The Florida Locksmith Services Act has still not been passed, despite the backing of locksmiths from all around Florida and nationwide.

The Florida Locksmith Services Act is designed to regulate the locksmith industry. Currently, Florida is one of 36 states that does not regulate locksmiths.

It is hoped that this act will keep the unfair "locksmiths" out of the trade and also cut down on the false advertising.

What are these unfair locksmiths?

There are many, many phone numbers listed in the Yellow Pages and online that forward to a call center. These call centers will dispatch a locksmith after quoting a price such as "$29 plus labor". That's pretty open-ended, and the person phoning only hears the $29 part. After the locksmith arrives and opens the lock, the price could quickly jump to $159 or more. It all depends on how much the "locksmith" thinks they can get from you. If you appear desperate and vulnerable, I'm sure they'll get as much as they can from you.

What is this false advertising?

The Yellow Pages this year (particularly the YellowBook... what an offensive and distasteful trash listing) has hundreds of listings in the Locks & Locksmiths section. These listings also have fake addresses that don't have a locksmith store or dispatch location, so you get the impression that you are calling a local locksmith.

I did a study of the YellowBook this year and found this pattern:

Listings that don't start with area code 727 or 813 are listings that forward to one of these call centers. Area codes in this year's book include 425, 480, 503, 602, 612, 772, 786 and some 352, 800, 866, and 888. These aren't local numbers, people! Sure, the toll-free numbers may or may not be legit. We have a toll-free number. But the other area codes are not local to St Petersburg, Clearwater, or even Tampa Bay.

Most of the telephone numbers (not all) starting with 727-213-xxxx, 727-232-xxxx, 727-302-xxxx, 727-322-xxxx, 727-368-xxxx, 727-392-xxxx, 727-397-xxxx, 727-433-xxxx, 727-437-xxxx, 727-446-xxxx, 727-451-xxxx, 727-493-xxxx, 727-548-xxxx, 727-564-xxxx, 727-803-xxxx, 727-821-xxxx, 727-842-xxxx, 727-844-xxxx, 727-940-xxxx, and 813-514-xxxx have an address beside the telephone numbers that are not a store or dispatch office. These listings are in the book to make you think they are local to your area. Visit the addresses listed. You're not going to find a locksmith. You'll notice hundreds of 727-451-xxxx and a lot of 727-322-xxxx listings with addresses listed next to them. Hold on a minute... do you really think that there are this many locksmith stores in Pinellas County? There's probably only about 3 dozen locksmiths with actual stores, listed mailing addresses, or with home addresses they are willing to have you come to. The rest are there to deceive you into thinking that they are local.

Out of the 8 pages of listings in the Locks & Locksmiths section, this could easily be reduced to 3 pages of legitimate listings. The odds are against you when you choose a locksmith at random out of the YellowBook.

Here's a story that ran on Tampa Bay's 10 Connects:

Florida locksmith law proposed to help find, eliminate bad locksmiths

They found the same pattern. The only phone number they specifically targeted was the 727-451-xxxx exchange. Nice start, but it's bigger than that.

I found this comment on their article interesting:

A Yellowbook spokesperson issued the following statement:

"Like many publishers, policing each and every business listing that is placed into its books is incredibly difficult. As a result, Yellowbook has elected to publish only paid advertiser listings in the St. Petersburg/Clearwater moving forward. This new policy, which will help ensure the validity of the Locksmiths listed in the St. Petersburg/Clearwater directory, is effective immediately and will be reflected in the 2010/2011 directory."

Excuse me?! I could have had my listing published for FREE?

Shame on YellowBook. I don't think we'll be supporting YellowBook from here on. What a trash directory! Absolute garbage! We will not stand for what they have contributed to the locksmith industry one bit! Done! Prove yourself to us that you have eliminated the fake listings first, before we renew a listing with you. YellowBook can take their book and... well... you know what they can do.

