Don’t Just Hire Any Hamilton Locksmith
or Safe Technician

In this blog post I will explain why home and business owners should not hire just any Hamilton locksmith or safe technician, and give my suggestions for how to find the right one for their lock or safe job.

1. Workmanship

There is no licensing body in the province of Ontario for locksmiths or safe technicians. In practical terms, this means that there is no set minimum standard that people working in these fields must meet both in terms of the knowledge of locks and safes and in terms of the skills needed to service and install locks and safes professionally. Not surprisingly, this has lead to a countless number of poorly or incorrectly installed locks and ruined or damaged safes; not to mention damaged doors, file cabinets, and autos.

2. Recourse

If you should hire a locksmith or safe technician and he does a bad job installing or repairing your lock or safe, what recourse do you have if he refuses or is unable to fix his mistake? You can either (a) withhold payment or (b) take legal action. If you should choose the former, you will have an upset locksmith or safe technician on your hands. If you should choose the latter, you will spend your money and time filing motions and arguing your case in small claims court. Needless to say, neither of these options is appealing; the first leaves you open to retaliatory action, and the second is costly and time consuming.

3. Warranty

Warranties vary from locksmith to locksmith. Some locksmiths offer a two week warranty on parts and labor, while others offer a twelve month warranty on parts and labor. But saying and doing are not always the same. Just because a locksmith offers a warranty does not mean he will honor it.

4. Invoicing

Finally, you should not hire just any Hamilton locksmith or safe technician because they do not all issue legitimate invoices. For an invoice to be legitimate it must have: (a) a unique alpha-numeric number; (b) a contact’s full name, mailing address, and telephone number; (c) the company’s HST account number; (d) a breakdown and description of materials, labor, service charge, and taxes; (e) terms of service; and (f) a warranty agreement. If you are issued an invoice without the above you may find it difficult, if not impossible, to enforce your locksmith‘s warranty agreement in court, if it should come to that.

5. How To Find The Right Locksmith

Now that you know why it it is important to do a little research before hiring a Hamilton locksmith or safe technician, I will now outline how to go about finding the right locksmith or safe technician. Firstly, I recommend you begin by visiting a locksmith‘s Google My Business page and reading their worst three reviews. If they have more than one one-star review you would do well to remove them from consideration. A number of locksmiths in Hamilton have written bogus or fake 5-star reviews for themselves, so it is not enough to rely on their Google ranking. For this reason I recommend you also visit their Better Business Bureau page or website to see if they are a member of a professional locksmith association like SAVTA, TAOL, or ALOA. While on their BBB page or website I recommend you also check to see if they have a diploma in locksmithing. If they are a member of a professional organization and/or have a locksmith diploma, you may want to call them to ask for a quote. After they have given you a firm quote – do not settle for anything less – ask them if they warranty their work and hardware in writing for a minimum of three months and if they are able to provide you with an invoice with the information listed in section 4 above. Ideally you would follow these steps for three different locksmiths and hire the one with the quote that falls in the middle. It is a good idea to avoid the locksmith that gives the lowest quote; they may be using the fraudulent practice of bait-and-switch as part of their business strategy.

I hope this post helps show why you cannot hire just any locksmith or safe technician in Hamilton (or anywhere else for that matter), and how to go about choosing the right one to install, repair, or service your lock or safe.