The answers, including the inconvenient ones.

Yes. For most vehicles and almost every house.

We cut a new key from the lock itself, or from the vehicle's code, and program it where the car needs programming. Bring photo ID and something showing the car or property is yours.

For a handful of recent models the only route is the dealer. If yours is one, we say so on the phone, not after driving out.

It cannot. Nothing in the car tracks a key that is not in the car.

It can often be used to make a spare. More usefully, on many cars we can erase the missing fob so it stops working.

If the lost key went astray somewhere public, that second part matters far more than the spare.

That stamp is a request, not a lock. We will copy it once you show the key is yours.

A patented or restricted key is different. The blank is controlled by the maker and can only be cut by its dealer, with written authorization from the system's owner.

Because a number for a job nobody has looked at is either a guess or bait.

A lockout on a 2012 sedan and on a 2023 car with a proximity system are not the same job.

Tell us on the phone what it is, and you get a range before anyone is dispatched. If what we find changes it, you hear that before the work starts.

Cancel before the technician leaves and there is no charge. Once the van has driven out to you, there is a call-out charge, and you were told the number before it left.

Because we cannot tell your car from somebody else's by looking at you.

Photo ID plus something that ties you to the vehicle or property. Registration, title, a lease, a utility bill in your name.

A locksmith who does not ask is not being relaxed. One day somebody will use him on your car.

Yes. Companies are licensed by the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services, and technicians hold their own employee registration.

Our company license is 7237. Here is how to check it.

One thing that trips people up: cutting a duplicate from an existing key is not locksmithing under the Act. So a shoe-repair counter cutting house keys breaks no law. It also cannot open anything.

Not on your say-so. In California, locking a tenant out without a court order is unlawful. The penalties run per day plus the tenant's legal costs.

Once a sheriff has executed a writ of possession, that is different, and we do that work. Bring the paperwork.

Usually 20 to 30 minutes, anywhere in our area. If today's honest number is longer, you get the longer number on the call.

Yes, and it is a person, in English or Spanish.

Normally no damage at all. Opening without damage is the whole skill.

There is a small set of cases where the only way in destroys the lock: a seized high-security cylinder, a snapped key welded in place, some safes.

In those you are told before it happens, with the price of the replacement, and you decide.