HI EVORED AND PINKY

[acl]

I dislike the multiple ads far more than the ......aaa ones for a couple of reasons firstly with multiples the customer thinks they are calling different companies which obviously they are not.Secondly most decent lockies cant afford to do 4 different ads(pinky excluded obviously!) so its left to the nationals to do.
I dont like multiple ads but id rather someone who was a genuine honest( ish) locksmith like Martin do it than the scumbags that always get away with it.
I hate to say it but i cant reallysee an answer to all this,i do think the boys want to go in the right direction and expose the like of RF and AE and id like to see yp being shown up as to what they are, but the sad truth is Lockies do not stick together against these cowboys as they should and untill such time as they do we are going to have to put up with guys with skill and integrety such as (sorry for this mate) Al Morgan not getting as much work as some _ who does a bit of plumbing and a bit of "locksmithing" on the side
Andy

[pinky]

i again agree andy, but its time decent lockies did band together to take on these cowboys, imagine rather than multiple ads, like minded lockies got together and took a full page between them, headed Local Locksmiths Not Call Centres, and each lockie has an ad on the page and puts no other ad in the book, a masssive loss of revenue for nationals i think and a section of only 3 pages, 2 of which ere nationals and 1 of which is every other honest local locksmith ? in an ideal world it would work, sadly the chances of getting every lockie to stick together is nil.

Yes its cost me this year, but i am much busier, 2 extra jobs a day, where have these extra jobs come from, it must be hitting the nationals even if just a little, i hate the way they trade and i hate the way they open doors, but how many times have we gone on about it here, and who has done anything, i wonder how many emails were even sent ? and any little i can do to bruise them is good.

The true rogue in this situation is YP , though they will continue with their lies to sell advertising, they are at fault for this side of things, the nationals will go under if YP make them trade and advertise on a level playing field, and YP will lose millions in revenue, can you see it ending ?? i cant, too many fat cats with too much to lose.

If we chip away at them, expose every rogue job they do and report it, its a start, if we lobby MP's its a start, but to many lockies sit back ignore it and hope it will sorted by someone else.
More have decided that if you cannot beat them then join them and do there work, then wonder why they go under and look for someone to blame.

The fact is , whether National or independent, if you dont have the skills and ethics and of course the tools and the stock to complete jobs skillfully to a good NDE level and fit the right lock there and then on most occasions at a realistic and fair price, then you have no right to trade as a locksmith, though as you say anyone with a drill and a grinder can set up and trade and will do, all the time they think its easy cash.

so what else can be done, will lockies realise too late that they should have banded together and made a stand, or will they do something to save an industry from dying out.

[Dimmy Locks]

I've just come across this thread (sorry , taken some time to catch up on all th einfo on the site).

I'm employed by a London based company that multiple ads, in almost every fone book there is both in London and all surrounding counties. I hate to think of their advertising bill but I can see it isn't paying off as my work load has less than halved in last 2 years. I'm paid on a job by job basis and it's killing me. So much so, that I'm now considering doing what other locksmiths do on my firm and thats taking in private jobs, something I've always considered immoral myself and have always passed on any private enquiries to the company. Sadly, my morals cant cover my mortgage, and neither is my current work load.

I put the drop in workload down to many factors, some of which must be due to the number of what I call "Internet trained", hobby pickers suddenly becoming "master locksmiths". ( Not knocking anyone here with that statement, just a simple fact of life, number of times I've pulled up to a job to find some guy arrived 2 mins b4 me and is getting his tool bag out of the boot of his sports hatchback). Something I'm sure all working 'smiths encounter from time to time because customers call 2 or 3 firms and only want to pay on a 1st come 1st serve basis.
Another reason for the drop in workload has to be down to the way Insurance companies ( especially the newer Superstore's that now provide these services) are increasingly covering keys and locks and are demanding national coverage of their call outs. They prefer to use 1 or 2 companies that will cover the whole country. The vehicle recovery trade is pretty much the same too, with motoring clubs prefering to call a "national" company over the local locksmith.
This has created a boom in the number of so called "national" locksmithing companies who are no more than a small call centre taking calls from the Insurance and auto clubs and then passing the jobs onto either poorly skilled local maintance firms or local locksmiths after taking a hefty slice of the job costs for themselves.
now, having, in the past, worked for a "national" auto locksmithing company for a few years I do know that some of the reason the insurance companies and motoring clubs prefer to deal with single national companies is the amount of locksmiths that either accept a job and let them down by late or non arrival or by charging extortionate rates for work carried out. Other reasons are simple billing logistics, easier to deal with 1 account from a national than 10,000 local companies.

Sorry for the ramble , just felt a look at the wider issues was relevent.

BTW guys, more and more people are now using the internet based directorys such as YELL.COM which also may be effecting your work loads.

[Al]

Paid job by job like a freelance?
Are you on a retainer? If not why can't you do private work too?
Have you had to provide any tools etc?
Is it purely locksmithing work?

Busy last week, overloaded this week, dead next week.
Yell.com, YP. BT. Thompson. 118s barely pay for themselves, it's repeat business, word of mouth and contracts every time. Maybe next year I'll do a 'Pinky', once I placed two ads in Nottingham but I think it takes more.

[pinky]

This year is much much busier, but all auto work and car call outs, only a very slight increase in lock outs.
Busiest source of work for me at present is still police, word of mouth and contracts.
Contract work forming the bread and butter still as always, thankfull for warrants.

and of the auto call outs , the majority is lost or stolen keys, so complete strip or decode, cut new keys to code and program, not many pure lock outs.