National locksmiths usually turn out to be middle men who are actually sub-contracting the work out to local locksmiths for usually double the normal price!
There is usually a call-centre in place which the local phone numbers call through to and you yourself will never actually get to speak to the locksmith themselves until they arrive at your property.
The call-centre will generally take details from you in terms of name and address and they will then check their systems to see if anyone local to you is available to take that job. The locksmiths that these companies usually use tend to be newly trained individuals that do not necessarily have that much experience under the belt which in it’s self can end up costing you more money. The locksmith will then be instructed to charge you per hour plus parts which will always carry a significant mark up plus VAT.
It is rare that the call centre you speak to will inform you of any additional charges that will be made and you usually only find out about these charges after the work is completed when of course it is too late. The locksmith that carried out the work might take home 40% of what the national locksmith company have charged and the rest goes to the national company which is why national locksmiths are extortionate, especially in out of hours times i.e nights and weekends.
These national locksmith companies have large overheads i.e their call centres, call centre staff, advertising, Google Adwords advertising etc which again encourages them to charge silly rates for simple jobs
After care with national locksmiths is very poor indeed, as soon as you have signed off on the job if there is a problem with the work the locksmith carried out then the national locksmith will palm you off and blame the issues on the locksmith carried out the work.
Spotting A National Locksmith Company
In newspapers their adverts often have a reference code at the top or bottom of the advert asking you to quote that reference when you call them
On Google or any other search engines the national companies generally have the top three listings on the sponsored adverts
They will never give you the option to actually speak to the locksmith themselves they will just set the price on the phone straight away and once agreed the locksmith will be sent
When you call the call centres generally ask you for your card details before the job is completed this is something that a local locksmith would never do
They almost never give you a quote unless they have taken your address first they do this so they can find an available locksmith near you. If the locksmith they choose for the job is quite a distance away from you then you can expect to pay more for the job and wait longer for them to get there.
This also means that if you decide that you want to cancel the booking (so you can get a local locksmith to arrive in half the time and do the job for half the price) then they will already have all your card details and will try to recover the money owed for the job.
Using a national locksmith can be very costly indeed, support your local locksmith by calling Easy Pickings Locksmiths Leeds for all your locksmith needs on – 0113 805 0761 or 07456 080054