AllWays Locksmith Corp

This company is a fraud. I had called to get a broken lock cylinder replaced on a storage room door at our home. They arrived, replaced the lock, and after paying $ 400, I noticed the lock was loose and poorly installed. I called them back immediately, and was put in touch with the original technician who argued with me that the lock was supposed to be like that! After a few more minutes, the technician then decided that was just the best he could do but he could come back and replace it again for another $ 300! Since then, I have been on the phone with dispatchers who have promised to put me in touch with a «manager» or «supervisor», but no one has called back or tried to resolve this.
Absolute incompetent technicians, poor work, no customer service — again, this company is a fraud and we’ve basically been robbed of $ 400.

Locked my keys in car this morning before my business meeting.
Called Allways Locksmith after it was over. By the time I got back to the parking garage where my car was, the technician was calling to locate where I was inside the garage. That was about 15 minutes after my initial call.
Cal showed up with a smile — opened the lock on my car door quickly — and I was able to get to my next appointment.
What more can you ask for?

What can I say? If you need a locksmith quick. Call them.It’s just one of those days!!!

Just finished getting into my car not more then 5 minutes ago (When I started this review). Alex was a great help in understanding my frustrations. He called me when he arrived, we got my keys from inside my locked car, I payed him.
It was quick and straight forward.

We bought a Mazda 5 and it only came with one flip key which is hard to share in a family. After our initial call, I followed their instructions to order a blank flip key online which was much cheaper than the dealership.
After receiving my key, I called Auto Locksmith back and they sent Daniel out the same day to program our key. For about $ 400 less than what the dealership would’ve charged me, he cut and programmed the flip key, cut a spare key and threw in a complimentary key. The best part was that he drove to my house and completed the service in 30 minutes!
Look no further!

I had a difficult and expensive problem with the lock on my Tahoe and called Auto Locksmith. It rang once, he was busy and said he had to call me back, well he did, in one minute! Who does that anymore? That was great in and of itself.
I explained my problem and he explained he is in Berkeley while I am in South San Jose, and I quickly realized I cannot get to Berkeley, but after I explained that he helped me anyway, over the phone! I can’t wait to see if his suggestions help.
Thanks so much Auto Locksmith!

I recently lost my only key of a 2001 Prius. I called around a few places and got some crazy high quotes ($~1000!). I called the guys at Auto Locksmith, who gave me a very reasonable price and they turned up on time. I felt sorry for the poor guy as he spent nearly 5 hours taking the whole dashboard apart. He did a great job and I would recommend Auto Locksmith in Berkeley to anyone who ever loses their car key. Cannot remember the guys name, but he was Israeli.

I locked my keys out of my apartment and called these guys since they were nearby. They told me it’d take a technician 15 – 20 minutes to get here. 30-​mins later the technician called saying he was 20 minutes out. 40 minutes later I called and he was 5 – 10 minutes away, had to stop for fuel. Now one hour and a half after my original call the technician has stopped for fuel and was «pulled over by cops», but is still nowhere to be seen. I called the office back to complain and ask for a different person to be sent out, and he told me to go ahead and call another company. Major fail. Do not use this service.
1 hour and 40 minutes after my original call, I received a text from the technician saying «Please be patient. I am sorry this is taking so long.» I can understand the apology, but asking me to be patient when I had been siting on my doorstep at 9:30pm at night in OAKLAND for the last hour and a half? Unreal!
I called Sunshine Locksmith and he arrived within 5 — 10 minutes and had our door open in another 10 minutes. I can’t recommend Sunshine enough, and can’t warn you enough about Allways — stay away from Allways — ALWAYS.

Inconsistent with their quotes. Called in the morning to get a quote on getting a new ignition key for my car after losing my one and only key. Since my vehicle isn’t running, I needed to rely on a mobile locksmith service. Dispatcher on the phone said, «Yeah we could do that!» After giving her the make and model, she put me on hold for about 30 seconds. When she got back on the line, she assured me that they could help me out and quoted $ 129 for the job. I decided to call around for other quotes throughout the day. When I called Auto Locksmith again a few hours later, they quoted me a different price at $ 149. Then she put me on hold for about a minute and got back on the line and said, «I’m sorry but we can’t service your vehicle at this time. We don’t have the materials to work on your type of car.» I need a straight-​shooter service that will give me an honest quote that they will stand behind. With as much competition there is out there for locksmiths, I will be choosing someone else!

I needed to make a duplicate key for a 2012 Prius. I was able to bring my new key fob and mechanical key and have them done after I called the office. He had all the things needed to program a new key. Daniel performed the work, and he did an excellent job.

