pop a lock pop a lock of texas Un-compassionate. Lier. Slave driver. friendswood, Texas

Just from reading over the comments and rebuttals on this page, it's pretty obvious that a lot of people have been taken by this scam over the years. Look at all the thumbs up/thumbs down on the comments! It does my heart well to see one of these white collar crooks exposed by the people he's cheated. Thanks for this report, I will be sure to never work for this company or use this company for roadside assistance knowing what I know now. God bless.

This is in response to the lies that "Jason" has posted on here while pretending to be a happy employee of the company.

" Pop a Lock of Texas is the worst company that I have ever worked for.

- Opinion: I am willing to bet that you would say this about any company you have ever worked for. "

OK, so your logic is that if someone hates your company for scamming them, they must then hate ANY company they've ever worked for? Is this an attempt to show us that the problem doesn't in fact lie with the companys practices, rather it lies on how negatively this person feels about all of their ex-employers? Yeah sounds totally legit, people are known to spend their time writing out long winded complaints about former employers just because they have a negative attitude. Get real. As for myself, you're the ONLY employer I've ever felt the need to expose on the internet, I'm sure it's just the same for all the others on here.

1. You have to use your own car.
-
True & False: This is only true for Roadside assistance, Locksmiths drive company vehicles. But when you are hired, you agree to use your own vehicle. That is known from day 1. If you didn't want to use your own car, then why did you take a job that requires you to use your own car?

Maybe because we were lead to believe by your "trainers" that there was a very high call volume and that most of the calls would be within no more than 20 miles of us. We could make up to 200$ in a single day!! According to her at least, unfortunately that was a lie. Unless you live in Downtown Houston, you only get a few calls a day UNLESS, and here's where they get you, you're willing to go beyond the area you are supposed to be working in. Before you might have made 100 dollars in a day but you probably spent at least 40 on gas, not to mention the wear and tear you just put on your vehicle. So in the long run you are making about 50-55 dollars a day (after expenses) to work a 12 hour shift. 50 divided by 12 =  about 4.17$ an hour. Granted you're not WORKING every hour but you're driving around most of it, or if you do as they want you to, sitting in a subway in another area "just incase" a call comes through.

2. You potentially have to drive 200 mile a day.

True: There is a potential or you to drive 500!! miles... but only if you have a large amount of calls.
This IS Houston, and it does take a while to get anywhere. If you drove 200 miles I would estimate the amount of calls give a 20 mile radius (that is from spring to down town_ and no area is that big... so if you drove 200 miles a day, you would make a minimum of 130 dollars for that day. 200 miles, is roughly 8 gallons of gas, so you made 110 (ish) dollars profit that day. Multiple techs
who work here make $600 to $700 dollars a week.

Again only if you live in Downtown Houston or Spring, will you get the "600$" to "700$" a week. If you live anywhere else, you will probably get between 0 (yes i've had zero calls in a day) and 5 calls on the normal day. The busiest day I ever had was 10 calls but they were all over the place and by the end of the day I didn't profit very much after gas.


3. You must pay for your own gas and maintenance for your car.

- True & False: As stated when you were hired, you must use your own car. It's not a secret Pop-A-Lock springs on you... you have to use your own car. You agreed to the terms of your hire. If you are doing a good job, and need gas, Pop-A-Lock has gone out of their way to help techs who need it, and DESERVE
it.

Really? Pop-a-lock goes out of their way to help the techs? Because I never once was offered help. I remember speaking to my supervisor and telling her I was running low on gas and couldn't make the bi-weekly bank run, and I was told in so many words that I didn't have a choice. Not 1 cent was offered to me for gas, nor was there any offered to any other tech I ever spoke to. And what is this techs who "DESERVE" it s**t? So only some of your techs are worth chipping in on gas for? The rest can screw off and pay for their own? Nice attitude about your employees.

4. 72 hours a week mandatory.

- True: 72 hours a week of "on call" time. You rarely spend more than 5 to 6 hours actively engaged in work per day. (my experience) The rest of the time you can do what you want (i.e. relax at home, study, read, watch movies... etc.) This is also so you have a chance to get as many calls a day as possible... see below.

