Do you have keys? Do you CONTROL them?

Do you have keys? Do you CONTROL them? Cut costs and increase security with key control! Key control is a cost-effective way to manage access to your locking mechanisms. Say what?

Let's play pretend:

Say you purchase some decent locks and give the keys to your 3 managers. There're 4 locks: a doorknob and deadbolt for the front door and back door, $400.

You fire Betsy after 4 months and request she return your keys. She grudgingly gives you back one copy, but who knows if she's made other copies? You re-key 4 locks for $125+.

A week later you see Max's girlfriend with a copy of the key...so that's why you've seen their car in the parking lot afterhours! Max made a duplicate ($2 cost to him) and gave it to his girlfriend so they could canoodle. You re-key again for $125+ and make your managers sign written agreements not to make key copies. You have the locksmith stamp the keys "Do Not Duplicate." Unbeknownst to you, Max's girlfriend steals his key, makes a copy at a locksmith shop, and does a 'sneak attack' on him in the office (the "do not duplicate" stamp is pretty much bogus where the law is concerned). The key falls from her pocket and is picked up by a random bum who wanders in the next day who uses the company bathroom at will from then on.

The very next weekend, your most trusted manager--yourself, silly!--loses his key somewhere on Diamond Head. After a good facepalm, you refuse to fork over another $125+ for rekeying and finally decide to get a grip on your security. You call The Key Guy and order 2 doorknobs and 2 deadbolts from Mul-T-Lock along with 4 keys $800. Total Cost: $1600+

Let's Re-wind and Re-Play Pretend:

Say you call The Key Guy and order 2 High Security 3-N-1 Mul-T-Lock Doorknobs and 2 High Security Mul-T-Lock Deadbolts along with 4 keys, $800.

You fire Betsy after 4 months and she returns her key, as per the contract you made her sign back when you issued the keys. She gives you back one copy, and you are secure in the knowledge that Betsy couldn't have made a copy even if she'd tried. Only you can make duplicates with your authorized signature and key code.

A week later, Max tried in vain to make a duplicate at 6 different locksmiths only to find that even if they wanted to make his key, they couldn't. The Key Guy has the only Mul-T-Lock key machine in the state. Darn, Max really wanted to let his girlfriend surprise him in the office whenever she wanted. You do not have to re-key, and you didn't even have to make your manager sign written agreements not to make key copies. You don't bother having the keys stamped "Do Not Duplicate." Unbeknownst to you, Max's girlfriend steals his key, tries to make a copy, and fails. Ha ha!

The very next weekend, your most trusted manager--yourself, silly!--loses his key somewhere on Diamond Head. After a good facepalm, you insert one of your set of yellow keys and re-key the locks yourself, just by turning a key. The Mul-T-Lock "3 N 1" cylinders come with 3 sets of color-coded keys that you can use to re-key your locks yourself! Green, yellow, and red. For each re-key a locksmith has to do, you get three re-keys! Total Cost: $800

What, exactly, happened there?
If you issue keys to employees, this is a must-have that many businesses wish they had purchased at the outset. Don't wait until you have an 'incident.' A high-security key control system cuts costs and increases security. This is what happened in that story up there:

• Eliminate the need to re-key your locks, which you must do every time you let an employee go.
  
• Eliminates the risk that key holders will make unauthorized duplicates of keys. Only you will be able to make duplicates, and only at our shop. No other locksmith can duplicate the keys. You will always know exactly how many keys to each lock are floating around and who has them.
  
• You saved money. For the cost of regular commercial-grade locks and a re-key or two, you can buy a patened Mul-T-Lock key control system and not have to worry about security breaches down the road.
  

The Key Guy has high-security key blanks and locks from Mul-T-Lock, who has a functionality patent on their locks and keys (watch out for "patented" locks with design patents--which are purely decorative). Honestly, burglars will probably break your door itself before they break through a Mul-T-Lock. I'm not going to say it's 100% tamper-proof, because nothing is (hello, have you watched Mission Impossible or Oceans 11?), but let me tell you it would take a very sophisticated criminal to game this lock. Did I mention all Mul-T-Locks come with a 20-year warranty and come UL rated? Yup.

Other High-Security Locks: If you're considering, say, the Schlage Everest or Schlage Primus high-security locks, don't. Just go for something better right off the bat. The Schlage high-security keys can be duplicated on the same key machines that are in every hardware store in Honolulu. Sure, the blanks are a little harder to get, but any locksmith can find them easily at any locksmith supply distributor.

If you control keys, get them under your control. Ignorance is no longer your excuse. Consider getting a quote. It's free.

Go Florida!

We're glad to see that someone is finally pushing some legislation through to force locksmiths to have licenses...too bad it's in Florida and not Hawaii. As we at The Key Guy have learned recently from personal experience, there are all kinds of whack plumbers and electricians who are *supposed* to have state licenses and who *claim* to have state licenses but don't. They screw over their customers and lie blatantly about being licensed contractors up to the point of being criminals. They do crappy work and cause accidents that unwitting customers have to pay for out of pocket--including frying the wires in entire buildings and causing major floods. But that doesn't mean locksmiths shouldn't have to be licensed, too.

The competition is stiff in the locksmith industry, and work locksmiths do is just as important as an electrician or plumber. It's security, for crying out loud. As it stands, there is no recourse for the hundreds of people we've met who've called scammer locksmiths. And the scammers are running rampant what with their unbelievably low advertised rates and astronomically high actual prices. Not to mention the shoddy work they do that has to be fixed by a real professional. Do I sound bitter? I think I deserve it. At least give legitimate locksmiths a fighting chance, eh?