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Are phone directories cleaning up their act?

Got a call from a local phone directory sales person this week wanting me to buy an advertisement in their “yellow” pages.

 

First I asked her if we could advertise using our online business name, A-Florida-Locksmith.com instead of/ or in addition to our legal name which is Martin Security Group, Inc. She said we could as long as we showed her a business license with that name. When I said I didn’t have one for A-Florida-Locksmith.com, she then said that all I would need would be to print out a fictitious name filing from the State website.

 

Next I began asking her about all the bogus locksmith listings in the phone book.

 

“Oh, those were a lot of unscrupulous people. They didn’t pay us so we took them out. You’ll see a big difference in the phone book this year,” she said. “I had other locksmiths ask me the same question.”

 

Okay, I thought. So it was the sales people’s fault – they just sold advertising to anyone who said they would pay.

 

 “Now with anyone who does more than $300 a month in advertising with us, we have to do a fraud check on them,” she continued.

 

“So what about all the bogus online listings?” I asked

 

“If they don’t pay, then we pull them right away,” she said. “We can do that much easier with the internet whereas the book doesn’t change for a year.”

 

Those policies sounded much better but were they accurate?  I checked their website for a locksmith in Altamonte Springs. After the first ½ page of advertisers (none in Altamonte), came the bogus listings. At least two of the advertisers, by the way, were not  registered with the State of Florida – guess they forgot to check that.

 

Apparently we were talking about two different things. She was talking about how if the advertisers don’t pay, then they pull them. I was asking about bogus unpaid listings not advertisers. I don’t think customers can tell the difference. They just look for a locksmith with the name of their city in its name and call that one. None of the advertisers had the word “Altamonte” in their name, so one would keep scrolling. There were 12 unpaid listings with the word “Altamonte” in their name and not one of them is a registered locksmith in the city or on the State website. It was the same old list of bogus listings with bogus addresses which I had checked out previously.

 

Well, either the phone company is still working on this and way, way behind or it looks like not much has changed.

 

Investigating locksmiths? Moi?

I know. I know. The title of my blog is The Locksmith Investigator, but that is really not what I’m doing. Genuine locksmiths don’t need to be investigated. Those who legally register with the state, county and city are doing every thing right.

 

What I am investigating are the phony “locksmiths” or “locksmith” companies. I hate to even use the word “locksmith” with these scam artists. These are those who are out there preying on the public — like the company who posted the following ad on Craig’s List. (Craig’s List has since removed the ad).

 

 

Locksmith (No Experience – OK) (Minneapolis+St Poul)

March 15, 2009  
Filed under Skilled Trades

We are looking for high motivated individuals who would like to establish a business relation with a nationwide company who can provide up to 30-40 service call a week on a 24/7 basis. our business model includes : subcontracting the Jobs to you, and you will receive a percentage of every invoice. Expected income, based on our subcontractors all over the Major US cities, will be 1000-1500 a week. we will cover 50 % of the travel expenses for the training. Locksmiths with experience are well-come to answer this add as well.

 

So let me see if I read this right. This national company wants to sub-contract locksmithing jobs out to inexperienced locksmiths?

 

An inexperienced sub-contractor is NOT a locksmith!!!

 

He’s just a guy with a drill who drills out perfectly good locks because he has no skills or tools with which to pick them open. He then replaces them with junk which he calls a high-security product so he can overcharge the consumer.

 

Okay, so how do I investigate phony locksmiths? Since the call centers change sub-contractors frequently, tracking down the sub-contractors won’t help.  Listing call centers and the various names they use would help, but the best course of action, I believe, would be to list all the genuine locksmiths out there.

 

 If people had the truth, it’s not likely they will choose a fake.  But first, I had to find the genuine locksmiths — and I did. I knew the tax collector was the best keeper of that information. Now all I needed was to speak to the right person in his office.

 

After two days of phone tag with three very helpful Orange County staff members, I finally did speak to the right person and he sent me a file with the information I needed. Thank you, Joe Giovanelli!  Of course, I still have to sort through 1114 pages to find the answers I need, but I’ll work on that over the next few days.

 

Hope to have time to get updated information from Seminole County this week. Last year there were 21 registered locksmiths.  I had to actually go to the county services building at the opposite end of the county from where I live to get the information, so I know it’s not easy for consumers to find the answers. Hope to have some answers soon on how many actually locksmiths are in these two counties. We know there are 1791 phone listings, so this should be interesting.