Comments The Locksmith Journals

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Well, it just happened. I don't know if the boss is even going to find out, but I just did what he said not to do. Before Covid when a child was in danger, we worked for free. During the time I was laid off because of Covid the boss changed his mind and now wants us to charge for what we do even if a child is in danger. In a way I see his point. We aren't responsible for someone locking their kid inside of something. But the fact is that, rescuing children at no charge is the kind of advertising that you can't buy and I don't care how much you spend. So that's what I just did. A child was locked inside a car and I opened it. I then told the father, "I'm not charging you a dime for this." I closed the job with the "#service no longer needed". If the boss finds out and wants to fire me, well go ahead and fire me. The boss may have changed his mind but I didn't. The health and welfare of a child is more important than ANY amount of profit. The good thing for me is the manager agrees with me and has already told the boss to stuff it. He won't charge for a job like this. So if the boss finds out, at least I have him on my side.
 
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day late

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money? whats that?
This is an idea that is too little, too late. It is also really a good idea but poorly executed. It's bad enough we have to wear masks while working to show our concern for the customer. It's kinda hard to pick a lock when your glasses keep fogging up. But recently the boss thought it would be a good thing for all of the vans to have a cooler in the back, stocked with water to offer our customers. Not a bad idea as such things go. The problem is the cooler. First of all, it can't be plugged in when you start the van, according to the paperwork that comes with it. The power surge while starting the engine might just fry it. It takes 30 minutes for the thing to cool down, but the vast majority of my jobs are within 15 to 20 minutes of my house. Think about it. I have to start the van, get out and get into the back to plug in the cooler and then drive to the job. When I get there, the cooler isn't yet cool and neither is the water. When I arrive I have to unplug the cooler so it won't fry if I forget and start the van when I leave. And if it is a busy day, (the busiest one I ever had was 14 calls in one day) I'm going to be plugging in and unplugging that stupid thing all day long and the water STILL won't be cold enough to offer to someone. So I came up with a work around. My wife and I have several of those reusable freezer packs in the freezer. So I took a couple and put them in the cooler. True, I can now only carry four bottles of water, but at least they won't be hot. Now if the girl I share the van with only remembers to take them out and refreeze them overnight so they will be ready to go in the morning. And this would have been a better idea back in June.
 
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Freebirde said:
We freeze the bottles of water. When they thaw, drink them too. My dad would freeze gallon jugs of water, marking the ones that went into the ice chest with the fish so they would not be drunk from.
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In all honesty, I did the same thing, except for marking the 'fish ice'. I had three or four of the drink sized bottles frozen but my wife recently went on a cleaning spree and the bottles went away. Gee I wonder what happened to them?
 
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I've said it before, 'some people'! During our weekly on phone meeting the new girl, Stephanie, reported she had her first unreasonable customer. She was supposed to re-key a lock. She arrived at the location on time and ready to do the job. She was contacted by the customer and he was having problems. It seems his powered scooter had run out of charge and he wanted her to walk at least three blocks to push him to the location. That isn't in the job description. She informed him she couldn't and wouldn't do that. It also seems that some of his 'friends and neighbors' were standing around while she was there. None of them were willing to walk to where he was and push him home. Somehow he did manage to find someone to get him there, but because she was so unwilling to help him he felt that he shouldn't be required to pay for the job she was supposed to do for him. Needless to say, she didn't do the job and the customer still had to pay for her time at the location waiting on him so she could do a job he refused to pay for because she was 'unreasonable'.
 
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"Gardinia Gardens" a place I hope to never see again. One I have tried to talk the boss out of ever going to again, or anyone else who works for the company. This apartment complex has the unpickable Smart Key locks on just about every door, heavy duty wire mesh over EVERY window and more than one locksmith has gone there and told the boss that they won't go back. We once had an ex-cop as a locksmith. He went there once and refused to return. In less than an hour he saw at least five or six drug deals go down in the parking lot in broad daylight. At night things get worse. Well I got a call to go there yesterday. I went because the address that I was given was close to that place, but not that place. Then I called the customer to let them know I was on my way and then found out the dispatcher had given me the wrong address. So I have no choice, I have to go. When I arrived the door was easy to open, remember even Smart Key door knobs can be by-passed, but while I was there I came close to losing it. There were half a dozen late-teenagers sitting there, mostly on their phones. Then there was mom, grandmom and a little girl I'd place at 4 or 5 years old. The girl was in distress because she needed to get to the bathroom ten minutes ago. She was crying and screaming about it. I couldn't help but notice none of the neighbors were willing to let the girl use their bathrooms. I got the door open, mom grabbed her by the arm, lifted her off the ground and almost threw her into the apartment hollering at her to go pee. Grandmom tried to step in on the little girls part and mom started shouting at her not to interfere with the way she raised her daughter. Both mom and grandmom were over 300 pounds, but I truly wanted to teach mom a painful lesson on the art of raising a child. I didn't. I didn't say a word. I was out-numbered and if I had done anything I'd be wearing an orange jumpsuit by now. But I sure wanted to do something. I spoke with the boss this morning about it. He has agreed that we will no longer go there at night, but during the day we still take calls from there. I don't like this.
 
