day in the life of a locksmith

[Squelchtone]

What a roller coaster ride, keep these coming!

Q: is NSP a National Service Provider? Are these the corporate maintenance departments of these retail stores calling you, or did the retail store call someone in a phonebook such as Pop A Lock and they end up calling you for the commercial work? I'm just not sure what an NSP is in this case.

Thanks,
Squelchtone

[Tyler J. Thomas]

What a roller coaster ride, keep these coming!

Q: is NSP a National Service Provider? Are these the corporate maintenance departments of these retail stores calling you, or did the retail store call someone in a phonebook such as Pop A Lock and they end up calling you for the commercial work? I'm just not sure what an NSP is in this case.

Thanks,
Squelchtone

NSP's are companies that have maintenance contracts with companies, usually national chains. They generally outsource these tasks to local contractors, eg. locksmiths. They are notoriously horrible to work with, feature red tape out the wazoo, and are terrible with payments. Some locksmiths refuse to do work for them.

There is a national locksmith chain that is actually working with a few NSPs and basing their franchises on these contracts. Smart business model I guess.

I've had good and bad experiences with them. The rep I worked with for the NSP that had the Home Depot contract was awesome. No fuss, get it done, you'll get paid. On the other hand we had an NSP for multiple chains that required a store stamp, pictures before and after the job, and a completed survey. So, if you were on call and did not have a way to get the survey (which was custom for each work order) or if the store was new and didn't have a store stamp, it would mean more hoops just to get paid.

[billdeserthills]

That is too bad Cledry, let me show you how I handle my weekend,
Saturday I get a call from a client, they bought a deadbolt lock at home despot and the tailpiece is too short,"Can we come to your shop they ask"*

Saturday I get another call, client wants to know if they can come in to the shop and have their lock rekeyed today**

Still Saturday & yet another phone call comes in, seems that lowe's still cannot copy a working key with a key that works, client wishes to visit shop***


*, **, ***, All three calls are easily answered and the same careful, caring explanation is given out and then repeated several times, throughout Saturday
and Sunday.

My shop is only open from Tues-Fri 10am-10:45am--Have a nice weekend, I know I will!

[cledry]

That is too bad Cledry, let me show you how I handle my weekend,
Saturday I get a call from a client, they bought a deadbolt lock at home despot and the tailpiece is too short,"Can we come to your shop they ask"*

Saturday I get another call, client wants to know if they can come in to the shop and have their lock rekeyed today**

Still Saturday & yet another phone call comes in, seems that lowe's still cannot copy a working key with a key that works, client wishes to visit shop***


*, **, ***, All three calls are easily answered and the same careful, caring explanation is given out and then repeated several times, throughout Saturday
and Sunday.

My shop is only open from Tues-Fri 10am-10:45am--Have a nice weekend, I know I will!

You don't need the money. I do. Soon I shall be retired and out of the USA.

[cledry]

What a roller coaster ride, keep these coming!

Q: is NSP a National Service Provider? Are these the corporate maintenance departments of these retail stores calling you, or did the retail store call someone in a phonebook such as Pop A Lock and they end up calling you for the commercial work? I'm just not sure what an NSP is in this case.

Thanks,
Squelchtone

Yes, and as already been mentioned some are worse than others. One good one we do work for pays in about 60 days on average and gives us about 5 jobs a day. If we go out and determine a lock is needed for a desk that is two trips, two hours and a desk lock. No negotiations and no quibbling. Occasionally they try and talk us down. I am doing a job tomorrow evening at 9PM and the NSP wanted us to knock off a hundred dollars, we told them no. Two days later they approved the original estimate.

The good thing is we get a trip charge and an hour even if we are on site for 5 minutes. Most jobs we do are less than 30 minutes on site. If the job takes 1 hour and 10 minutes it is a 2 hour charge. Yes, you do need before and after photos even if they look identical. Sign off sheets, store stamps, IVR in and out. etc. but I feel it is worth it. We work regularly for about 6 major companies and a few smaller ones.

[billdeserthills]

That is too bad Cledry, let me show you how I handle my weekend,
Saturday I get a call from a client, they bought a deadbolt lock at home despot and the tailpiece is too short,"Can we come to your shop they ask"*

Saturday I get another call, client wants to know if they can come in to the shop and have their lock rekeyed today**

Still Saturday & yet another phone call comes in, seems that lowe's still cannot copy a working key with a key that works, client wishes to visit shop***


*, **, ***, All three calls are easily answered and the same careful, caring explanation is given out and then repeated several times, throughout Saturday
and Sunday.

My shop is only open from Tues-Fri 10am-10:45am--Have a nice weekend, I know I will!

You don't need the money. I do. Soon I shall be retired and out of the USA.

I think you'll be very bored and hafta find something to do

[shutterstuff]

I think you'll be very bored and hafta find something to do

My new goal is to retire with your weekday hours! This way I can still write off my home shop...

