With prices rising and inflation at a high, we are all in the same boat, trying to save the Pennies, which is understandable.
Time and time again we have customers call for a quotation and decide that a spare key is not worth the price we or other professionals Auto Locksmiths have quoted, so they head over to the Facebook marketplace to find a cheaper alternative, now bear in mind it’s against facebooks rules and regulations to advertise a service on marketplace this must be done via a paid advertising system, many of the individuals who post such ads are not qualified or not trading from a registered business and therefore may or may not be trained in this field or have the correct software and hardware to undertake key programming.
Some customers get Lucky and get and receive a fully working new shiny key that operates as it should but time and time again we get callbacks or new calls from customers complaining of issues that have arisen from a rogue Auto Locksmiths
Mucking up the coding of their vehicle.
Example
We received a call form a gentleman called Carlos who decided he would head over to Facebook after being quoted £2000 from the main dealer for a spare key to his 3 year old Range Rover discovery, thinking they were being unreasonable he began his search for a cheaper alternative quote and came across advertisements promotion the company was a Range Rover specialist and believing everything that glitters is gold Carlos contacted this individual who quoted him £500 to add a spare key to his vehicle, so they agreed a time and the gentleman arrived in a Vauxhall insignia estate and began his quest on Carlos’s Range Rover. Carlos eagerly watched from as close as he could practically towering over the gentleman who he believed to be a specialist, within minutes Carlos could sense there was an issue a major issue the car would no longer react to his key nor the new cheap inferior looking key Carlos asked the man “what is the issue”? the man said “Has this car had an update” “does it have a ghost immobilizer” Carlos anxiously replied no to both questions the man then went in his vehicle on the phone for around 10 minutes Carlos ran out of patience tapped on his window and asked him can you fix it? He replied he would need to get some new parts and come back tomorrow Carlos was devastated as his partner strongly advised against this gentleman as he had no website and no reviews. The man then told Carlos it would now cost him £1450 as he would need to purchase 2 new keys and a keyless vehicle module from the dealer and have a technician come and code it in Carlos reluctantly agreed but knew if he didn’t he would be in the worst situation.
The following day as promised the man along with a technician arrived and started disassembling panels in Carlos’s boot hooked up a computer to the car and began working on the car for multiple hours to no avail eventually giving up and telling Carlos they would return in the morning as they need one more part and the dealer is now closed of course the following morning nothing. no Locksmith no technician no call when Carlos attempted to ring the man his phone calls went straight to voicemail after using his partner’s phone to call the man answered Carlos began to ask the man where he was and he began to get frustrated the man replied the part is on its way to him and he will be with Carlos within an hour and his not to worry, hours and hours went past and Carlos could no longer get hold of the man he was devastated. Now the plot thickens the parts totaled £978.60 according to the gentleman and Carlos handed this money over to him in cash so not only did Carlos have a broken car he was also out of pocket from paying this Rogue Locksmith for the parts and to add further insult to injury the man took the part when he left.
Carlos then buried his face in his laptop searching for someone to take on the job many Auto Locksmith said they don’t work on these cars and some said they would not touch it as someone else had Carlos then contacted us at Autotech car keys and explained the situations we evaluated the situation and told Carlos we were happy to help. The only issue was Carlos was in Portsmouth We contacted a company we know in Portsmouth, but there was not willing to undertake this job after much negotiation and a long phone call with Carlos we simplified with him and his circumstances and we agreed we would undertake the job for £1500 we made our way to Portsmouth we were greeted by Carlos his partner and their jack Russel, we supplied fitted and coded all the parts necessary for the job and within 1 hour we managed to program Carlos’s original key and a new genuine key
In the end, Carlos got what he wanted but at an expensive cost we advised Carlos that cheap is not always cheerful Carlos is seeking advice for legal action against the individual who caused his vehicle to shut down
At Autotech’s car keeping our customers satisfied with the job provided is our priority.