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I love being a redneck. Over the weekend I was on youtube checking out different things about lock picking. Now there is a device that is reported to be very good at picking locks called a "Kronos". It is an electric lock picking tool that will pick a lock in seconds. Just go to youtube and check it out if you are interested. The problem is that it is a bit pricey. Over $200 per unit. So while checking things out I saw a link where a guy (English by the accent) claimed you can take and electric toothbrush, modify it a bit and you have the same lock picking tool. Price, $8 plus a little sweat in modification. I picked one up this morning and did as the guy showed on the video. Guess what? IT WORKS!!! I picked the same lock three times in a matter of minutes. This will save me so much time and it already saved me over $190 for the German made tool. YEE-HAW!!!

Check it out. Improved Electric TOOTHBRUSH LOCK PICK Simple To Make - YouTube

Edit to add; Since I posted the above I've tried this thing on a couple of different locks around the house. I am SOOOO happy right now.
 
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day late

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money? whats that?
Well I got some unpleasant news yesterday. It seems the new girl Stephanie has decided against continuing her career as a locksmith. She's decided that being a single mom she needs to do better by her kids and she says the her grandfather is going to pay for her to go back to school and become some sort of councilor. Exactly what kind I don't know, but I'm disappointed. She had all the makings of a good locksmith. But ya gotta do what ya gotta do. The funny part is that when the boss told me about it he asked if I knew anyone I would consider reliable to take her job and learn the trade. I told him,

"Everyone I know is talking about retirement."

Still I said I would keep me ear to the ground and let him know if I found someone.
 
Texican

Texican

Live Free & Die Free.... God Freedom Country....
"Everyone I know is talking about retirement."

DL,

Showing your age or the age of those you know or is it both? :groucho:

Texican....
 
day late

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money? whats that?
Texican said:
"Everyone I know is talking about retirement."

DL,

Showing your age or the age of those you know or is it both? :groucho:

Texican....
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A bit of both. Now if I've ever given anyone the impression that the boss is cheap, it's because he is cheap. I'm hoping that one day he will learn but I'm not holding my breathe. About every six months, just after everybody has gotten comfortable with the credit card app to process payments, he switches to a new one because the new one saves him a few pennies on each swipe of the card. Well being cheap has just taken a nip out of his backside. The vans we drive are 'wrapped' with advertising. Knowing him he got it done as cheaply as possible. Guess what? The wrap on the van I drive is starting to peel off. There is one place that I'm afraid to take it through the car wash. I'm afraid those big brushes are going to grab the wrap and just peel large sections of it right off. So this morning I have to take the van back to the people who put it on and get them to fix it. No idea of how long this is going to take, but while I'm there, I can't handle any calls here in Gainesville.
 
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This is going to be interesting. I've known for some time that the boss has been making sure his son gets the lions share of the calls. Especially the expensive ones. I don't blame him for that. If my son was working for me, I'd do the same thing. It's always best to keep the money in the family. While in the process of trading vans between locksmiths, someone always has to give someone else a ride home. We have three smiths and two vans. So somebody needs a ride or thick shoe leather and a lot of time to waste. So the other night I was giving the bosses son a ride to his place and we were chatting. I told him that I knew the boss was giving the majority of the jobs to him and Stephanie. I even proved it. When we get a job there is a number attached to it. So if I get job number 242 and the next one I get is job 253, clearly the jobs in between when to someone else. That's O.K. by me, I'm about ready to retire anyway. Well after getting the van's wrap taken care of yesterday the boss told me to get in contact with his son because he had some replacement locks for the van I'm in to make up for the ones we've used. Totally by accident as I was getting off of I-75, the son pulls up next to me at the light. I mention the locks to him and he jumps out, grabs a box of locks and puts them in my van while we're waiting for the light. He asked if I was going to a job and I told him that I just got back to town and hadn't gotten a call. SIX HOURS LATER, the son calls and askes if I'm on a job. No, I tell him, I haven't had a call all day. He's got more than he can handle so get gets a call sent to me. That was followed by a couple more that evening. The thing is the son is mid twenties, he has better things to do with his time, or so he thinks, while the boss is trying to make sure he is well paid. (Without getting into too many details, while I was laid off due to C-19 he was arrested and they used the Baker Act on him. He is still having to pee in a bottle every so often.) I do believe that there are going to be some interesting conversations between father and son over the next few days. Wouldn't you like to be a fly on the wall for some of those?
 
