Locksmith

[PickledMuffin]

sorry, boring topic but is there a regulator when it comes to a locksmith?

Got locked out today, simple Yale lock. Rang up a locksmith which i found on Google. Typed in Locksmith in local
area. Found one, had seemingly good reviews. So I called them, asked for a quote was advised circa £50 but the locksmith will give a price when they arrive in about half an hour. locksmith arrives 50 mins later. says that they have to drill the lock and the price will be about 200! i had to pay as i needed to get in because of work.

is there a regulator for this service? i feel robbed 😔

There was a whole thread on this a while back. It’s a known scam. The scammers manipulate the Google results. Will see if I can find it. You should go to the police.

Or Trading Standards.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4797915-locksmith-quoted-ps50-and-charged-ps35160

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/beatthescammers/article-8961837/Locksmith-warning-Watch-rogue-companies-charging-fortune.html

It's not a police matter. They gave a low quote and said the locksmith would give an exact price. He did. Yes it was massively inflated compared to the original quote but he said how much it was before he did the job.

Report to Trading Standards but its not a police matter

Maybe read the thread I posted. It’s fraud.

The fraud is because the locks do not need to be drilled out at all.

The police will tell you its a civil matter

Used to work for Dynolocks. Would recommend as you have regulation and comeback. And all franchisees are very, very well trained.
BUT. The biggest complaint we ever had was (along the lines of) 'he took 5 minutes and it cost ££!!!'

What you are paying for is getting back into your home...

some take minutes, others like to put on a show to justify cost. I'm sorry you met the latter.

it's pretty easy to get into lots of yale locks with a bit of plastic. Youtube has lots of tips

thank you so much for the replies and the link to the previous post. i am going to report the person who came to HRMC for the VAT charged - he isn't VAT registered. and the company i booked it through to trading standards.

does the lock have a night catch?

if yes and it's locked on that then drilling (and a new lock obviously) is the only option. and that drives up the cost unfortunately.

if that's not the case I agree with the others that the price charged is too much. and anyway, you should have received confirmation of the price 'before' the locksmith proceeded.

Hi. nope, just a standard Yale lock.