Millenium Lockout Services

These guys will not give you a straight price for services. I was locked out of my car and they said it would be 19 $ for the service call then getting ‘in’ the car would START at 35 $ !!! I asked for a clarification of what ‘starting at 35 $’ meant. It took 2 persons then the ‘supervisor’ said it depended on the lock. I said it is just like every other Ford truck from 1996 to 2007. He interrupted and said ‘I don’t give prices over the phone’. I said ‘thank you’ and hung up.
ALWYAS GET A FIRM PRICE OVER THE PHONE PRIOR TO SERVICE OR YOU WILL GET SCR3WED!

Give this place a try if you enjoy being locked out for three hours!
I thought I’d take an early morning shopping run to Winco at approx.4:30am. Avoid the rush eh, am I right? After loading up on the essentials: ice cream, an overpriced spatula and a series of random magazines to impress anyone who sees my shopping cart at 4:30 in the morning. I digress
I got home around 5:00am. The car door shuts, groceries check, wallet check, cell phone check, keys che… uh oh. I had left them on the passenger seat.
Now normally I wouldn’t have made such a big deal about this but it was 38 degrees outside and all I had on was a Tshirt, shorts and sandals. After finding the closest lockout services open that early (only 2 miles away) so I gave Millenium Lockout Services a call and get a deadpan women completely unconcerned about my predicament. She gathers basic information and tells me she’ll inform a tech to come by shortly. I left my groceries by my apartment door and started pacing back and forth trying to keep warm.
5:30 rolls around and I’m huddled between two cars as a windbreaker. Growing more frustrated I called their office again and get another different deadpan women! (I could tell at that point my morning was going to be complete garbage)
I explain the entire situation and ask how long it would take? The woman asked the same questions as the first and said «Alright I found your appointment.»
«Woah woah woah, appointment?» I ask.
«Yes, your appointment at 9:00am» she said casually.
After being rather «blunt» to the women over the phone she explained a tech will call you immediately.
As 6:00am rolls around the early morning joggers do a double take when they see my sitting in the same spot. My cell phone rings and answered to what sounded like a stoned teenager. Asked the address, car etc. said he would be there in 5 minutes.
FINALLY! I would chalk this up to just mixed up communication between dispatch and their techs I assured myself. The only problem was after 5 minutes no one had showed up. 10, 15, 30 minutes pass by.
I was becoming livid when I called the inbound number back to get this «tech» on the phone. The guy answers and says he’ll be there in another 5 minutes. I was to the point where I just didn’t care. I was so cold I just wanted to get in my apartment.
a few minutes later the guy finally shows up, after calling to ask for directions. He apologized and said dispatch didn’t tell him this was a «priority» and that he just woke up. He showed up in his own car with all the tools in the trunk. After shelling out $ 200 and getting the keys out of my car this guy actually has the audacity to say «Yeah, it’d sure be cool to get a tip».
I looked at him with utter amazement. I grabbed my receipt from him and stormed off to get into my apartment. it was around 7:30 when I finally unlocked my door.
THREE HOURS is absolutely unacceptable! Worse lockout experience of my life. After this incident I’m going to use a hide-​a-​key to prevent this from happening again. And to put a nice cherry on top of that day, I was reprimanded at work for being late, picked up a nasty cold being outside and my ice cream freakin melted!
If I’d known it would’ve taken this long I would have seriously considered breaking into my own apartment. I would strongly recommend to STAY AWAY from Millenium Lockout Services simply because it takes them a millenium to get you lockout services.

