Lost your car keys and you're mad at me?

[elbowmacaroni]

Everyone always makes assumption after assumption. The other guy that is hot in here has this guy being a total choad cheating on disability and the whole nine yards. Of course there are people who don't take care of their vehicles! There are also mechanics who need to tell their customers, especially women, that they need to get a new car or a new used car instead of pouring money into their bank account there at Joe's Garage...some mechanics will do that...a lot of them will NOT do that. I have a friend at work, female, I have to get her oil changed for her because when she goes to get it done, they perform all the shit that they want to do and present her with a bill for over a $100.00 smackers and bully and browbeat her...when I take it, they suggest what needs to be changed, etc. So, you can point out extremes where mechanics and just about everyone else is looking for a mark or are also the salt of the Earth and wonderful people. I'm trying to actually say that in here, but nobody is getting it apparently.

No, he doesn't "have him" doing anything... just threw out possibilities due to the sheer volume of rampant fraud in those "programs." Also, people who yell and act like dicks and then throw out gee I'm disabled as an afterthought to try and guilt someone into lowering a price on something should be brought out back and beaten.

[rai]

LOST HIS KEY, ive done that, I just go looking for them and usually find them. if not, I have a spare set. once I didn't find them until the next day.
if he lost his keys, that would be the car, the house, the bike lock,
or
Did he just lock them in the car? take a big rock, knock on the window, problem solved...

If he said he lost his keys, and he dosent' mention the house key....
he could be scammin' the locksmith to help him steal a car, if its a piece of crap car, maybe he has issues with the real owner and hes getting the locksmith into his crooked pile of crap.

If he doesn't know that you have way better luck being nice to people you need help from..... its a life lesson and hes too stupid to figure it out.

distrust the guy, especially on the guilt thing,
someone ends up saying "and I only got one leg"? ask him if he left his keys with his crutches... then ask him how he lost the leg, in the railroad yard while breaking into boxcars? Don't laugh, I know a guy who lost a leg doing something like that.

people who try to guilt the total stranger for some kind of payout, they do that all the time. a few suckers fall for it every time.

I woulda just hung up on him right after he got stupid

[machinist]

I get these calls a lot, if someone tells me they have a ridiculously low amount of money and I think they are full of shit I set an appointment at 10pm-1 am, if they complain I politely tell them if they want to economy rate they are going to wait and that full price emergency service is going to take priority of them. I also tell them I take collateral and items in trade, sometimes I end up with something I can actually use. If they tell me they only have X dollars I tell them I take credit cards. Some point in there I hear "but I dont want too" and I say well it sounds like you have the means to pay me but you just don't want to pay me what it costs, cant help you there.

I had one really rude guy demand I do a 2006 honda civic for 100$, I told him if his car had the "key code" clearly stamped on it I would totally do it for that price. I had him run around the car for an hour reading part numbers off doors, windows, glove boxes, the engine bay. I made sure he read off every digit while I was eating a cheeseburger pretending to write them down then, tell him to double check the number so I could run it through my PC again ( my PC was a diet coca-cola with ice). The guy actually did this for about an hour all the while making up stories about how my dispatcher told him it was 100$. He gave me some crazy hard luck story about how he couldn't get to work for 4 days because no one would give him a good enough price. The icing on the cake was when his son got on the phone who accidentally let it slip that it was HIS car not his fathers and he lost the keys drinking at a bar in Huntington beach last weekend.

[rzr800]

Well the guy with the 2002 ford Windstar had his wife call me today. She was real nice and she paid me the $225.00 the only thing that sucked was when I ran the vin there was no code on file. So I actually broke a sweat and pulled the door cylinder and used my software for the last 2 cuts and found the code.

[Squelchtone]

Glad it all worked out. I wonder if you were the least expensive of all the places they called. I dont do automotive so I'm curious, how much in parts is the blank and chip keyhead for a typical car, or I guess for the car you worked on. I know chips make a key sound all high tech but it cant cost the keyblank/chiphead manufacturers more than $5 a key, and then sell those to locksmiths for $20 a piece, and if it takes a service trip and an hour of labor, shouldnt it be more like $150? I hear people paying $200-$300 all the time, it does seem artificially inflated. Also, I dont think it's a customers care that a locksmith had to buy a $2000 dollar programmer or reader, that's the cost of doing business. I think you would make more money if chip keys work was $125 a car and then pay off the equipment faster than only have a few $225 jobs here and there.

Just trying to understand why a blank with a $5 dollar chip ends up being $225 (I could see a dealer ripping people off for $300 or more, but locksmiths should charge a fair price, regardless of what the market drives or what the other locksmith in town charges)

Thanks for laying it out, I'm curious to understand it better,
Squelchtone

[rzr800]

Only me and another guy do it in this area. The other guy charges $550.00 and he thinks his shit dont stink. The dealerships are expensive over here and my price is priced to get the job at most profit. Sense ford can't retrieve the code the only option they will give you is to do a full lock swap. All new cylinders then the program which is gunna be near $500.00 plus the tow and wait. With me I tell them I can come out within 30min or less and make key on site 24/7 which is convenient for them. I live in a college town and I'm also next to a big army base. The transponder keys are like $6 online yes. Yesterday the Windstar took me 3 test keys and one pats key for the program. The 3 tests keys are for the progression of the last 2 cuts the door cylinder didn't have. All in all I had like $7 or $8 bucks wrapped up in the job and my time 35-40 mins. The reason why I feel charging 225 instead of 125 is because I can't afford to do it for 125 lol. I got investment advertising fuel and of course amateur locksmiths eating my lunch... My price is fair I'm not worried about them not calling back because they always do call back.

