Common Locksmith Myths Dispelled By A Professional

Uncover common locksmith myths and learn the truth from a professional, helping you make informed decisions about security, services, and lock maintenance.

Every trade in the world has its myths, right? Well, locksmithing is no different. No matter what you do for a living or for passion, there’ll be people who believe certain myths and legends about your field. 

As professional locksmiths, our team at Doncaster Lock & Key regularly comes face-to-face with these myths. From customer callouts asking us about these ‘facts’ to comments we see online about locksmiths, we wanted to address some of these myths. Take it from us: as professionals who have been in the trade for decades, many ‘certainties’ about our trade are myths!

Let us help you understand what our trade entails so you know exactly what to expect when you call a locksmith. Use these myths to help you understand the trade, but also to make sure you hire a locksmith who can meet realistic expectations.

Myths About Locksmiths You Should Never Believe

In our many years of dealing with locksmithing jobs, some of the myths we hear are frankly quite odd. Some, though, are downright dangerous to customers' well-being. In our experience, the most important myths to dispel include the following:

Every Locksmith Has A Set Of Qualifications

If only this were true, but it’s one of the most dangerous myths we see at Lock & Key. Now, our team are fully qualified locksmiths, but please note that qualifications within our trade are relatively new. They only really came into the mainstream in the 2020s. Therefore, you could hire a ‘qualified’ locksmith who only got their qualifications last week and is wet behind the ears in practical terms.

However, you could hire an ‘unqualified’ locksmith who has been successfully trading in the field for 20+ years. They know everything someone would need to know about locks and are perfectly suited to the job you have hired them for. Our advice would be to focus on experience, review quality, and price before focusing solely on qualifications.

Qualified locksmiths are important, and the trade is moving ever closer to making qualified locksmiths a necessity. However, at the moment, many high-quality locksmiths lack the required qualifications on paper but have all the required skills. By contrast, plenty of newbies to the trade are qualified but have never actually fixed a lock in their professional lives! 

Every Locksmith Charges The Same Rates

So, you hired a locksmith last year, and now you need them again. Yet, when you call them, they are not available. They might be on holiday, retired, changed careers, or simply too busy to take your call. Now, you phone another local locksmith to carry out the same task as last year. Everything will be the same price, right? That’s one of the major myths we hear: that every locksmith charges the same.

Let me put that right: that is NOT true. It’s very rare for an industry to have a set price. Go and buy a cup of coffee at one café, then go to another café and buy another cup. Do they charge the same price? No. Locksmiths are the same: every locksmith sets their own rates based on experience, the task at hand, the cost of materials, how long the job will take, and their distance from the job.

It also matters when you call a locksmith. Call them at 2PM on a Tuesday to fix a lockout, and the rate will be different from what they charge if you call them at 2AM on a Saturday. Yes, there will be rough baseline prices – usually within a typical margin of error – but locksmiths do not work off a generic price quota. That’s why we recommend getting multiple quotes from multiple locksmiths.

Locksmiths Only Fix Locks, Nothing Else

On any given day, our team at Lock & Key can deal with a dizzying number of jobs. We could be fitting new door and window locks in the morning, installing CCTV systems in the afternoon, and replacing a broken window via boarding up in the evening. Locksmiths have many jobs that we do; we aren’t just out there replacing or repairing locks – we do a lot more than that!

Locksmiths can help you with any kind of lock, from that stubborn cupboard door lock in your kitchen to your car door lock. They can also help with things like property reviews, security upgrades, fixing broken locks, and much more. Not every locksmith offers the same service or has the same skills, though, so be sure to look closely at the attributes of any locksmith you hire beforehand. This helps you ensure they have the skills and can offer the services you need. 

Lockpicking Is Easy: Who Needs A Locksmith!?

Now, call me biased, but that is simply one of the biggest myths I’ve ever heard. If picking a lock were so easy, there wouldn’t be as many as 6,500 locksmiths trading across the country!

Beware believing what you see in movies or read about in entertainment media. Someone sliding a credit card into a hotel door lock, or unpicking a bank vault door with a hairpin, is a fantasy. It might look cool on the telly or in a book, but it’s simply not how this works. Locksmithing requires extensive skill development, experience, patience, and familiarity with the many types of locks available.

Lockpicking is one of those skills that people make look easy in movies and the like, but it’s nothing of the sort. If you want to properly unlock a lock without damaging the lock mechanism or the door, you will need a locksmith. 

Every Locksmith Works 24/7

Finally, let me dispel one quick myth: not every locksmith is an emergency locksmith. At Lock & Key, we are available 24/7, but not every locksmith is. By the same token, not every job that requires a locksmith is an emergency. You can hire a locksmith for non-urgent appointments, from home security surveys to lock upgrades. 

Just remember, though, that not every locksmith you hire will be available for same-day services. If you call a local locksmith on a Friday, they might not be able to get to you until Monday because they work standard hours rather than offering 24/7 emergency locksmith services. Keep that in mind, as it will help to determine what locksmith you need – and when.

These are some of the most common myths we hear in our day-to-day working lives. If you want to know more about the locksmith trade, what services you can use, and what you can expect in terms of costs, don’t hesitate to contact the Lock & Key team – we’re always here!

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