Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:06/06/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  This happened at 9:30 Friday evening on June2,2023. I got locked out of my condo and called REMOVEDLocksmith. I was emotional and panicked when I called. And, due to personal reasons I had been crying. The technician said he would be at my home within 30 minutes. After 30 minutes passed I decided to go downstairs and wait for him and tried calling him from my Apple Watch but it kept s disconnecting due to bad service. About REMOVEDI was happy to see he was there and said yay youre here. But he gave me this awfully angry look and would t say anything to me. So, I asked him if something was wrong. He responded by saying you are annoying and you annoyed me. I was in shock. I should have told him thank you now please leave. But I didnt want to sleep in the hallway and my dog was inside the house. It had been a long day. I had ordered a pizza and wanted to just relax, watch tv and enjoy my pizza. So, I took him upstairs and in the elevator he barked at me to just take to where I have to go. I showed him the door and he says this is a special lock. I might have to break it. Okay do what you have to. I then asked him why did I annoy him. What did I say. He told me if I did t stop talking he would leave. I began to be afraid. He was so mean to me. He told me that he needed to see ID. He opened the door I went in to get my id and he said the address didnt match. It had my old address. He said he would have to call the police. I said wait I have my mortgage statement. He went downstairs to get something and I called the cops. I did not feel safe being alone with this person. I was afraid to speak. I was afraid and I didnt understand what was happening. When he came back upstairs I said I had my mortgage statement and told him I called the cops and they are on their way. He turned around and walked towards the elevator. I said arent you going to fix my lock which was in pieces. This young man humiliated and degraded me.

  Business Response

  Date: 06/13/2023

  I REMOVEDthe *anaging *ember of Able Locksmiths, LLC would like to first state that it is never our intention to belittle or degrade anyone. Our goal as security professionals is to engender trust and security.
  The service was completed,but no payment was requested or received for the service. No money exchanged hands during the incident or afterwards. As of two days after the incident, *s.* confirmed that her door and lock were whole and functioning well. *s. * did express concerns regarding the potential cost of the work. Our technician eliminated this concern for her. At no point did she request for our technician to leave or cancel the job.
  As a locksmith company in the state of REMOVEDwe are bound by *aryland State Locksmith Licensing Laws.Our policies and protocols reflect these requirements. Relevant to the situation described by *s. REMOVEDlocksmiths are required to prove residency to access a property. This means we ensure that the customer has a valid government issued ID that matches the address of the location being accessed via locksmith intervention. This is to protect property owners and lessees from having their properties illegally accessed by unauthorized persons.
  When *s. * called our on-call Emergency Technician, he notified her of this requirement. She was argumentative about this policy, claiming that she did not understand why it was necessary, but ultimately confirmed that her ID was inside of the locked property.He notified her that he would have to call the police if she did not have a matching government issued ID with that address.
  After opening the door, he reminded *s. * that he needed to see her REMOVEDShe retrieved the REMOVEDUpon inspection, the technician stated, this is not the right address. At this point, it is our policy to call the police to remain in accordance with *aryland regulation. While *s. * did state that she called the police, our policy is that we call the police to verify residency. After telling *s. * that our technician went to wait downstairs for an officer to arrive, he also contacted the police. Our investigation revealed phone records to support this.
  Prior to the arrival of the officer, *s. * accused our technician or racism, stating that he would never have spoken to an African American woman this way. After any accusations regarding his race, our technician would have been well within his rights to leave the hostile jobsite at that time. Nonetheless, he did not feel comfortable leaving *s. * home unsecure. He interacted with *s. * as little as possible due to her admittedly emotionally charged state.
  After the officer arrived,he verified *s. * residency with the officers. At this point, the officer asked *s. * to remain in her living room on her couch while our technician completed the work. Our technician reassembled and tested her lock. He decided not to charge for the late-night emergency service to expedite the conclusion of the encounter.
  I personally called *s. * on Sunday, June 4, 2023. I asked if I could record the conversation for quality and training purposes, to which she agreed. I listened to her explanation of the incident and further explained our policies and the regulations that we are required to follow. Regarding the requirement to have a matching government issued ID, she stated, I understand that now. It makes sense now, I get it.She also stated that, the license had my old address on it, and I didnt realize that.
  *s. * confessed that she was emotional and crying from the beginning of the interaction on the phone. She stated this multiple times during our conversation. She stated that she had personal things going on, including grief and business troubles. We absolutely sympathize with the trials that *s. * is experiencing. I expressed this on the phone with her.
  *s. * noted that she was uncomfortable with the technician from the beginning, but that she didnt feel physically threatened.She stated multiple times during our conversation that she did not understand what was going on. She also stated multiple times that she did not remember why our technician went downstairs: He went downstairs for some reason, I dont remember why, and I cant remember what made him go downstairs.
  I again explained our policies, which includes not engaging and removing ourselves from the situation once the police have been contacted.
  We asked for any details and recording of the situation that she had, be emailed to us. It would help us investigate the incident. She readily agreed, but never delivered details or questions, as we offered to answer all of her questions and concerns in writing.She reported an effort to send a video of herself that she allegedly made after our technician left, which consisted of her describing the incident and her reaction thereto. We did not receive this video.  
  *s. * later emailed us and demanded that we get her back into a REMOVEDfrom which she was removed. We are unable to accommodate this, as we have nothing to do with this REMOVED.We are not owners, moderators or administrators for the group. We have no control over the decision-making policies or membership of the group.
  We are more than happy to upload the recording (*ade with *s. * permission) of my conversation with *s. *,as well as all emails exchanged. We have not shared this recording or any correspondence with *s. * with any third party at the time of this responses except to upload it here.  I was not able to upload the recording here as it exceeds the size limits.  I would be happy to send a Dropbox link to it. 
  The technician was counseled for not charging for the work, as this is a deviation from Able Locksmiths, LLC policy. We understand his motivation to end the encounter as quickly as possible.
  We have reviewed all company policies and *aryland Locksmith Licensing requirements with all employees. We are also preparing a series of social media posts to help educate the community regarding the requirement for matching IDs, how to get a temporary change of address card until an ID can be completely updated, and what to do if you feel uncomfortable with a security professional that you have hired. Also, *arylands laws about changing your address and the time frame you must complete it in. *aryland REMOVEDasks you to notify them of your move for an updating of address change on your driving license and vehicle registration within 30 days with your established residency of the place you are moving to.
  Sincerely
  REMOVED
  *anaging member of Able locksmiths llc

