Worst customer service I have ever received in my life! When deciding where to purchase a headstone for my father in law we narrowed it down between this company and another -- price was the same but we were promised the headstone would be completed by Memorial Day, May 29, 2017 by going with Abbotsville so we chose them. The cemetery my father in law was buried at holds a Memorial Day ceremony every year to honor those veterans who passed and were buried there, my father in law being one of them. We arrived at the ceremony on Memorial Day and there was no headstone! We were then told it would be completed and installed by May 31. Although we were disappointed, May 31 was also a special day because it would have been my father in laws birthday so we went with it. The May 31 completion date was also printed very large at the bottom of the SIGNED CONTRACT and a check was written and paid in full at the time of signing!
My grieving husband and mother in law were anxious to go to the cemetery on his birthday on May 31 after work to see the headstone and take his favorite chocolate cake. It was an incredibly hard day for them as he has only recently passed and his birthday being a harsh reminder that he wasn't here. Because I didn't want the same disappointment from Memorial Day to occur again on his birthday, I decided to call Abbotsville on my lunch break at work to make sure everything was installed and good to go for our visit that evening.
I called and gave the last name and a young guy on the phone said he was just working on that headstone earlier in the day and it still needed X, Y, and Z done to it and would require another 4-5 days to complete. It complete disbelief I got off the phone, called my husband, and decided to call Abbotsville back to figure out what the issue was. This time an older man answered the phone and I explained the situation. He assured me that "in 44 years of business we have never missed a contract deadline" and told me he would look into it and call me back. Later that afternoon I got a call back and was told 2 different reasons why the headstone wasn't ready. I became very emotional on the phone and said today was a special day, it was his birthday... they already missed the Memorial Day deadline and now breached the contract by missing the May 31 deadline. The "gentleman" I spoke with, assuming to be the owner, never once apologized, never once tried to make it right, but instead proceeded to tell me there was nothing he could do, it wasn't a big deal, the May 31 date on the contract wasn't really a firm date, etc. I said surely there is something you can do and he changed his tone to a very calm reassuring tone and said, "Okay. I tell ya what.... is your address 4762 Maple Drive?" I answered, "yes."
He said, "I'm going to give you a 100% refund back and mail you the check to your house!"
In total disbelief and shock of such generosity I began to immediately cry and started to thank him as I knew my mother in law could really use the money for other expenses and just then he finished his sentence with, "you can take that refund and go do business elsewhere!"
I was completely dumbfounded. I couldn't believe what he just said to me. We proceeded to go round and round getting nowhere and he only got louder and louder on the phone, being RUDE, INSENSITIVE, and just plain MEAN. He was screaming at me on the phone that this wasn't his problem and I could call his attorney. We hung up, I sobbed, and 5 mins later he called me again. He said he was sorry for yelling at me and wanted to take 2 days to "cool off" and figure something out. I obliged.
Today I received his phone call. He began by telling me he looked further into the situation and realized the reason the headstone wasn't installed in time was MY FAULT. He continued to say that they were waiting on us to bring them the Army veteran plaque that goes on the back. I actually laughed out loud because this was now his THIRD excuse on why it wasn't installed by the contract date. The best part is, we were never told they were waiting on the plaque. In fact, we were told the plaque could be installed at any time and even paid an additional $125 to have it put on the headstone after it's installed since it can take the VA a little while to send it. The conversation only got worse and he began yelling again and told me I would never be pleased with anything.
This horrible company found a way to take the worst thing that has happened in our lives, and make it even more awful. Never once did he apologize or even try to make it right.
DO NOT USE THIS AWFUL PLACE FOR YOUR HEADSTONES! Go anywhere else! read more