Ripped off by locksmiths - do I have a right for refund?

Robnetuk

This is my first post here so apologies if I have posted in the wrong place and further apologies for the length of this post.

A bit of background before I begin:
My girlfriend and I got the keys to our first home in March, but due to the state the property was in we have had to have it rip most of it out and get it rewired, replastered etc. We only just moved in yesterday. Being worried about various tradesmen potentially making copies of our keys we decided to get the locks changed.

And so the saga begins...
We called a company yesterday evening and they said they could come this morning and they did. We were given a price of £240 + parts for having 5 locks changed, which we thought was reasonable considering locks are usually £30 to £50 each, so told the locksmith to go ahead.

He then proceeded to remove all the locks from the doors in the house and after this gave us 3 options to proceed:
1. Non british standard locks at 185 each
2. 1* british standard locks at 250 each
3. 3* british standard locks for 350 each

Amazed at the extortionate cost of this and feeling pressurised by him to proceed (and of course not wanting to be left with no locks in the house because they had all been removed by this point) we asked for the cheapest ones because we couldn't afford any others. We were told that he did not in fact have any of the cheapest ones available and said he can only do the mid priced ones.

All in all they charged us £1250 + VAT to make a total of £1500. As I said before, I felt under pressure to accept the charges as that was "the best price they could do" and signed the invoice then paid on my credit card.

After discussing with friends and relatives it was clear that we had been ripped off, so I called the company and asked for a partial refund because the costs were unreasonable. They offered me £250 refund.

I then spoke with Citizens Advice who suggested I speak with the company again to try and get a better refund, or failing that to speak to my credit card company.

I once again phoned the locksmiths company to try and get a larger refund and was told that £350 is all that they could give me and even that was "too much".

We called another local company just now who told us the total price would be £69 in labour for each lock with a further £35 for the lock itself, so a total of £520.

I'm wondering whether I should accept the £350 refund on offer, cut my losses and accept that I have been ripped off and learned my lesson, or whether to pursue this further with my credit card company (and whether I even have the right to?) in the hope of recovering more, obviously with the potential risk of ending up with no refund.

I would really appreciate any constructive advice that any of you have to offer.

Thanks in advance for your help and once again my apologies for the length of this post.

[Deleted User]

Accept the refund and check prices up front next time.

The card company can't do anything as the locksmiths have provided the service you paid for.

Calpol4life

I would add that that’s a very pessimistic view on builders/tradesmen....

The only reason they would have come back and break in with keys would have been if you had not paid them, or challenged their price after paying the bill...

Oh wait...

Robnetuk

@zx81 thanks for your suggestion. I will speak with the vendor and tell them I will accept the £350 refund. It's better than nothing at all.

@Calpol4life I definitely understand where you are coming from however we did leave keys for back doors in the house whilst works were underway and some went missing. It may just be a case of them getting lost or misplaced somewhere but for our own piece of mind we decided to get the locks changed.

davidmcn

Also, replacing locks is one of the easiest DIY tasks around (assuming you're replacing like with like). Even the £69/lock quote looks steep for what is probably a matter of minutes' work.

mattyprice4004

I think it was more aimed at the irony of new locks to prevent tradesmen entering - yet now you’ve peed off a locksmith who may have a copy of your new keys.

Jono111

Many jobs around the house are far easier than you would expect.
Next time before you call someone google/ youtube it. Even if it still looks too difficult at least it will help you look like you know a bit about what you are talking about when calling someone to look at it.
Apart from that yes you were scammed but I don't see how you can get the money back.
Locksmiths were on Watchdog a few weeks ago, there may be some advice on their website.

nyermen

Name and shame, but stick to facts if doing so to cover yourself.

thomasca

As others have said buy yourself some basic tools and learn to do a bit of DIY it will be the best thing you can do for yourself. It's pretty easy and there are plenty of youtube videos on how to do basic stuff.



Obviously the locksmith has done this before and knew he would leave you no choice. The other option would have been to say no and call another locksmith. At this moment just take the refund and move on.

Robnetuk

Thanks all of you for your replies.

I have tools and I'm not a stranger to DIY. We did a lot of the work in this house ourselves. For some reason I just assumed that lock changing should be done by professionals in order to make the property as secure as possible - I guess I was wrong!

Earlier today I tried to remove and refit the locks myself and I am honestly shocked at how simple it was. In future I will do this myself, though I hope I don't have to, and will also offer to help out any friends who may need their locks changing.

Annoyingly for every other piece of work that needed doing in the house that we couldn't do ourselves we got 3 or 4 quotes to compare pricing, but we just assumed that since the company said 240 + parts that the overall price would be reasonable.

For those who are interested, the company we used are called ITCC Locksmiths and after seeing lots of reviews online (and ignoring the clearly fake 5-star ones) it seems they know exactly what they are doing and use this "sales tactic" of removing all of the locks in your house before telling you how much the parts are to a lot of people. Particularly to people they think are easy targets ie. The elderly, single women and young couples.

Although I have next to no chance of recouping any more money I'm wondering whether I should report them to trading standards for unfair/unreasonable business practices.

And another update to my original post - although promised a refund of 350 after my second call with them yesterday, I checked my bank account earlier to see that they have actually just refunded me 250 but just don't have the time or energy to continue arguing with them.

Rainbowgirl84

Hope you were at least given the old locks...they're handy spares.