NIGHTMARE LOCKSMITH

[halfdoctor]

Hi all! I am panicking hugely, please help me with sharing your thoughts.

I am currently living alone, and have locked myself out today. Was in a rush so I called the first emergency locksmith I could find on google. They claimed that the prices would be 45-50 and came very fast.

HOWEVER when he arrived, he drilled into the flat and when he changed the Rim Cylinder (which is £20 on everywhere) he claimed that it is £300 and the total would be 540 with the work done. He did not change anything else (like the lock mechanism) like he claimed and tried to push me to pay. However I told him to take whatever he put on there and leave - and still paid the amount for the work they did minus the 300 he said (I paid £130) so that he would leave because he did not. It was a huge argument and got quite heated (proud of myself for not crying).

however I realised that the guy left the keys of the new lock he changed… I am genuinely scared, I searched their company name on the receipt up and apparently they were scammers (can share the name if anyone wants to know). I am scared that they will come back/try to hurt me for the fuss I did using the keys as a reason, and since they also saw that I live in a studio as a woman by myself that makes me want to cry and throw up. Please advise me anything… thanks a lot

Tonight stick some furniture against the door. Tomorrow find a reputable locksmith to change the locks again. Your insurance may cover it.

That’s awful.Yes share the name.

Same happened to my DD. She had to pay £800!!! It was a bank holiday, her flat mate was abroad, her landlords were closed, and the local shop was closed. First one in the book too. She had to get a local locksmith to recharge all the locks the next day for £200. They confirmed the locks wouldn't have needed drilling, just picking, and that the new locks were poor quality. They also knew of this company, and it is a well known scam company.

DD tried to get money back on credit card, contacted local council and trading standards. They all knew the company was fraudulent. She had a file of evidence. 6 months later the cc company released the payment, so she lost the lot. She was pretty traumatised by it all.

Final irony, her keys were handed in later that evening to the local park office.......

If they have to drill the lock then they are clueless, its not needed to open a lock up !!!

Happened to me, 8pm on the day of completion on a new house, movers were arriving crack of dawn the next day and I had the cat in a carrier with me. i had no idea this was a ‘thing’, googled and phoned someone- paid £900 and he stole my headphones as well.

They won’t come back, it’s not worth the risk to them- they’ve no idea you haven’t decided to get your gangster dad to keep a watch out and they’re after easy money, not a fight.

As a pp said, get an actual locksmith in tomorrow, but that’s just for peace of mind. When I did get the real locksmith in, he said if you lock yourself out after hours, don’t even consider calling a locksmith, just go to a hotel and it’ll be cheaper.

It is this website:

https://locallocksmiths24-7.co.uk/local-locksmith-near-me/?gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIytuts83lhQMVz45QBh0HEwVkEAAYASAAEgJsWfD_BwE

however their name on the bill he left me is - uk top notch services ltd
literally the phone number changes every few hours… looked trustable in the panicked second unfortunately

Will do that - thanks for the advice! Honestly I hate how many people had to learn about these kind of scams in the hardest ways

It's quite easy to change the barrel of most locks yourself (if you can get the door open) - worth looking on YouTube and if yours is an easy one to do yourself, you can buy what you need in a DIY store (I've done this several times on a property I rent out, and saved probably about a grand on locksmiths!) Just trying to save you from getting another locksmith out.

I'd recommend giving a spare key to someone you trust. I quite often go out for walks without phone or credit cards so would be completely stuck otherwise. I also have acquired a key safe, but those can jam up and only an option if you have somewhere reasonably out of sight to put it (IMO).

Nothing really to add about the situation but going forward you might want to consider something along the lines of the Yale smart locks. You can set these to work with phones, key codes and so on and completely therefore negate the whole forgot my keys problem. We are both useless at not locking ourselves out and have spare keys with a neighbour, but I shall be installing one of these in the next few months as I’m bored of knocking on the neighbours door and them being out for the day…

When I was locked out. The locksmith broke the door open with a metal paddle. It scared me how easy it was.

Ironically, similiar incident posted on our local fb group this morning....paid £650 to drill open lock etc.....opinion is that they pay extra to be first in the listings etc so get the first calls as people are in a panic. We have a spare key buried in front garden in a jam jar under a plant so its hidden well.

Not that this is helpful in the OPs situation, but would second the recommendations of having a second key (for a different door if possible) hidden somewhere else in the garden, with a friend etc. We went on holiday having arranged a pet sitter to come in 2x a day, using a key left in the keysafe. On their first visit - the key broke off in the door. We had to come home from holiday (fortunately in the UK) as there was no other key for any other access door into the house anywhere else with anyone else, and we were going to be away for 7 days (if we'd only gone away overnight then the cat would have been ok, if quite cross with lack of catering services, but 7 days really wasn't going to be an option).

If we'd been abroad then we'd have had to get an emergency locksmith out, as of course this sort of thing always happened at the weekend / out of hours.

Smart locks are great but never let them run out of battery!

Hi @halfdoctor. I started a thread this week about a similarly horrendous situation with this very same company - just wondered what the eventual outcome for you was?

The company name search on the Companies House register makes interesting reading...

So do the trust pilot reviews which I really wish I'd read first :(.

Happened to me too - I was charged £700.
He was also trying to buy an attractive piece of furniture from me. I have always made sure since, to put my house insurance details on my phone.
I also got ripped off by a roofer - cos he knew where I lived, I was too scared to review him on Trust a Trader etc.

This is a well-documented scam. Sorry you got caught out.

I'm sorry for everybody else it's happened to too :(. I don't understand how they can get away with it.

Hi, after everything happened and I kicked him out I was worried about safety but thankfully nothing happen! I did end up staying quiet until I moved out of the house to report them and leave bad reviews tho if that helps, sorry you had to experience that!

AVOID THIS LOCKSMITH!!!
The site quotes a £29 callout plus expenses but to drill out and replace a Yale-style lock that other Locksmiths would charge £120-200 for (believe me - I've done my homework!) this conning locksmith took £700 off my son!!!

A similar incident happened to me a couple of weeks ago. My father was locked in the house as the front door broke. In a panic I Googled ‘local locksmith near me’ I clicked on the first search. It was an 0330 number. 2 men (not British) arrived within 30 minutes in a normal car. They drilled the door lock, claimed a whole new lock was needed then charged him £1400. Unfortunately I had to leave before this and as he is elderly he paid it. We have passed the matter onto the police as we have them on Ring Doorbell footage. They gave a fake invoice and said it’s ok because he can claim it back on his home insurance. We now can’t even find the website I viewed.

Best plan if possible, especially for changing locks, is to contact a locksmith's shop locally you can actually go into. They should advise you on how to measure the lock (if you want to fit it yourself, and for that Youtube is your friend) and sell you one when you have, or they may have a call-out service. Not anyone off the internet or just by phone.