Cheap-@ss Customers

[billdeserthills]

I'm tired of the cheap bastards I have had calling me lately. I always wonder, are these folks living in the same reality & economy I am? The other day I had a dude with a newer Toyota P/U call, he wanted me to come and open it up for $45. Since Toyota started with the bicycle cables I figured they are worth an extra $20 to unlock, at a minimum. Anyhow I told the guy the same thing I tell all the cheapsters who call, which is "keep calling around, I'm sure you'll find someone who wants to do it for less $$$". An hour went by and then he was ripe for the picking, as he called back. "OK I'll pay, please come and open my truck. As I arrived I noticed the cheapster's trademark clothes hanger, sticking out from the door. The guy started on my uniform when I arrived, "this is how You go to work? Shorts and sandals, he asks?" We were getting along fine by the time I got done.

Now tonight is different, a woman called at 8pm and said she wanted back in her house, I shouldn't have bothered writing down her info cause when I finished I told her "I get $100 to pick open one lock." Her answer,
"$100!?!? I can't afford that, I better just camp out tonight." I really don't understand, I usually get $80 in the daylight, so I don't think another $20 should be a deal breaker? I highly doubt there is a window anywhere that can be broken & replaced for less than $100?

[buddykiller]

honestly, until i got into lock picking and interested in the trade, i thought most locksmiths where straight crooks. now that i've tried my hand at picking and am preparing to attempt to enter the trade i understand the dedication needed, and have a much better understanding of the pricing structure.

the layman thinks "gee anybody can get a set of picks out of budk for $15 so what's the big deal?" because every time they've ever seen somebody open a lock it's a simple 2 second process. even if they've watched an actual locksmith open a lock they've no clue how long it's taken to hone that ability, and so they have no appreciation for it.

the other day a casual acquaintance locked their keys in their car and i saw them fishing around with a coat hanger. i've done this a few times and know it's a lot harder then it looks so i offered to see if i could help them while my wife was in the store. i snagged the door latch and as i'm pulling carefully somebody shouts out right behind me "hey he's got a slim jim let's use that!" causing me to lose my concentration and slip off the door latch. i immediately warned them that i had been informed by several lockout services and a cop that they're useless unless you're driving an older model vehicle and that at best the only thing they would accomplish would be tearing up the weatherstripping around the window and that they could wind up yanking something inside the door loose preventing them from opening it up entirely. they ignored my warning so i sat back at chuckled for a good 5 minutes until my wife came out and we had to go.

tl;dr your average joe is always going to think you're ripping them off even if they don't say so.

hopefully you'll have more intelligent clientele the next time.

[Wizer]

Many customers just don´t understand what makes the price so high.
This happens just about every day:
I cut a key for an older car. I know the keyway and can find a blank & cut it in a minute.
"-o´boy, your pay per hour is really high!" goes the customer.
Sometimes I break it down for them:
-first you take 24% VAT
-then all expences including stocking blanks, keymachine, rent of the shop, insurances....
-alltho it took only a minute to cut the key, I might have to stand here some time waiting for customers for free.
-then I pay my taxes
...and whats left for me? Closer to 2 than 12 euros.

[Sinifar]

It has been that way since 1972, when we started this biz. At first they could not understand WHY we "charged" to open cars!!! AFTER ALL the cops or the fire department would come out and do it for FREE!!!

Then there are the scammers with their 15 dollar service call. Whether it is cars or houses, the final bill usually ends up being at least 150 bux or more, and a drilled out lock, cars or houses. Those are the facts today. Oh Ya - their available "24-7", like "Lock Around the Clock" "Run Local Locksmith" and dozens of others in the phone book or on the net -- Google this and start reading. "Isreali Scammer Locksmiths." Wonder where your opening biz went to? Here is your answer. Flood the phone book with names and numbers, do the same with the web, and legit people like us get pushed off the first page onto the second or worse last page.

It is simple greed, and people's ideas that everything should be provided to them for free, just because. Pay less for more. That is the big box theory. Never mind the stuff they sell is old, junk, or worse, just plain unsafe. Go out and have a look at the EXACT models of the locks the boxes sell, then come back and look them up in a large catalog and see what I mean.

People will always try to get the absolute lowest price on anything - be it any consumer goods or services. AND YET when we have a real sale on things - they don't buy. WHY?

My daughter gave me a clue - they are afraid of high pressure sales, or bait and switch. It has happened so oft to people that they are now leery of any business, except the absolute very super biggest, and some of those also use those techniques. SO when they end up calling you, they expect the lowest price. Not getting what they want they move on to the 15 dollar service call people then they really get taken.

