You need a locksmith, so you call one of your local shops. After questioning you to get an idea of the work to be done, they politely decline your offer of work. How dare they? They can’t do that, can they? There’s some kind of law that says they HAVE to take your job, right?

Most of the time the locksmith or dispatcher will explain to you the reason for the turndown. Some scenarios may throw up a red flag to the locksmith employee, based on prior experience in a similar situation. Too many red flags, and the job will be declined. Here are a few of the reasons for denial of service.

1. Unavailable

There may not be an employee available to do your work in a reasonable period of time. This reason is quite understandable. The locksmith may already be booked and unable to squeeze your work in when you need it. Friendly locksmiths often have a neighboring shop that they refer customers to if they are too busy to do a car or house lockout.

2. Not Their Specialty

Or, it may be that the shop you’ve called doesn’t deal in that area of locksmith. Yes, specialization has come to locksmithing, and some shops are more narrowly divided into categories such as auto, home, light commercial, industrial, institutional, and, well, you get the idea. The idea of one shop doing everything has gone the way of the dodobird. The good news is that specialization generally means more highly skilled people and better tools to do your particular job.

3. Not In Their Service Area

Most every shop has a target area that they service. If you are outside that area, your job will most likely be referred to a locksmith located closer to you. They can probably get to you quicker and may charge less because they don’t have as far to go.

4. Customer Not Authorized to Have the Work Done

Sometimes the problem is that the person calling to request the work does not have the authority to have it done. Written into the locksmith laws of most states are positive ID checks. If you are not an owner of the auto, home or business or do not have the proper relationship to that owner, you probably will not get the job done. There are legal mechanisms, such as power of attorney, estate executors, court writs such as writ of replevins, repossession, eviction or mechanic liens, that carry proper weight with the proper paperwork. But only with the proper paperwork.

If you just want to do something for a friend or relative without some type of written authorization, it is probably not going to happen. We live in a world where con artists abound, so no matter how good your intentions, you may not get access if you do not have written authority.

5. Not Having Payment Method Needed

Rules on methods of payment vary greatly from shop to shop. If you do not have funds in the form requested by the business, do not be surprised if you are turned down. Checks of any kind are suspect and are often not accepted, and there are a few shops that take cash only, no plastic. Locksmiths are just like any other businessmen. They learn from experience what they should and can expect for payment from the customers in the area they serve.

6. Limited After-Hours Service

Gone are the days when every lock shop operated 24/7/365. Many shops have found it necessary to eliminate after-hours service for various reasons. It could be no employee willing to do it, a crime rate that is too high in some metro areas, and/or the lack of customers willing to pay necessarily higher after-hours rates. Many people expect to pay little or even no more for their middle of the night requests.

Also, the old phrase, “Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part,” comes into play. Many jobs requested after hours can wait until the next working day with little inconvenience to most customers. So, don’t expect someone to come dashing over after normal business hours to make a key for your china cabinet, unless they have a willing and able employee available, and you are willing and able to pay for the service.

7. Criminal Averse

Criminals, stay away. We do not hire our skills out to the dark side, and you should expect that if we determine criminal activity is intended, we will do our best to thwart it through a refusal of your job or a police-involved sting operation. Even a joking reference to hiring out to open a few safes is unwelcome and may have consequences.

That’s pretty much it. If you are in our service area, have a legit job to do, have legit authority, want the work done in a reasonable time frame, and have proper payment, there shouldn’t be any problem. So, give us a call at 618-466-9347 for your auto and safe needs. We want to provide locksmith service to you and will give serious consideration to doing so.