You did what? Keyed alike?

Early on, I used to get call-backs from people with knoblocks (especially Kwikset) complaining that their old key still worked the lock that I had supposedly just rekeyed. What they were doing was inserting one of their old keys and using it to turn the whole (unlocked) knob.

After a couple of times of driving all the way back to the job only to find that that was the problem, I wised up. Now I tell them *over the phone* to go and _lock_ the knob, then try the key while I hold on. Problem solved!

works on Schlage, too

guy inserts OLD key, turns everything, and starts complaining.. I say hold on, and LOCK IT..

try it now..

gets REAL quiet.

--Shiva--

When I do rekeys, I demonstrate the old key not working the lock. Then promptly ask them for all their old keys. I explain to them that this way they will not accidentally think they have a key to the door on their ring when it is wrong. Of course it also eliminates callbacks about "my key doesn't work" or "the old key still works."

-- A

And old keyblanks are scrap brass to take to the recycle yard. Worth about

You know, I've gotten those also. None recently, but I know the call.

but its amazing how small a quantity weighs a pound.. I got probably 75# to haul off when I am going by some day.

--Shiva--

Of course the trick is to keep a straight face and be sympathetic without being condescending even though you feel like roaring with laughter down the phone.

A rural power non-profit utility also sold and serviced appliances and bore the cost of travel for service calls from general revenues. A customer 40 miles from base complained oven was not going. The clerk asked the customer to check that the timer clock was not on 'automatic'. The customer roared back with such fury that the clerk dispached a serviceman to keep the peace. The problem - you guessed it. Incidentally it is now a for-profit utility which does not sell or repair appliances.

Reminds me of my Navy days... Had an Lt. get me up one morning. The nav radar was "down" and the ship was blind... MY gear was malfunctioning and needed to be fixed NOW. So I get dressed in record time and run up to the bridge (shortcutting through "officer country" and pissing a few of them off for violating their territory). The captain is in his chair scanning the horizon intently (as if his eyes could compare to a SPY-2 radar). I look at the radar indicator... Yup, it's blank... Wait... (looking closer)... Hmmm (getting face right up to the screen and "cupping" my hands around my eyes...) There it is! Just really faded... Turn up the intensity... BAM! Fixed! The night watch turned the intensity down to be able to see better in the dark red darkness of the bridge. Sun came up and washed it out... (The equivalent of turning down the brightness on your TV).

Hmmm... Come to think of it... Does that mean I may have saved a multi-billion dollar ship from slamming into an oil tanker or something? Shouldn't I get one of the medals John Kerry got?

I didn't think the Navy gave out medals for embarrassing officers.

Actually, the laughs were at the expense of a new "scope dope" fresh from 'A' School, an enlisted man. If any of the officers were embarrassed, they did a good job of concealing it. The Lt. that woke me up was MY Lt. telling me to get my butt up to the bridge.

Reminds me of when I was working in broadcast engineering..

I got a call one night at about 3am (I had just left the station about 30min before..) The DJ was complaining that he was hearing his air sound in the cue speakers. I told him to "take Rem-3 out of cue" (the cassette deck used for recording shows was patched back into the board via input Rem-3.). He told me that Rem-3 wasn't in cue.. Ok.. So I drive back to the station, and walk into the control room and, you guessed it.. take Rem-3 out of cue.

Ah.. The joys of college radio stations..

We had the usual issues of DJ abuse/disrespect for the equipment, combined with the demand that every piece of equipment operate 24/7 without fail, and without maintainance.. (can't possibly have any downtime for any reason, since that might preempt somebody's show, featuring "music" that cannot be distinguished from a transmitter failure..) (we did have some more traditional shows, including classical, blues, jazz, world, classic rock, etc.. but way to much hip-hop.)

We did have a few lock issues.. We used a Best system, which worked very well for our needs, since we tended to rekey on a regular basis. We had everything that had key of any type keyed into the system, including override switches for transmitter control, equipment locks, alarm locks on emergency exits, file cabinets, cable locks for computers, etc. Probably about 60 locks total.

The only major crisis was when the core on the front door had a pin flip sideways (or something very similar), which prevented all keys from working in that lock.. unfortunately that was the only door that the DJ's had a key to.. I ended up drilling out the core, since the control key no longer functioned.