I promised her that I wouldn’t take any money until I finished making the keys and they had been accepted as replacements for the ones that got lost; unlike the buzzard who’d taken them for a ride earlier. I gave her my wholesale rate rather than retail and she knew I was doing what I could for her. When I arrived I made the door key, a ten cut system, in short order. I explained that I still needed the last four cuts to make the key complete, a basic course in ten cut keys.
The chrome “ears” on the ignition switch had reached the end of the line as I showed the young man how they were about to come off. I had him call his mother back to get permission to change out the ignition switch; yet another expense that I was reluctant to add to her day. I basically gave her the switch at cost and matched it to the door key so one key would still work the way it was intended. I impressioned a trunk key and completed the job; all of fifteen minutes had passed from start to finish as the young man explained that he needed the “clicker” that was also lost to turn start the car.
I looked around under the dash and showed him where the manual bypass button was located that would permit him to start the vehicle without the “clicker”. It had been hidden fairly well and had been installed professionally with wire ties that kept the extra wires from dangling everywhere. He’d never had to use the bypass button and had forgotten that it was even there.
Now, what to do about the buzzard passing himself off as a locksmith? In my book he’s an opportunist at the very best, a thief with a work order book and none of the skills which I’d associate with anyone who claimed to be a locksmith. His statement, “I can’t make a key to your car without a key code”, would indicate that he knows nearly nothing about making keys. Most customers have no idea what the codes are for a vehicle they own and Ford, Lincoln and Mercury didn’t start keeping key codes until 1997 and so he should have known that no key code could have been obtained for a 1994 Town Car.
Just for argument’s sake, let’s say that key codes were available for a vehicle of that vintage; what kind of locksmith presumes that every key code will be correct? What if the code wasn’t good; isn’t that why locksmiths are needed, to figure out what the key looks like when all else fails? If he couldn’t satisfy the customer’s request to replace a lost key then he should have walked away empty handed and apologized for having wasted the customers time; not collect a show up fee for a job he was unable to complete.
In this day of locksmith licenses and government agencies to protect the public from unscrupulous vendors; I might be tempted to turn this buzzard’s name over to the Texas DPS/PSB and let them rake his worthless behind over some hot coals as a lesson to other buzzards taking advantage of the public. The problem with that is I can’t stand those vermin at the DPS/PSB any more than the buzzards they’re supposed to be protecting the public from. No, I wouldn’t give those vermin the time of day even if I wore a watch. I’m going to recommend to that particular customer is to take the buzzard to small claims court, something which has always been available to sort out minor issues which involve unscrupulous vendors who take advantage of their customers. I’ll volunteer my expertise in the area of automotive locksmith service which I’ve gained over the past thirty plus years in the business, even if it means wasting a day in court without compensation.
I don’t want buzzards feeding on my neighbors any more than the DPS/PSB; the big difference, at least the way I see it, I don’t have the chutzpah to impose my standards on how to operate their business or collect a fee so that I can enforce my particular standards on anyone else as they run their business; I’ll leave that up to the courts where it should be done when one individual claims to have been injured. I could attempt explaining this until I’m blue in the face to those who want the State be their “Nanny” and it wouldn’t do any good; this is how the free market system was supposed to work, at least that’s the way it worked until it was taken over by a bunch of well meaning socialists who haven’t any faith in America.
I did call the phone number of the other “locksmith” and asked for his side of the story, my having dealt with the public reminds me that there’re usually two sides to every story. He claimed that the customer didn’t have a key code and that he told her he would have to charge her for three and a half hours labor to figure out what the key looked like and that the customer wasn’t prepared to pay that amount and so he charged her only for the service call and left. I have to wonder what kind of locksmith doesn’t quote a price for a complete job, one that includes service call fee, a set labor and parts amount so that there is final amount that is agreed upon by both the vendor and the customer before showing up on site. I’d also have to wonder what kind of locksmith “wannabe” who claims to be able to make a key for a 1994 Town Car tells a customer, much less another locksmith that it would take three and a half hours to do a fifteen minute job. “What a Crock!”, as my dad would say when he has to put on his brown shoes so that if he steps in it the stain won’t show.
Sorry, Pal ( a generic name unless the customer takes my advice and goes to small claims court ), but that doesn’t wash with me. You’re a buzzard pretending to be a locksmith; unfortunately you’re associated with the same locksmith industry that I work very hard providing the public in a professional way and I hope this one blows up in your face.
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