helpful tips to save a customer some money...no?

[brinard]

so today, i was faced with a new endeavor.

key extraction, plus lockout. (residence).


i opted to open the door via bypass, instead of picking. i told the customer to replace the lock, as it would be cheaper than having us extract the broken key, and still have to deal with the lockout charge. she had a crummy knockoff kwikset... something from wall mart, like the 8$ knob cylinders. our extraction fee is 20 dollars.

would you have charged a similar fee, or recommended the lock be replaced as it was cheap as dirt? (and nearly broken). I think my reccommendation was appropriate, in trying to save them some money and offer to replace with a better lock, or they could do it themselves as well.

[lockjock50]

I give it a quick try first. It would be included in the service call. But i dont spend a lot of time on it. I often offer customers savings. I offer to replace it if it comes to it, but when they insist in keeping their lock, they pay for the time.

[brinard]

i did try to use a key extractor, but my tool broke and i wasnt about to break the rest of what few i had. i told them i could take apart the whole knob set but if youre going that far to just replace it with a better lock.

either way, i didnt extract sucessfully, and they were replacing all their locks (and rekeying to the same key as well) soon.

[cledry]

Generally if the correct key is broken off you can use that to open the door. Then removing the broken key should be really simple. We would generally include such a simple job in the service call and charge for any keys needed on top of that along with a surcharge to make a key from a broken key.