Well we are still keeping busy here at Locks in the City. Though we have had a few rarely thrown in jobs that is not always common. Firstly are key cutting service has gone quite mental. We have been travelling locally more so to estate agents. The agents seem to like the way I operate as going to them they can just hand me the keys i’ll go off to the van and cut them, then walk straight back in to their office. People find it hard to believe that I can do this on the van until they see the set up and they become mesmerised.

We received a call late one evening from a family who had been out for the day and upon their arrival home they realised they did not have their keys. They rang me and asked how much I gave them my quote and then they start to barter. Now I don’t mind occasionally dropping a few pound here and their to help out. Though these people wanted me to accept £20 and became quite aggressive about it. Sometimes you just have to say no and tell people to look elsewhere. It is quite insulting when people do this as its taken years to train and become knowledgable and experienced. Plus the tools and stock is a huge investment of many thousands of pounds. it’s never nice to loose local work but sometimes you have to.

After half hour or so I got a call back and its the same people from earlier. This time they are ver calm and collected and polite. They ask if I am local. I inform I am and they ask if I can attend. I inform yes but only at the agreed price. Straight away they agree and no bartering this time. I head over and find the family extremely happy to see me. All very polite. They show me the door, one guy asks please can you open the door without changing the locks as the landlord won’t pay for new ones. I inform that I can open without damage. I set about opening the door non-destructively and within a few minutes it was open to a few cheers. The family pay me and are ever so thankful. They ask for some of my cards and say they will let there friends and family know of me if they ever need a locksmith. It came to light the people they rang after me quoted inflated prices one was 3 times more expensive. He also told them he would be around 40 -60 mins but maybe longer due to traffic.

I asked why they chose to ring back the guy said I was the only one who was polite and gave exact prices. I never said maybe or it could be more. I told them I could open the door with out damage the others couldn’t guarantee this. Plus I was local. In the time they took to get back to me they could of actually been back in their property. Since doing this job i was given another job by this family of changing some locks on their balcony doors.

We were called by another agent new to us. They asked if I could open a property for them that they were selling. They had got a building company to carry out some works but there had been confusion over keys. Either way they were lost. I inform that i can go, so we agree a time and I head over. I find it to be a new upvc door with a relatively new lock fitted already. I meet the agent and it turns out the builders had replaced all doors and windows. Though the keys had vanished. I open the front door relatively quickly, change the cylinder for the right size. As the one fitted was 20mm to long. This is a security issue. I then find a back door that i opened, but it was poorly fitted and needed adjusting. It seemed everything was slap dashed. The agent was happy and since have continued to use me.

I had a neighbour knock at my door one night. They had taken their car in to be serviced and they would be getting the car back the next day. Problem being their keys had been left in the car and the garage was shut. There spares were inside the house. I said I’d come round and open up. I go look at the door and find it has a mul-t-lock garrison cylinder. These are a high end cylinder, the husband was quite worried as it had cost him a fair few quid a couple years ago to have the locks changed. I set to work with my trusty picks specially made for this type of lock. After about 10-15 mins the lock partially rotates. This is a good sign as it means its close to opening. I find the binding pin and pick it and the cylinder is open the couple are in and relieved. They get their spares and try them and as expected all works fine. The gentleman is flabbergasted as he really believed the lock would have to drilled open.