day late
money? whats that?
Let me begin by saying that I have done many things in my 62 years on planet Earth. In high school I bagged groceries and washed dishes in various food joints and bars. Later I drove trucks delivering construction materials and I have also worked construction jobs. In the service, I spent my time as an infantry soldier. I spent over twenty-five years as a dental laboratory tech. making dentures and partial dentures for doctors and for students at the University of Florida College of Dentistry. And now, I can honestly say that being a locksmith is the best job I've ever had.
It is a most unusual job. First of all I know that 100% of the time when I arrive at the location, the customer is upset. Most often I hear something like;
"I can't believe that I/ my wife/ my husband/ my girl friend/ my boy friend/ my room mate locked the keys in the trunk."
Or something similar. 98% of the time it doesn't matter if it is a home, a vehicle or a business. As soon as that door comes open I am the greatest thing since sliced bread. Most people are very happy to pay whatever the charge is just to get inside of whatever they are locked out of. Especially if the weather is bad, it's a holiday or the store simply MUST open by 9 A.M. But we will get into that later. I'm sure many of you are wondering about that other 2%.
They usually fall into one of two categories. The first are the ones who think they are special. They seem to believe that I should be paying them for the privilege of working for them, or whatever I do it isn't good enough or done fast enough. Two cases come to mind right away.
"I don't have to pay for this." is the first one. I was kicked out of bed early on a Saturday morning to get a "lady" into her car. I got there and opened the car in a short time, for which she was happy. But when it came time to pay the bill she told me;
"You have to deal with the insurance company."
Ummm no. I deal with you and you deal with the insurance company. She wasn't having any of that and wanted to argue. Well I couldn't take the keys from her, toss them into the car and lock it again. Did I mention this was a low rent neighborhood? I was at the end of a cul-de-sac and at the end of the cul-de-sac on the next road over were two sheriffs officers. I walked over and spoke to one of them and asked for his help. We went back to the "lady" and I was asked to stand by my car, which I did. After a few minutes the officer came to me and said,
"Sir, you are going to have to take her to court to get your $65. But the bad news is it is going to cost $500 to get it."
I called the boss asking what to do. He simply said, leave. I did. An hour later my supervisor told me that the "lady" told the sheriff that when I left, I had taken her keys with me. I never touched her keys. I opened the door, she grabbed them and then refused to pay. The supervisor said not to panic and lets see how this plays out. It was an hour after that I got another call from the supervisor telling me not to worry at all. It seems that when the sheriffs officer arrived to take her statement, not only was she gone but so was her car. Even though I was supposed to have her keys. It didn't take much for the officer to realize she just wanted to ruin my day because I wanted to be paid for services rendered.
We will deal with more of these types later, but I really want to mention the second type. They are the totally brain dead spoiled rotten brats that you meet in a college town. The ones who have never had to take responsibility of anything in their lives because mommy and daddy always handled things. Case in point,
I was awakened at one A.M. on a Saturday morning and told to go get a young "lady" into her apartment. That is not a big deal. It happens all the time. This case was special. The young "lady" had major problems long before I got there. It seems she had stepped outside to talk with a young man in the parking lot at around midnight. While she was outside her two room mates locked the door. They didn't answer her knocks on the door and refused to answer her phone calls. So at 1:30 A.M. I opened her apartment so she could sleep in her own bed that night. I handed her the bill for services provided and she begins wailing at me,
"Nobody told me there'd be a fee."
At which point she turns and goes stomping off across the parking lot into the dark, leaving the front door to the apartment standing wide open. I have no idea what the room mates were doing or thinking. I never saw them. What could I do? If I chase her down and demand payment I'm going to be the one in trouble with the law. Besides while she is playing the victim I had gotten another call to assist someone else. I had to leave. I have sometimes wondered what her room mates had to say about that night and how forcefully they said it. But that's not my problem. Better to lose payment for one job than have to explain to your boss why you need to be bailed out of jail at around 2 A.M.
Then there was the time when I had to open a bedroom. Understand in a college town like Gainesville, people will have something like a four bedroom house. They put locking door knobs on the bedrooms and rent them out to students. I swear that some of the locks I have to deal with look like they were installed about the day after God was born. They are so old the company that made them is no longer in business and nobody makes blank keys to be cut for the locks anymore.
In this case, the person renting the room had never even been given a key for the door. It had been lost a decade ago but nobody had ever locked themselves out before. The only way I'm getting into this room is to destroy the doorknob. Well before I do anything like that I inform the customer of what must be done and let them tell me if they want me to do it. I should have known there would be trouble. Let me say that I'm very happy I didn't get pulled over that night. If I had I would have been taken straight to jail just because of the smell on my clothes. A bunch of real stoners. So they tell me to do whatever it takes to get into the room. The doorknob was destroyed, they told me that they didn't want to pay to have a new one installed and since I had to destroy the doorknob they shouldn't have to pay anything. I don't know what was in that room that was so important that they had to get in at any cost and I don't want to know. But it was one of those times where I had two more customers waiting on me and it just wasn't worth the fight.
