Locksmith charged my wife £570, is there anything we can do?

Hasbeen

From my post on page 2

BLAGA VEST LTD - Officers (free information from Companies House) (company-information.service.gov.uk)

TASKOV, Blagovest Konstantinov, Captain

Correspondence address
3 Gerry Raffles Square, London, England, E15 1BG

Role ACTIVE

Director

Date of birth

September 1971

Appointed on

10 August 2017

Nationality

Bulgarian

Country of residence

United Kingdom

Occupation

Ceo

roddie_london

Hey all,
My partner and I also recently fell to the scams of this company last week. She also was by herself when this happened, and we were charged a whooping £500 to replace a lock that (a) was not jammed and (b) costs £10 brand new. I'm happy to contribute details and join a small claims effort.

We will try to ask for a chargeback (we paid with AMEX), so we will let you know how it goes. in the meantime, is there anything else we can start preparing to do this?

spaniardclimber

Sorry to hear that.
For now you can contact google ads about them doing false advertising, trading standards and citizen advice.
I think only small claims court might get somewhere...

sheramber

if the door wasn't locked why did she need to use a key to open it?

Max2010

Um I am not following this whole thread but you didnt say what day this was if it was a Sunday or Bank Holiday it might explain the costs hike. You havent said why you needed a locksmith if door was unlocked ? Why did you not call the letting agency and ask for help at the start of this matter , just some thoughts . I havent read all of your eight pages  but if you came to terms with locksmith  bearing in mind most locksmiths charge 50 GDP fo coming out did you factor this in also that they may have recorded the telephone call? Do you have a recording on it there is Google Apps that sit in backround to do this if they ae installed ? Caveat Emptor

DiddyDavies

Max2010 said:

Um I am not following this whole thread but you didnt say what day this was if it was a Sunday or Bank Holiday it might explain the costs hike. You havent said why you needed a locksmith if door was unlocked ? Why did you not call the letting agency and ask for help at the start of this matter , just some thoughts . I havent read all of your eight pages  but if you came to terms with locksmith  bearing in mind most locksmiths charge 50 GDP fo coming out did you factor this in also that they may have recorded the telephone call? Do you have a recording on it there is Google Apps that sit in backround to do this if they ae installed ? Caveat Emptor

Caveat Emptor doesn't mean that if a price hadn't been arranged or agreed beforehand, the locksmith can charge whatever sum they like.
They are still required to only charge a reasonable price for the service provided and I doubt if many people would consider £500+ reasonable irrespective of the day of the week.

spaniardclimber

The issue for me was they quoted an amount and the invoice was three times the quote.
They also advertised as local, which they weren’t, and they also advertised no call out fee.

KF8192

I have reported them to the Police for fraud, the Master Locksmith Association, Trading Standards, Google Ads and left a review on TrustPilot. I will send out a formal letter complaint tomorrow. I will let you know what comes back. 

spaniardclimber

KF8192 said:

I have reported them to the Police for fraud, the Master Locksmith Association, Trading Standards, Google Ads and left a review on TrustPilot. I will send out a formal letter complaint tomorrow. I will let you know what comes back. 

Unfortunately they aren't members of the Master Locksmith Association, of course they aren't, as all Master Locksmith Association member are legit...

Let us know how the police report goes, as it's the only one I didn't do.

roddie_london

KF8192 said:

I have reported them to the Police for fraud, the Master Locksmith Association, Trading Standards, Google Ads and left a review on TrustPilot. I will send out a formal letter complaint tomorrow. I will let you know what comes back. 

Let me know how it goes! I'm happy to provide supporting information to show that this is not the only instance where this has happened.