[sudo-discuss] Yelp Locksmiths Greatest Hits Vol. 1

[Anon195714]

Yo's-

Here's the moral/ethical issue, and here's another opportunity for
right-livelihood jobs.

BTW, a neighbor of mine had a similar outcome: locked out of their
house, they called a reputable local locksmith; apparently the guy who
came out was a newbie or not-skilled or whatever, because after trying
unsuccessfully to pick the lock, he drilled it.  (BTW I'm quite sure it
was a Qwickset lock, which means it should have been very easy to pick.)


1) Moral/ethical issue:

Preying on people who have no choice.  Someone's locked out of their
house or car, that's an emergency for them, they are probably in no
position to shop around or wait until the next day, they may be freaked
out about the situation (baby inside, or cat, as the case may be), and
they're charged typically $100 - $200 for either a) less than a minute's
work or b) having their lock drilled which means it has to be replaced. 
(And if the lock is drilled, they have _no lock_ until it can be
replaced, also an expensive proposition.)

In my system of morals/ethics, the situations where someone has an
emergency and has no other choices, are exactly the cases where one is
obligated to help them at the minimal sustainable cost. 


2) Opportunity for right-livelihood jobs:

Sudo Lock Services Co-op.  "Fifty bucks gets you in."  Charge $50 for
simple lock picking, no charge if we can't pick it.  "Try us first!"

Pretty quickly the income gets sufficient to support keeping a stock of
common locks on hand, and drills: so if we can't pick it and have to
drill it, we can replace it on the spot with at least something that's
sufficient to provide security until we or someone else can install the
original type of lock or better.  

Over time we can add more services, for example complete assessment of
home security, small business security, and naturally, computer
security.  At which point change the name to Sudo Security Services
Co-op.  And charge higher rates for businesses and computer security. 
The latter can go up into the three-figure hourly rates depending on the
project.

Many of us are naturally nocturnal, so 24/7 service can be offered easily.

Many of us around here are also unemployed, under-employed, or
borderline homeless.  Billing the client $50 translates to being able to
allocate $40 - $45 of that to the member who picks the lock, and $5 -
$10 toward the overhead costs of the co-op.  Every additional $40 - $45
of income really counts for a lot of folks here. 

I've already got a job but I'd be willing to help organize this, do
basic business planning & spreadsheets, and so on.  If/when Eddan is
authorized to practice law in California, he might be interested in
doing the legal work to set up the entity. 

And since SudoRoom has hella' publicity right now, that publicity will
go a long way toward starting a marketing buzz that could bring in
customers. 

Who's interested?

-G.



=====



On 13-03-02-Sat 12:39 PM, rusty lindgren wrote:
>
>  1. *"These mother fuckers should burn in hell. *Quit scamming people.
>     You'd make more money actually being nice honest and helping more
>     people that like your business instead of charging a shit load for
>     1 customer and losing 27490291.
>  2. "...The guy shows up in literally 10 minutes, pops open the door
>     in about 30 seconds and then charges me $100 for the "labor"
>     because opening a door is a $100 charge.  WTF... Such bullshit.
>     *Two stars for him being super speedy though.*"
>  3. *"Since my cat was inside crying and needing to be fed*- I told
>     him I would pay $200 for him to unlock it or I was going to call
>     someone else.  He ended up drilling the lock out and then wanting
>     to charge another $190 to replace it.  *Preying on desperate
>     people in bad situations.*"
>  4.  "When he got here he said it would be 29 dollars service fee and
>     100 to pick the lock, he spent exactly 30 seconds trying to pick
>     the lock, said it was unpickable and went to his car to get a
>     drill and another lock to replace it.  Took him may be 15 minutes
>     to drill and replace the lock then he handed me a bill for 258
>     dollars.  I said how could something that jtook under 30 minutes
>     with very little effort cost so much.  *He didn't care, just took
>     my credit card and charged it."*
>  5. IF I COULD GIVE THEM NEGATIVE STARS I WOULD NOT HESITATE! *This is
>     my first review and I actually made a yelp account just to save
>     anyone from falling into their scam* they call a business. 
>  6. They call themselves locksmiths, but that is a joke. They
>     completely busted our font door lock (to the point that the handle
>     was hanging loosely off the door and no long worked to keep the
>     door closed), then proceeded to charge (and demand!) $150 for the
>     "service." *I could have gotten in a lot quicker and cheaper by
>     borrowing a neighbor's hammer!*
>
> -Rusty
>
>
>
>
>
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