Flam’s Key Service Inc.

I bought a condo and Flams was the only place I could get a copy of my «highly secure», «Do Not Copy» keys made. I understand charging me the high price of $ 15 per key because of this special key arrangement. But, I had these shipped from Sherman Oaks to Calabasas via UPS… and they charged me $ 13.95 to ship a small envelope AND, on top of that charged me another $ 2 for «handling». Handling? Really!!!
So essentially 2 keys cost me $ 50. In the future, I will find another shop that can cut these special keys so I am not ripped off again.

After getting fed up with my home depot key copies that randomly stop working after a few uses, I thought I’d finally go to a professional. These guys are great and my key copies work every time!
Also, love the old fashion feel you get when you go in. They are simply the best!

I’ve used Flams for my business and my home. The service and quality of work is phenomenal. Furthermore their level of knowledge and experience of staff is awesome.
For a new home I moved into, they were able to rekey all the doors that had different keys and upgrade the lock to something more reliable and difficult to pick. They also helped with some of the room door knobs and latches throughout the house.
Finally you can’t beat their customer service. Wish there were more companies around like them!

Awesome store. We were locked up and they came to open and change the front door lock in very short time. Good price and very friendly. Happy to have this business in the area.

Fabulous service.
Our grand-​son locked the door to our pool storage room, and we no longer had a way in. Fortunately, a friend had raved about Flam’s Lock & Key in Sherman Oaks. Their man-​on-​the-​scene, Eric, came out to the house, fixed the problem, and didn’t want to leave until he had taken care of 3 or 4 minor problems we hadn’t expected to address. After all, he said, we were paying for the house-​call so we might as well take advantage of his expertise. Along the way Eric chatted about his boss, remarking how nice it was to work for someone who wanted the job done the right way, not the quickest way. Needless to say, it was done the right way, and the price was quite reasonable.

I hope to be your first review of 2015 Flams. You guys are great from Vikki who is so caring and helpful to Jack who is passionate and friendly. This is definitely the mom and pops shop that the community needs to support as they care so much about their community. Dont go to Home Depot or hardware store for your keys or locks support the best in the biz they have 50 years of knowledge to spill. I love you guys!!!

I support local family businesses and so should you, especially one with great friendly service and very fair pricing.

Great mom and pop lock shop. They have been here forever and the owner knows his locks and will try to fix it first before telling you that you ned a new one like other shops that just want to replace.
He will actually take the time to take the lock apart and see if it is repairable.
Thanks Flam’s

The most charming Mom and Pop shop I have come across in a long time. Seriously, I haven’t found nicer locksmiths or better customer service on Ventura Boulevard…
It’s hard to tell when people in small business are sincere sometimes, if they truly care about the customer, or just want to engage them to sell more inventory… but the Flam’s are genuine and pure souls with every individual. They aren’t here to screw your wallet, they are here to help!
Luckily, I didn’t have a major locking issue — - just a simple situation. Either way, I ended up in a conversation with this couple for over two hours. They are more comforting than an apple pie.
Skip your average, mean locksmiths and visit this mom and pop shop! They are the best!

This is a great business. They seem to really care about the quality of their work and customer service.
I recently had to get our front door re-​keyed and from my initial call with Vicki, I found everyone I interacted with to be extremely helpful and informative.
Eric, who came out to do initial rekey, was a pleasure and also extremely informative.
What really impressed me was the response when I called back two weeks later. Over these two weeks I started noticing an issue with the lock that I wasn’t sure if was related to the original re-​key or «user error». I called in to see what could be done and Eric was back at my place within the hour to take a look. I really appreciated the prompt response and willingness to hear out my concerns. I was convinced it was just «user error» but when my husband started complaining of the same issue, I figured it was time to call and have it looked out. (Turns out the lock was acting irregularly.)
Eric really went above and beyond to help me get the problem fixed. He worked on the issue for at least an hour and a half and despite how frustrating the problem was, he really kept his cool and never gave up. He really was determined to get the issue fixed. When I asked how much it would be to replace the lock, he said he could get me a more accurate quote if I liked but he would expect about $ 150 – 200 to replace everything. He said he really prefers to try to fix things though particularly if they were working before. I really appreciated that.
He said he needed to go back to the shop and brainstormed with his shop mates. He then called me back in less than ½ hour saying he had a few things he wanted to try and wanted to see when it would be convenient for me to come out. He came right back with a bunch of parts and fixed it in the jiffy!
What really impressed me was Eric’s determination, honesty, sense of responsibility for a certain level of quality of work and his customer service. He waived the service fee despite having had to spend so much time on the issue and only charged me for the parts ($ 15!).
It’s always so refreshing to meet someone who takes their job so seriously and also able to balance it with a good personality and temperament. I will only go to Flam’s and will be recommending them to everyone I know.

The guy gave me a full commentary on the process. Very friendly and personable service. Since I only had 2 keys to cut, I didn’t care about the cost. I’m more interested in the keys working first time … and they did, no problemo.

Reading some of the other Unilocal reviews I’m puzzled at the negative experiences. Today was the first time I went to this place because the keys I got copied at the hardware store didn’t work. They re-​cut the bad keys (which I tested as soon as I got home and they worked), and I even got a couple extra copies there (which worked the first time).
As for the service and attitude in the store, they were extremely knowledgeable and professional. Much like most people, I thought keys were keys and didn’t know/​care about difference in quality. But I appreciate people who are experts/​specialists at what they do, no matter how mundane it may seem.
Oh, and for those who complained about key prices — my keys were $ 2.50 each. Probably doesn’t match WalMart’s $ 1.80 keys, but who cares???

I appreciate the personal service I get from Jack and his crew at Flams. It’s nice that there are still community based businesses out there. (vs all corporate). Jack is solution oriented and looks for ways to help you get to a workable solution.

