Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:01/26/2025

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  On our about January 20, 2025, our hotel in *********** purchased a Kaba Ilco FDU 4 front desk unit for programming our locks/keys for our hotel doors. Our hotel purchased DormaKaba locks back in circa 2018 for our entire property. As hotel owners, we pay Dormakaba thousands upon thousands of dollars at the inception of providing locks for the hotel. And when we buy new units(either locks or front desk units), we spend additional money, sometimes in the thousands of dollars. Anyway, to make a long story short, we purchased this front desk unit(which is a keypunch unit that Dormakaba brought to END of life a couple of years ago so that they can make all of the hotels upgrade their equipment at the cost of thousands of dollars) and I called Dormakaba up requesting the factory codes for the unit so that I can clone our existing "Front Desk Unit" over. Mind you, these so called factory codes should have been provided with the unit upon selling the unit to the hotel, but Dormakaba believes in keeping these codes at the manufacturer so that it can charge exuberant fees to the hotel when it calls up and asks for these codes. And sure enough, upon calling Dormakaba for the front desk unit codes so that I can create a new GMA and reprogram the unit to clone my existing FDU on 1/22/2025,Dormakaba wanted to charge our hotel an extortion fee of$325 USD. In other words, if we did not pay this ridiculous amount of money, we will not receive the codes to factory reset the *** we just purchased and we would not be able to clone over our existing FDU since the new FDU would require codes that only Dormakaba has on hand. Many states in our country have passed laws known as the "Right To Repair" laws which prevents manufacturers from pulling stunts such as the one DormaKaba has pulled. In fact, there is a law pending at the national level to stop predatory acts such as this one. We feel that this amounts to extortion.

  Business Response

  Date: 02/04/2025

  To reduce security risk and ensure proper unique property configuration, an *** is configured to work only for that intended property. This prevents a stolen *** from being used to configure keycards for other properties. Additionally, our process requires that we have the invoice and/or letter from the original *** owner confirming the sale/transfer of the *** to a new property in order to initiate the reconfiguration. Normally this process incurs a fee to generate the files and configure the *** with the new hotel setup, as every hotel has different room numbers, floors, common doors, etc. However, as we are committed to providing our customers with the best possible experience, dormakaba is willing to offer a one-time exception for ************* and accommodate Mr. ****** request at no cost. A member of our Technical Support team will reach out to Mr. ***** to obtain confirmation from the previous property owner that sold the *** to Mr.*****/Emblaze. Once we have this information, we will proceed with his request. 

   

  Customer Answer

  Date: 02/10/2025

  Better Business Bureau:

  Dormakaba has in fact reached out to me in reference to complaint ID ********, and we are very grateful for their response as well as their cooperation in getting our FDU up and running. We appreciate their understanding and willingness to grant this one time exception to get us squared away with our front desk unit and we also appreciate the BBB's intervention in helping us reach a resolution.  
  

  Thank you

  Kindest regards,

  ***** *****

• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/15/2024

  Type:Order Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  A key system was purchased from this company back in 2020 as part of a building renovation. At the time, the system was addressed to a contract engineering company that runs the building but paid for by my company. The account was put under the contract company instead of separating it from the other agencies in the building. Four years later, I have asked access to the account so I could get more cores and keys made. I was told that they can release the information to the contract company alone. I asked to separate our keys and they stated that they couldnt due to other agencies being on the same system. I explained that their information is out of date as I went to all other agencies in the building and tried not only our Master Key but our Core/Control Key as well in all the doors and they do not work. The company representative stated that his suggestion was to purchase a whole new set of keys and cores and build a brand new system. This company is trying to fleece us into getting more business and is VERY shady. I have an entire email chain of trying to resolve the issue and the representative is not at all helpful. My supervisor even tried and the representative just shined him on as well.

  Business Response

  Date: 09/03/2024

  In response to case ******** dormakaba resolved the issue with ******************** on August 12, 2024.Its important to note that dormakabas contract is with the ******************************* (GSA) in *******, which is the property owner for the building in which Mr. ********* VA organization is housed. Therefore, we followed the appropriate security protocol by facilitating Mr. ********* request via *************************, GSA, who is our customer. 

  Business Response

  Date: 09/03/2024

  In response to case ******** dormakaba resolved the issue with ******************** on August 12, 2024.Its important to note that dormakabas contract is with the ******************************* (GSA) in *******, which is the property owner for the building in which Mr. ********* VA organization is housed. Therefore, we followed the appropriate security protocol by facilitating Mr. ********* request via *************************, GSA, who is our customer. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 09/05/2024

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined the response would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below. 
  
  It was explained to the representative that the **** of Veterans Affairs paid for the equipment and keys. GSA was a contractor that installed them. This company gives general contractors exclusive rights to ANY building that they work on regardless of who is paying the bill. GSA owns ALL federal buildings in the government. Federal agencies "lease" spaces in each building. BUT they do not pay for anything else that a "tenant" wants, to include locks. The other thing is if this company was informed, ************************* is a contractor with "Northern Engineering" and NOT with GSA as eluded above. I also explained that i went to all the other agencies (US Marshalls, ******************* US Probation and Parole, etc) and I tried the Core Keys as well as all the Grand Master keys and none of them fit in their doors. The US Marshalls do not even use the BEST system anymore, they switched to Medeco keys, which DormaKaba has no knowledge of. In conclusion, DormaKaba has NO idea what key system is in this building nor are they willing to look into it. They are going off antiquated information and only suggest to "purchase" a whole new key system with locks and cores for our entire space which is NOT cost effective. My resolution for this would be for them to provide the entire new key systemat no cost to us since they are allowing a contractor to keep all our keys.
  
  Regards,
  
  ***************************
  

  Business Response

  Date: 09/12/2024

  A dormakaba cross-functional team has conducted a thorough review of this situation. We are working to address it appropriately and consider all information.  dormakaba will reach out to *************************** to propose an in-person discussion with dormakaba team members and ************************* to further evaluate and determine best course of action.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 09/17/2024

  It has been several days and as a potential resolution, DormaKaba stated that they would reach out to schedule a meeting. I have not been contacted by anyone to say that they even acknowledge the complaint. I would like someone to contact me first to schedule the meeting before i can say this issue is resolved.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 09/20/2024

  Better Business Bureau:

  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this response/resolution is satisfactory to me. They have contacted me and setup an in-person site visit for September 26, 2024. 
  

  Regards,
  

  ***************************