2019 LOCK DEBACLE 190517
This writing is meant to document and define the events that transpired when I attempted to have and enjoy a functional business transaction with West Hollywood Lock, aka 24/7 Lock and ASAP Lock (could be more I don't know about). All 3 of those names were represented to me by various employees during various interactions with this company and from YELP and Google searches.
On the evening of March 31, my personal set of keys for everything I own disappeared. Some keys were irreplaceable. I believe them to be stolen since they never turned up since then. This left me in a very insure position since I have a studio full of recording equipment in my home and many possessions I have accumulated over my life in CA since moving here from Detroit in 1975.
The next morning was April 1, 2019. That morning I researched my address book and online for a reputable locksmith to change the keys for my many locks on my property's numerous iron security doors. I have keyed dead bolts on all doors; 3 doors on front porch, a side stoop loading porch, a carport entry, a studio sliding iron door, a studio control room, a pool shower door, and rear house iron French door. With the exception of the pool shower, that's 8 doors and times X2 that equals 16 set of tumblers to possibly potentially be changed.
I found a vendor claiming an address to be 7333 Fountain in West Hollywood called "West Hollywood Locksmith" and was told there would be a technician fee and per lock charges to be determined when the technician assesses the situation - most likely $30 per lock key side. This was going to be an expensive job.
A young Israeli gentleman showed up who used the name "Ray" (his Hebrew name was too hard to pronounce). Very polite and nice man. Ray said the charge would be $30 per lock key side, so I, after calculating the costs,- decided to only have him re key the locks on the outside locks to save money. He worked nearly half the day rekeying these locks on a table on my back patio. After he was done I inspected the work and paid him via my VISA $310.20 thru SQUARE on his phone and gave him a $40 tip and wrote him and his company a 5 star YELP review to boot! (A Danny A., who said he was the business owner thanked me in reply to my YELP review.) What a fool I was! Fact is, the locks only "seemed" to all be re-done/re-keyed professionally. Unfortunately this was not the case. Little did I know that all of the outside Kwikset type locks on my home (front porch and side stoop) could be opened with any key - not just my new key but my old key - in fact ANY Kwikset key it turns out!
I discovered this on Thursday, May 9, 2019 around noon when I returned home from a work related breakfast in Burbank and upon entering my side porch/stoop loading door that my old key when half inserted opened the lock! NOT GOOD. Eventually and again to be clear, that day I discovered that this same issue existed on all of the outside locks (3) on my front porch were also not performing correctly.
I immediately attempted to call "West Hollywood Locksmith" each day for the following 9 days but was given the run around about getting someone out to handle the situation. Spoke to a Samantha, Victoria and other ladies obviously at a call center who made several calls to some unknown to me owner/supervisor on my behalf. This always led to being told I'd be getting a call back in 5 to 20 minutes from someone or they would be sending out someone but no call backs ever came. About 4 or 5 days in of the avoidance tactics I lost my temper and the girl hung up on me. I did not use profanity. I called back and continued to get avoided by other call center employees.
Finally, after 9 days of waiting around for calls to be returned, I tried to reason with Samantha to put herself in my position and she finally sent a technician named Nate M. to "assess the situation" but explained to me that I would have to pay for the service call. At this point, I agreed, knowing that this would be the only way that they would be willing to get over here to fix what had not been done right the first time by Ray. I had no intention of ever paying them. I already had a case started against the charges on my Visa started with Well Fargo Bank in place.
Nate arrived and managed to fix the 4 locks in less than an hour. He did a fine job and showed me how there were no tumblers in the locks at all and no springs. He was baffled as to how Ray could have done such a thing and charged me for work that had not been done. Worse of all, I thought, that the Lock company left my house vulnerable to an easy break-in to anyone with a Kwikset key -any key- which unbeknownst to me was for 6 weeks of vulnerability! This was criminal to me and I was appalled that they chose to try to charge me for fixing a dysfunctional situation and I now continue to refuse to be victimized financially by this company or any representative of this company. read more