Of late, I have been contacted by several end-users who felt they were unfairly treated by the locksmiths who provided service. No, I am not talking about scammers. I am talking about customers who read their bill and questioned the charges. Some complaints were valid and some were part of doing business charges.
There are all kinds of charges that can be rightly added to the customer’s bill. One charge is time spent waiting for a customer. How often have you arrived at the jobsite a few minutes early and was knocking at the door at the appointed time. You are given entry and told that the person you need to see is busy and will be with you in a few minutes.
I have added a line charge for time spent waiting if the time was more than a few minutes. A locksmith friend recommended using the acronym “TSW” instead of spelling out the charge. You are there to provide service and leave.
The customers who I feel have a valid complaint hired locksmiths to replace a lock on their front doors or the doors leading to their garage. In a couple of instances, the keys would no longer operate the locks. However, access and egress could be gained and the locks could be locked and unlocked from the interior.
The locksmiths who sold the customers new locks added an at best questionable charge for emergency access or an extra charge to remove the lock.
I would charge for emergency access when the door was locked and I needed to either manipulate or destroy the lock in order to gain access to remove the lock.
The end result for these customers is to never hire those locksmiths again. In today’s economy, is a quick thirty or fifty dollars is not worth an unhappy customer?
What do you think?
