Holiday Locksmith Scam Alert : Notes from the Trenches (The "Ask the Locksmith" Blog!)

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Holiday Locksmith Scam Alert

In this Holiday Season, scammers of all stripes are out in force. There is far more than one scam outfit in locksmithing... Yes, the vast majority belong to the group that just got busted in Florida and New York, but the nationwide & worldwide business belonging to the bad guys is so carefully split into pieces, that the bulk of the scam outfit continues to operate as before.

Soooooooo -- Bill & I here at San Diego Lock & Safe recommends that every homeowner and business owner, as well as military procurement/facilities personnel and commercial facilities personnel in Southern California, take a couple minutes out of their busy day and watch these two special investigations reports. The first is a Portland news report, but has even better information than the ABC News one. The second is an ABC News Special Investigations segment about phony locksmiths and scam locksmiths. Both are older reports, from 2008, but gives good information, and some good warning signs to watch for.

It'll take a few minutes, but it'll be time well spent. This investigation gives some good tips on avoiding being ripped-off, how to save yourself hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in unnecessary charges. Please also note, that if (when) a scammer locksmith gets verbally violent or intimidating with you that all you need to do to get rid of them is to call the police. They'll insist they'll wait for them and make their case, but they will not. They can't afford to be caught with burglary tools in the trunk of their car. Stand up to them, ask for their locksmith license and their matching drivers license (in the SAME name!) and if they are baiting and switching you, do NOT pay them.

ABC News:

Cheers & Happy Holidays to all!

kim

technorati tags: locksmith, locksmith scams

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What's it all about?

About Us

Hi! We're Bill & Kim Stagg, the proprietors of San Diego Lock & Safe™, a local San Diego Locksmith, licensed, bonded, and insured for your security. We're both native San Diegans, tho' Bill cheated a bit, having become a native within a month or so after birth, but we cut him some slack on that. ;)

In this day and age of literally thousands of scammer locksmiths drowning the search engines and phone books, pretending to be local while dispatching from New York or Florida, unlicensed (and often threatening) rip off artists, and general mayhem in the industry, we thought we'd offer a few of our own bona fides:

We both attended Sequoia Elementary, where Bill first asked Kim to "go steady" in 5th grade. Bill attended Hale Junior High, while Kim attended Einstein Junior High, and we both attended Madison Senior High School, Class of 1980. We currently live in the East County, though we grew up in and around Crystal Pier in Pacific Beach, where Bill lived for a time as a child, and where Kim's Grandparents lived most of their lives -- A few San Diego moments: Class field trips to Belmont Park, 6th grade camp at Palomar or Cuyamaca, Drive-In movies at the TU-VU, saw a concert or 30 at the San Diego Sports Arena, watched the Chargers play in Jack Murphy Stadium ("The Murph"), and we STILL call the San Diego County Fair the "Del Mar Fair!"

You may wonder what this all bears on. As locksmiths, and as a company, we believe above all things in "Courtesy, Integrity, Timeliness, Ethics™." Every decision we make, every explanation we give a customer, every job we do, is governed by this creed. We truly believe that it is of utter importance to be as transparent as possible in all that we do, to counter what is mentioned in the first paragraph.

The old locksmith credo of "Security through Obscurity" is not only a bad way to do business, but it reflects poorly on the locksmith practicing it. Customers who ask questions on the "how's" and "why's" deserve honest, ethical, answers, in a format they can understand. Most importantly, if they expect a local, licensed (per the law), insured, bonded, locksmith company, they should get one.

Courtesy, Integrity, Timeliness, Ethics™