I called this business when I was panicked and locked out of my house. The line I called directed me to a woman who quoted $25 for the house call and another $20 something for the actual lock picking. When the locksmith showed up (20 minutes later than he said), he took a look at my front door, a wooden dead bolt door, and at my back door which is glass and has a key lock and a deadbolt. The only thing locked was the lower key lock. He now quoted my price $145, and when I asked about the enormous cost disparity between the quote I'd received on the phone and the one he was giving me now, he simply said it was for. "extra services." He was woefully unable to explain why the cost had risen so much, saying he would have to break the lock if he were to open the front door, and the back door was "fragile," because it is made of glass. I wasn't convinced, so I called the company and spoke with a "manager," who was also unable to explain the disparity between the price quoted in my initial call and the one being quoted to me now. When he was unable to explain he said after a few minutes, "how about $90. Can you pay that?" - Now I knew that there was no actual reason for the price they'd quoted. I wanted the breakdown of the cost and they weren't going to give it to me because there was clearly no reason. At this point, the locksmith was frustrated with me because I wasn't chucking over a wad of cash, and he began to leave. I put him on the phone with his manager and the manager said that he had quoted me $90. The locksmith refused and said $125 was as low as he would go. When I agreed to that price, the locksmith started out trying to pick our lock. After a few minutes, and some head shakes and looks of frustration on the locksmith's face, he started busting the lock apart, breaking it, using a wrench to pull it out of the door, insisting that this was the only way he would be able to open this lock because it was "complicated," "difficult," ...etc. Once we were finally able to go into the house my knob was destroyed, and he quoted me another $90 for him to replace the knob with a new one. My husband and I did a quick google search to find that a door know (the exact one he had just dismantled), costs $12 at Lowes, and takes about an hour to install. - This made me question why such an inexpensive lock would have been so "complicated," and "difficult," for a professional locksmith to unlock. I was able to do just that. The lock was extremely easy to install on my own, so I'm glad we didn't pay another $90. I can't help but wonder if the man intentionally destroyed my lock because a) he was mad that I was questioning the high cost of his services and b) he was hoping to rip me off one more time by creating a situation where I would need a new door knob.
Call them if you're desperate. But you will pay more than they tell you initially, and you might not have a door knob when they leave. read more