A1 Locksmiths

I would not use A1 Locksmiths again, and neither would I recommend them to others after their having offered me their services as a specialist professional service for cleaning UPVC window frames. They inspected the job and said that yes they could do it and subsequently took the job on. I now realise that this was due to A1 Locksmiths seeing an opportunity to charge an excessive sum for purporting to be able to provide a professional UPVC cleaning service in the apparent absence of other providers of this service in the market.
I had no idea how much this kind of thing would normally cost, but in accepting the quote I had taken into account how during the initial inspection visit I had been informed that they had external mobile scaffolding equipment that would access and clean hard to reach external areas at the front and rear of the property – and I appreciated that as a result this could potentially incur an additional cost (thus the acceptance of the initial costing indication).
However no such scaffolding access was actually used, because whilst a normal ladder was used for the rear of the property the service that I actually received for the front of the property was effectively just someone leaning out of the window from the inside with a cloth reaching to try and clean the areas that were visible to him from the inside (albeit ineffectively until the necessary “rework” process had eventually been completed).
I was later informed by A1 Locksmiths’ Alan Bain that he had only taken on this job that was outside of their normal area of expertise “as a favour” to the reputable tradesman who had recommended A1 Locksmiths to me.
My negative review is accentuated by Mr Bain’s dismissive and contemptuous responses to my later objection to being charged a total of £1,560 (£1,500 labour plus £60 materials) for him and two others to spend six hours cleaning my UPVC windows frames from their starting time of 10am until an attempted 4pm finish time inclusive of a lunch break. I say attempted because at 4pm he said “Ok finished, bye!” and then went to leave ... before I found that virtually every window frame still needed the cleaning work completed as many were still filthy. A further two hours of “rework” rectification were therefore needed, but this was outside of their originally intended timeframe.
As they said they could provide a specialist UPVC window frame cleaning service, I enlisted their services for the purpose of cleaning my UPVC window frames with what they said were specialist professional cleaning materials and access equipment. However, whilst £1,500 for three men to clean for six hours equates to £83 an hour per person ... the initial service level quality that I subsequently received that necessitated countless “rework” visits during the next two hours in order to satisfactorily complete the job would have shamed a £16 an hour cleaner.
Whilst A1 Locksmiths may be a perfectly satisfactory provider of locksmith services, if they tell you what they told me in that that they can provide you with a professional UPVC window frame cleaning service, for what I was laughably later informed was supposedly a very fair and reasonable cost, then stay well clear ... unless, like I have been, you want to end up being financially exploited. I have had numerous tradesmen working in my property recently to contribute towards the house’s current renovation, and without exception every single one of them have relayed to me that in regard to the cost of the UPVC cleaning I have been very excessively overcharged in relation to the work that was done. The nature of A1 Locksmith’s dismissive response to my reasonable request for them to revisit their originally provided costing is also a reason why, on principle due to the absence on their part of any ethical approach to business, I would not in future consider using their services for anything at all.