It's not as if the rest of the hours you're on-call aren't messing with your day. It's not like you can get involved in anything with the constant proposition of the phone chiming off at any minute. I don't really care about not being paid for the time I'm not working, I'm more on about the fact that you don't pay enough WHILE we were working.

5. Some days you get one call. So you make $10 that whole day.

- True: It's an on call service, and if no one needs the service, you don't work. This is in true in every "on call" service business... if there is no work, then there is no work. It's no different than if you worked in a restaurant, and you were sent home early because it was slow... So you get a lot of time off sometimes. (see 72 hours mandatory)

Then quit having your trainers telling all the trainees that they'll be making 100-200$ a day. It's a flat out lie for anyone not living in Downtown Houston but y'all do it anyways because otherwise you wouldn't have anyone to cover the other slow areas and would lose out to another locksmith.


6. Don't get paid for a bunch of work related procedures that you must do.

- False: You are hardly or rarely ask to do anything other than service calls as they come out. I don't know what procedures you are talking about, but I will say that if you have to report anywhere to do anything away from you area, you are compensated. (i.e.
commission or gas card, or gift cards) This has always been my experience.

Oh really, what about the twice weekly bank runs that you have to do? For me it was about 25 miles away to the bank. AKA 2 gallons of gas, there and back, so 6$ bucks out of my pocket x 2 because i'm doing it twice a week. And boom, 12 bucks is gone every week. That's more than what I was paid for one whole service call and I wasn't compensated A DIME. If you even try to use the company cell phone for anything non-work related they will CHARGE YOU for the bill. So quit your lying.

7. The owner Tony Graham is a total d*ck.

- Opinion: This post just lost all credibility. Tony is a very nice guy. I think he is too nice to his employees, but he runs a business, and so you are required to do business things and work. If you have ever been a manager, anywhere, my guess is someone thought the same of you. I am sure someone thought the same of me.

This post just gained all LOLability. Tony Graham is a total d**k, and that's one of the key things that exposes you ("Jason") as actually being Tony. You're all defensive over someone calling him a d**k in only the way his lover or himself would be upset. What a d**k.

8. Never a raise. Never. Trust me.

- False: I can't trust you, as this is entirely inaccurate. I did a very good job as a Roadside tech and so I was promoted from a Roadside tech to my current position, and am compensated accordingly.

Not true, one of the guys training me had been there for several years and was promoted to a locksmith but was still required to do roadside assistance (in his own vehicle) for the same exact pay rate. You only get paid more if you're called to a house lockout, you continue to receive next to nothing for your roadside assistance.


9. 6 days a week.

- See #4

You heard this guy whom is pretending not to be the owner of the company, look at #4 right now!

10. Work in all weather.

- True: This is true. People need roadside assistance in all types of weather.  Not just when it is sunny.

^ The only thing you and I will probably EVER agree on ^

11. No additional pay to drive outside your area. e.g. 60 mile round trip = $10.50 to unlock someone's car door. Very unfair. So if your car get 30 miles to the gallon and you make $10.50, gas is $3 a gallon, after taxes you make about $3. This is a very common scenario.

- True & False: Regrettably, again, this is Houston. You calls might occasionally be 60 miles away, but that is only if a fellow worker is sick or out of his area. The vast majority of calls take place in the area you working in. This isn't common, this is an exception, but it can happen. Pop-A-Lock has multiple Navigators on duty to make sure you are kept as close to "home" as possible.

You're not supposed to get calls that are 60 miles away PERIOD. You told everyone in the training 20-30 miles, even had us assigned zones that we were frequently made to drive out of. The 12 bucks you're making on a call to go 60 miles away (120 miles round trip) wouldn't even cover your d**n gas! You would pay out of your own pocket for that call instead of just calling the insurance company back and telling them you don't have a tech available in that area and letting ANOTHER ROADSIDE ASSISTANCE COMPANY pick up the call. People didn't sign up to work for charity, they need to be PAID to use their vehicle.

