I know there are a lot of locksmiths out there that have 'some' success with Yell aka Hibu, however I have recently noticed  that they are intentionally turning a blind eye to all sorts of fraudulant activity by national locksmith chains polluting the web with their false locations.

What brought it to my attention was a listing that appeared by Keytek, a national locksmith group that subs out the majority of its locksmith work to guys around the country.

It appeared they had set up a locksmith shop a few miles up the road from me and upon further investigation there was nothing to be found.

And it seems that im not the only one. I found this post on moneysaving expert about a similar fake listing on yell.com

I decided to take a look at some of the other listings (usually the priority paid ones) on yell.com and found that 90% were in fact false locations used to dupe the customer into believing they are using a local locksmith firm.

Speaking with some of my locksmith friends we had all noticed an increase in calls asking for a particular locksmith in the area that nobody had heard of as the work needed further attention or was not up to scratch.

Yell.com need to start taking some responsibility for the information they are publishing instead of giving the bad locksmiths a free for all. I am meeting customers every week that are being stood up, overcharged or seeking further work from locksmith companies that seem to vanish or stop answering the phone.

They were certainly quick enough to delete a duplicate listing of mine that was added a few years ago so there is no way that hundreds of false locations that are being paid for can be overlooked. It is simply a case of turning the blind eye.

Next time they start badgering you to advertise with them say NO and explain that until this undermining of local businesses comes to a stop then you will not be spending another penny!