A mobile locksmith operation has just three assets to sell: talent, inventory, and dispatch. To compete, all you need is competency and a little bit of trust-​evoking charisma. Pretty simple. Elementary, even. Auto Locksmith needs to study the playbook a little more.
I called them, yesterday around 2pm, needing a new master & valet key set, with remotes, for my 2006 Mazda3, I’d been keyless for 3 days, and while I wasn’t ever in my life considering the dealer’s $ 195 replacement fee, with $ 85 programming for the set, I had deadlines to meet, appointments to keep, and my cats were starting to look a might peckish. So. Placed this call. To what sounded like the neice, or possibly daughter, of the person who should have answered. She restated everything I told her, but with lots of ‘Um“s and extra question marks thrown in, and lots and lots of hold time while she repeated them again to someone in the shop. Told me not that they could fill my needs, just that the cost would be $ 159. And could I schedule for later on, like 5 or 6pm. OK, sure:5pm. If I can be gone by 5:30, to make a 6pm vet appt in Berkeley. OK; he’ll be there, then.
He’ll be where?
I gave her the particulars, then offered to let her ask and I’d re-​answer. Maybe she had a form, or something. Nope. She eventually realized she needed the job address, and took it, ads said he’d be there at 6pm.
Missed the vet appt. And the e-​ticket drugs from the compounding pharmacy that closed while I waited and waited and waited.
I should have called one of the many auto locksmiths here in my very small town, or of the thousands in the greater Beast. But I gave these guys a chance. The tech’s cell phone number’s prefix was nearby, listed as [next largest town], so maybe I’d get the late-​tech-​taking-​my-​call-​on-​his-​way-​home discount.
Or maybe he’d charge an extra $ 30 travel fee, if I seemed distracted and distressed.
And not understand that I never agreed to pay for a travelling-​only, no-​customer-​facing-​shop type business’ whim, just the fee for service. To that business. Not some unmentioned recipient of my credit card number, per the handwritten receipt he left. With my one key. Sans remote. AFter 4 – 5 phone calls and 90min tugging at my door trim panel until it broke off from the retaining tabs and scratched/​deformed my speaker bezels, which speakers now rattle and which door is now open to the elements and to me, which is surely going to make the local moths and spiders really really happy.
I might have had better service from the dealer. I probably would at least have got what I paid for. I have no confidence, or assurance, in the work or product these guys had to offer. They should represent their offerings better, from the start, and set expectations a whole lot lower.
Kaleo, the tech, was a nice enough guy, quite sociable, but he didn’t know what he was doing. He could not for the life of him hold onto the car’s make and model, even sitting in it, yet had many excuses as to inventory availability. I should have sent him packing when he showed up, at 7:15pm, or the first time he re-​asked me, getting on 8pm. And I should have just driven right over his van, when the clock hit 9pm, and the pet food store closed its doors while he chattered on into his cell outside my window.
One valet key, no remote: $ 188 [plus a halflife or two in vet meds][and the regard of six cats, upon presentation with 9Lives. after all that noise, they expected Evo].
Call around.

Needed a spare transponder key so I called these guys up. Customer service was very professional and friendly over the phone. Able to talk to the technician over the phone to set up an appointment. Got me in and out with a new transponder key in a timely manner.

This review is long overdue. Back in 2009, I made the unfortunate mistake of using these guys to replace a door lock that a vandal had pried open at our apartment complex. When I called to schedule the job, I asked to make sure that they would give us an invoice so that our book keeping service could pay the bill. I was assured that they would and that a payment within 7 days was fine. So the technician shows up and does the job to replace the door lock. It took about 45 minutes, but he said up front that he had to charge for 2 hours of labor minimum. Fine whatever.
So he finished and showed me the bill for $ 500. It seemed a bit steep, but I was in a hurry and I didn’t go through the invoice in great detail (big mistake… more on that later). I thanked him and told him that our book keeping service would send the check out the next day. At this point, the technician said I had to pay him right there. I explained to him that the guy on the phone said it was okay when I scheduled the job, but the technician wouldn’t listen and insisted that I had to pay him… in cash, no less. At that point, alarm bells were going off in my head because something was obviously fishy. I told him that I didn’t have $ 500 in cash and asked if I could just pay with a credit card. He said that normally he’d have to call the main office, but their credit card machine isn’t working so he needed to be paid in cash, and he asked if could I go to the ATM to get the money. Uh… no. And how many ATMs allow you to withdraw $ 500 at a time? The guy finally caved in and called the main office to process the credit card payment. «Miraculously», their credit card machine was working.
I wish that was the end of the whole experience, but later that day, I went through the invoice and I couldn’t believe the prices he charged for materials. For one, he charged $ 75 for a strike plate, which is just a 1″ x 3″ flat piece of metal that I could get at Home Depot for less than $ 4. Now I understood why this creep wanted me to pay him in cash. The other items on the invoice were similarly priced. I took the invoice to another locksmith shop and asked if the prices seemed reasonable, and clerk assured me that I was ripped off on everything except for the labor costs (basically, I was charged $ 300 for $ 30 – 40 worth of parts). So, I called the customer service at Allways Locksmith to complain about the technician. When I explained the situation and expressed my aggravation about being ripped off, the service agent gave a ridiculous analogy about how people go to fine restaurants to eat steak and they’re willing to pay a lot more even though they could cook the steak themselves for much cheaper. Seriously, dude!!! You think I’m going to pay extra for what, the *magical* experience of having a dirty crook screw me up the ass? After much complaining and promising the service agent that I was going to leave a negative Unilocal review, he finally agreed to refund part of the material costs. For that reason, I give Allways Locksmith 1.5 stars instead of one star. Too bad Unilocal doesn’t allow half stars. Oh well. Even one star is incredibly generous.
At least I kept my promise to the service agent: negative Unilocal review posted.

