Houdini Lock & Safe

Larry is thief ! Thier business is out to make your money disappear.
I had them drill a safe Larry was out of breath in 10 minutes. He complained how hard it was .
After speaking with several lock and safe companies without mentioning the name they mentioned Houdini .They mentioned Larry. It took him a total amount of 25 min to open a safe he charged me over $ 1100 he also did not fix it he wanted an additonal $ 350.
It was a basic fire safe. I guess I was the fool for paying them but they would have charged the CCard anyway. Use Houdini if you would like to watch your money disappear.

This guy came recommended by the front desk in my moms building in center city. I knew she needed a new battery in her safe and suggested she call them. They responded with no can do. We will replace the safe with a new one for $ 500 and hung up the phone on her.
We called another locksmith who came out and changed the battery
Not great customer service.
He might be popular but I would not use this service

Not worth the walk to deal with the poor customer service and bad job. Wanted to get a key remade and walk back to my new apartment to see that it didn’t work! The man was also unnecessarily rude, which I found odd considering he seemed to be doing nothing else in the empty store and I was incredibly polite. Hopefully people see this review and take their business elsewhere.

Moral of the story: (1) pay cash, because this place charges a made up 10% convenience fee for credit card use (2) research which locks you want ahead of time because they will try to scare you into buying a ridiculously overpriced lock
I dealt with Houdini when my husband and I bought our home in Graduate Hospital about 2 years ago. I thought about writing a negative review at the time, but was so busy getting the new house ready I thought it wasn’t worth the effort. Two years later, my interactions with the people at Houdini still get under my skin, so I am writing this review for my own edification and with the hopes that it spares other people the frustration I experienced.
First, I called company to tell them I wanted my locks redone. I had already done research online regarding which locks I wanted, so I told the guy on the phone exactly what I wanted, which was middle of the road, good but not the top of the line. He was a friendly enough guy (and I got the impression he was just rattling off company schpeel he was instructed to rattle off), but kept me on the phone for 30 minutes trying to get me to upgrade the locks. He told me the locks I requested were the «Honda» of locks (or something stupid like that) and that for ultimate safety, I should really get the «convertible» of locks. There was a decent amount of fear-​mongering involved in the conversation with him saying that Graduate Hospital was an «up and coming neighborhood» where «a lot of crime» still happened. Newsflash, dude, have you been to Graduate Hospital? I think the «up and coming» part happened a while back. Also, I get it, we live in a city. It requires a vigilance that isn’t required outside the city — that doesn’t mean I need a $ 500 lock. He even asked if I was new to Philadelphia during the conversation. Thank heavens I’m not, or else he would have terrified me. To put someone through this when they are moving into a new house in a new neighborhood (and when they are scheduling with many other contractors and you are wasting their time), is total bs. Finally, I convince the guy to just give me the locks I had researched and requested one minute into the call. I ask him, «Is it ok if we use a credit card for the service?» He says, «Yeah, credit card is fine.»
Flashforward to the lock installation. The locksmith came during the daytime, so my husband came home from work to be there. The locksmith ended up being 40 minutes late. This is a big deal when you work out of the house and have other commitments you need to get back to. Then comes the part several commenters have complained about already — the locksmith says (this is the first time we are hearing it), that there is a 10% charge to use a credit card. WTF?! I have never heard of this kind of convenience charge in my life and to this day, Houdini is the only company that I have dealt with that has charged this. I specifically asked the phone operator if credit card was ok, and he could have told me then that there was a convenience charge, but he didn’t. I guess he was too busy try to upgrade me to the convertible of locks. As a result, we hadn’t arranged for a cash payment and ended up paying out the rear. Totally avoidable if they had just told us.
I called Houdini to ask them if there was a way they could waive the fee since no one had told me ahead of time. To sum up another stupid, 30 minute conversation, another guy (different than the original phone operator) keeps saying «no,» saying he’s sure his guy would have told me about the charge over the phone (so basically I’m wrong), and saying that Graduate Hospital is in fact a high-​crime neighborhood so he thinks it was good that his guy spend 30 minutes telling me that. I told him I’d post a negative review if they didn’t waive the fee and he said he didn’t care. So here it is! Better late than never!

