Day-in and day-out, we hear horror stories from our customers who almost got scammed by a scammer locksmith. Unfortunately, many times, people fall for the scams of these criminals.
Today, a very smart Calgary accountant did what we suggest everyone to do, think and refuse to pay. Mariya Savchyshyn owns a condo in Calgary and rents it out. She said her tenants asked her to replace their lock, and a Google search listed Locksmith Calgary at the top, so she called them without doing her searches to see that they are a scammer locksmith.
Finding out if a locksmith company is a scam is quite easy, here are a few simple steps from Terry Whin-Yates to catch them.
There are many more warning signs to catch a scammer locksmith. Just use your head and if you can’t determine if they’re fake or not, don’t use them!
One big warning sign which Mariya Savchyshyn should have caught onto was the fact that the scammer locksmith, Locksmith Calgary used the tenant’s phone to phone her. Why wouldn’t they use their own cell number? Because these scammer locksmith’s do not want repeat customers.
Scammer locksmiths such as locksmith Calgary operate on a one-hit basis. They scam you, and then they request an extreme amount of money and force you to pay. Because of the bad experience they provide, they don’t expect you to call back which is why they provide an illegitimate invoice with a fraudulent tax ID, a fake address and at often times as well, a fake phone number.
Thankfully, when the scammer locksmith called Mariya Savchyshyn to say that he’s done, she caught on. Locksmith Calgary refused to provide an itemized invoice for the inflated invoice which was triple the cost, $773.85 as per CBC.
“And I’m like, that’s weird, because usually the customer has to receive an invoice, look at it and then pay, right?” said Savchyshyn.
“I’m an accountant myself, and I know that no one is going to send me money until they see the invoice.”
When Savchyshyn refused to pay without knowing exactly what she was paying for — she says the company threatened to send the bill to a collection agency.
Terry Whin-Yates states that threats are common with scammer locksmiths. We’ve heard from people that the scammer locksmiths have gotten violent with violent threats, verbal threats, death threats and unfortunately much more.
“I just want to warn people because someone … might be scared because that company is scaring people by saying they’ll send them to collections,” she said.
“They might be scared and just pay $800 for a lock, it’s ridiculous.”
A scammer locksmith will have a hard time sending you to a legitimate collections agency. Collection agencies are not stupid, they will ask for supporting documentation which the scammer locksmiths will not have. Do not be fooled by the collection agency trick. If they do send you to collections, you can fight it by signing up to a low-cost service called LegalShield.
“Locksmith Calgary told CBC Calgary they don’t provide a billing service, even for larger companies, and require all payments be made before an invoice is issued.”
This should be an immediate red flag. No legitimate company issues an invoice after payment. We, for example always issue an itemized invoice before the customer pays, because that’s the correct way of doing business. If a customer has a question, we’re always there to answer that question.
It is ok to ask the locksmith who their credit card processor is for collecting payments. Credit card processors are the companies that collect your payment on behalf of the merchant and then provide the merchant with the funds. Names of some credit card processors are: Moneris, Square, Payfirma, Helcim, Stripe. If the locksmith doesn’t know or refuses to answer the question, refuse to pay. If they demand cash, refuse to pay.
“On their website, Locksmith Calgary lists their service call fee as $15 plus labour and hardware costs. A lock change is listed as $35 dollars and a lock re-key as $19.”
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For further information go to http://mrlocksmith.com/
A huge market right now for locksmiths is Emergency school lockdown procedures or “Active Shooter” as well as other institutions and even some commercial applications. However, for schools, there are so many security products on the market and a lot of it is just useless. Schlage has a great system. They call this the “classroom security function.” Basically, when you think about it, it is an Institutional lock so you have keys on both sides and it’s a classroom function. So again, you have keys on both sides. It’s a classroom function, but it can be locked down from the inside if there is an emergency. The Classroom teacher would have an “Emergency key” and if the alarm system or the speaker system sounds for “Lock Down Procedures” the teacher would from the inside of the door lock the door. From the inside, even though it’s got a lock on the inside, you can always open the door from the inside and it shows you which way if you can put the key in. From the outside, it’s a classroom function. When I put the key in, from the outside it becomes a storeroom function! So it’s always locked, you can’t get out, but the inside you can still come and go as you please. So, for during the day, when the school, the janitor, or the teacher, whoever unlocks the door, they do classic classroom function. Let’s unlock it. The kids can come and go as they please, it’s not a problem. If there’s a problem and you have to go to emergency lockdown procedures, all the teacher has to do is put their key in on the inside, turn it, that way, to the lock position. Now, it’s a class, it’s turned it into a storeroom function now. They can’t get in from the outside, just the teacher just simply just turn it and from the inside, you can still get out. So no matter what happens, you could always open the door from the inside and get out. From the outside, you just lock down the door. Quick, fast, efficient, easy upgrade for the school. When the “All Clear” is sounded and after the situation is over, the teacher can just turn it back into the classroom function, it’s just regular, again back to where it was. For a quick easy upgrade to your school, for emergency lockdown procedures, I highly recommend this is the Schlage, Schlage ND-Series and it’s called the “Classroom Security Function.”
In conclusion, the lock is an Institutional lock and it’s called the Classroom security. Love it, it’s absolutely fantastic for the schools. Quick, easy upgrade. Yes, there are more secure products we can install but again, for quickly getting your school retrofitted into complying with the emergency lockdown procedures, this is a fantastic product.
Call Mr. Locksmith for further information http://www.mrlocksmith.com/
or email: info@mrlocksmith.com
Mr. Locksmith Vancouver
Vancouver Locksmith Main: (604) 239-0882
Downtown Vancouver Locksmith: (604) 262-1907
Downtown Vancouver Keystore: (604) 669-8008
Mr. Locksmith Automotive: (604) 259-7617
For On-line and Hands-on Locksmith Training Dates and Cities near you by Terry Whin-Yates for Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced Locksmithing as well as my Covert Methods of Entry, Non-destructive Methods of Entry and to purchase the Famous “Dumb Key Force Tool” that opens Smart Key locks in seconds go to Mr. Locksmith Training
For Locksmith Franchise and Licensing Opportunities go to http://mrlocksmith.com/locksmithfranchise-opportunities/
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