Prime Alert Reviews 12

Should have checked here first. My mistake. Awful company. Locked myself out they charged me £324 to get back in when all they had to do was slide a bit of plastic into the door. Rip off merchants. Avoid.

My daughter contacted Prime Alert when she locked herself out of her flat at 10pm on a Saturday night. Response was prompt but locksmith who turned up didn't even try picking the lock he just drilled it out and replaced the barrel saying it was a high security lock. It was a standard barrel. For this he charged her £896!!!! Total cowboy. When she could only get together £760 (£600 transfer and £160 cash) he then left leaving no receipt saying she could transfer the rest once we had transferred money into her account. He then phoned her leaving threatening messages asking her to immediately transfer the money. I then called him asking for a detailed invoice which he refused and then threatened me that he would go round and remove the lock he had fitted. We were so concerned about our daughters mental state she was in having been effectively robbed and threatened that we had to contact the mental health team because we thought she was going to do something serious.

When we accidentally locked ourselves out of our house (just on the latch), we called and were quoted £59 +VAT. When someone arrived half an hour later he said it was £225. When I contacted their Customer Support, they had little empathy and said "oh a quote is just a quote", probably because the locksmiths industry is not regulated. This company are cowboys - don't waste your time or money.

Absolutely shocking customer service. Do not use London Locksmiths. I booked an appointment on a Sunday for Monday at a specified time for my boss so that he could get his steering wheel lock drilled open as he had lost the key. I confirmed in the morning. When my boss called himself for peace of mind on Monday, he was told the job was cancelled as they do not fix wheel locks. I called back and they reassured me it was not cancelled and that the notes clearly read 'steering wheel lock.' I was repeatedly assured someone would be there. No one showed up. When I rang, and my boss rang, he was told again it had been cancelled, and I was told they would come back to my boss and to me with an ETA as the locksmith was clearly running late. One hour later, there was no update, no call, and my boss was stuck waiting. He wasted half his day on this, driving into London from Buckinghamshire specifically for this appointment. At no time was a resolution found, or a sufficient apology made, except for 'miscommunication.' They really did not seem to give a toss about our predicament, which caused a lot of stress, as if it is not already stressful being in this sort of situation in the first place.

Job was well done by a locksmith in my area. The problem is the salesman technique and lack of customer service skills from both locksmith and their management team. I was quoted £330 not including VAT (£397.20 in total) to simply change the top lock to a more secure version. This was an extortionate amount considering the locks that they used retailed online for around £30-40, therefore they were charging £200+ for labour!
Considering that Banham charge £315 for a high tech lock and key registration system, i thought this was extremely unfair. They also didn't mention the VAT to me until they completed the job. They have extremely poor customer services skills. I paid on the day. But after i couldn't get hold of them by email/phone I presumed they were a very dodgy company so I reversed the charge from my bank. Visa investigated and agreed that this company was acting unprofessional and rewarded me a refund. Since then, I've recieved an email from a debt recovery company acting on behalf of prime alert/all services 4u, who's now asking me to pay £397. Prime Alert haven't even responded to my email nor can you speak to them directly :( it's such a shame that they don't contact the customer first to work things out. If they didn't ignore me for months, I wouldn't have made the chargeback

Overpromising, misquoting. I was told 30 minute wait, was closer to an hour, I was quoted £59+ VAT, when the locksmith arrived they quoted £150+ VAT. I offered to send a picture or provide additional information on the phone to get an accurate quote and they were uninterested said they could easily pick for the standard price. When I called back to ask about the disparity between what was promised and what the locksmith quoted and I got palmed off with a lacklustre apology and excuse for why they couldn’t have had a conversation ahead of quoting to better understand the door. I assume it’s laziness and a lack of care for the locksmith contractors they use, as I can’t understand why they don’t request information on they type of door or attempt to locate a locksmith in the vicinity before advising customers on cost and time. Don’t recommend 0/10. Luckily the locksmith who arrived (contractor) was helpful and knowledgable but that’s not connected to the booking team/policies.

This was the worst experience I have ever had with any service. I called out the locksmiths after being quoted a price of £59 + VAT for labour and from £20 for a new lock. When the engineer cam to remove the lock, he said that "it might cost a little more" looking at my door (not something I was informed of when calling him out) but after I pressed for a specific price, he told me he "couldn't say". After drilling out the lock - and damaging my door in the process, he said that the whole job would cost £240 + VAT. I was completely flabbergasted by this sum, as I was quoted a different price upon calling the engineer out.

