It's probably something simple that can be repaired.  You just have to pull the handle off and take a look . . .  Is this on your bus or you notch?

Good write up on the samba, look for re keying.
Also, remember to turn the handles over when you reinstall the innards, this way the shinney side will be up.
Works great.
KC

Where might I find this article on The Samba? Can you link to it?

I believe the write up is in the beetle Late section in the tech articles.  I used it to lead me through both the '76 and '70 door handle cleaning and rebuild respectively.
If you turn the handle part over it will be shine-ier on the bottom.  Did this to to the '70 and I believe I did it to the '76.
It has been a while since I looked up the article though.
Also, I believe Zen posted a rekey handle article didn't he?
Good luck and if you need any help, I could try to come over and help you out over one of the holidays or you could just come over to the house in the bus.
I live in Varnel about 8 miles from where you work.
LMK.
KC

There's a lot of different variations of VW door handles, but the basic concept of the lock portion is pretty much the same on all of them and (at least until you get into the later water-cooled stuff) they are fairly simple devices.

The best thing to do if you want to learn about them is pick up a few broken handles at swap meets and find a few old keys that will slide in the lock . . . then start taking them apart and playing with the parts . . . before you know it, you'll understand how they work.  From there, fixing them and re-keying them is easy.

One trick you need to know up front - put a key (any key that will slide in, it doesn't have to be one that actually works the lock) in the lock BEFORE you pull the lock cylinder out of the handle.  That will keep all the pins and springs in the appropriate slots until you are "ready" to take them out!  Don't ask me how I learned this . . .

Ususally my handles had enough dried grease to hold in the tumblers in place.
"This aint Rocket science..."
KC

"Usually" is the Key (pun intended) word there KC!