Locksmith quoted £50 and charged £351.60

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I got locked out of my new flat today. My autistic son opened the door and made a run for it, I ran out after him and the door shut behind me.

My landlady couldn't find her copy of the key (she has dozens of keys due to her actual job - but she has some pretty serious health problems, so I felt terrible bothering her with it in the first place)

I looked online and found a locksmith company that will come and pick the lock and let you in for £50. Happy days. No pressure on my landlady. She was happy for me to proceed and said ofc the £50 would come off my rent.

Locksmith came and had a 2 second fiddle with the lock and said he couldn't pick that type of lock (standard yale) so he'd have to drill through and replace the lock otherwise I wasn't getting in the flat. I had my 3 kids with me.

He wanted payment there and then and said I'd have to recoup the £ from my Landlady. I asked for the total £351.60

I had no choice but to pay it.

I feel a bit conned. Is this the norm? To advertise a service at a reasonable price and then turn up and quadruple it?

My bank account is pretty much empty now and whilst I'm sure my Landlady will get the money to me somehow, she has said as much and she's a really nice person so wouldn't not help me, it all feels pretty shit.

I realise I missed pages. OP was only overcharged by £149+ VAT, she still has to pay for labour and the new lock, so it’s not likely the bank will refund. They won’t refund just because you were overcharged for 1 item on an invoice, the other two charges were fair and will stand.

Why do people always try and find holes in the op story? Obviously he did this after the lock was replaced and she got back inside

Looking for plot holes are you 😅. I thought it was obvious he did that after he had opened the door

FYI they locksmiths are all registered to the same address -
google their websites they are called things like 24 hr emergency locksmith.
here's an article about the scam:
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/beatthescammers/article-9291149/amp/The-cowboy-locksmiths-Families-targeted-new-breed-rogue-trader.html

See if you can find out with the association of locksmiths of the locksmith you used is a registered trader. If not you have more chance of proving he's a scammer and getting your money back

He drilled the lock off. This opened the door to the flat. He put a new lock on. I asked what the price was (for the second time - he only gave it once finished) and he told me £351

I was getting upset as I didn't have that much money to throw away and I'd been bait and switched.

He asked if I had the key to the (now broken) lock. It was on the shoe storage cupboard in the hallway. I said yes I have it's here and handed it to him. He put that key into the now drilled off lock and snapped it off in the barrel.

..that was him supposedly helping me, he explained that if we said the key had snapped in the lock then my landlady could claim on her insurance for the lock being faulty and nobody would be out of pocket.

The guy is a full blown fraudster.

The whole thing is fucking barmy honestly.

Which charges did you think were fair? Have you read the pages and pages of reviews she linked with pensioners being charged over 1k for a lock change because they couldnt read the card machine properly or the person they threatened with a drill when they tried to refuse to pay?

Those reviews are shocking. Make sure you add your own too

What a total con artist

I think that sounds expensive for one new lock

It might be, but she is not, I think, supposed to provide it for you whenever you request. What if she was not in town, what you would have done?

Hi @Advicerequest That's them! 24 hour locksmiths, they're Romanian.

They also trade under the name Mylondonlocksmiths which is the company name on the invoice. I thought it was odd that the name on the invoice didn't match the name on the website (24hour locksmiths) so I googled the company name Mylondonlocksmiths and that took me to the dozens and dozens of pages of negative reviews left by customers who had been scammed by them too.

Coincidentally, like you, I also have ADHD. It's unfortunate I don't have much experience of losing keys (but ask me about bank cards and mobile phones!)

I'm really pleased you managed not to get swindled by them. I didn't realise they'd already been investigated! How on earth are they still in business?

It's not the LL's responsibility to hold a spare key incase you get locked out, it's for emergencies relating to the property. What would you do if you owned your own property, expect the mortgage lender to hold a key? Also not the LL's responsibility to pay for something that is your mistake, just because you didn't take out insurance.

You sound quite immature OP and a bit naive, you've put the name and photograph of a crock locksmith on a public forum. This guy has form for scamming vulnerable elderly women and threatening violence. Someone will recognise him and tell him. He knows where you live and he knows how to open locks, you've told us all you live alone with 3 children.

You need to ask for your thread to be removed before you put yourself in danger.

@S0upertrooper There is no need to be so unpleasant when you post. Was that your intention?