So, back to the topic, the Florida Locksmith Services Act. I hope this gets passed and actually is a force that contributes to the good of the industry, rather than just taxes the locksmiths and sits back. I've heard from locksmiths in other states that complain that their state just collects the fees and doesn't enforce the laws. I have a bad feeling Florida is going to be one of those states that sits back and watches the money roll in from law-abiding locksmiths while the scammers keep defrauding unsuspecting victims.

No, we're not going out of business. We're here for you and we'll be here for a long time.

We have noticed that quite a few locksmith companies in Pinellas County have gone out of business in the last few years.

Some of the companies we have noticed that have closed and gone out of business are these:

• "A & D Lock & Safe" of Clearwater


• "A-Aaction Locksmith" of Seminole


• "AA-Discount & Pinellas Park Locksmith" of St Petersburg


• "A C R Locksmith" (also known as "Elcerrajero Locksmith") of Clearwater


• "A Louie The Locksmith" of Largo


• "Anytime Locksmith" of Seminole


• "B K Lock" of Largo


• "Hobens Locksmith Service" of Tarpon Springs


• "Holiday Lock & Security" of Holiday


• "Ironman Locksmith" of Tarpon Springs


• "Jerry's Mobile Locksmith" of Tampa


• "Key Craft" of St Petersburg


• "Keymart Locksmith of West Florida" of Pinellas Park


• "Lock-Worx" of St Petersburg


• "Open Sesame LLC" of St Petersburg


• "Rodriguez Lock & Key" of Largo


• "Sure Lock Locksmiths" of St Petersburg


• "Tampa Bay Lock & Key Enterprises" of Clearwater


• "The Allied Lock & Key" of Clearwater


• "Treasure Island Lock & Key Company" of Treasure Island

That's a lot of companies!

Quite frequently we'll get phone calls almost exactly like this:

Sunshine Locksmith Team: Thank you for calling Sunshine Locksmith Team. How can I help you?
Customer: How much do you charge to (insert service here, such as rekey, open up, make lost keys)?
S: It's $xx.xx.
C: Well, the last time I had that done it was $xx.xx with a different locksmith company. I tried calling them but they are out of business.

Really? Do you know why they are out of business? If we charged that amount we'd probably be forced out of business too.

It takes more than low prices to keep a business running strong.

We don't compromise your security by skipping corners. We compete on service, quality, and customer satisfaction. And sure, our prices are reasonable too. If you really want the cheapest locksmith, then keep looking; You'll find one. But the next time you need a locksmith you'll have to do that shopping all over again because I'm sure they'll be out of business.

One thing to watch out for, however, are the locksmiths that do the "bait and switch" routine on you. There are a lot of fraudulent listings in the Yellow Pages phone books and the Internet directories full of companies that will quote "$29 plus labor" with labor at "$15 and up". It never is $15. You'll end up with a bill higher than if you had called us. These are what we refer to in the industry as "scammer locksmiths". However, our prices on the phone are upfront and very accurate. Please program our telephone number into your phone right now before you need to find a locksmith. 727-216-7912.

One of the reasons that some of these companies are forced to close down are because of the scammer locksmiths out there. They flood the directories with listings, forcing the small guys to go out of business. This is the subject of another blog, but in the meantime you can read more here:

• 1000 Locksmiths in New York City


• New York City Locksmiths - A Map Spammer’s Guide


• Google Maps Data Quality: Where do we stand after the Locksmith Onslaught?

We just had the Verizon / Idearc / SuperPages Yellow Pages rep visit last week for the upcoming St Petersburg / Clearwater / Beaches directories.

Why do the reps insist on meeting in person? Isn't this something that can be done online?

The rep took - no lie - an hour and a half to get the contract signed.

I've filled out paperwork for a mortgage faster than that. I've bought cars quicker. Why did it take so long?

I really don't like the idea of having to sit through a one and a half hour sales pitch. Maybe next year we'll just drop the book altogether.

Our Yellow Pages ads cost about $1500 per month. That generates about $500 to $600 in income (before the cost of materials too). So, technically, we're losing $900 to $1000 per month on advertising. Not much incentive there to sign a contract next year. I'm not sure what possessed us to sign this year. Maybe it was the high pressure sales guy.