Ousted Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich apparently did something right in 2006 when his administration suspended the locksmith license of Dependable Locks and its owner, David Peer for giving a fraudulent address on its license application, for failing to provide a list of its licensed staff and for failing to cooperate with the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) in its investigation. The company was then based out of New York, but has since relocated to Florida.
The Department also suspended Price Line, based out of New York as well. Both companies listed their businesses with Illinois addresses, advertised their businesses in phone directories and used local phone exchanges and business names in their ads.
Consumers called a local number not realizing the companies had set up Remote Call Forwarding (RCF) numbers with the local phone company that forwarded their calls to call centers in New York.
The call centers then dispatched a sub-contractor to do the work. Illinois law prohibits unlicensed sub-contractors to work as locksmiths. Locksmiths must carry their locksmith license and the agency must also be licensed. Both companies complied with getting a license for their businesses but not for their employees. Not only must the employee pass a background check, they are also required to pass an exam to prove competency as a locksmith. I guess it was too much of an investment for the companies.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Birds of a feather lock together
Dealing with tax collectors and their staff getting the needed information on registered locksmiths has been interesting to say the least. Different counties have different ways of listing or not listing the information.
My all-time favorite site thus far has to be Hernando County. Talk about user-friendly. They have only 19 locksmiths and besides the business name, and address and owner’s name, they list the business phone number – one of the few counties I’m come across that’s done that. The whole list can be easily printed out and stuck in the glove compartment of a car.
Will have to make some calls to see how accurate the listings are. While every listing has a business start date, renewal dates range from 2004 to 2007 when it should be 2009 or later.
There was, however, one suspicious-looking listing – Fancy Feathers & Friends in Brooksville, Fla. I called the owner Frank Haucke who said the business name was correct.
Since I assumed he had a pet shop full-time, I asked if he was doing locksmithing on the side. “No,” he said, “It’s a full-time job. At one time we owned a pet store and when we applied for the license for both businesses the county said we only needed one license.”
“When we closed the pet store, we didn’t change the name,” Haucke said.
Haucke said he had been locksmithing for more than 25 years and all his customers know him.
My all-time favorite site thus far has to be Hernando County. Talk about user-friendly. They have only 19 locksmiths and besides the business name, and address and owner’s name, they list the business phone number – one of the few counties I’m come across that’s done that. The whole list can be easily printed out and stuck in the glove compartment of a car.
Will have to make some calls to see how accurate the listings are. While every listing has a business start date, renewal dates range from 2004 to 2007 when it should be 2009 or later.
There was, however, one suspicious-looking listing – Fancy Feathers & Friends in Brooksville, Fla. I called the owner Frank Haucke who said the business name was correct.
Since I assumed he had a pet shop full-time, I asked if he was doing locksmithing on the side. “No,” he said, “It’s a full-time job. At one time we owned a pet store and when we applied for the license for both businesses the county said we only needed one license.”
“When we closed the pet store, we didn’t change the name,” Haucke said.
Haucke said he had been locksmithing for more than 25 years and all his customers know him.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
New Find-A-Legit-Locksmith site is up
Finally, the new http://www.find-a-legit-locksmith.com/ site is up. I needed a place to begin posting the lists of legally registered or licensed locksmiths and the blog was just not going to be able to handle it.
Did I say in a previous post that I would do this over the weekend? I forgot how graphically challenged I am. I needed grace, grace and more grace. Praise the Lord for templates! Even then it was tough going.
I did have some disappointments along the way gathering information. Most of the agencies have been forthcoming, but I am still waiting on a response from Miami-Dade. The only county in Florida that requires a locksmith license and there is no online access to check someone out before you call them. I was told to email them, which I did 10 days ago but as yet no response. Will follow up with a letter this week and if that doesn’t work I’ll download a sample letter from the Society of Professional Journalists and file a Freedom of Information letter. It’s been a while since I’ve written one of those – need to brush-up on the procedures. The last time I filed one I was trying to obtain information from ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement). It was pre-9-11 and it took forever. I can imagine what it’s like now. Well, an FOI letter is a last resort. I think they are just busy, so I’ll keep plugging away on completing the other 60+ counties in Florida while I’m waiting.
Did I say in a previous post that I would do this over the weekend? I forgot how graphically challenged I am. I needed grace, grace and more grace. Praise the Lord for templates! Even then it was tough going.
I did have some disappointments along the way gathering information. Most of the agencies have been forthcoming, but I am still waiting on a response from Miami-Dade. The only county in Florida that requires a locksmith license and there is no online access to check someone out before you call them. I was told to email them, which I did 10 days ago but as yet no response. Will follow up with a letter this week and if that doesn’t work I’ll download a sample letter from the Society of Professional Journalists and file a Freedom of Information letter. It’s been a while since I’ve written one of those – need to brush-up on the procedures. The last time I filed one I was trying to obtain information from ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement). It was pre-9-11 and it took forever. I can imagine what it’s like now. Well, an FOI letter is a last resort. I think they are just busy, so I’ll keep plugging away on completing the other 60+ counties in Florida while I’m waiting.
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