As I have said these will be more or less journal entries that will be added to from time to time. And we haven't even touched subjects like pets, cops and other things. I'll try not to bore you and welcome comments.
It is a most unusual job. First of all I know that 100% of the time when I arrive at the location, the customer is upset. Most often I hear something like;
"I can't believe that I/ my wife/ my husband/ my girl friend/ my boy friend/ my room mate locked the keys in the trunk."
Or something similar. 98% of the time it doesn't matter if it is a home, a vehicle or a business. As soon as that door comes open I am the greatest thing since sliced bread. Most people are very happy to pay whatever the charge is just to get inside of whatever they are locked out of. Especially if the weather is bad, it's a holiday or the store simply MUST open by 9 A.M. But we will get into that later. I'm sure many of you are wondering about that other 2%.
They usually fall into one of two categories. The first are the ones who think they are special. They seem to believe that I should be paying them for the privilege of working for them, or whatever I do it isn't good enough or done fast enough. Two cases come to mind right away.
"I don't have to pay for this." is the first one. I was kicked out of bed early on a Saturday morning to get a "lady" into her car. I got there and opened the car in a short time, for which she was happy. But when it came time to pay the bill she told me;
"You have to deal with the insurance company."
Ummm no. I deal with you and you deal with the insurance company. She wasn't having any of that and wanted to argue. Well I couldn't take the keys from her, toss them into the car and lock it again. Did I mention this was a low rent neighborhood? I was at the end of a cul-de-sac and at the end of the cul-de-sac on the next road over were two sheriffs officers. I walked over and spoke to one of them and asked for his help. We went back to the "lady" and I was asked to stand by my car, which I did. After a few minutes the officer came to me and said,
"Sir, you are going to have to take her to court to get your $65. But the bad news is it is going to cost $500 to get it."
I called the boss asking what to do. He simply said, leave. I did. An hour later my supervisor told me that the "lady" told the sheriff that when I left, I had taken her keys with me. I never touched her keys. I opened the door, she grabbed them and then refused to pay. The supervisor said not to panic and lets see how this plays out. It was an hour after that I got another call from the supervisor telling me not to worry at all. It seems that when the sheriffs officer arrived to take her statement, not only was she gone but so was her car. Even though I was supposed to have her keys. It didn't take much for the officer to realize she just wanted to ruin my day because I wanted to be paid for services rendered.
We will deal with more of these types later, but I really want to mention the second type. They are the totally brain dead spoiled rotten brats that you meet in a college town. The ones who have never had to take responsibility of anything in their lives because mommy and daddy always handled things. Case in point,
I was awakened at one A.M. on a Saturday morning and told to go get a young "lady" into her apartment. That is not a big deal. It happens all the time. This case was special. The young "lady" had major problems long before I got there. It seems she had stepped outside to talk with a young man in the parking lot at around midnight. While she was outside her two room mates locked the door. They didn't answer her knocks on the door and refused to answer her phone calls. So at 1:30 A.M. I opened her apartment so she could sleep in her own bed that night. I handed her the bill for services provided and she begins wailing at me,
"Nobody told me there'd be a fee."
At which point she turns and goes stomping off across the parking lot into the dark, leaving the front door to the apartment standing wide open. I have no idea what the room mates were doing or thinking. I never saw them. What could I do? If I chase her down and demand payment I'm going to be the one in trouble with the law. Besides while she is playing the victim I had gotten another call to assist someone else. I had to leave. I have sometimes wondered what her room mates had to say about that night and how forcefully they said it. But that's not my problem. Better to lose payment for one job than have to explain to your boss why you need to be bailed out of jail at around 2 A.M.
Then there was the time when I had to open a bedroom. Understand in a college town like Gainesville, people will have something like a four bedroom house. They put locking door knobs on the bedrooms and rent them out to students. I swear that some of the locks I have to deal with look like they were installed about the day after God was born. They are so old the company that made them is no longer in business and nobody makes blank keys to be cut for the locks anymore.
In this case, the person renting the room had never even been given a key for the door. It had been lost a decade ago but nobody had ever locked themselves out before. The only way I'm getting into this room is to destroy the doorknob. Well before I do anything like that I inform the customer of what must be done and let them tell me if they want me to do it. I should have known there would be trouble. Let me say that I'm very happy I didn't get pulled over that night. If I had I would have been taken straight to jail just because of the smell on my clothes. A bunch of real stoners. So they tell me to do whatever it takes to get into the room. The doorknob was destroyed, they told me that they didn't want to pay to have a new one installed and since I had to destroy the doorknob they shouldn't have to pay anything. I don't know what was in that room that was so important that they had to get in at any cost and I don't want to know. But it was one of those times where I had two more customers waiting on me and it just wasn't worth the fight.
As I have said these will be more or less journal entries that will be added to from time to time. And we haven't even touched subjects like pets, cops and other things. I'll try not to bore you and welcome comments.
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