12. Employee turn over rate equalled to approximately 10 a month. The supervisor just constantly trained to people.

- True: Employee turn over is in fact high. Too high. I wish people would stay longer and see the benefit of an "entry level position." Our entire Locksmith corp is made up of people who started in Roadside. But hard work isn't for everyone, and if you don't work hard, you never see any benefit.

I'm surprised you even admitted the turnover rate was high, I figured you'd be like "No, we're all happy together! Nothing to see here, Move along!". LOL.  The employee turnover rate is so high because the JOB SUCKS. Long hours, little to no pay, destroys your vehicle.  So maybe you should improve it by paying more instead of charging employees 500$ to get out of their contract with your company.

13. Forget about asking off early for any reason. Unless you have a family issue I was told.

- True & False: This is true, but as in just about every job, you are required to be at work when you work. You cant just take off when you want. This is a business. I am sure that you getting off early to go watch a movie or some other "personal thing" is of little or no consequence to the Young single mother late to pick up her child when she has a flat tire she cannot change on her own. It's
a business. Pop-A-Lock does let you take off for Family issues, as that would be what they consider important, and would be an excused absence.

IDK about this one, I pretty much checked out once I realized that they wouldn't fire me because of their high turnover rate. I heard stories of a guy that would just straight up not answer them most days while he was on call and they wouldn't fire him. So I took the same approach, and guess what? They didn't! So I used that time of ignoring their cries for me to pick up my phone and get back to working my slave labor, to find another job. So if you're a current employee? DO WHATEVER YOU WANT, HE AIN'T GONNA FIRE YOU!

14. Zero benefits.

- False: Some benefits are offered after your probationary hiring period.

LOL I can only imagine how bad the benefits offered by someone as greedy as Tony would be. But again, IDK about this one. Still, haha.

15. Very low employee morale.

- Opinion: Everyone I interact with seems to be fine with their job and morale doesn't seem low to me, but this is opinion, so isn't rooted in fact, like #7.

Yea everyone you interact with seems fine with their job because YOU ARE THE OWNER, you idiot! If you were one of the actual techs you would hear all the things being said about the company and yourself. You can't even imagine how bad morale is, OP is absolutely right on this one.

16. Accidently brake a tool, then you pay for it. They'll get you for anything they can. And the tools are cheap.

- False: If you break a tool, it is replaced. You dont pay for it, unless you damaged it through carelessness, or lost it. Cheap is subjective.

More BS. If you break a tool, trust me, it will be "through carelessness" no matter how it was broken.

17. Minimum wage for training when you start.

- True: Pop-a-Lock doesnt require you to have experience when you start... You are paid for training. Pop-A-lock provides you all the training and tools necessary to do your job, and pays the Federal Minimum wage. Which was agreed to when you were hired.

This was actually the only good part about this job, the only time I didn't feel like I was getting totally screwed by Pop-a-lock. Walking around a junk yard in the hot sun, having to avoid yellow jackets nesting on the vehicles, learning how to unlock hot rusted P.O.S. cars for minimum wage....THAT was the BEST part. Make sense to you now?

18. GOA's gone on arrivals pay $5. So you drive 30 minutes to a job and no one's  there, then you get paid $5. So now you have to drive 30 minutes back to your hub. That makes $5 an hour.

- True: Pop-A-Lock sometimes DOES in fact pay you for not doing any work if the customer is not there. Calling your customers is key to minimizing your gas expenditure and avoiding a GOA when possible. Pop-A-Lock doesnt make the customer leave, and cant make
the customer stay. Goas account for less than 5% of all calls. So if you took 100 calls, 5 might be GOAs. Also please note, you are given a GOA regardless of the distance you drive.

Also please note, you are given 5 dollars regardless of the distance you drive. That counts as being paid for your time, right?

19. Go to a call and no ones there and it's a cash call. Then you make nothing.   pop a lock won't even fight for your money and you're not allowed to.

