Hi Shiner,
regarding you posting above.
How do you stand if you lose a key, you pay for the replacement padlock?
What is your insurance policy excess as now you will have to be insured as a key holder which I know costs a large increase due to risk factor?
What are your customers thoughts regarding safety, lets say someone jumped their fence, stole something - bike maybe- how do you stand regarding the fact that you had a key??
I can imagine this may work with a small round but think there are too many problematic issues regarding the above for a larger client base. I couldn't imagine carrying around 300/400 keys in our vans, would be a nightmare.
We work on the call 24/48hrs before, they forget to do the gate/garage, we clean fronts, they pay full price, no complaints yet with this proceedure?
Appreciate your comments regarding these issues.
Regards,
Trev
Hi Trev.
Good questions.
I have never lost a key so it has not come about. If I did lose one, clearly I would have to re-imburse by buying a new padlock or by trying to make a new copy of the customer's key - though I feel that they would have lost some trust in me if that were to happen (trust as in competence rather than honesty).
I was not aware that insurance costs more as a key holder. Bear in mind that the key would offer me no access to the interior of the house. In fact, I've even been offered keys for houses but declined them.
I do have about 210 customers of which I keep keys for six or seven properties (exterior access only).
When I suggest letting me have a key for a padlock, it's not often that people take me up on it. I've no problem with that as I prefer jobs with decent access anyway.
I have a system whereby each key is on a tag. On the tag, I encode the address in such a way that it will only make sense to me. One guy (NOT at my request) actually based his combination lock on my telephone number so I would remember it more easily
As far as someone stealing property goes, I do realise that some suspicion could fall on me - which is why I have declined house keys in the past. If that were to happen, I suppose the bottom line is that I didn't do it and they wouldn't be able to prove it as I would be innocent anyway. However, I appreciate that mud can stick even if it isn't justified so I reckon my good reputation over 15 years could be an asset.
Generally, I decline to quote for work if there is no access anyway.
Sometimes a longstanding customer will upgrade their security and will not allow me a means of bypassing it. Other times, a brand new client will give me a gate key without a problem - especially if I work for a neighbour too. If a longstanding customer isn't prepared to allow access, then I sometimes say goodbye.
There is one job where the guy says that he has no spare key to the padlock. I lift the gate off its hinges to get in (he knows about this and is OK with it) as there are no splitpins and all the hinges point upwards. The daft thing is that if anyone were up to no good, they could easily pull the padlock chains from their moorings anyway. I don't know why he bothers having a padlock in the first place.