BEWARE OF LOCKSMITH SCAMS
You don’t always need the services of a Locksmith, but when you do it is usually an urgent need like:
While most Locksmiths are legitimate, reputable contractors, there are those individuals that will try to pull a scam offering “emergency locksmith services.” These fraudulent locksmiths are not licensed or bonded and often have little experience in how to perform the services required of a locksmith.
Consider this incident reported to us by one of our customers( name changed to protect identity):
Mrs. Jones is an elderly widow that locked herself out of her home and could not get in that evening. She went to a neighbor’s home and they both looked through the yellow pages for a local locksmith. She saw a big ad for a “local locksmith offering 24 hour locksmith service at low service call rates” and called them and received what she felt was reasonable estimate. 25 minutes later, a man pulled up in a Ford Escape and introduced himself, handing her a business card. He looked at the lock and told her he would have to drill the lock to get her back into her home and it would cost her 3X what he quoted her on the phone. She got very nervous and offered to pay just the service call fee of $20.00 and then called us because she had seen our sign on her way to the grocery store.
How Can You Know if a Locksmith is Legitimate?
Once you find a 24 hour Locksmith in Bradenton that you are comfortable with, store their contact information in your wallet or cell phone so that the next time you need a Locksmith-you will know exactly who to call.