Most people won't be happy until they are coated with egg wash and bread crumbs.

Sinifar

[Squelchtone]

You'll enjoy this comic I posted some time ago regarding customers asking why the job is so expensive.

http://www.lockpicking101.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=58406#p427569

=)
Squelchtone

[billdeserthills]

Sinifar the thing I can never figure out is why do people pay the scammers? I hear the clients bitching about getting took, in fact I had a lady not long ago call for a quote. I gave her a price, and explained that there were many scammers who would quote a lower price, but in the end would charge more. Of course some scammer quoted her $10 less, then charged much more. She called to tell me how sorry she was to have Not used my service, but it was too late. I asked her, "Why did You pay after they lied about the price?" Like most of my clients she doesn't have the faintest idea....
Last year a customer called and started yelling at me, about how could I charge $1,300 to install a deadbolt on her neighbor's door? I drove over to take a look, just for fun and I found a new schlage deadbolt in the 60 series (Home depot lock) the owner told me she was charged $1,300 to have this lock installed on her front door. I asked who she called? Of course it was a company with part of my company's name in theirs, that is how most of the scammers in my area work it. Again I always wonder, why pay someone who lies about their price? I mean it isn't as though you took your car to the mechanic and he won't give the car back until You pay. What is the scammer gonna do? Sit on his butt outside your door? I swear i'll never understand my customers, mebbe if I bang my head against something hard?

[Hachronn]

My experience has been that about ninety percent of my customers appreciate good service. That's why they keep coming back. It's the other ten percent or so that doesn't feel like they should have to pay for silly things like my time because, to paraphrase David Bowie, you can't touch time. It's those vampiric bastards who insist on sucking the life out of me day after day.

[cledry]

One reason they pay the scammers is that the scammers use scare tactics. One of our customers (ex cop) had them pull a gun on him. Not the smartest thing to do when you are illegally in the country and the ex cop is packing.

[billdeserthills]

Almost forgot, the other day I got a call from a teen-ager who said he had locked his keys in the trunk of his 2010 Saab. I told him it was $85 to unlock, he offered me $45
I invited him to call someone else, or take a look on u-tube. He called back an hour later, but to no avail, as his daddy had not given him any more money. He kept telling
me that "I should give him a break, cause he was just a kid." I told him that I hate kids and I would sooner charge him extra. I finally gave up and told him to call a tow truck

[billdeserthills]

I had a guy call me yesterday, he says his friend has a rekey kit , but he can't figure out how to take the lock off the door, and I should tell him how.
So, as usual I asked him, "what's in this deal for me"? He was smart enough to hang up the phone by himself -- I suppose I wouldn't mind losing some of my callers
to the scammers, after all.

[CMS_SAFECRAKR1]

Yeah the scammer thing gets me hot, I can't wait to run into one in action around here, he won't think twice about coming around till I get done with him. As for cheap customers people usually get tired of waiting for pop a lock to show up or waiting on the 15 minute man and they call me back after they said I was too much.

Ps don't even get me started on safe openings!!

[billdeserthills]

I can usually find some humor in the cheapskates wanting safe opening & it's easy. I just quote a price to open the safe including my service call fee
Then I tell them how much less it costs if they "simply" bring the safe in, to my shop. You should see the hernia's some cheap bastards are willing to
suffer just to save $50 on a service call

[deralian]

Rekeys with chepos are the worst. They are usually the ones who have 20 year old stuff that is almost falling apart, door strikes that don't line up, take considerably more time to do the work, and are completely unwilling to buy any new hardware.

[billdeserthills]

I use a die grinder to file out those door strikes, it takes a few seconds and I charge $9.50 apiece. I also like to find all the deadbolt strikes that aren't drilled at least an inch deep and I charge another $9.50 to
drill these to the required depth, after I show the client how easy it would be to beak in with a pocket knife, or icepick, as the deadbolt latch won't fully lock, until it has extended all the way.
Turn your lemons into lemonade, it's easy when You show the client how easy it can be to enter their house, if they don't let You make some adjustments.

[deralian]

I add and extra $10 for each adjustment as well. I was just saying that the ones who are unwilling to spend extra money are the ones who have the most problems (ie because they aren't willing to pay for corrections). The problem comes in when you HAVE to make sure everything works before you leave, because you are ultimately responsible for it since you just worked on it.