-True: Fight for what money? No one is there to pay... these type of calls COST Pop-A-Lock money as well. Again this is the exception not the rule. And keeping in contact with your customers is key to avoiding unnecessary gas expendatures.

You would think Pop-a-lock would care enough about its employees to just give them some money out of the companies pocket in these scenarios---well you probably wouldn't think that now that you've read my retort. ;)

20. Really I can go on and on. And I think I will. I'll repost things when they come to me. This was an immediate list of common issues occurring on a daily basis.

-False: I see no re-posts, so I can only guess that you went on to hating some other company you dont work for anymore.

And bring it home with the "you hate every former employer" logic! Congratulations on proving #7 to be totally true!

Look... we never like the companys we no longer work for. Otherwise we would still be there. I understand you feel
frustrated and have a vendetta against pop-A-Lock of Texas, but this is a good company with strong leadership and it is growing everyday. You say nothing about the 100s a call a year we do to rescue children locked in cars or homes, all
for FREE. Or the 10s of thousands of dollars donated in our community to civic organizations and the services we do free of charge for Firefighters or Policemen. You are paid for those calls... even though Pop-A-Lock is not.

I think that if you took a step back and honestly looked at the work you did, you would see that you were compensated for the work you did.

Honestly is the key word. As in "truthful."

Look...the only company I have enough of a problem with to spend AN HOUR of my time on (as i just did) is Pop-a-lock. I'm not out smearing every former employer of mine on the internet no matter how much you might like to convince others of that. We all have a "vendetta" against pop-a-lock because we were RIPPED OFF by Pop-a-lock, don't try to make this as if all of these former employees are just insane.
This has nothing to do with "saving children." I do like how you tried to change the subject from unfair business practices to "we're saving the children!" though. Nice touch. Locksmiths in general do that, and if a childs life is in enough danger someone will just break the windows out, quit pretending you're batman and you're some life saver.
Maybe you should donate some of that 10's of thousands to your broke a*s employees, they're just as needy as the people receiving charity.

"Bullshit" is the keyword. As in "Lying".

Unfortunately, "Jason" is obviously either a shill for the company, or much more likely Tony Graham (The owner) himself expressing the opinion of the only satisfied employee at pop-a-lock---himself. You can come on here and pretend to be a happy employee and thumbs up your own rebuttal and thumbs down everyone speaking negatively about Popalock all you want "Jason", but the numbers don't lie, only you do. This isn't a case of just one random disgruntled employee, there are SEVERAL all with the same claim as to what Pop-a-locks business practices are. It is 100% a scam and you know it. If it wasn't such a horrible job the turnover rate wouldn't be so high, and what does popalock do rather than improve working standards in order to retain employees? They throw a f****** clause in the contract to take your last paycheck away from you (up to 500 dollars like they did to me) if you don't stick it out and make them money while getting paid JACK S*** for 120 days. Before long, so many people will know of your shady practices, that you will get what you deserve and be put out of business because no one will work for your sorry a*s.

To the author of this report, it sounded like you worked for a crummy boss and I believe every word you said. I live in Texas also and I am starting to believe that most folks who want to cheat their employers move to Texas to set up shop. I have so many friends who are being ripped off by their employers and mistreated and I have had to sue my own employer over back wages and abuse. It happens a lot out here.

With that being said, if you guys know the trade start your own business. When I locked my keys in my car pop a lock was one of the most expensive companies out there. I say start your own business, buy the tools, get the license or whatever it takes and underbid them. You will knock them right out of business.

Owners rebuttal is another failed attempt.  Their idea of the bottom line that employees make money is simply false.  If you enjoy making 5 dollars and hour then go for it.  I worked there for a year and calculated week after week my hourly earnings.  My paychecks consistently totaled 5 dollars and hour.  If they magically rose, then it was by a couple dollars.  People don't go to sites like these and invest their sweet time just to make false accusations for no reason.  The day I quit pop a lock was one of the best days of my life.  I'm happier than ever in what I do for a living now.  Should have quit earlier.  Wasted a year of my life.