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My oh my, there must have been some kind of conversation. Thursday and Friday put together I had a total of four calls. Today, I had five. Ya think the son wants a little more time to himself instead of making money for the old man? I even got to go to the drag races tonight. I arrived just in time to hear the announcer say it was the last heat of the night. Pity I couldn't watch it. But I am happy the guy in the Lynard Skynyrd vest who was offering to open the car in about five minutes was distracted by someone else. It took me about 45 seconds and the owner was happy about that and even paid cash.
 
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YEP! Must have been some conversation. Either that or the son had things to do this weekend and convinced Dad that I could handle it. Maybe a Halloween party. The thing is in the morning I got two calls, one right on top of the other. The second one was the most profitable of the day. $90 just to go there and it was downtown. (The boss charges more for a business service call than a home based on the belief that the business can afford it.) Then another $26 to re-key a single lock. On top of that the customer, who runs the business, wanted a total of 10 keys for the re-keyed lock. They run $2 each. Add in tax and the call was nearly $150. But he was happy to pay when I assured him as I always do.

"As of this moment, anyone who thinks they have a key for this door is going to be VERY disappointed."

After that I sat around all day and did nothing. Later in the afternoon I got a call from one of the ladies that does some of our dispatching and paperwork, to verify that I had completed a job on Friday. While we were talking I mentioned how slow the day had been. She told me that the lady who was currently handling the phones had told her it had been really dead all day long. Well, that happens from time to time. I had just finished supper around 7 when I got a call. Before I got there, I had a second call. Before I got there I had a third call. (Not six blocks from the first call.) Long story short, between 7 and 9 I had a total of five calls. Busy evening. The one I was happiest about was getting a couple into their apartment. They had a keyless/keypad deadbolt. The only way though those is to destroy them. Turns out that wasn't necessary. They had the code for the keypad, but it seems they have never had a key for the doorknob. They always used the deadbolt. Well the person who was looking after their dog while they were out of town didn't know that and locked the doorknob. All I had to do was pick that and it was an easy one. But I'm wondering why I was the only one taking all these calls? Was the son tired or busy chasing girls?
 
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Crazies. We get our share of them. I mentioned a while back about a woman that seemed a little off center. The one with the VERY expensive dog that seemed to say "Take me with you." Well, she called back. She specifically asked for me to come out and address some issues she had. First of all, it seems she has fallen in love with me and was disappointed that I didn't come out to see her. It was my day off, so the boss's son was sent. Like with what happened to me, what should have been a ten minute job lasted about an hour. Again she claimed that someone else had gotten one of her keys and she was concerned about her safety. Well, that job was re-keying Smart Key locks and that can be done in seconds. Then she wants to know where she can take her dog for a walk and is told there is a park right across the street. The mistake was, he mentioned that he had heard that one time there was a rape out there, so just be careful and don't walk the dog at night. This is followed by him telling her the same thing I did about how the locks work and assuring her that those locks can't be picked. Eventually he got out of there but the next day this lady calls the office ranting and raving about how he had been insensitive towards her since she had been raped in the past. This was the first any of us had heard about it. He was just warning her about something he had heard.

It went on for a while but they ladies we have running the phones and the son got her calmed down. Then two days later she calls back claiming the exterior door knob has fallen off and demands that the son come out and fix it, although she would really prefer me. The only way for a doorknob to come off is to remove the screws that hold it on and that has to be done from the inside. After a bit of discussion behind the scenes that I knew nothing about, it was decided that this lady needed to be blacklisted. We will no longer even accept her phone calls. Her number is blocked so she can't even call us. And if by chance she has my personal number, I've most likely already blocked it. She doesn't leave messages and I don't answer unknown numbers. If they don't leave a message, I block the number.
 
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It's always nice when you can actually help the customer in ways they don't expect. That has happened twice today. On both occasions the customers needed re-keys on their home. On the first job I was told that they had moved in about a year ago and were just now getting around to having the front and back doors re-keyed. They also told me that they had multiple keys for each door. After looking at them I asked for the key to the front door. I was told they only used the knob because the deadbolt just wouldn't accept that key or any other that they had. Well, WD-40 is your friend. I squirted some in the deadbolt and the thing worked fine. They were happy to keep the same key for the front door so I just had to use the same key for the back door. That cut the cost of the job by $40.

The other job the lady was moving in and had lost the key. Once again I was informed that before she lost the key the lock was real hard to turn. I got the thing off the door and when I looked into the keyway I could see the corrosion. So after I got it apart, again WD-40 to the rescue, it was rekeyed and reinstalled. Now that the corrosion was cleaned up and the thing lubricated she was just amazed at how easily it worked. She told me that she had some trouble with her wrists so this was a blessing for her. It's nice to be a locksmith. I wish I'd started doing this a long, long time ago.
 
