Locksmithing Blog

A brilliant feature of the already brilliant Google Maps system is that you can now place multiple markers, and get directions. Forget your old route finding tricks with a paper map, or even your GPS or a site like the AA’s. This is so fast and easy.

You are going out for the day to do a warrant run. You obviously don’t know the area like the back of your hand, and there are, in our example, 6 jobs.

Grab the postcodes, and do the following in a text editor, or even right there in the google maps page at http://maps.google.co.uk

from:BB5 7DD to:BB5 0EE to:BB5 5HH to:BB5 3JJ to:BB5 3QQ to:BB5 3EE (Don’t click this link)
First, it validates the postcodes (useful when making up examples like this!) It really should be

from:BB5 6DD to:BB5 5HH to:BB5 3QQ to:BB5 0EE to:BB5 3EE to:BB5 3JJ

Press go again, and the amazing Maps API at maps.google.co.uk will show you a neatly zoomed map with route directions (hidden by the little [x] until you click on each leg to expand it)

Now, that isn’t the best route. So you could re-type the string as

from:BB5 6DD to:BB5 5HH to:BB5 0EE to:BB5 3EE to:BB5 3JJ to:BB5 3QQ

and see if that makes things better. However, because Google programmers know their javascript, and how it should be used, you can do this instead. Go to the left side, where the postcodes are, then click and drag one. This will rearrange the map for you within moments. Visually, you will see the markers change if you tweak the first and last ones, and the mileage between each stop will also be recalculated in a few moments! After all of 30 seconds, you can optimise your route for the day. Brilliant.

For the next trick, switch to “Hybrid” mode in the top right of the map. This is my favourite view, and it pops up a road map overlayed on an aerial photgraph. Et voila! I’ve optimised my route. Now for a smart part 2. Zoom the map right in, then click on any of the markers. This will zoom to the destination. Now, using my leet locksmithing sense, I can tell that we are looking at a house, not a factory unit, and this tells me what sort of locks I can expect. The third one could be either, and the fourth looks like a garage, or at least somewhere without enough parking! And the last two are rows of houses again.
Not that this part makes much odds. Were this a real run, the doors would be opened regardless. Also, we normally do commercial one day, and residential another. I just like to know! Gives me some idea of where to leave the van too – all those tools are heavy!

So, as in the life of most businesses, we come to the crunch point, where a person or company has had work done, but has then decided that, since the emergency they were having is now over, they don’t want to pay. Never mind that most locksmiths won’t do work on account for unknown companies for exactly that reason. I now always run a credit check on any company I get calling me, since I am subscribed to a checking service it takes only a minute before heading off.

Well, back in August last year, I got a call from a solicitor. Urgent, need you tomorrow, please, please. Never even asked the cost. So I go and do the job. The solicitor tells me what he wants on site, I do it. All finished, I invoice, and wait. And wait. Eventually it goes overdue, so a phone call goes out. No response. I leave it another two weeks, and send out the reminder notice with penalties. I now do this as a matter of course, and I include a letter that tells the late payer why. Basically, I offer a low priced, high value service, and if you get 14 or 30 days to pay, you are, in reality, lucky. If you were stood outside your door late at night without any way to pay, in the rain, most locksmiths would kind of insist that you go with them to the cash machine. And I would, too. If you have ever wondered why, this is why. It is less hassle.
So anyway, we hear nothing. More phone calls, more chasing. It all adds up. Lots of promises that he will call back when he is in, that messages will be passed on, that he will call when he is back from court. But, of course, nothing happens. A second invoice with a letter goes out recorded. So he definately got that one. But still nothing. So, today, I went to https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/csmco2/index.jsp and signed up.

This handy page is actually the latest court idea for small claims, and it allows you to file a Small Claims action via the internet. It’s a pretty naff interface, but I got through it without too many issues. So papers are filed.

But our man is a solicitor. Aside from knowing he could easily pay if he wanted to, this also means I can find him online at the Law Society. So I did. And I asked them what they thought of a solicitor who refuses to pay his debts. They said call back when I filed papers, please. In the meantime, I found he has also not paid another locksmith I know, for doing the same thing, a repossession lock change, a few months later. So today, I called the Law Society, and let them know about their deadbeat lawyer. I also let the other locksmith know, so he can do the same thing.

It really is sad that some people abuse their position. Some locksmiths do, and some lawyers do, just like everything else. But it is very silly for a lawyer who claims to specialise in bankruptcy law and repossession work to play such silly games. I wonder what the Law Society will say to him? Actually, I wonder more what he will say to them…