First off I would like to say that I have worked for this company for a few years, and
will address all of the statements made by the original poster. I will be honest, but please understand, actual experiences
will vary... this is based upon my experience as a Roadside Tech and my current position within the company.

Pop a Lock of Texas is the worst company that I have ever worked for.

- Opinion: I am willing to bet that you would say this about any company you have ever worked for.

1. You have to use your own car.
-
True & False: This is only true for Roadside assistance, Locksmiths drive company vehicles. But when you are hired, you agree to use your own vehicle. That is known from day 1. If you didn't want to use your own car, then why did you take a job that requires you to use your own car?

2. You potentially have to drive 200 mile a day.

True: There is a potential or you to drive 500!! miles... but only if you have a large amount of calls.
This IS Houston, and it does take a while to get anywhere. If you drove 200 miles I would estimate the amount of calls give a 20 mile radius (that is from spring to down town_ and no area is that big... so if you drove 200 miles a day, you would make a minimum of 130 dollars for that day. 200 miles, is roughly 8 gallons of gas, so you made 110 (ish) dollars profit that day. Multiple techs
who work here make $600 to $700 dollars a week.

3. You must pay for your own gas and maintenance for your car.

- True & False: As stated when you were hired, you must use your own car. It's not a secret Pop-A-Lock springs on you... you have to use your own car. You agreed to the terms of your hire. If you are doing a good job, and need gas, Pop-A-Lock has gone out of their way to help techs who need it, and DESERVE
it.

4. 72 hours a week mandatory.

- True: 72 hours a week of "on call" time. You rarely spend more than 5 to 6 hours actively engaged in work per day. (my experience) The rest of the time you can do what you want (i.e. relax at home, study, read, watch movies... etc.) This is also so you have a chance to get as many calls a day as possible... see below.

5. Some days you get one call. So you make $10 that whole day.

- True: It's an on call service, and if no one needs the service, you don't work. This is in true in every "on call" service business... if there is no work, then there is no work. It's no different than if you worked in a restaurant, and you were sent home early because it was slow... So you get a lot of time off sometimes. (see 72 hours mandatory)

6. Don't get paid for a bunch of work related procedures that you must do.

- False: You are hardly or rarely ask to do anything other than service calls as they come out. I don't know what procedures you are talking about, but I will say that if you have to report anywhere to do anything away from you area, you are compensated. (i.e.
commission or gas card, or gift cards) This has always been my experience.

7. The owner Tony Graham is a total d*ck.

- Opinion: This post just lost all credibility. Tony is a very nice guy. I think he is too nice to his employees, but he runs a business, and so you are required to do business things and work. If you have ever been a manager, anywhere, my guess is someone thought the same of you. I am sure someone thought the same of me.

8. Never a raise. Never. Trust me.

- False: I can't trust you, as this is entirely inaccurate. I did a very good job as a Roadside tech and so I was promoted from a Roadside tech to my current position, and am compensated accordingly.

9. 6 days a week.

- See #4

10. Work in all weather.

- True: This is true. People need roadside assistance in all types of weather.  Not just when it is sunny.

11. No additional pay to drive outside your area. e.g. 60 mile round trip = $10.50 to unlock someone's car door. Very unfair. So if your car get 30 miles to the gallon and you make $10.50, gas is $3 a gallon, after taxes you make about $3. This is a very common scenario.

- True & False: Regrettably, again, this is Houston. You calls might occasionally be 60 miles away, but that is only if a fellow worker is sick or out of his area. The vast majority of calls take place in the area you working in. This isn't common, this is an exception, but it can happen. Pop-A-Lock has multiple Navigators on duty to make sure you are kept as close to "home" as possible.

12. Employee turn over rate equalled to approximately 10 a month. The supervisor just constantly trained to people.

- True: Employee turn over is in fact high. Too high. I wish people would stay longer and see the benefit of an "entry level position." Our entire Locksmith corp is made up of people who started in Roadside. But hard work isn't for everyone, and if you don't work hard, you never see any benefit.