I lost my only car key last week. I Unilocaled the closed auto locksmiths and found this one. I am a little worried before I called since there is no review about this store at all. But the custom service is good and price is reasonable. They sent Daniel to help me out.
He was there in about 1 hour since it was rush hour (around 5pm on Friday). He got work done quickly and professionally. He opened the door and made a replacement key, also did chip key programming. Everything was done in 1 hour. I mentioned I also lost my house keys and need a new one too. He kindly made a duplicate house key for free!

Oz got to my apartment within 30 minutes and opened the lock straight away. He was quick (less than 10 minutes to open the door) and he was incredibly polite. They quoted me $ 70 and the total was $ 70, no hidden fee nonsense. It was also 8:30pm and to have my key-​door issued resolved in a timely manner was very relieving. Thanks, Oz!

I scheduled my locksmith appointment through a Redwood City organization and they sent out AllWays Locksmith to my home. Their representative, Oz, was a real pleasure to work with. Oz is conscientious (when he was running late he gave me over an hour advance notice), personable and most importantly he is well-​skilled in the art of re-​keying doors. The next time I need any locksmith services, I am calling Oz.

Great service, husband made the appointment and was given a 30 minute time frame. The technician, Oz, called to confirm the time frame and give an approximate time of his arrival. Then he called again to say he was, «14 minutes away» — must’ve been using a gps device :-)
So, on time, took about 10 minutes (to replace a mailbox lock), very pleasant and professional. If all the technicians are like Oz, I definitely recommend them!

These guys were fast, honest and reliable. There was a small communication problem with the office on price, but they more than made up for it by helping me get a better reimbursement from my insurance. These guys were great!

A Swindle – After reading the reviews on Google, I called this place to see if I could get a key copied and was told no, they don’t actually have equipment at this address. They suggested I go to a hardware store! Don’t waste your time with them. They won’t change their listing because they want to make it look as if they are local in Oakland.

In short, they’ll break your shit and charge you for it.
Long story, I called them on a thursday night, around 9:30pm, to make me a new key for my car because I had lost mine. The operator quoted me at $ 129 for the entire job. About twenty minutes later, I got a call back from the locksmith that would be working on my car, Jonathon. He asked if he could do the job the next day despite their advertisement of ²⁴⁄₇ service. Needless to say, I got him to come out and TRY make a new key. After taking about an hour to open my car, he broke the cylinder on car door – he didn’t tell me this for about two hours, during which he was making excuses of needing «special equipment,» which he conveniently did not have. After threatening to call a new locksmith, he copped to breaking the cylinder on the lock, and said he would need a new one. I asked how long this would take, and he had a freudian slip and said «it was on the was already.» Nevertheless, he said he could make a key for the ignition, so it could be driven because I absolutely had to be somewhere that night, no exceptions. So, basically, my car would not be able to be locked overnight and would be susceptible to being broken into for a few day period – he said there would be no charge. Time lapses, calls are made, phone tag, and I had to be out of town. Sunday morning, he comes back to my car with a new cylinder. He says he just needs to get the job done, but that it would cost some money – I call AAA. He quotes me at $ 190; I bring him down to $ 129 – despite my own feelings. He says he can’t do that price. I refuse. we go back and forth, and he fixes the car, and I pay $ 129— $ 27 in change because I thought he was a jerk off. I am still upset about it, but AAA will cover $ 100 of it, so it only cost me $ 29, which $ 27 of was in change that he had to count.