In last months article “The Reason Modern Locksmiths Are Now Fitting Burglar Alarms and CCTV Systems ” we touched briefly of the issue of why using a national locksmith call centre rather than using an independent locksmith is better, and after a number of messages via email, social media and many comments left via our blog network we would like to go into this discussion a little deeper.

First of all let us look at the difference between the two, because it looks like many people aren’t even aware that there is a difference.  

The National or Nationwide Locksmith Company

A national locksmith company or nationwide locksmith company gives the impression of shear size, a locksmith company that covers the entire country with engineers (locksmiths) in every corner of the UK, wow they must be massive, employ 1000’s of people and their engineers – or locksmiths – must be highly skilled and well trained, if only this were true.

First off this company tagline or business description is totally misleading, yet they all use it. The real tagline or business description should in fact be “locksmith call centre” because that is what they are a call centre filled with telesales staff ready to act as a middle man and take phone calls for emergency locksmith services.

The national locksmith company does all the advertising, making sure they are at the top of the search engines in every area of the UK by targeting keywords such as emergency locksmith Derby or locksmith Tyldesley changing the town, city or area depending on the location you are searching from, this is very easy to do with services such as Google Adwords which allows you to run a single add and switch out the area depending on where the search has come from.

When a call comes in the receptionist or call centre operator simply searches their own database for a locksmith in this area who is signed up to their service and sends them out.

The Independent Locksmith

As the title states the locksmith is independent and working on his/her own… When you search for a locksmith in you area and happen to telephone an Independent locksmith you will usually be speaking to the actual locksmith, the person who will be coming out to you.

So why is an Independent Locksmith better than a National Locksmith Company?

There are a number of reasons why you should always choose an Independent Locksmith over a national locksmith call centre, lets go through some of them.

Different Skill Levels

The Independent Locksmith is running his or her own business so has a reputation to keep, they will have undergone professional training at of the the UK’s locksmith training colleges, they’ll do their own advertising and get most of their work from referrals.

They will typically have a Google business page as well as their own website where you’ll be able to find genuine reviews from people who have used them.

Locksmiths doing work for the national call centres are on their books because they either can’t or don’t want to get work for themselves, would you trust the skill level and ethics of a tradesman hiding another companies credentials? Sure you could complain to the call centre but once you do their attitude and business model suddenly changes from “We are a national locksmith company” to “We are simply a middle man pairing up customers with locksmiths” in the same way companies like airbnb and uber distance themselves from their dodgy or criminal clients.

There are numerous reports online where someone has had their properly damaged beyond repair by an unskilled locksmith and then been handed a bill for the job and demanded payment.

You’ll pay more, a lot more.

Some people who chose a national locksmith call centre believing that they where a large nationwide locksmith company did so knowing that they would probably have to pay a little more than they would have to pay a local, Independent Locksmith for the same job, their thinking being that they where a larger more professional company with highly skilled engineers, a lot more skilled than an independent locksmith could ever be…

These same people are totally shocked when they find out that the engineers working for these national call centres are mainly unskilled amateurs looking for extra income in the evenings and at the weekend and are even more shocked when they are given a massive bill for substandard work.

Reports have surfaced on the internet of these call centres charging more than 10 times the going rate, there are even a few videos on Youtube where customers have refused to pay and called out an independent locksmith for a second opinion, and believe me when I tell you that no one hates these conmen more than genuine independent locksmiths, so you can image how these confrontations ended, usually with the conman leaving, without payment.

The reason for these large bills are that the call centre needs to pay for national advertising, which isn’t cheap, so they include outrageous call out fees and made up fuels fees, night fees, out of hours supplements etc to boost the bill. The locksmith also wants to make money, and as jobs for these “have a go” amateurs are few and far between and a large cut goes to the call centre they’ll want to make as much as possible so tend to sell you part that you don’t need typically at 5 times or more the retail value.

Many amateur locksmiths working for these national call centres have been named and shamed online in recent years but they’ll just sign up under a different name and get a new mobile number, the call centre doesn’t care in fact they are well aware that their locksmiths are all “have a go” amateurs and tell them to take the customers for every penny they can.

Even without these reasons, morally you should always try and choose an independent locksmith over a large company, surely you’d rather pay towards a child’s education or someone’s mortgage/rent rather than lining the pockets of greedy company directors?

However, a national locksmith call centre should not be confused with online locksmith directories such as smart locksmiths, sites like smart locksmiths do list locksmiths in every area of the UK just like the national locksmith call centres do but the difference is that each area, town, city will have the details of an independent locksmith in that area with contact details allowing you to contact them direct.

Independents use locksmith directories because it’s more cost effective than marketing their own sites thus allowing them to come up high in the search results for a minimal monthly fee.

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