locked out....£600 charge!

njkmr

Local B and Q....?
Piece of board they will cut to size for you.
Order glass next day and replace within few days.

catz4m8z

I was locked out in the cold with 2 elderly dogs and no money. I kinda had to get in straight away unfortunately.
Lesson learned though....Im never leaving my keys in the door again!

Risteard

grumbler said:

catz4m8z said:

Ive been scammed havent I?

Risteard's reply would be "it's perfectly legal".

I agree.

So, the question is - can scamming be legal?

I made no comment on this thread up till now.

Risteard

housebuyer143 said:

but door opening and labour charge seems odd - surely they are one of the same?

On the face of it it would seem so. All I can assume is that the "labour" charge is their standard labour charge, and that the "door opening" charge is additional labour which was required due to the necessity to drill out the existing lock as detailed by the OP in a subsequent post. But really without querying it with the trader we are all only guessing as to why there are separate itemised charges here.

Eldi_Dos

njkmr said:

Local B and Q....?
Piece of board they will cut to size for you.
Order glass next day and replace within few days.

But would the property have been secure enough from a insurance point of view if no one was in attendance over those few days.

LightFlare

They will probably claim that:

Door Opening = time and “effort” to do that
Lock = cost of a new lock
Labour = cost of fitting the new lock

Always worth a polite enquiry though

Hoenir

Door Opening  doesn't sound like a labour charge. Worth clarifying though. 

Grumpy_chap

catz4m8z said:

I got locked out of my house and the charge was just over £600! I cant believe it!
Does this sound right!?
Callout was 85 (on a sunday)
labour charge 135
new lock 155
 door opening 155
rest VAT.

Ive been scammed havent I?

I'm not sure you have been scammed.
Just because the cost is higher than you expected, does not mean you have been scammed.  Most of us most of the time are not up to speed on going rate for "distress" services.

The call-out seems low to me, especially as it is only £6 higher than you say the standard weekday call-out would be.

The lock is a case of which appropriate lock does the locksmith have on the van when attending?  A cheaper lock may have been available if the locksmith attended a local DIY store, but then you would need to pay for the extra time that takes.
It also depends on the specification of the lock.  Is this a simple change of lock barrel, or a more high security lock type?  

As a comparison, I need to get a new key cut for our front door which is a recent uPVC door with "SBD" lock assembly (secured by design).  Timpson quoted me £45 just for a replacement (spare) key.  I can quite imagine the actual lock to go with that would be £200-odd (£155 + VAT) if not more.

Did you ask for rates before the locksmith attended?
This may be that you were caught unawares by the costs rather than being scammed as such.
Is the £600 spent good value compared against the costs that would have been incurred by remaining locked out until a planned repair and / or the confidence of knowing the property is secure in good time?

catz4m8z

Maybe it is the standard charge....just hoping insurance can help me out.
Its a heck of alot of money to lose!

Ectophile

The only reason they "have to" drill through the lock is that then they can sell you a new lock at a massive mark-up on the retail price.  If they wanted to, they could pick the old lock and get you in in a few minutes.