[machinist]

Well the guy with the 2002 ford Windstar had his wife call me today. She was real nice and she paid me the $225.00 the only thing that sucked was when I ran the vin there was no code on file. So I actually broke a sweat and pulled the door cylinder and used my software for the last 2 cuts and found the code.

LISHI! 2001 ford explorer last night 20 mins with programming

2008 Ford mustang today, 16 mins.

[mdc5150]

Glad it all worked out. I wonder if you were the least expensive of all the places they called. I dont do automotive so I'm curious, how much in parts is the blank and chip keyhead for a typical car, or I guess for the car you worked on. I know chips make a key sound all high tech but it cant cost the keyblank/chiphead manufacturers more than $5 a key, and then sell those to locksmiths for $20 a piece, and if it takes a service trip and an hour of labor, shouldnt it be more like $150? I hear people paying $200-$300 all the time, it does seem artificially inflated. Also, I dont think it's a customers care that a locksmith had to buy a $2000 dollar programmer or reader, that's the cost of doing business. I think you would make more money if chip keys work was $125 a car and then pay off the equipment faster than only have a few $225 jobs here and there.

Just trying to understand why a blank with a $5 dollar chip ends up being $225 (I could see a dealer ripping people off for $300 or more, but locksmiths should charge a fair price, regardless of what the market drives or what the other locksmith in town charges)

Thanks for laying it out, I'm curious to understand it better,
Squelchtone

You have to look at the overall costs associated with the job at hand. The programmer is $2000+ and you should care because without it the job does not happen. Since the cost does exist and is real It has to be addressed by the customer that needs it to be used on their vehicle. If you go to the doctor and need an MRI they charge you for it right?

Besides the programmer there is the risk associated with tapping into the computer in someone's car. A lot of things can go wrong when programming so the price needs to be more to make it worth the risk. Business is in its most basic form risk .vs reward. If no one is willing to reward you for the work why would you take on the risk?

[Russ]

This is why I don't do keys for the public anymore
I got tired of this crap and no longer have to deal with it
Or get the job done then they tale you I only have this much sorry I cant pay you in full
Back when I used to take credit and debit cards
I would run the card and get a approval then a couple days later find out they fight the charge
And the card company would be on there side and I would be out of the whole call

The line I used on them was this
You don't get to go to Walmart and tale them you only have so much money to spend and make them adjust the price
Just so you can get what you want or need

[Kezo]

This is why I don't do keys for the public anymore
I got tired of this crap and no longer have to deal with it
Or get the job done then they tale you I only have this much sorry I cant pay you in full
Back when I used to take credit and debit cards
I would run the card and get a approval then a couple days later find out they fight the charge
And the card company would be on there side and I would be out of the whole call

The line I used on them was this
You don't get to go to Walmart and tale them you only have so much money to spend and make them adjust the price
Just so you can get what you want or need

If they signed for the credit card transaction, how can they fight it?

[Oldfast]

If they signed for the credit card transaction, how can they fight it?

You'd be surprised. They will often times side with the card holder.
It can be both irritating & time-consuming to prove your case and
get the money that's rightfully owed to you. It's just the way it is.

[machinist]

This is why I don't do keys for the public anymore
I got tired of this crap and no longer have to deal with it
Or get the job done then they tale you I only have this much sorry I cant pay you in full
Back when I used to take credit and debit cards
I would run the card and get a approval then a couple days later find out they fight the charge
And the card company would be on there side and I would be out of the whole call

The line I used on them was this
You don't get to go to Walmart and tale them you only have so much money to spend and make them adjust the price
Just so you can get what you want or need

Did you use square reader or some other mobile based device?

I use a CC machine that takes a pic, I stack the CC/DL ontop the bill then take the pic, I always write down the customers DL and make sure they see me do it. So far only one charge dispute and it was because her card got stolen the same week and she decided all charges that week were fraudulent. She was kind of a bitch hired/fired contractors left and right I ended up changing locks on homes mid construction a lot for her. Half real estate agents are complete wastes of life imho.

[Russ]

Used to call a 1-800 number then they would run the card and give me a approval number
This was 11 years ago

[KentM]

Business is in its most basic form risk .vs reward. If no one is willing to reward you for the work why would you take on the risk?

I like this quote mdchurchill

Kent

[KentM]

.

LISHI! 2001 ford explorer last night 20 mins with programming

2008 Ford mustang today, 16 mins.

Ford Lishi decoder is an amazing tool. Decoding the key takes only 2 minutes or so


Kent