Here are some links to news stories about the same subject that is happening repeatedly across America.
http://wcco.com/topstories/local_story_050222739.html
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?sectio ... id=5079625
http://cbs11tv.com/topstories/local_sto ... 35906.html
The following article has been removed from the website, but was printed in the Chicago SunTimes November 19,2006...
N.Y. locksmith firm fined -- city says scams continue
November 19, 2006
BY ABDON M. PALLASCH Legal Affairs Reporter
City of Chicago officials have issued another $1,500 in fines against against Price Line Locksmiths, a New York-based company the Sun-Times has written about for scamming consumers.
In one case, an elderly West Lawn couple was mugged outside their home around midnight. The mugger took the keys to their home. They looked in the telephone book to find a nearby locksmith to change the locks on their home and saw a Price Line listing with what seemed to be a nearby address.
It took two hours for a Price Line employee to get to their home. Instead of just trying to re-key the locks, the Price Line employee pulled all the locks out of their doors and told them it would cost $986 for new locks, said William McCaffrey, spokesman for the city's Consumer Services Department.
Over a barrel, they paid it.
The next day, they went to a locksmith and learned their locks were fine and could have been re-keyed for $30, McCaffrey said.
'Protecting the consumer'
Price Line was ordered to pay back the couple's money in addition to a fine. The other two cases were similar. All are part of a pattern the company is known for, or was until state officials pulled the company's license. However, the company's assets have been sold to another New York-based operation, Dependable Locks, which is under temporary suspension by the state.
Price Line, based in New York, maintained a Skokie address but listed bogus addresses all over town so it could masquerade as a local locksmith when people called 411 during an emergency looking for a locksmith, McCaffrey said.
"They give you a quote over the phone, show up, give you way more than what the original quote was -- or they wouldn't give you any estimate -- until the work is almost done and then people are not in a position to do anything but pay because you don't have any locks on your doors," McCaffrey said.
"We're protecting the consumer," said Consumer Services Commissioner Norma Reyes. "If other [scamming locksmiths] are out there, they should be aware that we will be pursuing them."
apallasch@suntimes.com
There are many more examples all over the news....these are just some.
