From initial contact, though date of death, burial & follow on I am concerned by the unprofessional/unethical behavior I have encountered while dealing with Paul Mikeska, Owner, and Licensed Funeral Director of Aegis Cremation & Funeral Services regarding my Family member's prepaid funeral.
My experiences concern me on many levels. The lack of professionalism, inaccurate billing, lack of transparent communication, lack of response to emails & phone calls, along with the practice of repeatedly trying to talk me into purchasing services/items that he would benefit from (& were not needed) are not issues that a grieving Family should have to deal with.
On the day that the contract was made Mr. Mikeska kept trying to lead me to add additional expenses, stating he should get whatever monies are left regarding Medicaid spin down vs. county/nursing home. He raised his voice and was aggressive; repeatedly stating that it is not right to give it to the county when it could go to him. If we were not a military family, who had flown in from an overseas assignment to help my family member, on a very tight time schedule, we would have walked out. This behavior was very alarming to me; I had hoped once her death/burial time came that he would not continue this behavior, sadly, the behavior continued.
On the date of my family members' death I was not given guidance regarding if they picked up her body or not. I called numerous times trying to get information regarding where her body was, when she would be cremated etc. The conduct of Mr. Mikeska was cold; the lack of communication was unsettling.
Due to timing of the year she passed (frozen ground) & then COVID-19 travel restrictions we were not able to have everything settled by the end of spring as we had hoped. When we realized we could not get there in the near future, due to continued restrictions, I asked Mr. Mikeska to proceed with burial of her ashes & explained that a funeral mass would be at a later date when we could attend. I asked for clarification regarding some of the fees on the contract & stated that some of them were not going to be necessary due to the current situation; He had told me that there is some flexibility with fees on the contract, I asked that any money not used for a service at the cemetery be rolled into the other agreed upon sections. He stated he would do this. But what he did instead was bill $600 for not agreed upon expenses, which went directly to him.
In addition, during the planning of her burial he gave me conflicting information & did not seem able to answer some basic questions. He stated that I should phone the cemetery myself (I thought it was his job to coordinate & answer questions accurately).
He then tried to up-charge again during the process of scheduling the burial date, he repeatedly tried to tell me that we needed a vault; I told him that this cemetery did not require a vault. I was getting frustrated as I felt that it is his job to know the requirements of the cemeteries. Once again, the day before the burial, he told me that I needed a vault. I again had to tell him that it is not required and we do not need it. Due to the pattern of his actions I began to hypothesize/suspect that he was once again trying to manipulate me to purchase more than was needed so he could bill for more (make more).
My brother lives 1 mile from where his office is (the remains were), I asked if my brother should pick up the cremains, Paul stated that he would take the ashes to the cemetery. I clarified that there were no charges for this and he agreed that there were no additional charges for him to take the cremains to the cemetery; he stated it would only take a few minutes. I explained that there would be no service at the cemetery at this time, that only my brother would be there as a witness. He pushed, in what I felt was an aggressive manner, to try to get me to agree to more. I stressed that we simply wanted her ashes buried at this time & that at a later date, when everyone could get together, we would have the mass/memorial. I felt unsettled by his tone/words.
When I asked for an updated statement of costs, so that I could have a clear understanding of what monies were left over for the rest of the expenses, he emailed a statement that included two not agreed upon charges, "vehicle to cemetery" and "supervision at cemetery", equaling $600-, paid to him. I emailed back that this was not agreed to/accurate. I felt that he then implied that I wanted to keep the extra monies for myself and that he would inform Medicaid of this. The contract I signed clearly states that any left over money goes to the county. I signed this and I wholeheartedly agree to that. Any monies left over after the mass are to be given to the county. After I clarified that the additional expenses were not agreed upon, he stated that he would take them off. I have repeatedly reached out to him for evidence of this and he has not responded. read more