13. Forget about asking off early for any reason. Unless you have a family issue I was told.

- True & False: This is true, but as in just about every job, you are required to be at work when you work. You cant just take off when you want. This is a business. I am sure that you getting off early to go watch a movie or some other "personal thing" is of little or no consequence to the Young single mother late to pick up her child when she has a flat tire she cannot change on her own. It's
a business. Pop-A-Lock does let you take off for Family issues, as that would be what they consider important, and would be an excused absence.

14. Zero benefits.

- False: Some benefits are offered after your probationary hiring period.

15. Very low employee morale.

- Opinion: Everyone I interact with seems to be fine with their job and morale doesn't seem low to me, but this is opinion, so isn't rooted in fact, like #7.

16. Accidently brake a tool, then you pay for it. They'll get you for anything they can. And the tools are cheap.

- False: If you break a tool, it is replaced. You dont pay for it, unless you damaged it through carelessness, or lost it. Cheap is subjective.

17. Minimum wage for training when you start.

- True: Pop-a-Lock doesnt require you to have experience when you start... You are paid for training. Pop-A-lock provides you all the training and tools necessary to do your job, and pays the Federal Minimum wage. Which was agreed to when you were hired.

18. GOA's gone on arrivals pay $5. So you drive 30 minutes to a job and no one's  there, then you get paid $5. So now you have to drive 30 minutes back to your hub. That makes $5 an hour.

- True: Pop-A-Lock sometimes DOES in fact pay you for not doing any work if the customer is not there. Calling your customers is key to minimizing your gas expenditure and avoiding a GOA when possible. Pop-A-Lock doesnt make the customer leave, and cant make
the customer stay. Goas account for less than 5% of all calls. So if you took 100 calls, 5 might be GOAs. Also please note, you are given a GOA regardless of the distance you drive.

19. Go to a call and no ones there and it's a cash call. Then you make nothing.   pop a lock won't even fight for your money and you're not allowed to.

-True: Fight for what money? No one is there to pay... these type of calls COST Pop-A-Lock money as well. Again this is the exception not the rule. And keeping in contact with your customers is key to avoiding unnecessary gas expendatures.

20. Really I can go on and on. And I think I will. I'll repost things when they come to me. This was an immediate list of common issues occurring on a daily basis.

-False: I see no re-posts, so I can only guess that you went on to hating some other company you dont work for anymore.

Look... we never like the companys we no longer work for. Otherwise we would still be there. I understand you feel
frustrated and have a vendetta against pop-A-Lock of Texas, but this is a good company with strong leadership and it is growing everyday. You say nothing about the 100s a call a year we do to rescue children locked in cars or homes, all
for FREE. Or the 10s of thousands of dollars donated in our community to civic organizations and the services we do free of charge for Firefighters or Policemen. You are paid for those calls... even though Pop-A-Lock is not.

I think that if you took a step back and honestly looked at the work you did, you would see that you were compensated for the work you did.

Honestly is the key word. As in "truthful."

Having former and current employees that have not ONE good thing to say about this company, actually many, many negative things is an automatic red flag. As someone looking for employment myself in todays market i have been mislead and the victim of simliar company practices. Superlong hours, no compensation for out of pocket expenses occured as a direct result of "doing your job".

And of course no benefits, questionable or missing wages when you do get your so-called pay.

I could go on also but the employee posts do a great job.

Never heard of this company, but I am currently in texas and i wish i would have read this or one similar
about the company i was suckered into haha like the current employee said "pay them to work"..

But, i WILL however DISCOURAGE anyone i hear mention this company from doing any business with
them wether employment, marketing, etc..

Thanks to the posters for CALLING OUT this company. 

