What are your rates?

[acl]

What do the mla teach on their courses nowdays?Do they teach lockpicking? I did one years ago and it was hardly mentioned.
I feel im going to annoy a few now but here goes.I do a fair amount of work for one of the AOBL guys,cant remember how he got hold of me because i never went one one of his courses.I find him to be a very aimiable guy and i have no problems getting paid.Didnt even know they ran courses when i started taking the work.None of its been domestic,all contract work but i dont take the piss with my prices and he never moans ,cant beleive for one minute hed be charging some of the prices that have been quoted here.
Sure youre all going to put me right now!

[EvoRed]

I was told by them that it was simply a name change as the British Locksmiths Association, or BLA, ran off the tongue a lot better than the Association of British Locksmiths, or AOBL.

[toomush2drink]

Should have changed it to ALOB from the sounds of things ( A Load of B******)

[pinky]

hey guys we have done this one, BLA are rogues , but as said before their course does show slight improvements, eventually they wont have a choice aboutt going non destructive, if they bring down prices to a realistic level, make no offers of car opening courses in an hour or a day which cant be done, then one day it may be ok.

why people offer shoddy 1 day upvc courses , car courses and safe courses i dont know, if your going to do it, then do it right, mb run a great car course, none better, DG supplyline run an excellent upvc course, don braidwood may soon run a upvc course and with 24 years in the industry of upvc and ally doors it should be good.

trust me in 3 days , you struggle to take in the methods for domestic and commercial openings, on a 3 day course you take in so much and have to practice so much afterwards to become halfway competent, it amazes me that some can teach domestic commercial, auto locksmithing, upvc, drilling and electronic entry in 3 to 4 days.

the bla etc are not worth wasting time argueing over any more, be positive move on and leave them behind.

incidently BLI are totally reputable and run by MLA and are the best uk association and only fully recognised uk association, please dont confuse a reputable association like BLI with BLA.

[captainsawdust]

Access on the BLA find a locksmith site, shame if you as a customer get locked out at night, how do you get access to there site then ?


I forgot JOE Public must take laptop out with them just in case, then they can search there site if they got locked out !

[Adam]

You're all correct about not getting any work from the BLI/BLA or whatever they're called!

I keep records of EVERY job that has been done, where it came from and how much we got. NOT one job has come from that organisation but i thought if someone asks if i'm a registered locksmith then this will confirm I am.

Yeah i'm probably being a right mug by paying!!

Also someone asked if they did any lockpicking at the MLA. Well, no they didn't, not one little bit. I stayed up in Daventry for 5 days in a lovely posh 4 star hotel (which was nice!) and learnt about how the Egpytians created locks. All very interesting but wasn't much use on my first motice lockout!!!

Anyway 192 jobs later we're finding our feet quite niceley. (two of us in business). I'm really happy doing this job as i used to be an Investment Banker in London and was made redundant. Obviously we have a hell of a lot to learn hence me being on this forum to pick all your brains!!

[mbell]

Also someone asked if they did any lockpicking at the MLA. Well, no they didn't, not one little bit.

Now that seems genuinly suprising. They never even tought you about basic pin tumbler picking?

[EvoRed]

When I looked into courses about a year ago now I looked into the MLA, and spoke to them, and you had to be in the trade for a year before they would let you attend their advanced course teaching picking techniques, but you could attend the courses Adam has spoken of with no experience of the trade.

I soon came to the conclusion that this avenue wasn't a very good one to go down for someone wanting to start up their own business. You would have to be the original, as Pinky puts it, 'has drill, will travel' locksmith.

[pinky]

what i will say for mla is that they are still the best route into the industry, if your young enough to work an apprenticeship, have enough cash to afford it and time, as that is what it takes.

regardless of it being so hard to get into the industry through them, they are still the best route to follow for all round training and career wise.

they have issues to address, they have too much red tape and too much internal polotics for me as yet, but if they address this become more member friendly and member orientated, then i would join tommorow. in comparrison to a full master locksmith we know very little , and who knows when registration comes in then maybe we will have to follow such a route.

i will critisise mla policy but never what they stand for, they are the only true uk association and one day may be again

[mbell]

what i will say for mla is that they are still the best route into the industry, if your young enough to work an apprenticeship, have enough cash to afford it and time, as that is what it takes.

Ah hmm.... If only it were that simple.

I've recently written letters and occasional emails to the majority of members of the MLA in the north of England, along with some who aren't - Probably 25-30 companies and do you know how many have even contacted me? One. Some I wrote to months ago, some just a few days ago, so I may get something but I'm starting to doubt it.

So many people are entering the industry later on, which is fair enough - it's an alternative and the only viable way for most, but they won't have the extra experience (sometimes 20 years) than somebody who had been in the industry all their working life and beyond.

...Taking a thread totally off topic again, but who cares.

[Adam]

Mbell,

No there was nothing on lockpicking whatsover. Obviously a few of us students requested it every day but were refused even the slightest insight into picking, drilling and impressioning. It costs around £1300 or so for the week which I feel personally was not great value for money. Did meet a great bunch of lads though and have stayed in touch with a few of them.

On the plus side though the tutors were first class. They are real hardcore locksmiths, eat and breath it which was great for us. We'd be training from 9am - 6pm, then back to the hotel, dinner at 8pm and the tutors would still be with us talking about locks!!!! Even if we got off the subject they'd turn it back to locks! It was quite amusing as someone would mention about their favourite football team and the tutor would say what kind of lock they would have on their trophy cabinet!

If you had any questions that you forgot to ask during the day you didn't have to wait until the morning to ask it!

[EvoRed]

A secretive old breed, the locksmith. All these replies and views and only Toomush and Varjeal have dared to answer!

[pinky]

ok evo my rates for lock outs;

in notts

£50 daytime £70 night and that includes a free lock if drilled

[Adam]

Based in Essex and London I charge:

£50 daytime

£70 + evenings.... depends on how I feel and what kind of day i've had. If it's 3am then it's £150 PLUS the locks.

I've never given a free lock. Some locksmiths i know charge £65.00 to supply and fit a Chubb 3G114 if they've drilled one out. I think that's a fair price considering it would cost the customer £38. It costs us £20 i think.

ALSO are all these rates that you are all quoting incl VAT or plus VAT????

Cheers

[pinky]

its not fair on the customer drilling out a healthy lock and then charging for a new one, unless customer really wants a new one.
if a customer pays a locksmith to gain entry to a lock and if a locksmith , it should be picked not drilled.

i wont crusade on this 1 as my posts on driller killers are there for all to see, real locksmiths pick, they dont drill for increased profit.