One of the more frequent questions I get (and I mean daily) is from someone who’s lost a key to some lock and doesn’t want to pay the callout they’ve been quoted because they have seen it done on You Tube and it looks easy. I feel their pain. Many a time I’ve had to get an emergency tradesman round only to see them twist a knob, tighten a screw, etc. then invoice me for a similar amount. It hurts!

He charges a callout because he spent time learning all about locks. He spent time learning so that he can identify your lock and work out how to open it. He spent money on a wide variety of tools and techniques because he knows certain types of locks might be resistant to MICA, or an EPG, it might require single pin lock picking, a technique on which he has probably spent hundreds of hours, hundreds of locks, and a few lock pick sets perfecting.

It’s easy to say, and believe me we hear it all the time, that a locksmith arrived, stuck a little tool in the lock and it was open in seconds, only then to complain when he asked for the full callout that you initially quoted them. Do you want him to take an hour, to sweat, to have cuts on his fingers? Because if that’s the issue, don’t worry, he already has! The reason he can get the job done in seconds is because he’s already done the sweating, he’s already spent the hours learning, hours upon hours of practising, learning, studying, becoming excellent at his chosen skill. He did that so you don’t have to, so that he doesn’t have to when you want the lock open.

So rather than complain when a locksmith opens your lock in a matter of seconds, be glad you can carry on with your life faster than expected. Of course, there’s another answer to not paying the callout, and I promise you’ll never have to pay another locksmith. Get the skills yourself, get the tools, learn the techniques, and you’ll never need to call a locksmith again.