My family and I were out of town on vacation and had a house sitter who locked himself out on August 10. I called Wylie Locksmith and i was quoted $29.00 service call fee and $15 min for low security locks. I explained to the girl on the phone that it was low security, standard lock on bedroom/bathroom doors. She let me know that the tech that would go out to our house and meet with the house sitter within the next hour to unlock the garage door. I did not expect this bill to be any more than around $100.00. Please note that the house sitter is 18 years old, and was more worried about getting into the house than the obnoxious charge he was given to unlock this lock.
I received a call from the house sitters mother (and friend of mine) that the tech with Wylie Locksmith charged $210.00 AND asked for a tip. So the total for this job was $230.00. I immediately called Wylie Locksmith and asked to speak to the manager, who was already gone for the day. I was asked to leave a message for her to call me Monday. FYI - Today is 8/14 and I have yet to receive that call.
My house sitters mother did call Wylie Locksmith to set up a meeting with the manager and was given the time of 1:30pm. When we were on our way to the meeting, we got a call that they don't have an office and the meeting would have to be over the phone. Come to find out, their address listed in Wylie is a plot of dirt - which is illegal per TDLR. We were not able to get a word out at all - all the manager would say was we were being rude and she would not continue the call. I tried calling from my phone, was on hold for over 20 minutes before I called from another phone and was able to speak to the manager briefly. I asked her if the company was independently owned, or if they operated under a larger company and she stated that she was not able to give out that information. I informed her that I needed a call from the owner since she was unwilling to talk about the situation and if I did not get a call, I would file a civil suit against the company and she stated for me to go ahead as she didn't care.
Interesting bit of information. I have a copy of the invoice given to the house sitter - and it has another companies name on it, not even an invoice for Wylie Locksmith. The tech or the owner apparently worked for another company whose invoice they used... And I called this company and they explained that he use to work for them but no longer does. Apparently the tech ran out of invoices with "Wylie Locksmith" on it and used this other companies invoices.
Also, I did call other locksmiths today and they stated that this company is known for scamming customers. They also stated they would of charged no more than $125.00 to do the job. I still think it is pretty steep (I have been in Property Management for over 10 years) but I guess when you need in your house what can you do!
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