Complaint Rating:

Company information:
USA Locksmith
Hoboken, New Jersey
United States
Phone: 1.800.721.5131
www.usalocksmith.com

We accidentally locked ourselves out of our apartment by manually locking the doorknob. When a locksmith came out to this company to respond to our "locked out" call, he removed the key that was stuck in the top lock, and then said right away that the top lock was busted without even trying to open it (pick it). He said both locks were broken and he would have to drill them out. I asked him how much that would cost, figuring we did not have a choice if we wanted to get into the apartment, and he said that the costs start at 75.00. I asked him to tell me what it would be total, and he said he would not know until he figured out exactly what needed to be done. I left the room for a few minutes and came back and the whole job was finished, and he wrote me out a bill for 593.85. He explained that he had had to hurry, because there was a woman with a baby locked in the car (which I discovered one of their service people had told somebody else who complained in this site!). I paid it, thinking that this must be the exorbitant but standard cost for this sort of service. Later, I researched the cost of locks, realized that the 127.00 and 143.00 that was charged for the top and bottom locks (respectively) was exorbitant, and after talking to a customer service rep. at the company, was told that those were on the high end and that the locksmiths are supposed to give you a range of options. After I explained that we would not have chosen the most expensive locks given the choice, the customer service rep. took 60.00 off the cost of the locks. After speaking to my bank, I later found out that they never even took off this fee, as they promised they would.

At this point, we thought that the locksmith was being truthful and that the locks were broken, and were planning to ask our landlord to pay for the cost, considering that we were not able to open the top lock of the apartment on the very first day we were moving in. The following day, we spoke to the landlord, who informed us that he had just replaced both locks and checked them three times before we moved in.

We called USA Locksmith & explained what our landlord had told us and that we believed we may not have even needed to have new locks installed. We asked that they come and take off the locks they installed and told them that we would like our money back for those locks, citing the 90-day guarantee on the bill. We said that we would cut our losses and just wanted them to remove the locks and refund us for that portion of the bill, and we would not contest the 55.00 service call and the 230.00 emergency lock out fee.

The customer service representative, Richard Lawson, told us that he would not have anybody come out and would not refund us any portion of the cost, and that he decided what the "All work is guaranteed for 90 days" and to him it just meant that if the locks didn't function, they would repair them. He said he could interpret the guarantee however he wanted because it was his guarantee. He refused to take off the locks and refund us any of our money. Next, we looked online and realized there are many entries with similar stories to ours. Please save yourself the headache and money and don't use this company. It is clear that they have scammed people in similar ways in many different situations.