Here's a cautionary tale! When I bought my Vauxhall Combi van a year ago, it came with just one key. Not a problem I though, I'll get another cut - tomorrow. Well the 'tomorrows' came and went(we were always just too busy!!), until yesterday morning when having loaded the van, our truck and we were all ready to go......I had that dreaded 'empty pocket feeling'! The key had gone.....20mins before, I had opened the van with it, but now it was gone. After an hours searching, I had to send the lads on their merry way while I waited for 'Mick the Key' to arrive, which he did 4 hours later, with his magic box of electronic gadgets to read my chip(he said!).
I now have TWO keys, am £100 lighter in the pocket, down at least that amount again in working time lost and upset a customer who, having put her off through rain the day before, I had to do it again.
The moral of the story - "you are never too busy to get a spare key cut"
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I reckon you got off fairly lightly there with £100 for 2 chipped keys with him coming out as well. a few months back, my son got himself a nice bike that only came with one key. I kept nagging him to get a spare,stressing that losing it would be a disaster!! Anyway, he went off to get his new key cut.....a journey of a couple of miles.... then fell off on a slippery wet mini-roundabout on the way back. I was then blamed for the damage to his bike lol!! As you say though Colin, absolutely essential to have spare keys for everything..... its so easy to mislay. Unfortunately, some of these chipped keys can cost over £100 each.
Don't forget also that simple cut key blades (a couple of £'s) are v useful - especially for staff so they can access vehicle, get gear etc and manually (re)lock it. When you are on a big site, often separated, it really helps for many reasons. We generally work it such that the driver has the chipped key and other team members have key blades.
At least you can open the van and sit in comfort when you do loose the main key ;-)
i had that issue not long ago too..except i managed to lock the one key i had in theban due to a central locking issue.. I phoned the AA asking to join them and he told me it was £39 unless i needed imediate attention and it would be 149!! in the end i had a local lock smith who looked as if he had just served 10 years for theft do it for £65 in no longer than 2 minutes
i now have 2 spares!!
I'm sure this key thing is a scam basically !!!! I'm not even sure if the 97 plate van needed a chipped key but the locksmith said so and that meant it was 50 quid from his shop as opposed to probably about 5 quid for a standard key...I went with it because I needed a spare but still think he ripped me off :-(