I am still a employee as of right now, I agree Pop a lock should be sued for the way they treat employess and for the way they 1099 you and w2 you at the same time,If you work a regular schedule you should be an employee not 1099 , Here in Fl we work on call 6am-10pm, No company vehicles,No overtime,No Extra anything,No respect ,they will hire anybody,so if you have charges and felonies apply they dont care,they have adds on craiglist right now so desperate,Greedy Owner John Smith refuses any benefits to employee cause he dont want to pay extra for it, we only get $3 for a Goa wich I know we are supposed to get $5, Roadclubs are paying higher amounts then he shows us, for instance he say this roadclub only pays $19, when it pays $25 and $30 are paychecks are always short, my check bounced a couple times, i had to wait weeks to collect a check, he already been sued 3 times in past year, lost 2 of the cases,He may have another Loss coming real soon, everybody is a supervisor and bump heads on every call,Blind Leading the blind.They dispatch wrong addresses everyday and drive there and say I need a Goa , they say its a dispatch error No Goa ,Company is so sorry and greedy, I had to put my foot down .If you are considering working for this company don't do it, its not worth the hassle and abuse,Trust me, If you still work there and its not adding up get out.Company has no morals.This is coming from a hard working employee have ran upwards of 120+ calls a week before.Everyday when they are mad at an employee they say bring your tools in, I will contact Cross Country & Geico and let them know how this company mistreats and abuses its hard workers,Maybe just Maybe I will make a point then and they will cahnge the tune.

I also have worked for this company. They pay your the lowest commision possible. They want you to market for them for free. They require you to work 12 hour shifts, for minium pay. If you brake somethibg they want you to pay for it. Even the lock out tools which where out after time and do break. Then they charge like a hundred dollars for it. Thats alot of 7 dollar calls. They demand you to be on 6 days a week for 30% of your work. Wow I am rich. Calls are like $45 so do that math, some of thr road clubs pay like $23 total so take 30% off that. They rape us with no lubercation. Ouch! They time of job is for you if you enjoy free work. All the employees are right about everything they said. Pop a lock is the modern day slave owners. So dont work for them.

I worked for Pop-a-lock in Tampa, FL and managed to stick around for 2 months and could no longer put up with the ridiculous amount of bulls**t. I wasn't payed a single extra penny for using my personal vehicle so that guys response above is a total lie. I had car trouble towards the end of my time there and I got absolutely no help from the company or manager to help fix it. I had to take calls all over the city after I was promised by the manager at the time of hiring that I would be taking calls in my area and wouldn't go farther than 10-15 miles from my house. I was taking 5-6  calls everyday that were 20+ miles away and more times than not they ended up being canceled. I wasted all that gas and time for absolutely NOTHING and not only that I would get out there and be directed to a call all the way on the other side of the city because "I was the closest to the call," and would be forced to take it or face getting written up. I was completely exhausted every shift along with the other 3 or 4 guys that I worked with and rather than hire another 2 or 3 guys to spread the long hours they just continued to screw everyone. I signed a contract for 1500 bucks when I was hired and payed back about 1200 when I quit. Four nights in a one star hotel room and working out in the heat unlocking cars in a junk lot while the training manager sat inside smoking cost them 1,500 in training?! What a scam! On my off days I would have to drive to the bank and then drive 10-15 miles to give the manager my "drop." Why didn't he come get it? I was OFF!! If I had the money I'd call a lawyer because I promise you their practices are not legal. If I was slow or took to long on a car I got lit up on the radio about how I was behind and had 2-3-4 calls waiting which just made it worse and annoyed the customer. When I started they were so desperate to get people out there b/c of the crazy turnover rate that another guy and myself were thrown into the fire and I was slow at first and got yelled at for it! YOU A**HOLES PUT ME OUT THERE KNOWING I WASN'T READY! After gas and brakes/oil changes, tires, comprehensive insurance I wasn't making sh*t despite making almost 1300 a paycheck. If we went out to a call that ended up being canceled we weren't allowed to take a tip!! I spent my f'ing gas money to get there but I couldn't take money to make up for it??!! On federal holidays you were making extra on cash calls ONLY which most times would cancel anyways! Isn't it a law that employees must be payed a certain amount extra on fed holidays? I have to give them some credit! They found every legal loophole to screw the employee and make maximum profit! This company is a total joke and I hope everyone reads this and avoids working for them. Maybe it was just how it was managed in my city, I don't know. It was a terrible experience and in the end I ended up PAYING them to work for them! I hope everyone responds to this and maybe in the future we can make some kind of class action lawsuit. I promise you what they do IS NOT legal and it's just flat out WRONG. I could go on for hours talking about the terrible treatment and poor pay but I hope readers get the idea. Have a good day people.

