24/7 MOBILE LOCKSMITH

The key was the price. he DID NOT CLEAN UP

I called about 2 PM. The technician said that he'd be at my house by 3 PM. At 3:45 he called and said he was running late. He finally got to my home about 5 PM. He worked for about 5 minutes, used no new parts and I was charged $73. I had been told that the basic cost for a housecall was $19. So, with the small amount of work involved I was expecting a small increase over that $19. To my surprise there was a $50 labor charge. I would not use this company again. I did call to complain about the cost and was told that the final cost was up to the technician doing the work.

We needed our locks re-keyed after moving into a new house, so I looked online for a locksmith. I found 24/7 Mobile Locksmith and they looked like a reputable company. So I called them to get an estimate and set up an appointment. The man I spoke with on the phone was very pleasant and nice. The price he quoted was $15 per lock to re-key, plus a $35 service charge. He said the total cost shouldn't be more than $100.00. I was fine with this so I asked to make an appointment. He said they could have someone come right over within an hour. I said this was not necessary for him to come so quickly, but he said it was no problem. I thought this was a little strange, but went ahead with it. Within a half hour, I got a call from a man telling me he'd be there in a few minutes. It was very hard to understand him. He arrived shortly after the call in a car marked "AAA LOCKSMITH". When he first arrived, he stood in my doorway without saying a word until I finally just told him where the locks that needed to be rekeyed were. He then proceeded to start working. He told me that we should have deadbolts on our front and side doors, which I had wanted, so I asked him the price of that. He said it would be $135 per deadbolt installation. I told him that was ok and to go ahead and install 2 deadbolt locks as well as rekeying the 3 doorknobs. I figured the cost should not be more than $500.00 based on the prices that had been quoted to me. After awhile, he told me that he could not rekey our doorknobs because they were too old and poor quality. He even demonstrated the poor quality by putting a key in the lock and breaking the key in half while it was in the lock. I felt this wasn't right, but I'd never had locks rekeyed or changed before. So he showed me some new doorknobs he said he could install. They looked fine and he went ahead with installing them. After about 2 hours, he finished everything and had us try opening all of the locks. They all seemed to work properly at the time. He then wrote up the bill. We were outside and I didn't have my checkbook, so I ran inside to get it. When I got back outside, I saw the total on the bill and couldn't believe what I saw! It was $968.00! I asked him to explain some of the charges and I couldn't even understand most of what he said. He then told me they don't take checks, only cash or credit cards. My husband and I were stunned and knew we were being greatly overcharged, but I didn't know what else to do since I couldn't understand him even if I asked for more explanation. So we charged the bill on our credit card. We felt completely uncomfortable the whole time. The next day I called the main company and told them about what happened and how much they charged us. They were surprised at the charge and said not to pay them until they worked it out. We had already paid, though, since they expect payment before they leave. They then told us to call the AAA Locksmith and work it out with them ourselves. After calling them several times a day for a week, I finally got them to refund $367 of our money. I would have demanded more, but I was tired of talking to them and wanted it to end. I had to argue a lot with them and the person I talked to kept trying to make me feel like I was at fault. I thought the whole experience was very unprofessional. The doorknobs do not work well and are hard to open and one of them is coming loose and may fall off the door if we don't tighten it. I will not be using this company again. I wish I had read reviews on the Better Business Bureau or Angie's List beforehand and I would have avoided all this hassle!

It was after that experience that I signed up with you. We had a locksmith come out to our house. He gave us an estimate over the phone because we weren’t home. We were out of town. We had the neighbors meet him at the house. He gave us an estimate for $165, and it turned out to be $700. So we were not very happy. The owner of the company told me they were sub-contracting with an independent company. An independent contractor did the actual work and gave me the bill. Apparently, the sub-contractor hadn’t been with them for very long, because they had an out-of-state license plate number. We were sorry we didn’t wait a little while to check references. But the neighbor needed to get into the house. They had to replace two locks, the handle, and also the dead-bolt. It was the labor that was really ridiculous. They gave us $188 back out of the $700. Had I known their estimate was going to be so far off from the actual bill, I would certainly have checked with other companies. We were in a predicament there, and the guy we spoke to sounded competent. It wasn’t until the next day that the work was done. We should have waited and got another estimate. There was nothing we could do about it. At first we were very upset about it, until I got a hold of the manager of the company, and he said he would try to do what he could. He was decent enough to try and get us some money back, and he did. I can’t comment on the quality of the service yet, though my neighbor tells me it’s all working fine. My neighbor did tell me that they were there a long time, and they really made sure that the locks were working when they replaced everything. They had to drill out the locks and then put new ones in. She felt that they knew what they were doing. They did get there when they said they would. The only thing is that my brother could have done it. I just should have called him and had him come over and do it. He needed the money and I’d have been happier giving him the money. I’m certain that they raised the price on the products they used. We went back and forth to try and get them to waive their charges, but did not succeed. It was basically our fault because we didn't do our homework.

Locksmith came and left 45 minutes later to go back to the shop to get something. He didn't tell me but I asked his partner who was sitting outside. He returned about an hour later and told me he couldn't do the job as there was "a spring" in the locks that he couldn't work with. He told me he'd be back in one hour. In the meantime my house was totally open with no locks. He and his partner then left for over two hours. I called the main store to tell them I felt unsafe and they told me they'd look into it. I also told them I was concerned that the price would have escallated to more than I could afford. I was guarenteed it would be $15 a lock. The locksmith returned and took a long time rekeying the locks. When done he showed me they worked. When given the bill I was charged $39.00 per keying. I told him it was to be $15.00 and he told me "that was the starting price" (!) He also told me he charged me less for his labor as if I should be thankful - I had been trapped in my house all day!. He charged us $69.00 for labor. With tax, the total bill was over $400!! The locksmith left doorknobs and screws all over the place when he left. He was very polite which I appreciated through all of this stress. I asked for a supervisor to call me to explain why all of this happened. No one called me at the end of the day.

I was very impressed at their customer service, professionalism and response time - they arrived within an hour of my call! The technician was prompt, courteous, and installed both locks within an hour. I also liked the fact that he cleaned up after the installation was complete. Last but not least, they provided me with a 10% discount for the service call without the coupon which is available through their web site. I will definitely recommend them to any friends or family who need help with keys or locks!

Matt was friendly and very helpful. One of the locks was finicky with our new keys, and he ended up working on it for quite awhile, ultimately replacing the lock at no charge to us and far outstaying the hour he charged us for. We were really impressed and can recommend this company without reservation.

Great -- here the next day. $40/service call $10/key.