When a relationship soured in early March, Angie needed the locks changed on her circa-1960 ranch home near downtown Buford. She lives alone and wanted security, especially in the wake of two recent break-ins. All 14 locks had to go.

Angie, as she wishes to be called, consulted a reliable source: the 2009 Greater Gwinnett phone book, she said. She thumbed to a full-page, color ad for a locksmith business, placed a call and settled on an estimate of about $250, or $14 per re-keyed cylinder plus labor, she said.

A few hours and 14 locks later, a technician who’d done the work presented her a fresh set of keys — and a bill for $1,183, she said.

“I said, ‘Are you out of your mind? I’m not paying you (that much),’” Angie told the Daily Post. “He was a big, big boy. He said, ‘Oh, yes, you will.’”

Angie called Gwinnett police and was informed by responding officers the civil matter would have to be settled in court, she said. The worker eventually left, keys and locks in hand.

“I didn’t pay him a dime — just told him to get out of my house,” she said. “I stayed up all night, scared to death.”

Angie isn’t alone in her frustrations. Unscrupulous practices in the age-old profession that’s a first line of defense for property owners are nothing new, officials said. Nationally, Angie joins hundreds who logged complaints in 2009 against alleged crooks in the locksmith trade, a business which doesn’t require a specific licensing in Georgia.

“We’ve had issues with locksmiths for years,” said Fred Elsberry, Better Business Bureau of Atlanta president. “The (phone book) ads look very attractive and very appealing. A lot of times, the number is going out of state” to national companies with workers on standby in select markets, he said.

Inquiries against locksmiths to agencies like Elsberry’s topped 87,000 nationally in 2009. Of 946 processed complaints, only about half were settled, Elsberry said.

“That gives you a pretty good indication of what people are dealing with,” he said.

Key to the issue is the relaxed licensing requirements locksmiths are allowed to operate with in Georgia. A county-level business license is all that’s required, Elsberry said.

A bill under consideration by the Georgia General Assembly strives to regulate locksmiths by establishing a state board.

House Bill 107 would require aptitude tests of locksmiths and would weed out potential contractors convicted of certain crimes, its creators anticipate.

Current laws and rules don’t protect consumers “from the unscrupulous use of tools and knowledge of the locksmith profession by untrained persons or by persons who have criminal intent,” the proposed legislation reads.

The bill was last read in the House on Jan. 26. It’s lead sponsor, state Rep. Harry Geisinger, R-Roswell, could not be reached to update its status this week.

Dick Casper, of Sugar Hill’s Lock Doctor Inc., said he’s seen Gwinnett grow rife with “phony” locksmiths in his 22 years of operation. Phone books have taken measures to cut unsavory technicians from placing ads, but online listings are out of control, he said.

“Nail technicians and barbers are more closely regulated and monitored than the people who secure your house and your business,” Casper said. “Something needs to be done.”

Suing for civil settlements can be difficult, Casper said, because shady outfits are prone to vanishing.

“They’re charging outrageous rates for shoddy work and getting away with it, because there’s nothing that the police can do,” he said.

Cpl. David Schiralli, Gwinnett police spokesman, said disputes over the price of performed services — be it with roofers, fencing companies, tree-trimmers or other labor-based companies — almost always fall in the realm of civil court.

Soliciting payment for services that aren’t performed constitutes fraud and is criminal, if the contractor can’t provide a solid excuse, he said.

“This happens in all aspects of different companies,” he said. “We suggest, when hiring anybody to do any kind of work, to do the research, get some sort of references.”

Elsberry, of the Better Business Bureau, recommends consumers go a step further.

Lists of accredited contractors, including locksmiths, can be found on the agency’s Web site, www.bbb.org. There, companies are ranked on a scale from A-plus to F, based on the bureau’s standards.

Phony contractors typically shy from trying to gain BBB accreditation, he said.

“When you need a lock, you want it done quick,” Elsberry said, “but you don’t want to sacrifice quickness for quality when it comes to the safety of your house.”

As for Angie, she said she’s taking her gripe to state legislators and consumer guru Clark Howard.

“It’s been over a week, and I’m still livid over the whole thing,” she said recently. “I’d love to see them put in jail, I really would.”