This lady (the owner), sent me a thoughtless response that has nothing to do with my main concern. I grew up in Sherman Oaks all my life and they have always been the talk of the neighborhood as having over-​priced keys. How dare Vicki Flam go on attack of coffee, when I have never drunk coffee. What a insult to anyone to compare your leisure to why you should be able to afford her «Over-​priced keys»
For how many years they have been around their store is always empty. Please do not send me any more private messages talking trash and attempting to justify your «Over-​priced keys»

I went here for a garage door opener. Later for a few key ring color coders. Then… later for a few keys.
when i brought in my keys to be copied, flam took one look at them and said «you have issues with this key dont you?» without even telling him, he knew i had this janky key from my old landlord that only worked when it wanted to. i was impressed not only by that, but by his approachability and great stories he tells while he’s taking care of your order. PLUS, my order was like $ 12.18 I gave him $ 13. he took just the $ 12. I made a questionable face and Flam said «Dont worry about it, real change comes from within».
So dont be an air-​headed valley-​girl on your phone the whole time. eEen if its not flam, try taking 2 minutes and have an interesting conversation with a stranger sometime, it may make your day just a little bit better.
other than that, if i need to get keys made anywhere else, ill just go to Jose A. (below). I hear he trains monkeys to make keys.

I am a property manager and I frequently need to get keys made. Having been to Flam’s a few times I can tell you that sure, they know their stuff. But that’s not saying much. I mean, what do you really need to know to operate a machine that duplicates keys or change a lock. Any trained monkey would be able to do it.
With that said, I don’t feel that the price is justified when coming to Flam’s. It is pretty expensive to get copies of keys made here. Not only that, they have some funky hours. What it neglects to say on this page is that they are closed from noon to 1pm during the week for lunch. The whole shop shuts down and everything grinds to a halt. Instead of staggering employee lunch’s so they can remain open for that hour, they’d rather close up shop. Oh, and they close by noon on Saturday. I guess business must be great for them to have random hours.
Not really a big deal because there is a friendly and more reasonably priced locksmith about a block away. Silver’s Locksmith is about half price and does just as good work. Might not be a full service shop with all the (overpriced) doorknobs for sale like at Flam’s, but if you need some keys made quick then save Silver’s is the spot.
Flam’s has a few parking spaces out back in the alley.

Top-​notch service!
I spoke to Corey over the phone, sent him some photos and told him what I thought I wanted. He offered an alternative that took less time to install and looks better than what I had asked for originally. He came out the following morning and the problem was solved! I am a happy customer!

Not only are these people extremely knowledgeable about all things security, but they are genuinely interested in helping you and will give you all the options, even if it means less cash going to them.
My mailbox key to our building went AWOL. It’s one of those boxes that’s one partition of a 5 partition unit and each has individual locks. After cajoling a USPS carrier to keep the box open, the first locksmith I called (it got a 5 star average here on Unilocal) informed me they would have to come out — $ 79 — replace the lock — $ 45 — and I needed to purchase the parts — $ 20. $ 134 in total.
When called Flam’s, they told me I could just take the lock out (he gave me quick instructions), bring it in and all I’d have to pay for is the lock and it would be easy for me to re-​install it. Then he realized he could simply cut two keys based on the lock brand, model and code. I don’t want to embarrass them by typing the extremely low cost to me, but let’s just say it was extremely lower than the $ 134 the other locksmith wanted to charge.
When the first locksmith called me back to see if I wanted to go forward with the service, I told them the option Flam’s gave me (didn’t mention their name) and the lady went, «Good for you!» and hung up.
I think I didn’t pay enough to them. The least I could do is write this awesome Unilocal review about this awesome locksmith.

I know them for almost 20 years, and these are the guys you like using. These are the real businesses that are still there to help clients with honesty and care. I, myself learned from them a lot about running a business with love and care. They are a very busy operation and its not always simple to satisfy everyone when you run many calls. It’s easy to throw a bad review for a person who doesn’t want to pay for a non warranty issue, or for a key that took a while to copy since it wasn’t a good original key to begin with.
They have been around for three generations so without any dough you can do and will enjoy doing business with them.
You will be in good hands.
I love them based on many experiences dealing with them.
Sincerely,
Avi Ben David

Usually I go to Home Depot to get my keys cut for cheap ($ 1.50 per key) and they have an extremely easy return policy for keys that don’t work. Every once in awhile you get a key that no one can cut because the lock is old and obscure or it’s just a tough key to match. Because of that, I went to Flam’s. As you would expect from a locksmith, they had the right slugs so it was one stop shopping. It took the guy half an hour to cut the keys, which is a little longer than I’m used too. The convenience alone was good.
As for the key quality? It could be better. One of the keys they cut works, but it takes two whole minutes of fiddling to make it work. A version of that same key I had cut at Home Depot worked perfectly.
Also, it was a bit pricey. I had 2 copies of 5 keys made, plus I bought those plastic color coded rings that wrap around the key head to help you identify which is which (which by the way, were too big to fit the keys correctly, but it was shrink wrapped to the pack so I couldn’t return it after tearing the package open). The price? $ 45. At Home Depot it would have cost me $ 20. Plus I forgot that the keys that were hard to match I got cut before at a machine next to the gum ball machines at Frys Electronics in Burbank. I also had a copy cut at an Ace Hardware for $ 2 each. I could have saved a lot if I’d remembered that, (yes, I go through a lot of keys), but I see it as an investment, since I accidentally locked myself out of my apartment and it cost $ 100 from a different locksmith to get me in.
Flam’s also has a policy that they won’t duplicate keys that have «Do Not Duplicate» printed on the original unless they have a signed authorization, so know that before you come in.