[billdeserthills]

I think you'll be very bored and hafta find something to do

My new goal is to retire with your weekday hours! This way I can still write off my home shop...

Just call it your 'home office' and claim you organize your income tax info there for your accountant
Bam--A Home Office write off! Up to one third the value of your home!

[cledry]

That is too bad Cledry, let me show you how I handle my weekend,
Saturday I get a call from a client, they bought a deadbolt lock at home despot and the tailpiece is too short,"Can we come to your shop they ask"*

Saturday I get another call, client wants to know if they can come in to the shop and have their lock rekeyed today**

Still Saturday & yet another phone call comes in, seems that lowe's still cannot copy a working key with a key that works, client wishes to visit shop***


*, **, ***, All three calls are easily answered and the same careful, caring explanation is given out and then repeated several times, throughout Saturday
and Sunday.

My shop is only open from Tues-Fri 10am-10:45am--Have a nice weekend, I know I will!

You don't need the money. I do. Soon I shall be retired and out of the USA.

Yup, I would be bored here. Not where I am going though. I will probably make jewelry though as a hobby and for a bit of income.


I think you'll be very bored and hafta find something to do

[shutterstuff]

I think you'll be very bored and hafta find something to do

My new goal is to retire with your weekday hours! This way I can still write off my home shop...

Just call it your 'home office' and claim you organize your income tax info there for your accountant
Bam--A Home Office write off! Up to one third the value of your home!

I do that now (not that big), but my lot is zoned commercial. I plan on building a 2 story "shop" with a lock shop on the first floor and an "office" on the second floor. The "office" just so happens to have a few fish tanks, ham radio gear and an electronics workbench next to the big computer desk.

To be legit, I have to have 3 parking spaces, one of them ADA. I need a place to park my van anyway...

When I actually retire, the second floor becomes an apartment to rent and I take the first floor. I hope to break ground this summer.

[MatrixBlackRock]

Not sure how many of you do alarm system work in addition to physical security, but ran across an odd one today that had me going in circles.

Did an upgrade on a working properly VISTA 20P, customer wanted to begin utilizing home automation and had discovered the Honeywell VISTA Automation Module (VAM) which is a device that allows connection to the system through any standard wireless pad or PC, in addition it becomes the engine that drives the home automation via. Z-Wave.

The system consisted of a VISTA 20P, multiple English language keypads, a 4219 hardwire zone expander and a IPGSM wireless communicator for Central Station monitoring. Because of already heavy power load on the panel it was decided to add a supplementary 12 VDC power supply to power the VAM, none of which was the root cause of the trouble that popped up.

After completing the work they system including the VAM and the zone expander worked and tested properly, however I was getting a check 107 error on the keypad indicating a trouble with the zone expander.

My first thought was the VAM was conflicting with the zone expander so I assigned a new address to the VAM, nope that didn't work, I disconnected the VAM and still had the 107 trouble, went into panel programming saw nothing off came back out and like magic the trouble cleared.

Reconnected the VAM and yup you guessed it, error 107 back again.

Downloaded the panel and went over the ECP and address 189 assignments and nothing stood out as odd, re-powered the panel # & * the panel back into programming and backed out *99 and the 107 cleared.

Knowing the problem was lying in wait to bite me at a later date I disconnected and reconnected the VAM and the 107 error came back.

Breaking down I called Honeywell Technician tech support and explained my 107 woes with TS, the guy had me take a close look at the zone expander and lo and behold the cover tamper was enabled even thought the 4219 was installed in a locked and tampered cabinet per U.L. as such 4219 cover tamper is not required.

Turns out whoever installed the zone expander either overlooked the tamper setting or didn't know any better, as the plastic cover of the 4219 with it's tamper magnet was sitting below the 4219 within the tampered metal cabinet and the system either being just powered up with the tamper open didn't go into error 107 or it did and the installer went into programming and back out to clear it without fixing the actual problem.

[billdeserthills]

Well MatrixBlackRock, that would be beyond my patience, and that is why I don't do anything with electronics more complex than programming garage door remotes
I still have some hair left on top of my head and I'd like it to stay up there for awhile longer

[shutterstuff]

I have a background in IT and that is why I like mechanical locks! I have had more than enough hours running cables and wires, hooking stuff up and so on.

[jeffmoss26]

I have a background in IT and that is why I like mechanical locks! I have had more than enough hours running cables and wires, hooking stuff up and so on.

I hear you there! It seems that just about everyone in my locksport group does some form of IT as their day job, and locks as a hobby.

[Tyler J. Thomas]

I have a background in IT and that is why I like mechanical locks! I have had more than enough hours running cables and wires, hooking stuff up and so on.

I hear you there! It seems that just about everyone in my locksport group does some form of IT as their day job, and locks as a hobby.

I have my Bachelors in software engineering. Started as a locksmith apprentice when I was 19 and sophomore in college. Graduated at 22 and decided to stay in the industry. So, you're right. Hobby became a job became a career.