Expert tips from a local locksmith
You may have seen that the League of Gentlemen are back and currently undertaking a national tour of their show. Which hopefully means that a new generation of fans will soon be repeating phrases such as “You’re my wife now, Dave”, “pens are our friends” and, most famously, the sinister “This is a local shop for local people…we’ll have no trouble here,” as uttered by Tubbs and Edwards in their unique village store.
However, ‘local’ doesn’t have to mean weird and scary, replete with “no-tails” and sacrificing any passing workmen. Which is a good job, because when I refer to myself as a local locksmith I’d rather people didn’t get the image of Tubbs breastfeeding a piglet in their heads. Which, now I’ve mentioned it, they probably will. Damn. Stop imagining that.
Where to find your local Barnsley locksmith
When you require the services of a locksmith your first port of call will usually be Google or similar. That will bring up a whole host of results listing locksmiths in Barnsley both locally and nationally. Usually the national chains are those with more advertising resources so you’re likely to find more of those in the sponsored searches rather than the local firms. However, in my experience, you’re always better off getting a local firm in. “Ah, you would say that wouldn’t you?” I hear you saying, and it’s fair to say that as a local business I may be slightly biased on this subject, but let me try to persuade you that local is best.
First, there is the truism that a local Barnsley locksmith, by their very nature, will know the area. They will have been working in the locality for a number of years and be aware of the quirks and trends of the region – this will help in advising on any security needs as they’ll know the types of break-ins that occur near you and what works or doesn’t work in terms of prevention.
Local Barnsley Locksmith firms are usually reliable too – they won’t have far to travel to the job, and the same locksmith will be available for any follow up work. With national chains who employ multiple locksmiths who travel wide areas of the country, you never know which one will be coming out to you. Using a local firm means you get to know the locksmith and if you find a quality, reliable one at a decent price you know you can go back to that same person for any future work. For your peace of mind, you probably don’t want a whole range of different anonymous engineers knowing the security arrangements of your house.
Much as I’d like to say otherwise, not every Barnsley locksmith is totally reputable. Using a local firm with local premises means that is far less likely you will get burned by poor quality work, an excessive bill, and no comeback. A local firm cannot exactly drive off into the distance never to be seen again. They often own their own company, have their reputation to consider, and bad word of mouth for a local firm can be devastating to the future of their business. Conversely a salaried locksmith working for a national company may be happy to overcharge for poor quality work, doing the bare minimum as they’ll get their salary regardless, plus the wider company has a whole country’s worth of customers to take your place if you’re not happy.
Local may also mean cheaper too. National companies have call centres, agents, profit targets to hit for directors or shareholders etc. With local firms there aren’t middle men taking their cut, call centre staff to pay, or vast finance departments to fund. You pay for the work and parts with a bit added on so that the locksmith/ owner can make a living. This usually means lower bills for the customer.
Why choose an independent locksmith?
Taking all this into account, I’d definitely recommend going the local independent route over the national company for any locksmith needs. We can get there quicker, you know who you’re getting, being our own boss means we are concerned about our firm’s reputation, there is more comeback for the customer, and we may well be cheaper than national firms. And, if you are going to choose a local firm in the South Yorkshire area, well, I know a pretty decent one…