A flood of complaints to the Better Business Bureau has revealed that more than a few locksmith companies, using methods of 411 monopolization, Yellow Pages advertisement manipulation, and other sophisticated methods, are bilking consumers for a fortune throughout the country. Aside from significant overcharges to the consumer, and charges for unnecessary services, failure to respond to complaints, and the unbridled use of intimidation tactics have all contributed to a scandal reaching far and wide into this great country.
Just yesterday, I received a call from a woman who was mistaken in her hope that I might be involved with a company called “Dependable Locksmith”. Apparently, the ad to which she had responded indicated that the phony company was located at 1801 North University Drive in Plantation, Florida, and the guy with whom she had spoken had quoted her $45 to unlock her husband’s car. And the reason she called me about it was because I had apparently been listed in either the Yellow Book or Super Pages or somewhere as being located at 1802 North University Drive (an address I had vacated years ago). What she didn’t know at the time was that 1801 North University Drive is a closed down Fuddrucker’s restaurant. She also didn’t know that her $45 service charge would explode to $159 for some inexplicable reason once the car was opened.
She told me that the guy who opened the car was very intimidating and very large, and that she was too frightened not pay him. I responded by telling her that many locksmiths (why do I even bother calling them locksmiths?) in the Yellow Pages are not locksmiths at all, but rather complete and total frauds who exploit the vulnerable situation of consumers who are locked out of their houses or cars. I further informed her that many of them may not be locksmith companies at all, but rather criminal rings which take advantage of consumers’ misfortune. And while ‘phony’ out-of-state companies currently find themselves under the investigative microscope, you need to know that THERE ARE AT LEAST TWO LICENSED, LOCAL COMPANIES WHO ARE ENABLING THESE SCAMMERS TO DO THEIR DIRTY WORK (who says crime doesn’t pay?).
Having heard this sad tale before, I then suggested to her that she might not only help herself, but many others as well, by reporting this incident to the advertising arm of the Yellow Pages, or to whomever she had turned to in order to obtain the listing.
There are over 114 Better Business Bureaus serving the US nationwide and, according to their records, complaints about locksmith services from 2005 to 2006 increased over 75%, and they have continued to come in steadily. ’Dependable Locksmith’ appears to be particularly disreputable, and operates under more than a dozen different names. This company (and others) poses as a local locksmith in cities around the country, using local phone numbers and phony local addresses. Consumers who call them might think they’re dealing with a local locksmith, but are actually connected to call centers located in the Bronx in New York City. Other aliases used by this company include Superb Solutions, USA Total Security, Locksmith 24 Hour Inc., SOS Locksmith, Priceline Locksmith, and many variations on these names.
Other phony locksmith contractors are Basad, Inc. (a ring of Middle-Eastern scammers, I’ve been told), with very thick foreign accents to match). This company operates under almost 50 names nationwide, such as A1 Locksmith Service, A1- 24 Hour Locksmith, A1 Lock and Key, AAA Locksmith 24-Hour, Liberty Locksmith, and dozens of permutations of these names. They also work in a fashion very similar to that of ‘Dependable Locksmith’, in that they also pose as local locksmiths, running full-page Yellow Pages ads and/or multiple single-line listings connected to phony business addresses. Even though the addresses appear to be local ,they either belong to other established businesses in the local area, or are (not surprisingly) non-existent.
As a licensed, insured, bonded, legal and local locksmith, I owe it to myself and to you, my readers, to pound away at this topic until you understand it fully. Because as long as these phony companies have free rein to do whatever they like, every one of us will be vulnerable to their abhorrent practices.
If you have been victimized by one of these companies, make sure you get in touch immediately with the company or companies which published their ad. Make sure you file a formal complaint, and demand a written response . Call your Better Business Bureau and complain. Call the Florida Division of Corporations and complain. Tell your sisters and brothers and mothers and fathers and neighbors to complain. Because if we don’t cut the heads off these snakes now, we may all soon expect to see these companies posing as floral delivery services, carpet cleaning services, pressure cleaning services, and God only knows what else.
There you go. I’ve said my piece and counted to three. Have a great day, ’cause I know I’m gonna.
Valerie
When stories first began to crop up regarding bump key victimization, it opened up the locksmith industry to a great deal of public scrutiny. Many people wondered why they’d never been told exactly how vulnerable their homes and businesses actually were. Their locksmiths certainly should have known, right? Well, at this point it doesn’t really matter who knew what when–the challenge for us at this point in time is to overcome the tendency to underestimate the threat to life, limb and property. Just as people everywhere got all fired up and united after 9/11, only to drop the ball and to slip back into complacency further on down the road, once the TV stations slow down with reports on key bumping and it’s victims, the urgency of the potential threat will subside, and many of us will slide back into a blissful state of ignorance. And I’m just like you– give me a little bit of time to rationalize, give me a minute to come up with some half-baked reason to ignore my instincts, and I guarantee you that the thing on my mind right now will slip my mind later. It’s a FACT!
Five years ago, when I first started complaining to my Yellow Pages rep regarding an unexplainable drop in business calls, I was told that it could be that my new ad was less effective than the one I had recently retired. Although I had always gone to great lengths to see that my ads were informative and clearly formatted, I accepted the possibility that I had missed the mark, and resolved to begin tracking my new calls much more carefully from that point on. As luck would have it, my ordeal was just beginning, and I saw a troublesome pattern beginning to develop.