Locksmiths charges

foggy_lad

not sure if this should be in consumer issues or D.I.Y. so please move if appropiate.

i had to replace a front door lock yesterday as the key had been mislaid/taken and rang a local locksmiths to be quoted €110 to call out and unscrew one screw from the door, remove the old cylinder and replace this with a new cylinder. all this would have taken no more than 5 minutes with maybe another 5 minutes for travel.

how can this massive charge be justified? and before anyone says it i do realise they can charge a thousand euro or more if they wish but it does not make it right!

in the end i went to a local hardware store and bought a cylinder for less than 15 euro and fitted it myself!

Oryx

You pay for: Professional service. Callout fee. Knowing what to do. He will have business overheads such as maintenance of tools, stock, vehicles and staffing. Rent, rates, insurance and advertising. He needs to make a living after paying all of the above.

Being self employed has a whole host of costs you have not considered. Its not like he can afford to walk into a hardware store and just pick up what you need and fit it, free, and only make a small cut on his trade discount. He go out of business in days.

The market pays what the market will bear, and if you felt he was too expensive, you shop around, or as you did, diy it.

rubadub

foggy_lad wrote: »

how can this massive charge be justified? and before anyone says it i do realise they can charge a thousand euro or more if they wish but it does not make it right!

It does make it right, they should be allowed charge what they like TBH. Somebody like a locksmith might only get 1 job a day. It did seem a fair bit though, I would expect a callout charge to be €50-60

foggy_lad wrote: »

in the end i went to a local hardware store and bought a cylinder for less than 15 euro and fitted it myself!

how long did all that take you? if you had to go and fix it in a mates house some distance away how long would it have taken you from the moment you left your house until you returned? how much is petrol, depreciation on the car, tax, insurance, servicing etc

It pisses me off but sometimes it is cheaper to get an apparently overpriced person to do it, i.e. I would have made more money if I did overtime for the same duration.

brettmirl

foggy_lad wrote: »

not sure if this should be in consumer issues or D.I.Y. so please move if appropiate.

i had to replace a front door lock yesterday as the key had been mislaid/taken and rang a local locksmiths to be quoted €110 to call out and unscrew one screw from the door, remove the old cylinder and replace this with a new cylinder. all this would have taken no more than 5 minutes with maybe another 5 minutes for travel.

how can this massive charge be justified? and before anyone says it i do realise they can charge a thousand euro or more if they wish but it does not make it right!

in the end i went to a local hardware store and bought a cylinder for less than 15 euro and fitted it myself!

What area of the country are you in?

Was it a bog standard Yale/Union lock in a wooden door or a "euro lock" in an aluminium door or a lock that you push the handle up to lock the door?

foggy_lad

euro lock in wooden door, in Carlow town where the locksmith is also located, took less than 5minutes to take out the old and fit the new lock with the help of a hammer to break the old keyless lock.

brettmirl

Around the €100 would be the average call out charge for that alright.

Very easy job to do youself, but a lot of people wouldn't have the confidence to do it themselves.

Run_to_da_hills

Go to your local DIY hardware and purchase a new cylinder for under e20. The "DIY" stands for Do It Yourself.

foggy_lad

exactly what i did do and it was a lot easier than i thought it would be!

jhegarty

It's €10 for fixing the door , €100 knowing how to do it...

Raiser

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Go to your local DIY hardware and purchase a new cylinder for under e20. The "DIY" stands for Do It Yourself.

RTFOPADBSASC

The RTFOPADBSASC stands for: read the fcuking original post and don't be such a smart cnut

jetsonx

foggy_lad wrote: »

not sure if this should be in consumer issues or D.I.Y. so please move if appropiate.

i had to replace a front door lock yesterday as the key had been mislaid/taken and rang a local locksmiths to be quoted €110 to call out and unscrew one screw from the door, remove the old cylinder and replace this with a new cylinder. all this would have taken no more than 5 minutes with maybe another 5 minutes for travel.

how can this massive charge be justified? and before anyone says it i do realise they can charge a thousand euro or more if they wish but it does not make it right!

in the end i went to a local hardware store and bought a cylinder for less than 15 euro and fitted it myself!

why don't you tell us what you do - and we will decide if you give value to the economy?

foggy_lad

jetsonx wrote: »

why don't you tell us what you do - and we will decide if you give value to the economy?

why on earth would i tel anyone here what i do?
and what would that have to do with my original post?

jetsonx

You're claiming that he charged you a "massive charge" i.e. you feel he ripped you off. I do not think that he ripped you off at all - think of all the costs he has to incur before he even arrived at your doorstep.

The reason I asked about your profession, is that when you put other professions under scrutiny, other than "cash-in-hand" tradespeople, some of their earnings / productivity ratios can be also described as a "rip-off" to consumers or the State purse.

nobeastsofierce

The OP was talking about a bus powered external drive, not a self powered one.

Many of those being critical of thise bargain are failing to make the distinction

pow wow

I paid a locksmith 150 euro to open a pvc door where it had been shut with the key on the other side (meaning a key from my side wouldn't go in to open it). The locking mechanism hadn't been engaged, so the guy was there all of 2 or 3 minutes taking off one of the seals to open it.

Nice work if you can get it.

Jaysoose

The girlfriend let our aprtment door close behind her when she was bringing the rubbish out one day, she naturally panicked and rang a locksmith to be quoted 150 for him to get in and change the lock. She rang me staright after and i told her to cancel that guy and i would pop home from work in a minute and sort it out. It took me 1 minute to pop my credit card in and open the lock as she obviously had not deadlocked it. What would the locksmith have done differently for his 150 euro? Admin costs perhaps? Petrol?

Im all for people making a living but im sure some of the situations they get called to are like getting handed free money.

