How NOT to get scammed by a locksmith!

Recently my cousin was out of town and broke the key to his truck off in the ignition. He was in a city that had no Pop-A-Lock and he called me to get some advice. He orginally was asking how to get the key out but soon realized that would likely do more harm than good.

With the do-it-yourself option out of the way we began to try to find a real local locksmith who could give him a hand at a reasonable price.

He had no internet access and the phone book was missing from his room so we were forced to go to the internet to locate someone.

When I did the search for the city (middle of nowhere texas) and the term locksmith. I got hundreds of listings, the odds of all of them actually being locksmiths in BFE texas were slim to none. Some even had local numbers but I suspected that the only thing 'local' about the companies was the area code and prefix.

I called two of them that looked legit but got an answer of 'Locksmith' in a thick foreign hard to identify accent. I know what that means (one price now but a huge price later).

I looked through the phone numbers and listings until I found one that had a address listed then went to Google(r) maps and checked the street level view. The address showed a government looking building and no sign of a locksmith shop...another strike out.

Lastly, I called 411 and asked for a locksmith in that town and was given the same number that I had found on the internet earlier. Strike 3 blah.

Here I was the Director of Operations for the largest locksmith company and I'm struggling to find a locksmith for my cousin. I checked the www.findalocksmith.com site and they had no listing for that area or for the zip code either.

Left with no other real option, I resorted to calling the local police station (non-emergency number) explained my situation and asked for a referral for a real local locksmith. The dispatcher gave me a local number and I called them to get some help.

When I called the locksmith I explained who I was and what was going on with my cousin. We also discussed how his local internet had been over-run with fake listings, he stated that there were actually only two locksmiths within a 25 mile radius of that town and was candid enough to tell me the name of the other locksmith.

He took care of my cousin at a great price and also inquired about becoming a Pop-A-Lock provider.

At the end of this episode I'm still left with only two ways of really getting a 'real' locksmith:

1. Call 1-800-Popalock (1-800-767-2562) if we have a provider we can tell you immediately without having to search.

2. Go to find a locksmith on our Popalock.com page

3. Or call the local non-emergency number for police or fire and ask for a referral.

So many of the other local names are so close aaaaa1aaaaa Locksmith could be a real local or it could be scammer, at this point is almost impossible to tell.