mhole wrote:It's really not uncommon for people to call two locksmiths to the same job, at the same time. Most *will* think twice if you specify a cancellation charge. Sadly, many people get let down by locksmiths who fail to show up, or repeatedly stretch their arrival window. People who have been bitten a few times this way may opt to ensure that at least one guy will actually show up.
See here is the rub... Call a small lock shop at the wrong time of day and they are engaged with other appointments which were made in advance... Should one customer who called ahead and made a scheduled appointment be abandoned just because one with an "emergency" calls in ? LOL. no...
If a lock shop has enough people on staff to send someone out within 20 or 30 minutes of your call, that business is either the king of the heap in your area OR isn't making all that much money and might not be around all that much longer... Response time also can depend on what type of call you have, if you need a safe serviced, not every tech is going to be able to do that, need a key made and programmed for a car when they are all lost, the shop might have 4 vans but only 2 with the equipment needed to provide that service and those vans might be busy elsewhere...
It is not possible to give a precise arrival time in minutes to a customer who calls in, not even for UPS who carefully plan out the order of the stops on each route on a daily basis using very fancy software -- traffic is a huge variable depending on how far the locksmith is coming from and with smaller one-man-band type operations they might be in the middle of another job... Employees are also required by law to be given a lunch break, so sometimes you might have to wait for that as well...
Most customers can not afford NOR are they willing to pay for "drop everything and come immediately to my service call" type responses which may involve a manager who doesn't do service calls full-time dealing with them... Those calls are often something that clients with contracts negotiate and pay for even on months when they do not utilize that ability and have regular site visits/inspections/maintenance done on their locks with the understanding that such work is done on downtime or slow periods in exchange for the super duper lock ambulance emergency response when absolutely necessary...
Having locks repaired or opened is not like calling for pizza, they will still be there an hour later -- if you have an actual emergency and need to get back inside right now, and can't wait an hour, then call 9-1-1 and sign a damage liability waiver (since there is no fire or medical emergency in progress) and many fire departments are willing in an actual valid emergency to break a window or destroy a door for you to gain entry... Otherwise you have to wait your turn and your call is dealt with in the order it is received, first called, first served...
~~ Evan
