Grdlocksmiths Avis 94

On the plus side, the locksmith came out the same day I phoned with a problem associated with my front door chubb lock which was beginning to jam on occasions.
He rang to advise he was 15 minutes away and again to ask for directions nearer the house. Courteous and polite.
He had a quick look at the problem and initially thought he could lubricate the lock and jiggle it a bit to solve the issue.
The bad news is he then told me how much it would cost. The call out fee was £65 and I was also going to be charged £180 for labour which I felt was very high, but I also felt I was in a bit too deep now to pull out without incurring at least the call out fee, and then I would still have a faulty lock.
I agreed to him going ahead, and then he found he couldn't fix the existing lock, but would need to fit a replacement at a cost of a further £95 for parts. I queried whether VAT would need to be added at this stage as the total was already really substantial, and may well have said no to further work if the answer had been yes, but he told me they don't charge VAT.
He fitted the new lock and then spent about 45 minutes trying to get it to work with the accompanying keys. Eventually it seemed to be working, although still very stiff.
I have arthritic hands and can only just manage to get the new lock to work, all for the extortionate price of £345.
I so wish I had looked at the trust pilot reviews first. But I thought I was booking a local firm and having looked at a few other online it seemed fine. I'm just really angry with myself for being so gullible and not feeling confident enough to send the locksmith away as soon as he told me the price.
Lesson for the future, arrange this sort of repair when my husband is around, but this shouldn't be necessary and angers me further!

Extremely over priced! Not told of charges before arriving on including £59 call out fee! Not given quote before job completed! AVOID

Avoid - awful con artists and intimidating
Paid £300 for a lock replacement that wasn’t needed and left my door worse than before. The lock doesn’t retract properly, the strike plate was removed, and they refused to come back despite me calling multiple times. An independent tradesperson confirmed the issue is door alignment and hinges, not the lock. Misleading, poor workmanship, and unprofessional service.
Pressured into
Paying more than quote and reported straight away dissatisfaction that the door was worse but refusing to even look at it

I should have read reviews first.
Over the phone I was informed of the £49 call out fee that would cover ‘8 out of 10 Yale locks don’t need to be drilled out’
Was not then told any quote on the phone if the lock needed to be drilled.
Only upon arrival of the technician was I informed the work would be £286 + VAT
So I was already going to be out money as I agreed to the call out charge which was also subject to VAT which I was not made aware of.

Totalling £50 Call-out, £120 to drill out the hole, £66 for the new lock and ontop of that £50 of labour all plus vat totalling to £343.20. Where other companies had quoted £125.

I cannot recommend this company and hope people aren’t as stupid as me to fall for this.

This company is seriously to be avoided. Sawing through an old lock taking around 1 minute and charging £85.85 and putting in a new lock and charging £86.90 for it when they are available on-line for £20 is an utter disgrace.
These amounts are in addition to the "standard call out fee" of £49 gives a total of £220.90. I really should have checked this totally dishonest company before calling them. I can only hope that other potential customers check them before being, what our American friends call "A TOTAL RIP OFF".

Very pleased with this service. We were locked out and someone was with us within half an hour. Very efficient and competitive too. Thank you for you help.

Outrageous charge. No customer service on follow up - calls not taken. Advise against using, The company has been dissolved. It is not based in Ongar, Description of services are inaccurate.

Going to make this very clear - AVOID AVOID AVOID - Massive scam company, will prey on your panic and charge 5 to 6 times above the normal price regardless of what you are quoted. Will damage your property on multiple occasions and claim “it was already there” and when they call you “my brother” I assume they learnt the meaning of family loyalty from Ryan Giggs. I’d rather stay locked in overnight than ever use this company again.

Shocking Service tried to charge me £300 for a £95 Job

Made me sign a bit of paper so “they can legally touch my door”, they then installed a cheap cheap cheap lock without discussion of price, they then add the pricing to the already signed bit of paper after the fact. Over £600 for two very standard locks. And an emergency call out fee when it was very much not an emergency. Clearly just a scam company. Am annoyed at myself for not realising it sooner or checking reviews before. Don’t make the same mistake as me and just go with a different company.

Our conservatory door had completely jammed and wouldn't budge. I was worried the whole mechanism was shot. The locksmith from GRD took it apart, found the issue, and managed to repair it rather than just replacing the whole thing. It’s rare to find tradesmen who actually try to save you money these days. Excellent service, very polite and did a grand job.

