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For a month or so now, I've been hearing rumors that our store (Lovely little Hardware store chain between the bigger chains and the mom & pop stores.) was getting the ability to copy chipkeys for cars as well. I'm kind of a key fanatic for some reason, and I've been like a freakin' puppy to the local Admins, preparing workspaces and tidying up potential places to house the keys.
So today I walk into work and see the signs everything; outside on heavy plastic sandwich boards, inside the store windows, (Most of them, in fact.) On the paint counter and all over the hardware desk; the signs that indicate that we now copy chipkeys.
The procedure is a fun one. Chip keys are expensive. A normal Car Key with a plastic head will run you about $3.49. The same key with a chip in it: $79.99. I found out the hard way that it is definitely advisable to follow these steps in this exact order.
So today, I was the first person to successfully create a Chip Key in the history of the store. I was pretty thrilled that it actually worked, and moreso that I didn't have to suffer the wrath of anyone in particular if I had failed it. Oh boy.
Yay..
So today I walk into work and see the signs everything; outside on heavy plastic sandwich boards, inside the store windows, (Most of them, in fact.) On the paint counter and all over the hardware desk; the signs that indicate that we now copy chipkeys.
The procedure is a fun one. Chip keys are expensive. A normal Car Key with a plastic head will run you about $3.49. The same key with a chip in it: $79.99. I found out the hard way that it is definitely advisable to follow these steps in this exact order.
- There's this cool "tester" near the key programming device, where you can put your key into this rather large hole, and if it has a chip in it, a large light above the hole lights up. If not, good, we can skip all the work and consider it a normal key, thank god. If it lights up, it signals a huge hassle on our part.
- It would be wise to immediately warn the customer thoroughly of the price of the key. "Seventy nine ninety nine sir. Not Seven ninety nine. You still want the key, yes?"
- If they say yes, insert mental foreheadslap here, and let the agony commence. Gather the customer's car's year, model, and maker. '07 Ford Taurus.
- Look up the details in the computer. If it's the kind of car key that you don't have to go out into the parking lot to make, good for you; you can likely make it. If you find out all too late that the customer doesn't even have their car there when you get the blank ready, ... oy. Your bones will crunch between my teeth sir. Have an enjoyable day.
- Accept their key. Slide it into the (rather awkwardly loose...) hole in the key chip duplicator machine. Read off the values it gives you.
- When the reader has read the codes from the owner's current keys, we extract their key from the reader, and ask the customer once again if he's sure he wants to pay the flat $79.99 for the key. If he confirms, Radio the Manager to get [<KEY TYPE> you read from the machine] from the Office. Yes, we keep the blanks in the office. Don't want anyone running off with one! They're pretty expensive...
- When you get the key blank box, take the key out of the box, and give the box to the customer and tell them to pay for the box and bring back the receipt. When all of that is in order, we put the new blank into the reader and write the codes into the new chip key. It takes between ten seconds and five minutes. Usually less than two minutes.
- When all of that is done, the easy part is done. Now comes the hard part. The grinding.
- I've done plenty of car keys before. The only issue is, we only get one shot at it. You have no idea how rough making a car key is. There's so much that can go wrong.
- During and after grinding, it's a normal key-making procedure.
So today, I was the first person to successfully create a Chip Key in the history of the store. I was pretty thrilled that it actually worked, and moreso that I didn't have to suffer the wrath of anyone in particular if I had failed it. Oh boy.
Yay..
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