Arriving home in the early hours of Friday, December 18, 2009, my key broke off in the door as I tried to enter my apartment. I called 411 for a locksmith, and they directed me to A A A 24 Hour Locksmith. It took a bit for him to arrive, but that is understandable as it was the middle of the night. He drilled the lock out, charged me $180 and left me without a lock.
The next day, I called them again to see about having a lock put in so I could leave my house and was quoted between $300 and $400 as it was a "special" kind of lock. This seemed very high, so I called another locksmith who quoted me $130 over the phone (without seeing the lock).
When the second locksmith arrived, he asked me who the previous locksmith was - he seemed surprised by the drilled out lock. He asked me if they had tried to remove the broken key instead of drilling out the lock. Basically he suggested they did not need to destroy my lock.
He put in the new lock and charged me exactly what he had quoted me, $130. He had not even seen the "special" lock and he was confident about the price, whereas the other locksmith who had seen it was quoting me double to triple the price!
I fear they either did not know what they were doing, or destroyed my lock so they could fix it at an inflated price later. I hope it is the former, but either way, I recommend not using them.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $180.00