411: FIND A LOCKSMITH BEFORE YOU NEED ONE (an exercise in good judgment)
Dear reader:
If I had a dollar for every time someone told me what a hard time they had in finding a good locksmith, I’d have enough money to wallpaper my bedroom in hundreds. I’ve had clients tell me that the first company they’d called had sent out a pair of disheveled slobs who either showed up extremely late, or who had improper tools, or who apparently had NO tools, or who had either tripled or quadrupled the original telephone quote, or whatever! What all these clients had in common was the fact that, under stress and at the worst possible time, they had decided to call God- knows- who to come out to their home or business and help them with their dilemma.
As almost everyone in the country should know by now, phony, unlicensed scammers posing as locksmiths have been running rampant throughout our society, charging customers an arm and a leg, cutting themselves extra keys to the customer’s house for later, destroying locks that were otherwise perfectly functional, threatening the more mild-mannered customers with physical harm, and vandalizing the personal property of customers who refused to pay the outrageous fees they were charged. The litany of the scammers’ wrongdoing is a long one, and extremely profitable, to boot.
It won’t be anytime soon before we have rid society of these lowlifes. They’ve tightly wrapped their tentacles around all of the major advertising venues in the nation: online 411, Yellow Pages online, Yellow Book online, Super Pages, etc., and all of these advertising venues have shown little or no interest whatsoever in straightening out the problem. All of which leads to your problem and mine– getting what you need when you need it, and without becoming a rape victim, if possible.
You can cut through a lot of baloney by following the steps I outlined in my free report “5 Dangers in Choosing the Wrong Locksmith (and how to avoid them) listed on this website’s home page. Follow your instincts, and feel free to tell me what you think of what I believe is a very simple solution– finding a reliable, trustworthy locksmith before you need one! If you don’t feel comfortable with a woman locksmith (I’m talking about me, of course), then make as many phone calls as you need to make in order to find a locksmith who answers the phone in a courteous manner (some locksmiths have their wives or girlfriends answer the phone for them because courtesy is not one of their strengths). See if the locksmith answers your questions in a straightforward manner, with minimal side-stepping. Be like a hummingbird– if you land on a flower which leaves a bad taste in your mouth, move onto another flower. My reason for saying so is that, after you’ve sucked on a few lemons, a phone call to me will taste 10 times as sweet. Once you find the right one–
ENTER THAT LOCKSMITH’S NAME AND PHONE NUMBER INTO YOUR CELL PHONE’S SPEED DIAL ! (As much as I hope that name and number will be mine, I’m almost as happy just knowing that you’ve taken the time to reward an actual, legitimate locksmith with your trust). Like all other tradespeople, my greatest hope is that all my potential clients will come to like what they hear from me on the phone and reward me with their patronage. But this, however, isn’t my only wish. I also wish and hope that all others in my trade who work hard to stay ahead of the criminal curve will be able to hang onto their businesses, while enduring the scourge these scammers have inflicted upon them. My hope and wish is that what is good and true will continue to be valued in our society, and that those who prey upon the innocent will get what’s coming to them in spades!!
Good luck to everyone who works hard at living a decent, honest life. And have a great day, too, ’cause I know I’m gonna…
Valerie Tannenbaum, president
A2Z Locksmith, Inc.
copyright 2008, all rights reserved
