• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Gone in 8 seconds.....$40

Share this page

T

TR6BILL

Luke Skywalker
Offline
My wife locked herself out of her old '97 S10 pickup. I called the local lock guy, who happened to be up the road at WalMart. He came by in 5 minutes. Took him exactly 8 seconds to wedge the window in, insert his crooked wire thigamajig, and open the door! I said, "How much?" to which he very quickly replied, "40 Bucks!" as he thrust 4 large fingers up in the air, near my face. I quickly got the point. Guess I should have never said on the phone, "This is <span style="font-weight: bold">DOCTER</span> Karam." Geez, <span style="font-weight: bold">I</span> don't make that much. At least I don't do the thrust-the-fingers-in-the-face routine.....
 
YIKES!

I got triple A membership a few years ago 'cause driving the Benz isn't like driving an LBC: can't fix it by the side of the road. They have a free "unlock-your-car" service. Yet to need it, but now glad it exists.
 
I disagree with your thinking,TR6bill. $40 bucks is pretty reasonable to pay for the price of an education. Have you wife learn not to lock her keys in the car. The lock guy got lucky to be just up the street. Im sure she wouldnt have been too happy if he was an hour away. If it was so unreasonable,maybe he should have just locked the door again with the keys inside and left. Also driving an old 97 S10 might justify an AAA membership? If the name of the company was Lock Doctor ,would that justify the $40 bucks.If you accidentaly broke you leg,would the DOCTER charge you less to fix it,because it wasnt intentional? Just fleeting thoughts.
 
John_Malinick said:
Have you wife learn not to lock her keys in the car.
Click to expand...


That would require a little more than a $40 education, perhaps a PhD.


The thrust of the post was the fact that the lock guy shoved his four large fingers in my face, like I was gonna balk or something. I guess I have had my share of piece-of-cake dental procedures, easy money if you will. Of course, there is always attached to anything I do something called a tail. A year and a day, if you will. Litigation.
 
I did that with my Ranger pickup out in the boonies. Cost me $120 bucks for a new door glass after I broke it trying to get in. 40 bucks is cheap! Like me, you could have just knocked out the door glass, but I'll bet it would have cost you a lot more than I paid for the pickup to replace it. PJ

Knowledge and tools are expensive, if you don't have them, you have to pay someone who does!
 
Pop-a-lock charged me $25 a few years ago. Took about the same time to open once he got there. That only took 15 minutes. The hard part was standing there looking at the keys laying between the seats.
 
The repair guy has a tail too.


$1000 for four teeth in about 20 minutes.

$40 is about right. Lucky for you he didn't treat your condition. :laugh:

The fingers I believe has more to do with location than anything. :yesnod:

I only identify myself by profession when making business related calls.



Don't be sore, he's down with the program. He was just redistributing wealth, that's all. :jester:

Shouda just asked him to open his mouth and charge him the difference. :laugh:
 
I'll put it this way:

Who you want digging in your door, the pro who can open it in 8 seconds with no damage, or the pop-a-lock kid who takes thrity minutes to do $200 in damage to the inner workings of your door? I've seen it happen before.


Trust me, you got the right guy at the right price. You pay for experience. That being said, I'd much rather the old dog digging in me chopper w/ vise grips rather than the kid fresh-out w/ 1M in equipment....even if I had to pay a few dollars more :wink:
 
My wife did that twice in the old Benz. Lucky the lock guy didn't charge anything after he was unable to get in. The tow truck charge down to the dealer then their hourly rate to open it using their "secret method" far exceeded $40.
 
Years ago went to Springfield, IL to watch our son's travel hockey team play. Unloaded car at motel, got ready to go to dinner, keys in car and car locked. Rode with another couple to dinner. When we returned from dinner, son and friends proudly presented missing keys. When asked how they did it just received smiles. No damage to car so all was fine.
 
We are CAA members. A few years ago I locked keys in van, engine running, in front of the dry cleaners at a local strip plaza. This was 2 doors down from the local CAA office. Walked into the office, asked for help, woman at the desk looked out the window saw the CAA guy driving into the parking lot to chack in - stopped, opened door - I was on my way less than three minutes - a personal best.
 
Lets see if I can get this story correct. Seems Henry Ford was having a problem with a large generator that none of his employees could fix. He called in the famous mathematician and engineer, Charles Steinmetz. Charles looked at the generator and marked a spot on it with piece of chalk where the repair was necessary. He invoiced Ford $10,000. for his services. Ford was appalled at the amount and asked for the invoice to be itemized. Steinmetz itemized it: marking the spot for the repair....$1.00, knowing where to mark it....$9,999. Don't know if the story is true, but it is a good one.
 
Spare key at home? no one ever heard of them?

Really, unless you are 100 miles from home, it has to be easier just to go get the spare key than it is to tow a car to the dealer??????????

The battery died on my wife remote last year - even though she could get into the car, the immobilzer locks out the engine- no battery, no drive. She just left the car, took a taxi home and that evening we came with the a spare key (and a new battery!) and drove home.
 
Back
Top