Raiser

nobeastsofierce wrote: »

The OP was talking about a bus powered external drive, not a self powered one.

Many of those being critical of thise bargain are failing to make the distinction

- I know what bus you should be on Beast & you'd get a free jacket with funny strapped arms too

mikemac

Jaysoose wrote: »

It took me 1 minute to pop my credit card in and open the lock as she obviously had not deadlocked it. .

Sounds like you've done this before
*Casts suspicious glance at Jaysoose*

tbh

they charge so much because they are turning away (potentially much bigger) jobs while they are replacing your locks. That's the reason for call out charges. It's up to you if you think the charge is worth it or not.

brettmirl

You also have to factor in travel time to and from yuor house. While the locksmith might only be there for 2/3 minutes it might take an hour round trip to get there.

Also, the reason it takes a short time to fix/open locks is becuase they do it day-in/day-out.

Jaysoose

micmclo wrote: »

Sounds like you've done this before
*Casts suspicious glance at Jaysoose*

LOL she said the same thing, i got locked out of my student house a few years back and it worked then so i figured it was worth a go here to save a few quid.

Jaysoose

tbh wrote: »

they charge so much because they are turning away (potentially much bigger) jobs while they are replacing your locks. That's the reason for call out charges. It's up to you if you think the charge is worth it or not.

This makes no sense, they have a call out fee just in case mountjoy rings looking for their locks changed?

I understand People have to make money and if its 150 then thats what it costs but dont try and justify it by making it look like they are doing people favours.

brettmirl

Loads of people charge call out fees. Gas Boiler broken? It usualy costs €90 before the guy even looks at it!

same if you want any gas or electrical applicance fixed at your house.

Jaysoose

The call out fee is not an issue its the justification for it that baffled me. I would rather somebody told the truth and said "im not getting off the sofa for less than 150 quid".

foggy_lad

jetsonx wrote: »

You're claiming that he charged you a "massive charge" i.e. you feel he ripped you off. I do not think that he ripped you off at all - think of all the costs he has to incur before he even arrived at your doorstep.

i dont feel anything except pity for anyone that pays that kind of money for something most people can do themselves:)

tbh wrote: »

they charge so much because they are turning away (potentially much bigger) jobs while they are replacing your locks. That's the reason for call out charges. It's up to you if you think the charge is worth it or not.

the celtic tiger is ldaed and well buried at this stage they are just trying to fleece people and i say good for them if people pay but it still does not make it right

mick_irl wrote: »

You also have to factor in travel time to and from yuor house. While the locksmith might only be there for 2/3 minutes it might take an hour round trip to get there.
they were local less than 2miles away but maybe the guy was in cork and thought it ok to charge travel expensis from there?
Also, the reason it takes a short time to fix/open locks is becuase they do it day-in/day-out.

it is not a difficult job to do, if you find yourself needing to change a lock i woould recommend D.I.Y. or get a friend or neighbour to do it for you.

tbh

Jaysoose wrote: »

This makes no sense, they have a call out fee just in case mountjoy rings looking for their locks changed?

I understand People have to make money and if its 150 then thats what it costs but dont try and justify it by making it look like they are doing people favours.

no, but why should a guy spend potentially €50 to do a job that pays 20? What if, while he's doing that job, another job comes in that would have paid €150?

the main point is that you don't have to pay him if you don't want to. The market decides the costs that it will bear. If someone charged a COF of €600, they'd go out of business.

tbh

foggy_lad wrote: »

the celtic tiger is ldaed and well buried at this stage they are just trying to fleece people and i say good for them if people pay but it still does not make it right
.

no, fleecing someone would be charging them 500 quid for a part that costs 50. He's telling you what the charge is upfront. If you don't want to pay it, you don't have to.

Jaysoose

tbh wrote: »

no, but why should a guy spend potentially €50 to do a job that pays 20? What if, while he's doing that job, another job comes in that would have paid €150?

the main point is that you don't have to pay him if you don't want to. The market decides the costs that it will bear. If someone charged a COF of €600, they'd go out of business.

The crux of the argument seems to be that the customer should pay extra 'just in case' a better job rings in the middle of working on a small job, which in my eyes is poor form but then i didnt pay the guy as i sorted it myself. These guys can charge what they like but we all know they are expensive and they have literally a 'captive' market so the little guy gets screwed and 'costs' are used as an excuse to charge big money for 10 minute jobs.

brettmirl

Ok...how much would it cost for a garage to come out and change a tyre on your car?

Most people can do it themselves, but not everyone can. Should take 10-15 mins. Prob a hefty call out charge too and yet again what you call a 'captive market'.

Oryx

The reason any professional can charge a premium for a service is because they know what to do. As was referred to earlier in the thread, its not spending 10 seconds giving something a bang, and fixing it, that counts, its knowing where to give that bang.

Not everyone is savvy enough to do the job, or has the time or kind helpful neighbours. If you are, great, save your money. Someone who cant could have 150 quid sitting safely inside on the mantlepiece but they can hardly have fun spending it in the pub if theyve locked themselves outside, and havent a clue how to get the door open.:)

Whether you think the fees quoted here are justifiable or not is relative. How much is it worth to get your door open without hassle? You decide and act accordingly. If its too much, you break a window and buy a pane of glass. Thats what I mean by the market dictating the price. If its simply too dear, the majority will find a cheaper way to solve the problem and prices will fall or locksmiths will slowly dissappear.

Jaysoose

mick_irl wrote: »

Ok...how much would it cost for a garage to come out and change a tyre on your car?

Most people can do it themselves, but not everyone can. Should take 10-15 mins. Prob a hefty call out charge too and yet again what you call a 'captive market'.

It cost 50 quid to get a guy out to fix and change the tyre on an alloy. I know this as i have had it done.