Dallas Auto Locksmiths 24/7 Dallas Locksmith Deceptive Advertising - Overbilling - Fraudulent Marketing Dallas, Texas

October 13, 2010

We managed to lock our keys in our running Chevrolet Suburban.  I had my netbook with me and found at Google...

24HR CAR UNLOCK
247DALLASLOCKSMITH.COM  $19 FAST & LOCAL CAR UNLOCKING SERVICE YOU CAN TRUST 24 HR A DAY

It was about 10pm at the time... I dialed their local number of 972-584-0577.  The call was answered promptly and professionally.  The man said that he had a technician near by and that it would no more than 20 minutes.  He also said that the technician would phone me right away.

15 min or so later, I was calling the number again.  I was told that the technician would call promptly.  And, I got a call within 5 minutes.  The guy took another 15 minutes to arrive at my location.  He was driving a decent can and seemed like a decent guy.

He filled out the invoice ... $35 service call fee... $85 labor charge to open the vehicle.  $120 total.

I brought his attention to the website listing and the advertisement.  He said he would deduct the service call fee of $35... but, that we would still have to pay the $85.  Otherwise, he was leaving then and there. 

Given our situation... we had no real choice but to pay the extortionist the $85. 

It took him less than 3 minutes to have the vehicle open.  He did it right.  He was professional about it.

The problem is that we were baited into a deal at $19.  We waited for 3/4 of an hour or so before the guy got there.  And then, we were forced to pay $85.

It's fraud.  It's deceptive advertising.  It's bogus.  It's wrong.

Yeah, we could have said no and started searching for another locksmith dude to open the car.  We could have waited another hour for a dude to show up.  But, our car was running and it was already pretty late at that point.

I think this firm should send me a check for $66.