Who knew locking yourself out would cost around $ 350. The guys were courteous, but on the phone I was told it would be around $ 160, the guy had to go through our garage and an inside door, untold to me until the bill it is an additional $ 75 per lock, for a grand total of $ 370. This is highway robbery. Unfortunate for us it was just after 5 pm or we would have called another place. Take your business elsewhere if you lock yourself out of your house.

I would have given the company another star, but I do feel they are over-​priced, and definitely have «a corporate attitude» about themselves, even though the indiivduals who work for the company are nice… they are obviously just carrying out policy.
Our requested service was to rekey two front door locks in the door-​handles and two deadbolts. We needed a total of six sets of keys.
First the positives.
Patty, the person who answered the phone was very knowledgable about the company’s services and pricing. She was able to identify our lock types by asking for the number stamped on the keys, and quoted us the price. She was able to contact one of her service people on the road, and it turned out they could be at our place within the hour to do the job. Two technicians showed up on time. They did the work very quickly, and were very thorough. They fixed both door knobs that were a bit loose, and had us test all of the keys in all of the locks to be sure they were all working.
Negatives.
Larry and Genotti (not sure about the spelling here) showed up as a team. Larry was a real talker. He was very personable… but almost to a fault. He turned what should have been a 15 minute service call into almost an hour… mostly because he was either yakking with my wife and I, or yakking on the phone, or yakking with his partner. While he did go ahead and adjust the door knob, I’m not happy about the fact that he didn’t ask me if I wanted it fixed, and charged me an extra $ 40 for, what I am sure was a 5 minute or less adjustment. That was really not cool. The total bill came out to well over $ 500. The service call was $ 167.50 just to show up; then $ 55/​lock (times 4), and then $ 6.50 for each key they made. Two keys come with each lock set, so I was expecting a total of 8. But Patty told us because we wanted the locks to match, we only get one set for each pair of locks included… four total… Give me a break! So I figured $ 167.50 service call, plus $ 220 for the locks plus, $ 220 for the locks, plus $ 52 for the keys.. . total bill $ 439. Then I find out that if we want to pay by credit charge, they jack up the price by a whopping 10%! Their merchant fee is probably ¼ that… talk about gouging… and they don’t take checks. That tells me that they want the cash to hide their income. We ran to the ATM when Patty told me their policy (in fairness to them, they did warn us in advance of this), and grabbed enough cash to cover the bill. But when you add the $ 40 that Larry charged to tighten my door knob, plus the tax (didn’t know this was a taxable event), total bill came to $ 517.86. I didn’t shop around to see if this pricing was reasonable, but it seemed high to start, and ended up being even higher.
Fix:
In order for me to give this company a 5-​star rating they would have to relax their ultra-​high «convenience charge» for using credit cards. I don’t mind paying a small premium to cover their costs, but they should not make a proift on it… and they also should take personal checks. They also need to instruct their service techs to inform the customer of any extra charges for performing tasks that they feel is beyond the scope of the service call, and to quote the cost to do said work before doing it, and obtaining permission.

Got a copy of some keys made. Cost about $ 25 for five keys. Cash only. A little more expensive than I expected. The guy behind the counter was nice enough.

Good response but OUTRAGEOUS cost. Never told me of 25.00 charge for my credit card, lockout cost me 266.00 and guy tried to sell some new lock to me for 145 bucks. If my regular locksmith had called me 10 minutes sooner I’d have cancelled the appointment. Part of running a successful business is being fair and not screwing potential future customers just because you can. 177.00 to show up and 95 in additional fees for 15 minutes. Steer clear and use someone else, very dissatisfied. Sean Ogden
Update. Larry called 2 weeks after the above mentioned service. Nice guy.

Just spoke to Larry from Houdini’s and he is willing to correct the issue with the two non working keys. Being a local business I am willing to give Houdini an second chance.

