Locked out

Two things, and between them they cover almost every lockout we attend. First, if you have a keypad, make sure the lock below it cannot be locked — a passage knob has no lock in it, so nobody can shut you out by turning it on the way past. Second, have a spare you can actually reach: a neighbour, family nearby, or a combination key box by the door. Not under a plant pot.

For a house key it usually is not — a duplicate is cheap once we are there. For a car it can be, because a modern key is a programmed security device, not a cut piece of metal. Either way, the number to compare it against is not zero. It is what the same job costs after the last key is gone, which for a vehicle is several times as much.

Nine times out of ten it is the lock below the keypad. A keypad deadbolt on top and an ordinary keyed knob underneath is the single most common lockout we attend. Your code opens the deadbolt exactly as it should — but somebody turned the bottom lock on the way out, usually a cleaner or a family member acting completely innocently, and you stopped carrying a key months ago because the keypad meant you never needed one. Try your code, then try the handle. If the handle will not turn, that is your answer.

Change the knob below the keypad to a passage-function one. A passage knob — also called hall-and-closet function — has no lock in it, so it cannot be locked by accident. The deadbolt above still does all the securing. We fit one as standard whenever we install a keypad lock, because we got tired of driving back to houses where the only fault was a lock nobody remembered was there.

$250 for a house during the day, $250 for a business. After 5 PM it is $350, collected before a locksmith is dispatched. Car lockouts are quoted on the phone.

Almost never. Most doors open by picking, shimming or bypassing, and the lock goes back to working exactly as it did. If a lock genuinely has to be destroyed to get you in — some do, particularly older or already-damaged hardware — replacing it is $150, and we tell you before we start rather than after.

Because it is. Someone stops what they are doing and drives out at night. The after-hours mobile service charge is $350 and it is collected before dispatch, so there is no argument about it on a doorstep at midnight.

Yes. We ask for identification showing the address, or something equivalent — a lease, mail, a utility bill. A locksmith who opens doors for whoever is standing outside them is not someone you want operating in your neighbourhood.

Most emergencies are reached and dealt with within an hour of the call. Where you are and who is free affects it, so we give a realistic arrival window on the phone rather than an optimistic one — we would rather tell you forty minutes and arrive in thirty.

Because we send you the live trip. Once a locksmith is dispatched you get a Google Maps share link — open it and you can watch the truck move and see the real ETA update as it changes. No wondering. No calling back to be told “ten minutes” for the fifth time. If we hit traffic you will see it happen rather than hear an excuse afterwards. Being locked out is stressful enough without also having to guess whether anyone is coming.

No. Call. The phone is faster for this — we can start driving while we are still talking to you. Online booking is for work that can be scheduled.