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Unfair or Deceptive Locksmith Companies

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Contents

Notice

U.S. Postal Inspectors have established a hotline for those believing they victims of locksmiths' deceptive sales practices. The phone will not be manned, but callers are encouraged to leave their contact information at 314-539-9441. The calls will trigger an investigative response. There is also a toll-free number - 877-876-2455 - but there are more steps to finding the right extension.

BBB Warning

FTC Warning

United States Attorney's Office

Links to News Stories

ALOA Warning

AARP Warning

Consumer Complaints Boards

Weeding Out the Deceptive Online Ads and Fake Reviews

Looking through the onslaught in some areas of deceptive ads, you may find it difficult to find someone reliable. Sometimes the best way is to look at who may be lying to you already. When you search for a locksmith online, many of the company reviews could be fake. The first thing is to look for "sock puppets"!

Sock Puppets

As defined by NY Times(article), "sock-puppeting" "is the act of creating a fake online identity to praise, defend or create the illusion of support for one's self, allies or company."

Finding a Puppeteer

Step 1

Step 1 - Searching for Locksmiths

An easy example can be found by looking for locksmiths in any metro area in the US, take for example, Cleveland. Using Yahoo Local, we can enter in our search term (locksmith, of course) and our local area. Hit the search button, and off we go!

Step 1 - Results for Locksmiths

The first 3 are obvious targets here, as most legitimate locksmiths work hard to find 6 real reviewers on their ads. These listings shown in this example have in the hundreds!

Lets check on the top one first.


Step 2

Step 2 - Checking Reviews

The first 2 reviews look suspicious... the usernames are both first-last name combinations, followed by 4 random digits, perhaps a bit too generic for today's internet generation. Looking further, they are both single reviews. Hard to prove beyond a doubt that they are puppets.

Ordering more reviews from Yahoo brings up a likely candidate.


Step 3

Step 3 - More Reviews

With 5 reviews, we can look for something else telling.


Conclusion

Results

Looking at those reviews, we can tell that either this is the most unlucky frequent flier in history, or we have a sock puppet for a national chain of dishonest racketeers..er puppeteers.

Certainly not a locksmith I would recommend to friends and family.


BBB Reports on Unsatisfactory Locksmith Companies

The following companies have been rated by BBB and have ratings of "Unsatisfactory" or are rated at "D+" or below. They are not necessarily what some in the industry call "scammers" or "deceptive locksmiths" (as is the case with all companies referenced to on this website). Some just have not followed up on a BBB action to BBB's standards and have been given the rating shown. Whether this is fair or not, we cannot judge. If you see your business listed here, the appropriate action would be to contact your BBB office and find out how you can improve your rating. Once it is above "D+" let us know and we will WILLINGLY remove it from this list. We didn't give you the rating. And this really isn't information that cannot be found from the BBB website by anybody doing a search for locksmiths in their area.

The following has been copied from the BBB:

BBB assigns ratings by evaluating businesses in the following categories:

  • BBB experience with the industry in which the business operates
  • The business’ length of time in operation
  • Whether BBB has information that the business does not have required competency license
  • Any known government actions against the business that are related to marketplace activities
  • Any advertising issues found by BBB
  • The number of complaints received by BBB from the business’ customers
  • The number of complaints received by BBB from the business’ customers that are of a serious nature
  • Whether the business has responded to complaints received by BBB
  • Whether complaints have been resolved in a timely manner or the business has demonstrated it made a good faith effort to resolve them
  • Business’ overall complaint history with BBB
  • Whether the business has failed to resolve the underlying cause(s) of a pattern of complaints
  • Whether the business has honored any commitments to BBB to arbitrate or mediate disputes and comply with arbitrator decisions and mediated settlements
  • Whether BBB has sufficient background information and clear understanding of business
  • Whether the business is a BBB Accredited Business
  • Whether BBB Accreditation was revoked because the business failed to comply with agreed BBB standards

Ratings are determined by a proprietary formula that represents BBB’s opinion as to (1) the importance of each category, and (2) the appropriate score given to the business for each category.

BBB assigns grades from A to F with pluses and minuses. A+ is the highest grade and F is the lowest. The grade represents BBB’s degree of confidence that the business is operating in a trustworthy manner and will make a good faith effort to resolve any customer concerns.

Details as to any issues identified by BBB are contained in the business’ BBB Reliability Report.

A business may receive an “NR” (No Rating) instead of a rating under circumstances that include:

  • BBB file is being reviewed or updated
  • BBB does not have sufficient information about the business
  • Recent activity requires further review by BBB
  • BBB’s rating of a business reflects BBB’s opinion about the business based on information in our files and BBB experience. The rating is not a guarantee of a business’ reliability or performance, and readers should consider a business’ rating in addition to all other available information about the business.

BBB ratings are subject to change on a daily basis based on changes in a business’ BBB file.

The above section taken from What Are BBB Ratings?

More information and A Detailed Overview of the BBB Rating System.

The following list states the BBB rating of the company, and makes no other statement or claim as to the company, nor should any other statement or claim be derived from this.

Please note that BBB ratings change daily and what may be an "unsatisfactory" report yesterday may not be "unsatisfactory" today. This list is not all-inclusive.

As a matter of policy, the BBB does not endorse any product, service or business.

BBB Reliability Reports are provided solely to assist you in exercising your own best judgment. Information in this BBB Reliability Report is believed reliable, but not guaranteed as to accuracy.

BBB Reliability Reports generally cover a three-year reporting period. BBB Reliability Reports are subject to change at any time.

Other Links

Other Articles

Legal Proceedings Assistance Requests

Any locksmiths that feel that they have been infringed upon with their company name and/or trademarked logos should view the links in this section requesting for information from locksmiths that have been infringed.

Court Documents

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Please note that not all businesses operating under the above names may be fraudulent, unfair, or deceptive. There may be a few independent locksmiths that may have the unfortunate luck of having the same business name as the unfair or deceptive companies in question.

Also note that this information may not be 100% accurate. Errors do happen. If you know of an error in the information above, please report it immediately so it can be corrected.

The information on this particular page is free from copyright from LocksmithWiki.com. Please feel free to link to this information or copy it for your own use.

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