The vast technological gap that exists between South Korea and Australia led to a funny series of lockout recoveries performed by us for a newly arrived Carlton resident from South Korea. Apparently for many people in South Korea keys are simply not part of their life with entry into homes, cars and work all being done by swipe card or a combination of swipe card and pin number. Keys? What are they?
We got a booking early one Friday evening through our iPhone app. I rang back to confirm a few details that I struggled to understand the young guy on the end of the line as he spoke with a very thick accent. I did manage to confirm his full address and that yes he did need a locksmith and we scrambled a van to his apartment. We arrived within 20 minutes, we had no trouble finding the place as he was out the front waving madly at us.
This in itself caused a minor problem that he was now outside the apartment which required a pin number to enter the foyer and our new customer had not yet memorised his pin number. Not to worry… We buzzed a few apartments to we found someone home, confirmed we were top lock locksmiths by holding our photo ID up to the camera and explaining we were rescuing one of their neighbours.
After accessing the building we made our way to our new customers second floor apartment and having back inside in only a couple of minutes. In his broken English he was able to explain he was not used to having keys as back in South Korea he accessed his apartment via a pin number both into the building and the apartment . It was able to prove he was the resident of the apartment, we handed him the bill and were on our way.
Two hours later we got a second booking by our iPhone app for the same customer. I rang him back thinking perhaps there was a bug in the app but no, sure enough he was locked out again. He popped out to the supermarket to get few things and had forgotten his keys we boast the same neighbour to get into the building who was dubious at first and this time came to the front door to physically inspect our credentials and then shortly after left rather amused at the poor fellows second mistake. Of course it’s not in our interests to make light of the misfortune of one of our customers so we quickly going back inside, and stressed the importance of taking your keys with you when you leave the apartment. We even fixed a hook on the front door for him to leave his keys on. After much embarrassed thanks we again left the apartment.
Will guess what the very next day and new best ever customer from Carlton summoned us once more. Three times in 16 hours he had forgotten his keys. We didn’t charge him this time because it just seemed unfair and this time when we left we gave him a bright red key strap that would allow him to wear is keys around his neck and we advised him to wear it at all times whilst he was home.
It’s been a while now and we haven’t received another call from him so either he is diligently wearing his key strap or he has reprogrammed his brain to remember that when the leaves his apartment to always take his keys with him.
