Midcity Locksmith Service

This guy was nice and kind. I called him after I had already been to the Key place at the farmers Market, Raul’s, Home Depot, and Koontz, and no one could make the keys I needed. He even came down from the Valley immediately to his shop to help me, as this was a time sensitive matter for me to have many sets of these apparent rare keys made. He did the job quickly, and was able to duplicate the keys I needed. I thought the price was reasonable too, and at least he takes a credit card — as the other 2 in the area only accept cash — which is just shady to me. :) Go here.

I came around 11am and it was closed until Noon so I went back to Canter’s for a while and returned at 11:50am. At 12:15 I called the number posted outside and was told they would be in about an hour. I left and returned at around 4:30 and I was told that yes, they would make the key to my car and it would be $ 95. I was very happy to hear this. Around 5pm he comes back and tells me he can’t make the key but their shop on 405 Fairfax will. Okay I’m thinking, I just want my key done. I drove over to 405 Fairfax and I parked in the back. Again I was told yes, we can make the key, no problem. He questioned if I really knew what was wrong with the lock or key and I explained that this has happened before and it’s not the lock, as the key is obviously worn. Before I could stop him, he used DW40 on my lock which I know is not supposed to be used on car locks– it should be a silicon based lubricant. Well, he proceeded to ‘explain’ that I don’t know what I’m talking about. He takes my key again and returns and casually mentions it will now be at upwards of $ 125 and the key might not work. He began to have a conversation over the phone and ignored me until he ended the call and proceeded towards my car with a screw driver. I asked him to wait but he was already in my car so I said it again and told him ‘No, I don’t want to pay more than $ 100, please don’t start’ he said ‘okay give $ 100′ and I said– ‘No, please don’t I don’t want to go through with it’ He arrogantly shrugged his shoulders and said fine, walked away and went to get my keys. I didn’t like being talked down to, hustled, and have DW40 on my lock. Not cool. I don’t mind paying a little extra because they are older men and part of the community but I also am not going to be treated like this by anyone. Very disappointing. I like supporting neighborhood shops but hustling me is a deal breaker. I should mention that I was told about this place from a former employee that has a shop near whole foods sta monica blvd. I should have just gone to the dealership this morning instead of giving them a chance for my business.

You know, I could appreciate a man that doesn’t beat around the bush, tells it like it is and gets a job done right the first time. Maurice is that kind of guy. He is very conveniently located, I can easily get my keys cut for a reasonable price in about 5 minutes and his shop has about every other tchatchky know to man kind. It’s a must see for any Angeleno. He should actually charge a cover charge just to get into his store it’s got THAT much stuffin a tiny little space.
If I need work done on my house, I make sure to negotiate a price BEFORE he starts any work to avoid any discrepancies like the other reviewer had. Mom and pop shops make up the fabric of the community and it’s nice to have had this neighborhood key shop around for the past 10 years of so. They will be building condos on the entire block in the coming year so all the tennants will have to move soon. I guess I’ll have to lug to Home Depot to get my key and tchatchy fix.

I came into this place because I needed some keys made which was easy and got in and out. But I saw that the guy does knife/​blade sharpening so I decided to give him a try. He sharpened the blades fro my NINJA blender the next day for $ 20, the blades are super sharp and I was very happy with his service. I’ll be going back again.

I just locked myself out of my apartment. One of my kids was trapped inside and all I had was my car key. My neighbor suggested that I call midcity. He was at my place in 10 min and opened the door within 30 sec. Knowing how vulnerable I was, he could have charged anything but asked for only $ 65. I was so happy with him and the fairness of it all.

If I could give this locksmith 0 stars, that would still be too high of a rating for this scam artist locksmith business. I called around a couple of places to get quotes and decided on this business because Maurice gave me a quote of $ 200 flat for changing 9 locks on my new home. (Another place was similar in price, but I thought Maurice sounded nice on the phone). So he arrived a couple days later and it turns out we only need to change 7 locks, so it should be a little less than the quoted $ 200 which I told him I would pay in cash. He told me a could leave for a couple hours and he’d call me to tell me when he was finished.
A couple hours later, he called me to say it was all done and that I owed him $ 671. What!!! I told him that he was going to have to speak with my husband about that (he assumed I was a single, young girl) and he started hemming and hawing. I said I’m going to conference him on to our call right now and Maurice hung up. He called me back 5 min later and said «Are you coming here?» and conveniently pretended that he didn’t hear what I had said about speaking to my husband, so I repeated it and he said «But I have to go because I have another appointment» (which I do not believe in the slightest — it was 7:30pm, most people don’t make locksmith appts in the dark).
My husband argreed to pay him $ 400 (he convinced him he did a lot of hard work, and earned this rate) — which is still double of the original quote. Let’s also remember that that term «con man» comes from the word «convince» — and yes, he did con us. THEN — get this — the keys didn’t work in the locks. So we had to have him come back out to fix (he said «I tested them before I left, but hmmm…») and he had to re-​cut the keys. Then my husband asked if he had master keys for our new locks — and he hesitated and started to say «no», but then realized he had to have them to re-​cut the keys (he did it in his van, on-​site) so he changed his answer to «yes, I have them». And my husband said «Well, can we have them please?» HE WAS GOING TO KEEP THE MASTER KEYS FOR OUR HOUSE. In fact, when he initially gave us the copies of the keys, they weren’t included in the set. It was only because the original keys he cut for us didn’t work that my husband realized that there were no master copies included in what he gave us, only copies.
AND IT GETS EVEN BETTER — We have since figured out he put the cheapest brand of lock on our house (they retail for $ 17 each new and we only got 5 of these, plus rekeyed 2 locks) So the job should’ve been way less than even the original $ 200 quoted.
AND THE ICING ON THE CAKE IS… the lock to the front door only works intermittently. Most of the time it takes about 10 solid minutes of trying to lock or unlock the front door. My husband gives up and goes to a side door to get in now.
We refuse to have them come back out to fix because their work is shoddy, they are scam & con artists. We don’t trust them at all and want nothing to do with them. My husband was tempted to go back and ask for his money back but we decided to chalk this up to a learning lesson — that there are con artists out there and we should beware.
We are going to get the locks changed again using a different company. After all, if he was going to keep our master copies, who’s to say he didn’t cut a couple copies for himself when he was «fixing» our keys?
I wouldn’t wish this business on my worst enemy — AVOID THEM LIKE THE PLAGUE and warn all of your friends who live near the Grove not to use them. They are on the corner of Beverly & Fairfax, next to the movie theater.