Dear New York city young people, please read this post very carefully before calling an Emergency Locksmith in NYC.

You wouldn't believe the shit show and the amount of dishonest locksmith companies out there.

From super shady call centers out of the country to random stickers and business cards on your building's door or intercom unit, this city is filled with super random and not so honest locksmith companies.

[caption id="attachment_667" align="alignnone" width="300"] Scam Alert!
Be Vey Careful Who You Call.[/caption]

It got so bad that it's literally almost impossible to separate the good guys from the bed ones.

Luckily we've got five easy steps in order to help you separate the wheat from the chaff.

So you probably ask your self, "What do I do if I get locked out and need a 24 hours locksmith?"   Well, there are a few things you can do in order to minimize the risk:

Step number one:   Ask every single question you can think of on the phone before you give the locksmith company your address, an honest locksmith would answer all your questions over the phone and would give you solid flat fee prices for any specific service, not just *starting prices or *minimum prices, an honest locksmith would give you the company's name and address, he would give you the tech's name and the license number if necessary.

Step number two:   After you have all the information go online (if you don't have web access or a smart phone use a friend's or a neighbor's) and research some of the information you got, if the company doesn't exist on Google Maps (like we do) or on Yelp (again, like we do) that's a tale tale for bad news, if it does exist but has horrible reviews on Yelp, than again maybe you should use another company.

[caption id="attachment_647" align="alignnone" width="300"] people love us on Yelp![/caption]

Step number three:   When you get the tech on site make sure that the information is similar to what you've got on the phone and online, the company's name, phone number, website and address should be the same, the tech needs to know the company's name as well, if any of these isn't the same, something is wrong.

Step number four:   Make sure the locksmith gives you the whole shpill, you need to know everything you're about to pay for before the guy does anything, I mean the whole 9 yards, if any of the prices aren't matching what you've got on the phone you need to know that ahead of time, the price may change a bit and that's fine, maybe you have a high security lock that can't be picked, maybe it's a different key for your car because you got the year, make and model wrong, things can change and that's ok.

Step number five:   Payment and warranty, make sure what form of payment the company accepts, nowadays credit cards should be an acceptable form of payment almost anywhere any time, cash and checks may not be accepted by some companies so find out in advance, unless you want to make a late night trip to the ATM.                               Warranty should be included in the price for both parts and labor, a 90 day warranty should be standard though most honest companies (us included) would provide you with a 6-12 month warranty for both parts and labor.

[caption id="attachment_662" align="alignnone" width="250"] Metro Local Locksmith.
Upper West Side locksmith company.[/caption]

After all is said and done, there is no substitute to an honest local company you already know and trust or have received service from in the past successfully, all the research in the world won't makeup for past experience.

So don't get scammed and make sure your first locksmith experience is a good one, because if it sounds too good to be true over the phone, it's usually because it is.

When you need an honest, licensed and reliable locksmith company on the Upper West Side, Manhattan or anywhere else in the greater New York area for that matter, give us a call first, you'll be glad you did.