Yesterday evening our neighbour accidentally locked the car with her keys and her son who is just a todder trapped inside. She can only assume that she caught the button on the fob (keys now in handbag) because when she closed the door, the car locked!

Anyway, cue panic as her son was inside, she phoned a locksmith. They informed her that it would be £110+ VAT and that she must be aware that she can't cancel once booked. We thought smashing the window was the best option (no spare key) but hey ho.

Time went by and she got the usual, he's only 10 mins away. 10 mins later, he's only 5 mins away. Child distressed so she cancelled them and we smashed the window. Out comes the child, job done. £75 excess on insurance and nothing more to pay.

However, the locksmith stated that she owed them a contribution for the fact that their employee had started to make his way to the job and a bill will be posted out. They slammed the phone down on her too when she told them she was cancelling!

Unfortunately for the locksmith, at the time of making the distance contract over the phone, they only told her that she could not cancel. They did not inform her that there would be a cost involved and thus they fall foul of Regulation 36(6) of the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. So good luck with the bill!

The lesson here is to smash the window and forget the locksmith! LL.B (Hons) - University of Derby
LOT (Lord of Time) - University of Gallifrey

Are you sure you can be covered on your insurance if you break your own window glass? Past: FL2 TD4 HSE Auto
Evoque SD4 Dynamic Lux Auto
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So did she assume as she was told you cant cancel and she did there would be no charge then?
I would normally think and i would expect most others would, if youre told you cant cancel it means you will be charged for the job anyway?

If they had said you can cancel before they get there then you wont get charged?

She's phoned them and they are doing it this Sunday no problem  LL.B (Hons) - University of Derby
LOT (Lord of Time) - University of Gallifrey

Wasn't it caused by a deer strike? Came out of nowhere etc. 3 x FL1 2 manual + 1 auto
5 x FL2 4 manual + 1 auto
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Could have just asked any baseball cap tracksuit tucked into socks wearing person, bet he could have been in within 30 second and had the kid and stereo out shortly after Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

Landiroamer wrote:

So did she assume as she was told you cant cancel and she did there would be no charge then?
I would normally think and i would expect most others would, if youre told you cant cancel it means you will be charged for the job anyway?

If they had said you can cancel before they get there then you wont get charged?

npinks wrote:

Could have just asked any baseball cap tracksuit tucked into socks wearing person, bet he could have been in within 30 second and had the kid and stereo out shortly after

 LL.B (Hons) - University of Derby
LOT (Lord of Time) - University of Gallifrey

Years ago I locked both my sets of car keys in my micra. I was going to smash a side window ut my girlfriend (now wife) phoned my breakdown company. A fella came out about an hour later and reckoned he would be in the car in 30 seconds. 15 minutes later he still wasn't in. In the end he prised open the door with some kind of inflatable balloon thing just wide enough to get a piece of copper wire through to hook onto the door handle and open the door. The fella told me it was one of the hardest jobs he had done! Black MY2013 SD4 GS Auto, Wood Company Armrest, Freel2 sticker.
Gone MY2010 Freelander 2 Manual TD4.e S, Alaska White.

i locked myself in my car, with the keys, dropped them and then set the alarm off and couldn't get out due to the deadlocks

what i learnt, is been drunk, sleeping on the floor in a tent on 1/2 inch foam is not comfy, the rear seats laid down is quiet spacious and fellow campers get annoyed with you at 2am when the alarms sounding and indicators flashing and you too drunk to look for the keys down below the drivers seat  Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

I knew someone who locked their keys in their car, called out the AA and they came to assist, they got the door undone by forcing the top of the door frame away from the body so they could drop a rod down and pull the door handle, all very well it worked but they end up with marked paintwork and a door that never fitted flush again and made lots of wind noise when driving, in that case it definitely would have been better to break the glass.