge is £130. And they would not damage the door in process! Sorry but it sounds like she got scammed, if the guy was actually a locksmith then why would he need to bust the door to gain entry?

The first thing the locksmith asked me was ‘it’s not a banham is it?’ So I just assumed more expensive but I guess he was probably just wanted to know what he had to fix. She was really ripped off.

I've had emergency locksmith and charged me £180 at 1am. That is extortionate op. I wish she got a quote when calling one. There's so many about where she could eliminate them by high to low price.

Thanks everyone. She is in tears down the phone. We are going to go to trading standards and blast their rip-off business over social media.
I will update if anything further transpires.

I had to call an emergency locksmith in central London in the middle of the night a few months ago.
He replaced the whole lock and handle (on the upvc door) and charged me £230, the 200 was the night time call out fee and the £30 was for the lock/handle.

She should have called several places and asked for the price before arranging it, not sure why she didn’t do that

I locked myself out. It cost £70 - the guy drilled out the old lock and replaced it. It was an emergency appointment, but tbf he didn't turn up for 2 hours.

This happened to me in Paris. It was about 11am and a 30 second walk for them but they charged £600 (or euro, can't remember) to replace the lock.

The only reason I went along with it is I had shat myself and was desperate to get inside.

Did she get a receipt stating what the £600 was for? If not, I’d get your daughter to go back and ask for one.
I’d also get her to take up the issue of the damaged door, as that sounds crap service for a locksmith, especially one charging £600.

She’s been ripped off. We called a Banham emergency locksmith out a couple of months ago. He was there within the hour and had to do some minor damage to the door to get in but he fixed it before he left. Total cost was £130.