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Freebirde

Senior Member
"It's nice to be a locksmith. I wish I'd started doing this a long, long time ago. "

Back in the 70's I almost sent off for a mail order locksmith course (pre internet). Sometimes I wish I had instead of listening to bad advice from some family members. Maybe on some other time line I did.
 
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It has long been said that the devil is in the details. As a grunt I learned that to survive you had to pay attention to the details. The smallest change in your environment that goes un-noticed can kill you. That has always stuck with me. Another thing I've learned is there are times it is wise to keep your mouth shut and play the cards close to the chest. Both of these are serving me well right now. I do believe the boss is about to be in a good deal of trouble. Mostly of his own making.

First the part not of his making. The new girl that is leaving at the end of the year reported today that she has come down with C-19. So far, the symptoms are mild and she says the worst thing is she can't smell anything. I don't know if she got the shot or not. I'll check in with her later to find out. She says she is still able to work, but needs to make sure she masks and gloves at all times. I get the feeling that the boss isn't going to be happy with that idea. That would mean that his son and I are the only two available locksmiths in Gainesville, unless he decides to go back out on the road. He might just do that to make sure we don't lose any business while Stephanie is sick. He might not. Time will tell.

NOW, the part of his own making. I've said that I knew he was sending the lions share of the work to his son and Stephanie by the job numbers on the dispatches we get. For example the second job I got today was #715. The last job was #726. I got NO jobs in-between those two. Granted some of those jobs were in Ocala, but you know not all of them were. Well, today sonny boy put the icing on the cake. Some customers pay in cash, most by credit. Each week we have to make the cash deposit to the bank. I always make it as soon as possible, waiting only for a report the manager sends to me saying how much I brought in that week, how much was credit and how much cash. Not everyone is so dependable. I make my deposits on Tuesday as soon as I get the report. Other people may not make them until Friday. Earlier today the manager sent out a notice that all deposits needed to be made by the end of the day. I reminded him mine was already made. A little later the son sent a copy of his report BY GROUP TEXT to show he hadn't had any cash jobs for the past week. The thing is my report showed I had a slow week and both cash and credit totaled a little under $600. The report accidently shared by the son showed he had no cash jobs, BUT his total for the week was a little under $1800.

Add to that the fact that during a recent tele-conference we had the manager was talking about mistakes that had been made because of the new system were are using. Some things that should have been listed as profits were being listed as expenses. So the techs weren't getting their full pay, but that was now corrected and everyone who was owed money for various jobs would find it in their next check, which was today. He spoke of three techs. Two in Gainesville and one in Ocala. Each of them would find well over $150 added to their checks. While these lucky techs included the son and Stephanie, yours truly was left out. Why? Because the expensive commercial jobs don't go to me.

I would say that by the end of the year, the boss is going to be short two locksmiths here in Gainesville. I'm filing for SS in Jan. and I have no problem washing dishes of bagging groceries to add to the SS. Shoot, I might even make contact with some of the folks I still know in the dental lab business for a part time job. The main thing is I need to keep my mouth shut until the first of the new year. After that, anything goes.
 
day late

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money? whats that?
summerthyme said:
I predict a family blowup, and possibly a business bankruptcy in the near future...

Summerthyme
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While that blowup may happen, it won't be soon. The son owes the father big time. It was the son who was arrested while wandering around the parking lot of his apartment complex, naked, in the middle of the night, stoned out of his mind. Yet he is not only still employed, he's probably making more money than everyone else except for the manager down in Ocala. But sooner or later the son is going to feel like dad is asking too much and then it will happen. I did text Stephanie this morning asking how she felt and if she is vaxed. As I feared, she took the shot. I haven't responded to that text yet. Not really sure what to say. I don't want to come off as an "I told you so" kinda jerk.
 
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money? whats that?
Right now I'm sitting here waiting to see what's going to happen. As I've said Stephanie has gotten Covid and is of the belief that she can still work as long as she masks up and wears gloves. She told me she has spoken with the manager but didn't tell me what he said. Personally, if I were manager or boss it would be an unacceptable risk. Well, I'm going to be off for the next few days and Stephanie is supposed to pick up the van from me tonight at 10 when the shift ends. Nobody has said a word to me about if she will be allowed to work or not, and I have things planned for the next few days. If she isn't working all I can say is they better not wait until the last minute to ask if I will cover for her. This is one of those 'of his own making' problems I was talking about.
 
Texican

Texican

Live Free & Die Free.... God Freedom Country....
dl,

You work in your own Peyton Place and have way to much fun.

Texican....
 
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