A customer in Staines called one evening because the front-door lock had failed and needed replacing.
Trying to explain the fault over the phone gave us both a laugh, but once I arrived the problem was very clear: the core had pulled out of the cylinder, leaving pins and springs everywhere.
I had seen this particular type of failure before on some earlier versions of the same lock. The manufacturer had since updated the design, and the newer versions appeared to be holding up better.
The customer wanted a like-for-like replacement rather than changing to a different type of lock.
I had the updated replacement in van stock, removed the failed cylinder and fitted the new one during the visit.
After testing the key and locking operation from both sides, the front-door lock was working normally again.