Glen came out from GRD Done the job efficiently but charged me more than originally agreed. I complained to the office Jim who i spoke to wasn't interested. I'm recovering from a year of illness and was shocked to have a phone call from Glen very menacing and upsetting. Texting me afterwards on WhatsApp also and carried on in the evening by now i thought seriously about calling the police. A very bad upsetting experience,

Called them to gain access to the front door shutting the door with one of the keys left inside the lock on the inside. The door wasn't locked. It wasn't emergency (we had other means to stay/work until evening), the call was after 9 AM (normal business hours) and we did wait for an hour for the locksmith to arrive. I was not given a quote when I called them up, but the prices on the website were reasonable. It took 5 mins max with the toolkit the locksmith had - insert into letter box and turn the handle on the inside. I was then quoted a price of £189 (£69 for call out and £120 for labour). I did contest this being super excessive but was ignored. In the end I paid the money. I then researched them in TrustPilot and noticed many reporting the same issue (overpricing). Wish I had checked the reviews earlier.

Waited for over an hour for a callout during normal business hours. Locksmith apologised about the wait as this was greater than usual callout time. No quote given on the phone but explained possivle prices when he arrived. He was very professional and quickly gained access to my flat. Charged me £60 incl VAT, which was cheaper than alternative quotes.

Charged £275 for a euro cylinder change. Cylinder fitted was Vesta (budget lock). Job took around 15 minutes. Price felt excessive for the parts supplied

Called Grind locksmith.
His task was to change the barrel in the front door, change the cylinder in the patio doors and replace a cylinder in the garage door lock.

I have previously changed the cylinder in the front door myself, it cost £15.00 and took me about 20 minutes, however I had other important things to do, that’s why I called upon your locksmith services.

I told him we had the keys to the front and patio doors but DID NOT have the keys for the garage doors as these had been taken by the Tenant.

We agreed the work that your engineer was going to do whereupon he left to go to his car.
He was gone for ages, when he returned he told me that he had had to have a nap as he was very tired from being called out the previous night on another job.

When he had finished the front door and patio doors he told me that he would have to drill out the garage lock as we didn’t have the keys, and he said this would be another £59.00 for a new lock plus £150.00 additional labour charge.
I told him no and argued that he should have seen that it would need drilling out as I had already told him we didn’t have the keys.

He then told me he didn’t have a replacement barrel for the garage lock (standard kit that any locksmith would carry) and said he would have to go to a shop to purchase one.

There is a B&Q local store eight minutes drive from my house and Screwfix, eleven minutes away, however he was gone for almost two hours.

When he had finished all of the works, he presented me with a bill totalling £502.00. This is absolutely outrageous, but when I challenged the bill, I believe he hid behind his broken English and made out he didn’t understand.

I appreciate lock prices might be slightly inflated by Locksmiths but I certainly didn’t expect to pay £146.00 for three standard locks and £216.00. Labour for what should have been no more than two hours work, including the drilling out of the garage.

As previously stated this was not an emergency call out and yet I have also been charged £39.00 on my invoice for a call out.

I also believe I have been charged for him to “nap” in his car and been charged for unnecessary additional time to fetch a new lock.

Could you please look into this matter?
I believe a fair price to pay would be £140.00 for the three locks including labour charge with VAT added on to that. Making a total of £186.00 and nowhere near the ridiculous charge of £502.00.

Your engineer didn’t seem very good with figures and was trying to make the VAT come to £100.00 and worked backwards from that.

One of my pet hates is being totally ripped off by so called professional Tradespeople. Locksmiths often receive bad press and I believe it’s people like your employee who contribute to this

My bedroom door lock had jammed and I could not unlock leaving me locked in my room. A Grind locksmith attened at 8am and through the door explained it was a difficult lock and e had to drill quoted me £200 pounds. Because he was already there and I was panicking not being able to go to work. I aggreed. Upon payment with apprent hidden charges the total bill came to £312, for a simple door lock bought at B&Q. This company is a 100% money making scam.

Terry came to my home ILLEGALLY and changed the locks on my doors without my permission. I live in my home with my children. I found out after coming home from a long day at work to panic and stress of not being able to access my home for some time. I finally was able to gain access and called to speak to him about it he claimed he was within his rights because someone booked an appointment and told him they were locked out. I had his number due to an invoice he left on my dinning room table. He didn't bother to check at all if the person who booked this appointment even lived there, or had any legal right to be there. The person who paid him to change my locks has absolutely no legal right to do so. I've reported this company to the police. Terry also overcharged them to do this as shown by the invoice he left on my dinning room table and claimed he did them a favour. Took advantage of a situation and acted illegally.

Tony Aubrey

You gave us a bad review in 2022 /2024 /2025

Some may say this is an obsession or even fake bad reviews ?

I will also educate you that the MLA is just a paid membership group.. who have zero powers and actually charge quite a lot themselves !! After 20 years in this trade I do not need to pay to have a badge on my uniform ?

You are a mug ! so jog on and stop leaving companies fake bad reviews …

You are welcome to come and say your reviews to my face !!

Good day to you

scum

give themselves 5 star fake reviews

rip off the genuine public overpricing and are rouge traders

report to trading standards