I’d rather stay locked out than use Millenium. It’s not worth risking your safety.
The only positive thing I can say is that I got a prompt call from the technician after calling the main line. But he would not give me a price quote over the phone, he said he’d be fired if he did. If someone is going to start our professional relationship with a flimsy lie, I can only imagine what’s going to happen when they try to charge me for their services!
So, I called someone else and called the Millenium technician back to cancel. He asked me to call Millenium and tell them that I got my car unlocked. I said that that’s not actually the case, I just went with someone more honest and transparent, and he replied «same difference». I did call Millenium and told them I was cancelling.
Interestly enough, while I was waiting for the 2^nd technician to arrive, the first guy rolls up! He is in an unmarked Gold Buick. He denied that I had called him off, he insisted his company sent him to do the lock-​out. I am 100% sure that this was the person I called and told not to come: a coworker of mine locked herself out of her car one week ago and got this same guy, I saw him and his vehicle with my own eyes. Also, he extorted $ 85 from that person, when my lockout charge was $ 40! For reference, I have a 2005 Corolla, she has a 2009 Corolla with similar security features.
I would strongly encourage you to use K&J Auto Rescue instead, like I did. Millenium will never get business from me until they stop contracting with this shady small-​time criminal. I called Millenium to report this issue, and the response has been lackluster, saying they’ll call me back and then not. I am appalled that they would continue to use this person who extorts money from people who are stranded.
Good luck!

Confession: I can be forgetful at times. Especially when I’m in a rush. This was the case the other weekend when I had locked myself out of my place! *sigh*
[my bad]
I was on my way to run errands and had grabbed my phone, wallet and keys. The only thing I grabbed though was my car keys instead of my house keys AND car keys… My reckless self had locked the inside of the house and walked out of the place. I realized that when I needed to lock the dead bolt, that I didn’t have my house keys at hand. There was this slow motion of me saying «NOOOOOO!!!» as I saw my door close in front of my very own eyes. It was quite tragic and stupid on my end.
As frantic and frustrated as I was, I quickly used Unilocal to find the nearest and available locksmith as yours truly didn’t have a spare hiding nor did leave a key with close friends. Upon my search, Millenium Lockout Services (MLS) came up, but there were no reviews. Most of the locksmiths which had 5 star reviews were far from Hillsboro and would probably had been an arm and a leg to venture out to Hillsboro.
I took a gamble and called MLS.
[phone call]
The lady who picked up the phone on answered the call just saying «Hello?» I had to ask if the number I had called was MLS. She then said yes. I asked if the company did residential services and explained my situation. She said yes. She explained that it would be a $ 19 service fee and $ 35 for the associate fee at a minimum. The $ 35 would’ve gone up depending on the services that needed to be done. She then confirmed my phone number and mentioned that she would contact one of their employees to contact me upon their arrival. Within a few minutes, one of their associates had called me. He confirmed my address and mentioned that the travel time would be within 15 – 20 minutes. (He actually came in 30 minutes but I didn’t really care)
[service]
The associate was very nice and empathetic to my situation. He analyzed the lock that I had locked from the inside and gave me a quote. The total of the job would’ve been $ 160. After agreeing to the contract, he tried to shimmy the lock with his tools. Unfortunately my lock wouldn’t budge. The associate mentioned the next step would be to drill into the lock and that came with an extra fee. My quote was then increased to a new grand total of $ 220. The associate was able to drill within the lock and amazingly, was able to open my door! I was relieved at that point. He was able to install a new lock and key. This process probably took 45 minutes upon his arrival. The lock was installed well and there weren’t any
[payment]
I don’t typically have $ 220 lying around the house and the associate was able to follow me to the bank so I was able to withdraw cash for the services that were completed.
[aftermath]
After this dilemma, I was quite famished and called one of my friends to grab lunch. While we were out dining, I had received a call from an unknown number. (It wasn’t the same number as I had called MLS). They left a voicemail requesting for feedback on the locksmith’s services. I called the company and once again, there was no greeting whatsoever. I had to then again explain myself and said that I was just returning a call regarding a followup call. The lady on the other end confirmed my address and asked if I was satisfied with the work that was done. I said yes. Then the next question was RANDOM: «How much did you pay?» Which I responded to the $ 220. I was a bit weirded out because I had already signed paperwork and your associate can bring you back the carbon copy notepad to prove how much I had paid. Weird…
[overall thoughts]
I would’ve given this place 5 stars if it were of the following:
— The answering service was a bit more professional and answered the phone using the company’s name AND asking about follow-​up in a much more professional manner
— The associates had business cards or some sort of logo representing the company
Yes I took a gamble with MLS and overall was satisfied with the services despite the weird-​unprofessional phone calls. I learned my lesson and made spare keys for my place and had given them to my friends the next day.
Unilocal 2013 100 for 100 Challenge — Review #55