Aaron Hotz Locksmith

Review of Aaron-​Hotz Locksmiths dba/Artie’s
Staying alone last week in a friend’s NYC apartment in a small building that’s empty of people during the day (I live in New Mexico and was on holiday), I couldn’t reach the building’s or apartment owners. The apartment lock was difficult to open and after 2 days there the outer doorknob fell off so I couldn’t pull the apartment door closed. I called Aaron-​Hotz at a nearby address listed in Verizon phonebook. Was charged $ 680 to re-​attach the doorknob and for a new lock that’s available at retailers for about $ 25. I have complained to the NYC Consumer Affairs Dept. and Better Business Bureau. The lock the tech installed came loose and only on his 4^th visit (no charge for the extra visits!) was the lock properly installed. This involved 4 days of phone calls and aggravation and a totally ruined holiday as the apartment owner, rightfully, has refused to pay the bill saying the building handyman could have fixed everything.
Note that the Manhattan phonebooks have many addresses and phone numbers for Aaron-​Hotz but these are misleading, letting you think this is a chain with a locksmith nearby. I believe that all the phone numbers go to one office. I checked out the address of the number I called and there’s no Aaron-​Hotz anything there. It’s an apartment building with several small storefront retailers none of whom had heard of a locksmith there.