Pricing Policy
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Call Out Charges – what are they and when are they applied and who applies them?
We are 24 Hour Locksmiths, this means we respond to calls any time of day or night.
It is a practice within the locksmith industry that a request for a locksmith's attendance at short notice, i.e; an emergency, such as a person being locked out of their home will incur an emergency call out charge (call out charge).
This call out charge is in addition to the customer being charged the locksmith's normal hourly rate or fixed cost for the job. A call out charge is made irrespective of the time of day or night along with the locksmith's hourly rate or fixed cost. A call out charge isn't normally applied where work is pre-booked and is not urgent or an emergency and this is why we advertise no call out charge for pre booked work.
Some Locksmith Companies decide not to invoke this charge. At Twittys Locksmiths we aim not to us an Emergency Call Out Charge ("Call Out Charge") We do however always charge our hourly rate or fixed cost. It is our policy NOT to attend an address free of charge, regardless of circumstances.
When a Company declares that they do not apply a call out charge ("No Call Out Charge"), it doesn't mean that a locksmith will attend an incident or come to quote for work free of charge unless stated. It means that they will still apply their normal hourly rate/fixed cost, but will not apply an additional call out charge for attending at short notice. ie. in an emergency. If we feel the need to add a call out charge then we will add one if it's required.
Hourly Rates and fixed costs
There are several factors which dictate our hourly rate/fixed cost such as;
A) The time of day or night or weekend
B) The geographical location (postcode)
C) The type of job we are required to undertake
D) Local charges/Tolls
E) Weather issues
It is impossible to show on this website every conceivable charging possibility. However based on the factors (A) to (D) above here are some examples of pricing.
i)The time of day or night - a Our standard labour charge for attending an address for general locksmith work between 7am and 8pm in Tyne and Wear £45. This hourly rate would rise to a maximum of £90 per hour between the hours of 8pm and 7am. Our hourly standard labour charges apply throughout the country during normal working hours, 7am – 8pm Monday – Friday.
ii) Weekend Call Out Charges - Starting from 8pm on a Friday till 7am on Monday the hourly rate changes. Saturday & Sunday from 7am – 8pm is £55 per hour. This hourly rate will rise to a maximum of £110 per hour between 8pm and 7am on both days.
iii) The geographical location – (B) If we received the same type of call as in (i) above but to an address in the outer country area as opposed to inner city areas the hourly charge between 7am and 8pm would be £85 and £155 between 8pm and 7am.
iiii) The type of job we are required to undertake – (c) Locksmith work covers a multitude of variables from opening a simple cam lock on a cupboard through to opening and fitting mortise (Mortice) locks through to opening a motor vehicle.
iv) Local Charges/Tolls - These are charges made by local government or private companies to access certain geographical areas, cross certain bridges or use certain tunnels. This may incur a local charge or toll. For example if we had to use the Tyne Tunnel then we will charge for that toll charge
General
v) Danger issues, forced entry and Bad weather issues have a "danger" or "forced entry" charge, such as when the air temp is below -1c to -5c then we have a danger fee of £40, if there is excessive snow such as 1-2ft or more then we will charge a danger fee of £80 as this service will require 4x4 vehicle, if there is a flood and a normal vehicle cannot access the location then we will charge a danger fee £80. If we are in any danger at all due to an issue through evictions then we will charge a danger fee of £100 or charge up to £100 if we suffer any injury due to a forced entry or break tools on a forced entry..
1. We never attend any job without giving our hourly labour rate or fixed cost. This has to be agreed by the customer prior to us attending the job.
2. Where we think new parts will be required, if possible we will give a range of what we believe the cost of the new part will be eg £15 to £28 for a standard rim cylinder. If we feel that we cannot confidently quote for parts based on the information supplied by the customer we will quote our hourly rate/fixed cost and inform the customer that there may be parts required, which will be quoted on site.
3. All hourly rates/fixed costs; parts and additional toll charges will be subject to VAT at the current rate.
4. Where an hourly rate is charged we will always quote a minimum charge of one hour. This is regardless of the time spent at the address up to one hour e.g. 1 to 59 minutes
5. If the first hour is exceeded, we charge thereafter in 15 minute intervals. In the example given in i) above we quoted an hourly rate of £45 and were on site for 1 hour 10 minutes we would charge the first hour at £45 and the 10 minutes would be rounded up to 15 minutes for charging purposes. Therefore the cost would be £55.75 + vat
6. Our hourly rate starts from the time we arrive at site (agreed address) If for whatever reason the person we are meeting ie. The householder, landlord, tenant, bailiff is late, the waiting time incurred by our locksmith will be charged for in accordance with the hourly rate quoted.
7. When we receive instructions to attend an address, we will always call the customer back to confirm the ETA and give the customer the name of the locksmith attending. If the customer wishes to cancel our attendance they may do so without charge as long as we receive notification by telephone no less than one hour before our agreed ETA. If cancellation is made less than one hour, we will charge the equivalent of 'one hours labour' as a cancellation charge. Failure to attend the agreed date and time will result in a additional charges of £20 for the first non show and followed by a charge of £45 for every other missed appointment.
8. Priced Per Job, this is where we can give you a priced on the information we receive from yourself, if we believe we can fix the job that you have described to us via communication then we may give a price per job, if this fails to be the case then we will notify you or the attendee of the price change, such as if we quote £75 for labour of the job but then job ended up taking 4 hours as we were given misleading information such as my lock is broke but actually the door had total dropped, jammed and been catching for a long time where you have had to force the handles up and oor to lock the door and you fail mention these facts when asked then you have given us misleading information for a cheaper price then we will go back to standard rate per hour charged in 15 minute intervals after the first hour.If you cancel the job due to this then we can still charge a fee for attending, this can be our hourly rate plus a call out fee and for any materials used up that point.
9. Recording Of Calls
Calls may be recorded for training and security reasons and this includes mobile phone calls
10. Before calling please read our terms and conditions and pricing police, please note you agree to these when booking us via any form of communications.Terms and Conditions,
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