The charges on the invoice - £95 for a lock and £49 for Labour is fair enough regardless of nature of the firm.

If OP had been charged and no-one showed up that’s easy enough to dispute the transaction.

What a nasty person you are to be making snipes like that at somebody in my position. Shame on you. Do better.

I really hope you get your money back OP!

Would also add, I've had a locksmith round to change the locks on my house when I moved in, and he charged about £120 for front and back. He also gave me the barrels and showed me how to swap them so if I wanted to change them again, I could just buy the part and do it myself.

This is a sad story.

You have been scammed. They saw you were vulnerable and that you didn’t insist on a price before the lock was drilled, so went ahead and ripped you off. Perhaps you being upset, made them feel bad and so they told you to tell LL to blame it on broken key and faulty lock…..that’s scamming the insurers. They are scammers anyway you look at it.

The question is who pays really isn’t it. As a LL who couldn’t provide a spare key, I’d have been happy to pay £50 for the break-in, but reluctant to cover the cost of a tenant falling for a scam.

I really hope that the bank will be able to help and reimburse, or following this up with trading standards might get OP the money back. If it doesn’t, it’s possible the LL will cover the full cost….but I don’t think they are obliged to do that, and don’t really think anyone can make a good case for why they should be paying that £351 or whatever it was. What if the scammer had charged £1000 or £5000….would anyone expect the LL to pay that amount or a limitless amount?

Sadly, OP might be out of pocket over this. We all really hope she can get the money back by the bank or some other organisation helping….but scammers do cost those who get scammed money.

I think if I were this LL, I’d be telling OP that I’d provide £50 as agreed. I’m not sure I’d be picking up the whole tab. No doubt some people will see that as scummy LL behaviour, but unfortunately it was OP who was scammed and there’s no real reason why another individual should bear the cost.

But I agree, the scammer is a bastard and hope he and his outfit get caught and punished severely. It’s a lesson to us all to be on our guard isn’t it. Hope you get your money OP - horrible thing to happen to you.

I just checked and it’s the same ‘company’ my MIL used. He actually charged her £566 (inc VAT).
£189 for the lock and 5 keys
£189 to drill out the old lock
£49 lock change labour
£45 call out fee
£94 VAT.

They should be stopped. She wouldn’t let us complain to trading standards though.

But that would be assuming that the locksmith was being honest that the lock needed to be changed, the reviews show that this is the tactic they use on every customer by lying and saying it cannot be picked after initially quoting for picking it so I dont agree that any of the charges are fair.

I feel really sorry for you - I had a similar scenario a couple of years ago where an "emergency electrician" ripped me off for hundreds of pounds when I was desperate... :(

I will never trust the top results that Google provides ever again!

I am probably being naive but is there any way that you can contact Google / other search engines to ensure that company aren't popping up at the top of their search results again using the evidence in this thread? That would do so much more damage to their business than anything else you could do.

Sorry again that this happened to you. :(

Surely we can agree that OP has been scammed. The company are doing it constantly.

The real question is about whether it is reasonable to ask/expect/allow the LL to pay the cost of the scam.

I don’t think it is reasonable. That scam that OP fell for could have been £1k. It could have been £2k or £5k. Would anyone be suggesting the LL should pay?

We are all sorry for OP. We are all angry with the scammers. However, when you get scammed, you often do bear the cost yourself….it can’t always be passed onto someone else. The LL is not responsible for a limitless bill.

You've been scammed! You can get your bank to reclaim the money. My son had an incident with plumbing leak few months ago, called someone out who made a large hole in his wall, told him he was going to get some copper pipe, got him to sign a piece of paper as he left and never came back. £200 went out of his bank account but his bank claimed it back when he contacted them. He got another plumber in on recommendation from someone I knew who cured the problem for £60.

@WombatChocolate The OP isn't asking if the landlord should pay. The landlord offered and the OP hasn't realised that was unusual.

This locksmith scam operates worldwide. Here's an article from the New York Times which shows how they manipulate Google Maps results so that they look legitimate (and also local), but aren't: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/31/business/fake-online-locksmiths-may-be-out-to-pick-your-pocket-too.html.

There's also a good episode of the (now defunct) podcast Reply All about this, which is even called 'Very Quickly To the Drill': https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/o2ho87

Sorry this has happened to you OP