Call another locksmith! They charge $ 160+ for emergency lockout and a minimum of $ 86 change for labor. They also penalize you for using a credit card by adding 10% to the cost. The locksmith who came to my apartment got into my door within 60 seconds using a credit card. Since when is that worth $ 272? I’m a physician and I don’t make that much. What rip off.

I needed a key for my recently rented apartment. The people at this store told me they wouldn’t guarantee that the key they made would work, because mine wasn’t an original. Good grief! Who has an original key for a 20 year old apartment? Sure enough, it didn’t work. I went to Home Depot, had the key duplicated again, at half the cost. The fellow at HD had a look at the key which Houdini made, and grimaced. Fool me once, shame on me …

If you just need a key copied this place gets the job done. I went in when they opened at 8:30 (not 5:30 like Unilocal says, this is only for emergencies) and it literally took 1 minute to get the key copied and for me to pay. It cost $ 3.75, I’m not sure what other places charge but I expected it to cost much much more. Just be sure to bring cash with you. Only inconvenience was that they are closed on Sundays.

Had issues with their call service, but thats about it. Needed a copy of a key and went into the store itself. The workers were knowledgeable, friendly, and had personalities that i appreciated. they copy was made quite quickly and for a reasonable price. If i needed to get another copy of a key, or anything else for a manner, i would def see these guys again.

Came out and helped in a flash. I got an electronic lock. But the hole was too small to install it… They offered to help me with a tool at no charge. ¹⁄₃ off of other store’s price.

First off they charge $ 3.50 to make a copy of a key!!! That is outrageous. Any other store is $ 1.99 or less.
Second of all I ordered keys that needed to be made by the manufactuer so it was going to take a week. AND they make you order a minimum of 3. I only needed 2 and they were $ 50 a piece. Not a good start.
After a week with no phone call I decided to call them and ask when they’d be in. I spoke with Mark who decided to just assume why the keys weren’t in yet (he never asked me any of my info) and then said «maybe you’re just too anxious to get the keys» Are you kidding me? Who says that? I’m too anxious to get keys. COME ON. The supervisor then came on the phone and said she’d call the manufacturer for me and find out where they are. She told me they were on vacation and that I’d get the keys in a few days which I did. Mark was one of the worst people I have ever had to deal with and I’m disgusted by this company for his actions.

Updating my review to 3 stars for ‘A-​OK’. The second lock that Houdini placed has now officially lasted 3 weeks, leading me to believe that the original lock itself was faulty (as a followup call from Houdini suggested… faulty lock = fault of the manufacturer, not the locksmith).
1 star for 24hr service
1 star for coming back multiple times to fix the lock
1 star for the friendly, cheerful locksmith
minus 1 star for cost
minus 1 star for my ordeal the second time around (not getting a callback after 40 minutes, locksmith saying he’d have to charge me all over again as stated in my original review).

jesus h christ, i had to take out a second mortgage just to pay for a duplicate copy of a safe key.
since i’m a generous person, i’ll give credit where credit is due:
1 star for pleasant service +
1 star for being close to my house +
1 star for the key being cut correctly so i could open said safe
i fear that the total value of the contents of my safe is less than the 9.17 usd it cost to have a second key. (note: i had the original key… it wasn’t like they had to custom make one to open my goods.)
blah. shoulda gone back to wilensky’s…

I called Houdini last week, and despite telling me a guy was available and would be «right out» since I was around the corner, he took over 2 hours to arrive, at which point my roommate had already come home (I had not been expecting her for hours later) and I was already late for my appointment I had to be at. Since there are no cancellations, I had to pay their outrageous price for a service they were a) late to, and b) had not performed. I will never call them again-I’d rather camp out at a neighbor’s house overnight than call them for locksmith services.

It’s $ 6.50 per key for a copy and they impose a ridiculous $ 25 minimum for credit card purchases. After being sent to an ATM that was not working and informing the employee of the situation he told me to «call the police» and they had been doing it for years. Go to Home Depot this small business does not deserve your business!

Called around for estimates and this place was outrageous. And they only accept cash or add an additional 10% for using a credit card.
I’m a homeowner, resident and neighbor and for as long as I live here won’t ever use or recommend this place.