Do locksmiths need a webpage?

by emptyhead on January 28th, 2009.

It was a Sunday. In January. I had little work to do, to finish a project. I woke up pretty early, rested and chilled. Plan was to finish the work as soon as possible and spend the rest of the day playing some music, playstationing… or doing nothing.  No problem. Good plan.

So after the morning ritual, I opened up my Photoshop… and tried to connect to the Internet. All my material and work files were waiting for me on a private FTP. No go = router died = no Internet = no material to work with. So I decided to jump over to the office, copy the files on (g:)Transporter, return home and proceed as planned. No problem. Good plan.

Shoes on, jacket on, bag on, exit the apartment. I had a strange feeling that I had forgot something. Oh yes, the keys. The anti-burglar-super security door said *CLICK*lol* to that thought. So, I locked myself outside of the apartment. Impressive. I behaved like any sane person would behave in the given situation: I cursed, I kicked, I pushed, I lifted the doors with absolutely no result. As expected. They are, like I said, anti-burglar-super security doors. After a few minutes, when calmed, I scooped my options.

Summary: need to get into my apartment, need to finish that Photoshop job.

Solutions:

1. go to the floor above, ring my neighbor’s doorbell, ninja jump down on my balcony, get my neck broken over carelessly arranged snowboards and grab my keys. That plan however originated in summer times, when I was paranoid that I could lock my self out. It sounded solid at the time, but now that it’s freezing cold outside, all the windows and doors were closed. If I were still alive after all that jumping/climbing/somersaulting/slipping/something, breaking a window would be no good as it would cause me to freeze to death later on. Bad plan.

2. use a cellphone, get the locksmith number from the information desk, call the said locksmith, call another locksmith because the first one wouldn’t answer the phone, then wait, get the keys, pay a load of money for my stupidity, go to work, get the job done… Good plan. But my cellphone’s battery just ran out.

3. go to work, get the job done, google locksmith numbers, call from work, get in. Good plan.

So, I ignored plan 1, tried number 2 and then executed the plan number 3. At least I had the keys to the office… I bet this is a surprise to you, but yes I had them.

Somehow, I managed to get to the office alive, with no problems on the way. Axes were not falling from the sky, no ogre raiding parties on the way, no sudden tornado bursts… all smooth and well.

As usual, the “little work” kinda developed in a little more than expected, but after 4 hours I was done with it and satisfied how it looked. I could now begin using all my energy to convert from homeless to non-homeless.

Google is your friend. And mine too. What was I looking for? I needed a locksmith who could open locked doors, who works on a Sunday and who works almost 24/7.

I didn’t have much experience dealing with locksmiths, or with their usual business practices, but I hoped that there was a locksmith with the above prerequisites. Idiots and clumsy people are all around us — I know, I’m one of them. Since you can’t quite time when someone will get locked out, if I were in a locksmith business, I’d be offering that service.

My search began. Checking around various pages, I was searching for those services. And I did find them. Usually hidden behind bunch of lousy manipulated “look ma! no hands plastic wrap bevel emboss free effects” stock photos, on the third page a tiny javascript news page and at obscure places like that.

Why hide this? It should be your premium service, it’s needed like 911 when you are in trouble. So, if you provide service like that, display it on the first page, make that information visible. It might not be your core service, but it has extra added value, it doesn’t take much screen space but it brings you some quick&easy money. If I’m there to buy a new door or some ultra super security locks, I will take my time, surf trough your website, use Google for extra information, I will educate myself more thoroughly, check your references, and decide in peace. But with service like “super fast opening any locks anytime anywhere”, i’ll probably call the first dude who offers that and do a little to no research about his history (well, call me the potential victim…).

I managed to find a site offering the service and called the dude’s cellphone, arranged a meeting in front of my house and went home.  The locksmith was waiting for me, I said hi, showed him to my entrance door and said that my keys were left inside. He said “ID? OK.”, I blinked, he opened the doors with a “70 € please” and “these things happen, be careful next time”.

So, the obvious answer from the subject question and moral of this story is: DON’T WORK ON SUNDAYS!