Customer Service Nightmare: Dealing With Small OEMs

[JasonRox]

(which was my promise before entering Lock Tech College that I would never divulge any proprietary information to anyone; sworn to an RCMP officer).

RCMP officers don't even take themselves seriously.

No offense to RCMP officers, but they're a joke to this country.

 

[Danger]

That's under Canadian law, of course. Other jurisdictions have different standards.

 

[Moonbear]

Meanwhile, I've managed to open stranded strangers' locks with a coathanger in - yep - about 2 1/2 seconds (no really - down, up, and it's open). I've become quite adept at it.

When I was in college, the campus police would help with unlocking cars if you locked your keys in, but would refuse if you had power locks, claiming it was too easy to damage them and they didn't want to be liable. I don't know what's special about them...maybe there are wires that can get snagged or something. Of course, when I was locked out, I had a car with power locks (this was before the locks on cars were all controlled by keyfobs you had to have in hand before you could lock the door...on that one, it was rather easy to bump the power lock button when getting out, which is what happened to me). Fortunately I convinced the cop that having a car with working locks wasn't very useful to me if I couldn't get into it, and would prefer taking my chances with him damaging something I could deal with repairing later over standing outside all night...nothing wound up damaged, so it all worked out well. But, yeah, at the time, even on a poor student budget, if our campus police didn't offer the service free, I'd have GLADLY paid $25 to get into my car (I figure it costs some time and money just to drive out to where I am)...I'd have considered it cheap. I'd have been willing to pay $50 even, for bailing me out of my own stupidity. I might have started cringing at $75, but if I was resorting to calling a locksmith in the first place, I'd have to suck up the fact that I didn't have any other options available. Of course, if I had more than one choice, I would probably ask what their fees were and try a few to see if one was more reasonable than the others, but that might also depend on where I was stuck and how long I was willing to stay stuck there.

 

[JasonRox]

When I was in college, the campus police would help with unlocking cars if you locked your keys in, but would refuse if you had power locks, claiming it was too easy to damage them and they didn't want to be liable. I don't know what's special about them...maybe there are wires that can get snagged or something. Of course, when I was locked out, I had a car with power locks (this was before the locks on cars were all controlled by keyfobs you had to have in hand before you could lock the door...on that one, it was rather easy to bump the power lock button when getting out, which is what happened to me). Fortunately I convinced the cop that having a car with working locks wasn't very useful to me if I couldn't get into it, and would prefer taking my chances with him damaging something I could deal with repairing later over standing outside all night...nothing wound up damaged, so it all worked out well. But, yeah, at the time, even on a poor student budget, if our campus police didn't offer the service free, I'd have GLADLY paid $25 to get into my car (I figure it costs some time and money just to drive out to where I am)...I'd have considered it cheap. I'd have been willing to pay $50 even, for bailing me out of my own stupidity. I might have started cringing at $75, but if I was resorting to calling a locksmith in the first place, I'd have to suck up the fact that I didn't have any other options available. Of course, if I had more than one choice, I would probably ask what their fees were and try a few to see if one was more reasonable than the others, but that might also depend on where I was stuck and how long I was willing to stay stuck there.

True. The price of $25 isn't even that bad.

When Danger locked the door on the lady, that was just priceless.

The $25 is probably cheaper than taking a cab home and back to get a another pair of keys.

 

[Moonbear]

True. The price of $25 isn't even that bad.

When Danger locked the door on the lady, that was just priceless.

Yep, I wish I could have been there to see her expression. :rofl:

 

[DaveC426913]

When I presented the invoice, she said "Are you nuts? There's no way I'm paying you $25 for something that took you 2 1/2 seconds."

"Actually ma'am, from end-to-end, including travel, this job will have taken about 45 minutes of my day. You're getting it for a steal you twit."