September marks the 30th anniversary of my residency in Las Vegas, and I can honestly say my interaction today with the two individuals working at ABC Locksmith was the worst customer service experience I've ever had in all my time living here. As I walked through the door at seven minutes to five in order to get one key duplicated, I was immediately greeted with a shouted "You'd better hurry up, we're closing in five minutes!" by a heavy-set older man standing behind the counter whose name tag read 'Steve'. No "Welcome to ABC" or "Sorry sir, we need to inform you that we are closing soon" or anything else to that effect. I ignored his rudeness, showed him the key, and said, "Can you duplicate this?" Instead of removing my key, he took the entire ring from me and went to the back of the room while the other guy with him mumbled something to him and they both chuckled. I wasn't expecting Disney-caliber customer service, but the atmosphere was beyond chilly - it was just short of hostile. All because it looked like I had dared to interrupt the schedule of these two clock-watchers. While I waited at the counter for Steve, another patron entered behind me with a bag of keys and approached the counter. The man said, "I'd like to get some keys made". Before he had even reached the counter, the other employee, whose name tag said 'Vince', moved quickly to the counter and with no greeting of any kind, said, "Well you came a bit late, bud. We're closed. You should have come earlier." The man became very incensed and said, "Well, if you don't want my business I'll just go elsewhere." To which Vince replied, "That's fine. I didn't say I don't want your business, you just should have come sooner." He chuckled and said it with an unbelievably hostile sneer. The other man stormed out of the building shaking his head. You could just tell they didn't want me or this other customer in there disrupting their precious exit schedule. I was completely awestruck by these two rude idiots, and after the other customer stormed out they started chuckling and discussing the interaction right in front of me commenting continuously on how rude the customer was. I watched the entire interaction and the customer was far from rude - it was completely they opposite of what they were saying had happened. Vince then commented "Like his few keys are going to pay the bills in here" or something close to that. At that point I just waited on Steve who was grinding the duplicate key for me and he walked over a few seconds later. I said, "Thank you, how much do I owe you?" and he replied "Nothing" and waved his hand across the counter. I asked "Nothing?" and he said, "No, we already closed out the register and I don't want to deal with it." I said thank you, and then Vince, who was standing to my right, chimed in and said "Just don't laugh while you are walking out like the other guy did." I just looked at him curiously and walked out - I couldn't even be bothered to argue with these two surly idiots or call them out on their rotten behavior, since it looks like they have been acting this way for quite some time now. In the span of a five minute interaction I saw them completely upset one customer, who will certainly never return - they succeeded in losing his business and whomever else he badmouths their business to. And they completely alienated me as well, and refused to accept payment from me. I'm sure my $2-$3 payment will not affect their business, but I only wondered how much this atmosphere is the status quo on a day to day basis? In my opinion, if they are employees, they should be promptly fired. If one, or both, of them are the owners, I hope they go out of business soon. There are plenty of other locksmiths in Las Vegas - I certainly won't be bringing any future business there.
**Here is an addendum a couple of hours later to my initial review above. The 'complimentary' key they gave me doesn't even work. Big surprise. Epic fail. read more