  Customer Answer

  Date: 06/14/2023

   
  Complaint: 20148124
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  Firstly, the technician never told me about having proper ID prior to coming to my home  the technician was hostile to me from the beginning  he said I was annoying because I had been crying on the phone and then he threatened to leave with my lock in pieces  I never got combative or argument Ive with the technician when he asked me for my ID  I did ask him why he was speaking to me so disrespectfully and why was he being so nasty to me  I asked him his age and I said I am a 63 year old woman why are you speaking to me like this  at which point he said if I didnt stop talking he would leave   I am the one who called the police so an offer would monitor the situation  I did send REMOVEDmy video and it sent  I emailed this REMOVEDand asked him to please verify that he received it I even offered to come down and show it to him  the statements made by REMOVEDare false  I get there is no accountability in todays world  but, I did absolutely nothing wrong here  my mistake was calling this company to help me  I can imagine that this technician never did this to anyone else  and yes, I do believe he never would have spoke to a man or a woman of color in the manner that he spoke to me  and it is apparent I am correct  because he got away with it  I called a locksmith and my entire world was turned upside down because of this technician  I was violated and it has emotionally affected me  if this kind of representation is considered acceptable by this company then I feel sorry for the next person who comes into contact with this technician  REMOVEDis making me to be the issue here and that is absolutely false  he is protecting his employee and his reputation  I have the video I will gladly send it to you so you can see how this encounter affected me   And, again, I have the emails requesting REMOVEDto acknowledge he received my video  to which I never received a response  

  
  Sincerely,
  
  REMOVED

  Business Response

  Date: 06/14/2023

  Ms.M,
  
  You stated that there is no accountability in the world today. You have not made any requests regarding settlement of this issue. We have spoken with you and continue to respond to you. We need a clear plan of action for a settlement with which you would be happy. Please be specificnot vague.

  You have once again accused our employee of racism. You have now further accused our entire company of racism, by stating that he receives special treatment due to his race. As I said when we spoke on the phone, he is the only African American locksmith in REMOVEDof which we are aware. Able Locksmiths,LLC treats all employees and customers equally, regardless of race, REMOVED, creed,age, sexual orientation, or other identity-based factors. We are a REMOVEDI, the Managing Member, have personally served in our military (Army, REMOVED, REMOVED) and deployed to ensure that equality and freedom prevail. Your insinuations are unfounded and quite offensive. As we discussed, there are several other locksmith companies in REMOVEDwho do not employ African Americans at this time. You may be more comfortable with their employees.
  
  We have not contested that you contacted the police. We have only shared that our employee also contacted the police, per our company policy.
  
  As we already expressed (please see the previously uploaded emails) that the link you sent to us did not go to your video. Sending the same link again did result in a different outcome.
  
  Your description of the evening in question when we spoke on Sunday, June 4th was very informative. We have utilized your information to follow up with our employees as indicated in our previous response. A summary of the steps we have taken in response to this issue follows:
  
  -You were not charged for the work. You will not be charged for the work.
  -The Managing Member of the company called you during the weekend when the company is closed for normal operating hours and discussed this matter with you at length. 
  -The technician was counseled for not charging for work that was completed well.
  -The technician opened your door and repaired it to perfect functionality.
  -We have reviewed all company policies and state regulations with all of our employees.
  -We are preparing social media posts to help educate the community regarding the requirement for matching IDs, how to get a temporary change of address card until an ID can be completely updated, and what to do if you feel uncomfortable with a security professional that you have hired. Also, Marylands laws about changing your address and the time frame you must complete it in. Maryland DMV asks you to notify them of your move for an updating of address change on your driving license and vehicle registration within 30 days with your established residency of the place you are moving to.
  -We have now also reviewed our company policy on Non-Discrimination, Diversity, and Inclusivity with all employees. This policy is now uploaded here if you would like to review it.
  -We do acknowledge that you felt that our employee was rude to you. We have went over Able Locksmiths, LLCs policies and procedures with all employees. This includes our customer service policies and how to interact with all members of the community.
  -This is all being well documented. There is an incident report that will remain in the employees file and has led to company-wide action.

  Thank you for the additional offer of the video. It would be awesome if you could upload it,since you were unable to provide a working link or attachment. It would further help our investigation and add to the supporting documentation so that all appropriate actions can be taken.
  
  Again, you stated that there is no accountability. Could you elaborate on what actions you would like to see taken to show accountability. Please be as specific as possible, so that we can review and potentially implement those steps. 

  Sincerely, 

  REMOVED
  Managing Member
  Able Locksmiths, LLC