Beware Nationwide Locksmith Swindle

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Takeaway: AAA membership has perks. Or, consider taking a few to find a locksmith with a good local word of mouth and putting their number on your cellphone. The fire department can unlock cars, but only if it's on fire or there's a baby trapped inside. And of course, try not to lock your keys in your car.

“Dependable Locksmith” is scamming consumers nationwide. They place ads in local yellow pages, with local numbers, but they all route to a call center in the Bronx. The customer is quoted a reasonable price, but when the “locksmith” arrives, he bullies them into paying at least twice as much. Seattle’s KOMO4 caught one of these clowns on tape. He shows up in a regular hatchback, and fumbles around for 6 minutes to open the car with his inadequate toolkit. When reporters took the car to AAA, it took them 30 seconds to open the car.

Takeaway: AAA membership has perks. Or, consider taking a few to find a locksmith with a good local word of mouth and putting their number on your cellphone. The fire department can unlock cars, but only if it’s on fire or there’s a baby trapped inside. And of course, try not to lock your keys in your car.

Locksmith scam makes a bad day even worse [KOMO4] (Thanks to Jason!)

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