Deceptive Practices

KeyMe Locksmiths successfully disguised their unethical operations from their partners and the general public for years, growing from a humble startup in New York City to a nationwide organization backed by $190 million in venture capital investments from companies such as BlackRock, Brentwood Associates, Comcast Ventures, Benefit Street Partners, and QuestMark Partners. With the backing of multi-billion-dollar companies, KeyMe Locksmiths has significantly impacted the locksmith industry. However, that impact has been detrimental to the profession. The locksmith industry has long suffered from bad actors, and KeyMe Locksmiths is the largest among them.

In December 2023, when I discovered that KeyMe Locksmiths no longer had kiosks in my neighborhood supermarkets, I contacted KeyMe customer service and spoke with Jennie Adair, Kiosk Customer Support Manager. She promised to escalate the issue to the appropriate team. Despite repeated phone conversations and email correspondence, no corrective action was taken. Recognizing the negative impact this deceptive company had on my community, I felt compelled to escalate the issue further.

On January 5, 2024, I reached out to Taylor Land, Director of Sales at KeyMe Locksmiths, for a prolonged call to discuss the issue of misleading and deceptive KeyMe listings on Google Maps. Despite his reassurances that the listings were accurate and his promise to investigate the issue, no corrective action was taken. All of my follow-up emails were subsequently ignored.

On August 2, 2024, after failing to receive a response, I followed up with Aaron Wheeler, Senior Operations Manager of Fulfillment & Inventory. Once again, all of my communications were ignored. After these interactions with KeyMe representatives, I sent multiple emails, each met with an automated response promising a reply within 48 hours—yet I never received one. As a last-ditch effort, I left a voicemail for Greg Marsh, Founder and CEO, requesting a callback to resolve this issue. Unsurprisingly, this request was also ignored.

Despite my significant efforts to address this issue with KeyMe Locksmiths, after meeting repeated dead ends with various team members, I decided to contact Google directly to request the removal of the hundreds of fraudulent KeyMe listings appearing on Google Maps. On September 1, 2024, I sought assistance from a Google Product Expert through the Google Help Forum. However, my efforts proved futile. Further research revealed that former Google employees Gummi Hafsteinsson and Christian Hernandez, both of whom sat on the KeyMe Board, may have influenced KeyMe’s ability to dominate Google Maps search results for “locksmith” services, despite merely operating self-service kiosks.

Given KeyMe’s unwillingness to address their unethical practice of maintaining nearly a thousand fraudulent listings falsely advertising kiosk locations, I further escalated the issue. On September 30, 2024, I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) to initiate a dialogue with KeyMe regarding their deliberate and persistent misrepresentation across hundreds of listings nationwide. The complaint highlighted more than a thousand fake listings, including those in now-defunct retailers (e.g., Bed Bath & Beyond, Rite Aid) and hundreds of other retail locations where KeyMe Locksmiths had removed kiosks.

During a four-and-a-half-month back-and-forth process facilitated by Melinda M. Shackelford, Marketplace Resource Consultant, KeyMe repeatedly failed to address the complaint. On February 8, 2025, I requested that the BBB close the complaint, as the process proved futile—KeyMe continued to either ignore complaints or respond with automated messages instead of taking corrective action.

Following yet another failed attempt to engage KeyMe Locksmiths in a meaningful dialogue, on February 8, 2025, I reached out directly to former Google employees Christian Hernandez and Gummi Hafsteinsson, both of whom sat on the KeyMe Board. Once again, I was met with silence.

While attempting to resolve the issue with the BBB, I collaborated with the Texas Locksmiths Association, and on November 3, 2024, we sent a Cease & Desist letter to KeyMe’s executive team. As expected, it was ignored. Additionally, on November 4, 2024, a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaint was filed to document KeyMe’s deceptive and unfair competitive practices.

Despite KeyMe Locksmiths’ lack of cooperation, I engaged Google’s Trust & Safety Team, which, between September 11, 2024, and March 1, 2025, gradually and reluctantly removed numerous fraudulent listings. However, despite assurances that their “specialist team is still reviewing the profiles to reach a final resolution,” the process continues to drag on to this day.

Unfortunately, retailers remain largely unaware of KeyMe Locksmiths’ unethical business practices. With no other viable option, I engaged several businesses affected by KeyMe’s fraudulent listings. For example, Publix Supermarkets, which had a dozen listings despite no longer partnering with KeyMe, was unaware of its persistent online presence at their retail locations. Similarly, AutoZone was not informed that KeyMe continued using dozens of its retail locations to flood online searches with misleading listings. The same issue applied to Rite Aid, where KeyMe maintained nearly 100 deceptive listings. Even more egregiously, KeyMe resisted removing nearly 300 fraudulent listings for Bed Bath & Beyond, despite the chain’s bankruptcy. After a prolonged struggle and hundreds of hours of effort, KeyMe finally marked some of these outdated listings as “Permanently Closed.” However, hundreds of misleading listings remain active across dozens of retailers to this day.

KeyMe Locksmiths does not only engage in deceptive online practices but also on the ground. The company has a poor rating on Better Business Bureau (BBB), reflecting its subpar service. Instead of taking responsibility, KeyMe consistently deflects blame. Nearly every complaint and review response on BBB uses a templated response, stating: “It appears that you may have worked with one of our third-party partners for this job.” Rather than resolving issues with quality service, KeyMe is quick to offer refunds to make customers go away. A respectable company would take full responsibility and provide competent professionals to fix problems—but not KeyMe Locksmiths!

KeyMe Locksmiths falsely markets itself as “the nation’s most trusted full-service locksmith.” However, numerous complaints document cases of technicians arriving in unmarked vans, damaging doors, and demanding payment. Furthermore, KeyMe is known to engage in an unethical practice called “review gating” on Google Maps. After a service is completed, customers receive an email requesting feedback. If the feedback is positive, the link directs them to leave a Google review. However, if the feedback is negative, the link redirects the customer to KeyMe’s customer service, which immediately offers a refund to suppress negative reviews rather than addressing the problem.

Retailers partnering with KeyMe Locksmiths should reconsider their relationship. Given how Google Maps search algorithms work, Walmart customers are potential KeyMe Locksmiths’ customers. Consumers who trust Walmart, by default trust its partners. Unfortunately, Walmart’s continued partnership with KeyMe Locksmiths is detrimental to consumers, who often find themselves working with KeyMe Locksmiths’ unreliable third-party partners in moments of distress and desperation.