Padlock Problems

I get a phone call from our Bee lady at the allotment that Nigel (name changed to protect the innocent) has broken his key in the padlock and that they are locked inside and didn't know what to do, so phoning the site rep (me) was their answer. I phone the maintenance company idverde who I find out finish at 4pm.

At 3 minutes to 5, I manage to get through to the council before they also close for the day and security will arrange for someone to come and meet me at the allotment site

Both plot holders were hoping for hunky fireman to arrive, In fact Nigel was quite excited and looked somewhat hopeful of an encounter of some kind, but sadly for him we avoided that one.

A guy from idverde arrives with his 5 year old daughter in tow, no tools. Long story short we end up unstitching a previous repair to the chain link fencing from when the site was broken into, to get out two plot holders out. Which was a sight to behold the Bee lady coming out the hole in the fence bum first as the slit was in the bottom of the door frame.

Today idverde arrive change the padlock BUT no ones key can actually open it, and as site rep I starts getting phone calls again.

idverde go out check and say it's fine it just needs someone with force their key to make it work! Now keys breaking off in padlocks is what got us in this situation in the first place.

It did make me get everyone's approval to add them to a Site Specific WhatsApp Group. So one message inform all

Idverde's answer was to change the lock and get new keys cut for all the plot holders which would take a couple of days.

In the evening I visit the site to drop off some compost and flower buckets and used a Master Key to undo the padlock they had fitted and replace it with a spare one that I had in the shed. They just need to come and fix it properly to the chain as I just pulled the other one off with my hands.

I've asked them to get some replacement locks in stock that are compatible to the original lock, I've also asked for my spare to be replaced so I can get them out of the shit next time they can't perform and find the right lock.