When I informed him that I would not pay this sum - and I would pay the cost that was advertised to me - he got aggressive, started yelling and swearing, saying he didn't need this job and would leave right this second without putting a new lock in. He blamed the company for not informing me that there was a different cost if the doors needed to be drilled. After a lot of yelling from his side, and me begging him to stop shouting (I was incredibly embarrassed that all the neighbours could hear this as I had only moved in that day), he finally agreed to do the work for £140 (which was still in excess of what I was quoted as it turns out that the cylinder he replaced cost £30 on the internet), but I was just relieved that he was going to leave and I could lock my door again.

The behaviour of the operative was inexcusable, the price quoted to me before accepting services over the phone was misleading and the prices asked by your engineer was extortionate. He damaged my external door which will cost me £400 to replace by deeply scratching it, and instead of admitting the damage - he asked if I had a navy pen so that he could fill the scratch in - I was lost beyond words.

I'm now fighting with the company to refund me the £140 for the experience and the damage and I will update my review if I'm successful in this.

The "locksmith" was three hours late and couldn't even pick my lock, so he had to drill it, resulting in much higher fees. The company subcontracts all of its work and doesn't even know who is sent. When I questioned the locksmith about drilling my lock, he became aggressive and started talking about fighting me. I almost called the police over this. Never ever use this company, they have absolutely no idea what they are doing and will try to scam you.

With 20 minutes of my call, I had a locksmith who sorted out my sticky door. They took card, price was as quoted. Happy!

Do not use
Was quoted £100 for a lock change, when the third party locksmith arrived he tried to put the price up.

When I called the company they said they never quoted me £100 and hang up the phone when I was talking.

I sent the tradesman away, so frustrated in the poor service and how rude they were.

If you call ‘Prime Alert’ contact number On the website you are put through to a third party company ‘All Services 4 U’. This third party Company take the booking, supply the contractor and take the payment. I was not aware I was using an entirely different company to what I had called until they were on my doorstep, charging me and my receipt stated the company name.

They operate very aggressive sales techniques by misquoting to get you to book them. I was quoted £59 on the phone and was charged £201 in person.

I had 2 pushy men (Not uniformed or in a company vehicle - just like a regular joe off the street) pressuring me to pay when I questioned the cost differentiation. They replied that because they had to use a drill they had to charge me the extra £141. Which makes no sense. Surely you pay for time and expertise not use of tools!

Additionally regarding the work, one word sloppy. They left all their mess behind, damaged my door frame, replaced only the lock cylinder (not full lock) which I found online for £12...they charged me £69 for the lock alone. Upon contacting them to discuss my experience they took zero responsibility of any of the above despite Despite having multiple photo evidence. Even suggested that I chose to damage the door frame where the lock was myself.

They were 30mins late, they blamed traffic but claimed to be local business.

They do not perform any security checks that you are the owner/resident of the property that they are breaking into and replacing locks for.

After job completed I called again to questioned them on why I hadn’t got through to ‘Prime Alert’ I was told by team at ‘All Services 4 U’ that many locksmith have closed down due to covid so they are picking up the work of fallen locksmiths.

They compensated me £30, which seems minimal when I evidenced that the lock cylinder itself was £57 above market price.

My whole experience was not only unpleasant but unprofessional and had a general feel of fraud! They should be investigated.

This company uses third party companies to subcontract work. The third party further subcontracts to locksmiths. Prime alert advertises their qualified, DBS checked, skilled locksmiths but in fact they don’t even know who is sent to your property. You are not charged what is listed on the website and I was charged an extortionate amount of £549 to change three lock cylinders. These are the cylinders fitted: ‘Versa grade 6’ and I was charged £125 for each. The cylinders used are cheap locks and the locksmith insisted he was installing high security locks. I was charged directly by the third party company, All Services 4 U and was never informed by Prime Alert that this company would be charging me and carrying out the job. Do not use Prime Alert , they misrepresent on their website and send your personal details to a third party. They know people book through them for their security concerns and rather than show due skill, care and diligence, they sell your personal details to third parties to do the job without your knowledge or consent.