Commenter:
Gary W. Ford CRL Eastern Safe & Lock Inc.
The Locksmith Law is Working
Well after reading the comments above, I see that there are many who have no idea what they are talking about.
DCJS is the perfect agency to License and regulate the Locksmith industry, just like they License and Regulate the Alarm Industry. The Licensing law, as admitted by almost everyone who posted comments was needed and has been needed for along time in Virginia, thank you for pointing that out.
Northern Virginia, Richmond and Tidewater we attacked last year by a very organized group of phony-fake locksmiths. They advertised very heavily to Virginian's just like they have been doing for years in other states with the intent to quote very low prices and then triple or quadruple the price when they arrived at the consumer‘s home or business. This bait and switch tactic is their normal way of doing business.
In September 2007 before the new Law was passed we received the Verizon Yellow Book and the Yellow Books in Northern Virginia which normally has about 40 Locksmith companies listed. The phony out of state guys entered into the phone book the number of entries went to 1200. With that many listings the phony guys were able to flood the phone book in hopes of scamming Virginia consumers. A couple of months later the same thing happened in Richmond phone books. There scam works very well and a new Law was need.
If you look in the new 2009 Yellow Book under the Locksmith heading, first there is a warning at the top of the listings warning consumers that Locksmiths need to be licensed and they should check the regulatory agency responsible for Locksmiths. Also since the Licensing was passed I am elated to report a huge decline in the number of reports of the scammed consumers and reports of phony locksmith guys moving to Maryland or North Carolina.
To follow up on the scam guys you can watch the following video done by our own local NBC news or contact other web sites for information:
Associated Locksmiths of America "ALOA" warnings www.aloa.org
Most Locksmith want a License, just not under DCJS. After they realized that they would have to comply with all of the other Laws in Virginia, they did not support it anymore. At issue was the fact that they would have to have a Business License, Business Insurance, collect & pay Virginia Sales Taxes and prove that they are real companies. Yes, there are a lot of one man lock businesses in Virginia, but that does not mean they don't have to play by the rules and they don't need a Business License, Insurance, or file tax returns, ect.
As for the fees that DCJS has set forth for the Locksmith License it is $400.00 per year for the first to years, then it goes down to $300.00 per year. Yes, some training is mandatory, but even with that it is less than TWO BUCKS a day. Do any of you think that a Business would stop functioning if its expenses went up two dollars a day???
Other states like North Carolina scream every day about there Locksmith Law that only cost $100.00 per year, with such low fees they have no money for enforcement. Every case has to go to the Attoney General and nothing ever gets done. The scammers are running all over the state laughing at the Law. PS I call that just a Tax!!!
3000 word limit does not allow me respond to all of the inaccuracy written here or in some newspaper articles that I have seen, like the Roanoke newspaper article with at least 15 errors in it. After contacting the reporter he said that he had only spoken to three Locksmiths about the new law and by the way, not one of them voted for the Law. Under reporting is not the way a reporter should be doing his job.
If you need more information you can contact me anytime.
