The rules we work by, written like a person wrote them.

Who these terms are between

They are between Mary Esther Locksmith.shop, a mobile locksmith working in Mary Esther, Florida and the surrounding Okaloosa County roads, and you — the person requesting the work. By calling us, using the callback form, or letting us start a job, you are agreeing to what is on this page.

Identification and proof of ownership — no exceptions

This is the most important section on this page, so it goes first.

Before we open, rekey, change, or duplicate a key for any property or vehicle, we require two things: proof that you have the right to be there and a valid government-issued photo ID. Every job. Every customer. Including customers we have worked for before. It is not a suspicion of you; it is a rule we apply to everyone without exception, and it does not bend for a story, for a hurry, or for a hard night.

The reason is worth stating plainly: verification is the only thing that separates a locksmith from a burglar. The skills are identical. A person who can open your front door without damaging it can open anyone's front door. What makes one of them a tradesman and the other a criminal is not the tools in the bag — it is whether they confirmed the door belonged to the person who asked them to open it. Any locksmith willing to skip that step for you would skip it for the next person, at your house.

What works as proof:

• A home: a driver's license or state ID showing the address, or a deed, lease, mortgage statement, utility bill, or property-tax notice in your name for that address, alongside your photo ID.
• A rental you are the tenant of: your lease, plus photo ID. If you are the landlord or property manager, we need documentation of that role — and we do not open an occupied unit for a landlord without the proper legal basis for entry.
• A vehicle: the title, current registration, or insurance card matching the VIN, plus your photo ID. For a car in a parking lot, the registration in your name is the usual proof.
• A business: proof you are the owner, an officer, or an authorized agent — and the authority to have the locks changed, not just the keys to hold.

If your ID does not yet match the address — you closed on the house last week, you just signed the lease, you bought the car on Saturday — that is normal and workable. Bring the closing paperwork, the lease, or the bill of sale. Call first and tell us what you have, and we will tell you honestly on the phone whether it is enough, so you are not standing in a driveway finding out.

If proof cannot be produced, we do not do the work. We will not open the door and sort it out later. We may decline any job, at any point, for this reason or any other reason that makes us believe the work is not lawful — and we will not owe you an explanation beyond this paragraph.

ETAs are good-faith estimates

When you call, we tell you how long we think we will be. That number is our honest best guess based on where the truck actually is and how long the job we are on will take to finish. It is an estimate, not a guarantee, and not a contractual promise.

The city is about two and a half square miles, so if we are already in Mary Esther the answer is usually minutes. If we are finishing a job in Fort Walton Beach or out toward Navarre, it is longer, and traffic on US 98 decides how much longer — a corridor with one main road through it has one main way to go wrong. Weather, a stubborn lock on the job ahead of yours, or a call that turns out to be an emergency can all move the number. When it moves, we call and tell you rather than let you stand in a parking lot wondering. We are not liable for losses caused by a delay in arrival.

Quotes and scope

A quote given over the phone is an estimate based entirely on what you describe. It has to be — nobody can see a lock through a telephone. We ask enough questions to make that estimate a real one, and we stand behind it when what we find matches what you told us.

When we arrive, we look at the actual lock, the actual door, or the actual vehicle, and we confirm the scope of work with you before any work begins. If what we find is different from what was described — the deadbolt is a different grade than you thought, the key you believed was a duplicate turns out to be an all-keys-lost situation, the hardware is corroded past re-pinning — we stop, explain what changed, and confirm the new scope with you. You can say no. You can send us away. Nothing gets done that you have not agreed to after seeing what it actually is.

Work is authorized by you at the site. If you will not be present, tell us in advance who is authorized to sign for the work — that person still has to satisfy the identification requirements above.

How we work on your hardware

We work non-destructive first. On a lockout, that means we try to open your lock without harming it, using the methods that leave the hardware alive. Destructive entry — drilling a cylinder — is a last resort, not a first move, and we will tell you before we do it and why it has become necessary. If a lock must be drilled, you will know before the bit touches it.

Some hardware is already failing before we get there. Salt air off Santa Rosa Sound corrodes cylinders from the inside, and a lock that has been seizing for a year can fail during a perfectly ordinary service. We will point that out when we see it. We are responsible for damage we cause through our own negligence; we are not responsible for the pre-existing condition of hardware, doors, frames, or vehicle components, or for a part that was already at the end of its life.

Scope of what we do

Locks and keys. Lockouts, rekeys, key and fob replacement, lock repair and replacement, and commercial door hardware and master key systems. We do not do mechanical garage-door repair. We are a civilian locksmith and cannot pass a gate onto Hurlburt Field unless you sponsor and escort us — everything off base is ordinary work for us. Where we run is described on the service area page.

Payment, and the site

Payment is due when the work is complete, by the methods we accept and tell you about at the time. Charges are what was agreed in the confirmed scope; we do not add surprises after the fact.

The content on this website is provided for information. The advice on these pages is general craft knowledge and cannot account for your specific lock, door, or vehicle. Nothing on the site is a guarantee of a result. We may update these terms; the version published here is the one that applies. Florida law governs.

Information you send us through the callback form is handled the way our privacy policy describes.