Price Line Locksmith License Suspended

CHICAGO - The Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR), which regulates locksmiths, announced today it has suspended the license of Price Line, a locksmith agency and Gilad Yehoshua Gill, a licensed locksmith domiciled in New York. The agency had only been operating in Illinois since January 18, 2005 and had advertised its services under as many as 25 different names in various Chicago and suburban phone directories.  IDFPR had received several consumer complaints about the company's business practices, and its national and local activities have been the subject of at several investigative news features in Illinois, Ohio, California and New York. 

The locksmith agency license and locksmith license for Price Line and Gill, respectively, will be indefinitely suspended.  The company used unlicensed personnel, advertised under names of unlicensed entities, used telephone numbers in Illinois that were routed to New York without notice to the public, charged customers more for lockout services than was originally estimated and advertised business locations for which there was no actual establishments at such locations.

To further protect Illinois consumers, both the company and its owner, are forbidden from establishing a new business in Illinois under any other name until it has met the terms of its suspension.

"Illinois consumers have the right to expect that locksmiths are accountable to their customers and the laws of the State of Illinois," said Dean Martinez, Secretary of Financial and Professional Regulation.  "Through the actions we are taking today, we think we are taking a major step in protecting Illinois consumers from Price Line's unscrupulous business practices."

While this disciplinary action against Price Line will provide Illinois consumers with significant protection when they need a locksmith, IDFPR recognizes that other companies can and will use similar business models.  The regulatory agency is considering the best means to deter unlicensed locksmith activities and protect Illinois consumers from unscrupulous business practices.  It is working with industry groups and law enforcement agencies to develop a more comprehensive education and enforcement program to deter the growing amount of unlicensed locksmith activity in Illinois.