Locksmith Carroll Gardens

Sometimes the need for negative stars is merited, and this is one of them. we have all dealt with this company and god help you if you’re relying on them. i called them no less than 5x one night to just confirm that they were coming and by the end of the 1^st call they had just relegated my calls to hold music. they held my night hostage since you don’t want to have two different locksmiths coming to work on one lock. the sooner this company goes out of business the faster brooklyn can finally arrest their top robbers.
btw, they also post their number as 7 188 077 941. if you’re reading this PLEASE just call anyone else, especially if it’s late at night and you need to get in stat. Otherwise, if you have read this and still call i expect you to respond telling me how amazing and right i am. no biggie.

I wanted to leave a review for SMITH AND SONS but I couldn’t find it and based on a previous review, it sounds like they are using a bunch of different names so that their bad reputation can’t follow them around. Case in point, the name on my invoice says ELM LOCKSMITH & GATE…
Whoever they are, they are HORRENDOUS.
I got their number from a card in my neighbourhood thinking I would patronize a locally based company. My mistake — I should have done my Unilocal and Angie’s List research beforehand but I had just moved so I felt anxious about getting my 2 locks changed quickly — one deadbolt and one spring lock. Yes, they refused to give me a quote on the phone because the guy needed to come out and assess the door and give me all the options. He ended up selling me on one of these more secure locks where you pay more upfront but if you ever want to change the locks, you pay less in the future — a fee just for changing the keys, not the whole lock. I agreed thinking that was sensible.
The guy came over with an assistant and told me it would take half an hour. It took about an hour and his assistant did all the work while the guy sat on my stool, checking his phone whilst schooling the assistant in Spanish. That’s why it took so long and I think the assistant messed up somewhere because I saw the guy having to get more involved at some point.
When he made out the invoice I was shocked — I was expecting something like $ 400. It came in at $ 1082.21!!!
He then explained that a deadbolt is actually 2 locks, one on the front and one on the back. So he is charging me for the hardware for a total of 3 locks ($ 285+$ 260+$ 175), for the installtion of 3 locks ($ 195), and for just showing up ($ 79), plus tax!!! Oh and the discount on the card that had made me call them in the first place? Did NOT apply — I can’t remember what it said (because he pocketed the card — very crafty) but it was something that was worded cleverly so that it would be interpreted one way to a customer and another way by the company — to their advantage of course.
Anyway, the kicker is that about 2 weeks later, I got locked out of my own apt because the lock got stuck! I remember after the guy installed it he said it was very stiff and would take a couple of weeks to loosen up, but the whole thing just froze on me one night after I came home late from work with a house guest!!! Luckily we were inside a condo buidling not outside on the street but still, we spent a bit of time dicking around trying to jiggle the key and make it move. Eventually after about an hour, my friend tried it and it gave way.
Since then I have been dubious about using the deadbolt, even though it has loosened up, scared of having it happen again. I don’t want to call in these scamming assholes again.
AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE.

TOTAL SCAM
Based on other Unilocal reviewers, this is the same people as Smith & Sons Locksmith.
Smith & Sons Locksmith baited my neighbor with a cheap estimate and charged $ 1300. for getting back into apartment. Also had to deal with Sammy
Their card and website say they are accredited by the BBB but they are NOT and in fact have complaints.
DO NOT USE EVER:

THE WORST. I would give them negative stars if I could. Long story short, they did not quote me a price over the phone because they said they would arrive with lots of options for a lock change. They arrived with one craptastic option, which we were forced to take because we were in an emergency situation where we had to have our locks changed immediately. The locks are total crap, something we could have got at Home Depot for $ 20. They charged us $ 217. But like I said, it was an emergency, so we had no choice but to have these crap locks installed. When I called back later to complain, the manager Jay said there was nothing he could do to help and hung up on me. HE HUNG UP on me. Douchebag.

The company is completely unprofessional and unethical. After calling several companies, I asked Locksmith Carroll Gardens to come change my lock based on the price I was quoted over the phone. A locksmith from Smith & Sons Locksmith arrived at my apartment — so I don’t know if they changed their name, they use both names and phone numbers or if Locksmith Carroll Gardens passes jobs on to Smith & Sons. The locksmith gave me completely different information than what I had been told on the phone. I had been told it would cost me $ 35 to re-​key the lock. He arrived and said that the $ 35 was just for him to come to my house; it was a service charge on top of the cost of re-​keying or changing the lock. (As in -«you already owe me $ 35 just for coming here to tell you that it will cost you more than what we told you on the phone.») I told him that I wanted to pay the price I had been quoted over the phone. He called his manager — I thought to resolve the issue. But he clearly didn’t resolve it because after changing the lock he charged me a «discounted» service fee of $ 20 in addition to the $ 75 for the lock. I asked him to call his manager so I could speak with him myself. The manager, Sam (or Sammy) was incredibly rude on the phone. He didn’t seem to care at all that I was being charged more than what I had been quoted. He said he would check to see who had given me the quote over the phone and then told me angrily that he had no record at all of me even calling his company. I said, «Of course I called, or you wouldn’t have sent someone to my address to change my locks.» He was practically yelling at me on the phone; then he asked to talk to the locksmith — at this point I thought he would take off the additional service charge, but actually it was his way of hanging up on me.
The job was done fine; but the experience of dealing with the personnel was awful. And I find the kind of bait-​and-​switch tactic this company uses to be completely despicable.