May 3 1:31 PM
Investigators: Door Jam
Posted By: Timothy Donley
Most people don't have a locksmith on speed dial, but when you're locked out, you need help fast. Help from someone you can trust.
But NBC Action News Investigator Nichole Teich is hot on the trail of one company that's hurting some customers instead of helping.
When you've locked yourself out and need to get in immediately, you're desperate. So you open the phonebook and call a locksmith. That's what Cynthia Day did after losing the keys to her car.
"[I] opened the Yellow Pages and the first big ad I seen, I called them, " she said.
The ad filled the entire page and listed six local phone numbers and a local address.
"I wanted them to unlock my door and make me a key, " Day said.
But after six hours, all she saw were wires hanging from her dash and her car's ignition switch in the passenger seat.
"He told me he was going to fix it, but then it was going to be a $300 bill."
What Day did not know is that the company has a long list of complaints from customers who say they were pressured into paying high prices. So the NBC Action News Investigators decided to put them to the test.
With the help of a metro homeowner, we locked ourselves out. We also called Always Available Locksmith for help. They told us $39 for the service call, $15 to open the door.
And 30 minutes later, a locksmith arrives. He starts using tools to pick the lock and our hidden cameras are watching his every move. But what he doesn't know is that we picked the lock the day before.
President of the Missouri/Kansas Locksmith Association Jack Iturralde is helping us because he says other local locksmiths are often left to clean up the mess after Always Available Locksmith makes a house call.
"If someone comes out and pretends to be a locksmith and treats them like this, that makes the entire craft look badly, " Iturralde said.
Using ordinary lock picking tools, it takes Iturralde less than one minute to get into our test home. And he left the lock still intact.
"This is definitely a pickable lock, " he said. "I would see no reason why any locksmith with reasonable training would have to drill this lock whatsoever."
At the test house, the locksmith from Always Available using the same tools tried to pick the lock. One minute passes, but the locksmith is having no luck. Five minutes later, 10 minutes later, the locksmith says he can't open the door. That is when he brings up an alternative.
"I might have to drill it, " he said.
Drilling a hold through the lock is something Iturralde says a skilled locksmith would rarely do, because then the homeowner is left with no way to protect their property.
But the locksmith from Always Available has a solution for that, as well. "That's $89 without tax."
He just happens to have a replacement lock in his van and the price goes up $35.
The Always Available locksmith takes out a drill and starts destroying the lock. So we stopped watching and started asking tough questions.
NICHOLE TEICH: I'm Nichole Teich with NBC Action News. Is that how you make extra money, by drilling into these locks?
LOCKSMITH: No.
NICHOLE TEICH: And then selling them a lock?
Locksmith: no.
Then he stopped talking.
"Get this camera out of my face, " he said, then walked away.
But we already knew the answers. We decided to pay a visit to the company. The ad in the phone book says all calls are answered at 295 W. 231 St.in Tonganoxie, Kan. But there's no locksmith there, only a huge cornfield. But we tracked the company thousands of miles from home, to New York City.
The company's real name is Dependable Locksmith, and when you call one of the six local phone numbers, your call is forwarded to an answering service out of New York.
Makesha Brown, a former employee, told sister station TMJ4 that she was trained to elude customers' questions.
"Some would be crying, some would be really angry, agitated, " she said, adding supervisors often made fun of the callers who were angry about the way they do business. And if she was ever in trouble, "I would think twice. I would make sure to find out where the locksmith was because I never hope to deal with that company myself."
The real problem is that even though cosmetologists, podiatrists and even perfumists are all required to have licenses, locksmiths are not.
Dependable Locksmith is doing business in several states and is under currently investigation. Both the attorneys general in Illinois and Ohio are suing the company for deceptive practices. There is nothing pending in Missouri or Kansas.
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