Car key cutting-not a simple process!

lordsainsbury

Hi,

I attempted to have my car key cut at a branch of Timpson's for which they quoted a price of around £100. This is quite expensive, but cheaper than an official dealer so I decided to go through with it.

Quite a long story but Timpson's managed to disable my original key so that it no longer starts the car and were unable to re-program it. What they initially said would only take around 30 minutes is now taking days to resolve! They have now towed the car to an official dealer to have the key reprogrammed.

In the meantime they have provided me with a hire car. I don't actually know if after all this they are going to attempt to charge the original full price for getting a key cut. I do think they should offer a substantial discount at the very least for the inconvenience caused. I guess it is just a matter of much value they place on customer goodwill.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone has any similar stories and if people think I should attempt to get a discount if it isn't offered when this is finally resolved.

Thanks,
Paul.

Iceweasel

How old and what make of car are we talking about here?

The physical cutting/machining of a modern car key is a nothing compared to the chip technology involved in programming it correctly.

The concept of getting a key 'cut' is out of date.

I don't even have a 'normal' key.

It all works off the fob which costs around £200 and has to come from the factory.

All down to clever thieves requiring clever electrickery to thwart them.

Good luck with this.

I would just get a new key from the dealer and forget it.

mcfisco

It's so expensive to get done these days that having both keys is a great selling point for used cars.
If a car I was looking at only had one, I'd be factoring in the cost to have a replacement made when negotiating

Weird_Nev

good of Timpsons to sort it, IMO.

Always get 2 keys with your car when you buy it!

I got 2, but had to recode one of the fobs myself. Thankfully google is a font of knowledge and the process took 2 mins and cost nothing.

lordsainsbury

It's a 13 year old VW Polo. It has a "chipped" key. Timpson's said they had done many of these successfully before.

spacey2012

The blue box that defeats the chip security is now cheaper than a spare key, madness...

EdGasket

spacey2012 wrote: »

The blue box that defeats the chip security is now cheaper than a spare key, madness...

Can you provide details of said 'blue box' please? I am interested.

badly_dubbed

weird...i replaced a key on my seat ibiza (basically the same car as the polo) and had the key cut at a local key place, was around £5....all i did was remove the glass pill shape chip from the original key and place it into the new one....never had any trouble.

i bought the blank new key from ebay, for around £8

forgotmyname

Have you looked on Ebay

Or the chinese companies that sell diagnostic equipment.