I am yet another former-employee of Pop-a-lock TX, I can personally attest to EVERYTHING the original poster has said. I'm surprised this company hasn't been slammed with a huge lawsuit over unpaid labor, but I guess they keep their contracts sewed up pretty tightly because of the sheer volume of people they do this to. As for the 'rebuttal' the owner of the company put on here, he's completely full of crap. --"The harder they work the more they earn"--, yeah if by working harder you mean driving further out of their area in order to pick up enough calls to at least make SOMETHING for the days work. -- "You make great money on 3/4 of the jobs because they are close to your location" -- Yet another totally blatent lie, in the 2 months that I endured working with this awful company, from my experience it was closer to 1/4 of the calls are close to where you live, and 3/4 you are being told that you HAVE NO CHOICE but to take them, even if you're 30 miles away, the other tech is 40 miles away, so its your problem now and you will lose money on it or be fired, rather than have this be an issue of certain areas not being able to be covered and the OWNER ABSORBING THE LOSS. --"Employees using personal vehicles are paid extra money"--I almost couldn't believe I even read this a*****e saying that, if I was making extra money for using my vehicle, I'd REALLY hate to see what the people with company vehicles make, and by the way, you don't have a CHOICE but to use your personal vehicle when you start with them, they don't offer you a company vehicle, so again this guy is lying. -- "Commission based work is not for everyone, many people like to get paid for 'being somewhere' rather than what they do" -- Yeah and many people like to get paid PERIOD, not spend an entire day making absolutely nothing and being told we should market for your company for FREE so that we can earn more. And not only do you need to market for their company (WHICH IS WORK THAT YOU ARE NOT BEING PAID FOR), but also TWICE weekly you will have to drive to the bank to deposit their money for them, without being paid ONE CENT for time or fuel, even though they only pay you ONCE EVERY TWO WEEKS. Apparently Tony Graham needs his money a lot more than you do, he only owns his own company, you've got a high-paying commission job to keep you going! The point is, the first poster was absolutely correct with everything they said, and regardless of what Tony Graham trys to say about it, go work for them, see for yourself. Oh yeah and did I mention that if you can't endure working for this company for at LEAST 120 days, and you quit (even if its because you're not making any money, or for ANY REASON) you will owe Tony Graham 500 dollars (Its in the pre-employment contract, read it) for 'liquidated damages'. He most likely had to implement this policy due to the fact that no one in their right mind would stay with this company after seeing how it really is, and he had to figure out a way to still turn a profit off of them. Your business days are numbered Tony Graham, I will personally see to it that as many people as I can inform in the houston area are made aware of your business practices, until no one will work for you anymore. See ya in the unemployment line a*****e.

Pop-A-Lock employees are on commission and therefore the harder they work the better they do and the more they earn. Especially if they develop relationships and accounts in their local area by marketing the services we provide. This is 'win some - lose some' work, you may make great money on 3/4 of the jobs because they are close to your location, but not make as much money on a longer drive. We try to limit the times these longer drives occur but sometimes they do happen. Employees in a personal vehicle are paid extra money for using their personal vehicle and typically they earn much more than what they spend on fuel and maintenance, plus they don't have to drive into work to return a vehicle saving them time on the road.

Commission based work is not for everyone, many people like to get paid for 'being somewhere' rather than what they do. The most productive road service technicians who demonstrate strong potential, mechanically and customer service, have an opportunity to advance in position. We do our best to inform potential employees regarding the type and nature of the work as 'on-call', if they are looking for a 9 to 5 widget stacking job, this isn't it. This job also provides freedom to allow the employee to do other personal tasks throughout the day in between service calls. The best candidate for this type of job is a career minded person who is willing to work for what they earn and pursue advancement beyond the 'entry level' position that is described in this 'rip off' report.