When a loved one passes, making arrangements can be the most stressful part. Many people don't even…read moreknow what questions to ask. My mother's wishes were to be cremated. The services Austin Cremations provide are above and beyond what is offered at the low-dollar establishments. Their services included transporting my mother from the funeral home to their facility, helping order the death certificates, getting the doctor's signatures, notifying social security and they perform single person cremations. From the time I called, and through the entire process, Mitzi was very professional, kind and sensitive. I would highly recommend Austin Cremations to anyone in need. They are very organized, efficient and compassionate.

I would not recommend at all. my experience was both traumatic, disappointing and appalling. My Mom…read morepassed away 4/21/2017. Weed Corley and Fish picked her up and I was given contact info for Ingur at Austin Cremations. 1. 4/22/17-Ingur made initial call. said she would send some docs to my email. I opened email which did not seem mobile compatible, and the docs were exhaustive and confusing with no direction from AC on what to sign etc. I replied that I would prefer to come in and do Business in person. AC sent an appt time and the address to the location. 2.4/24/17- The location is just a small office in an industrial park. It does not appear that the office is staffed daily. But probably just for when people prefer to come in person. I was met in the office by Mitzi who seemed to be annoyed that I brought my 1 yr old son. Unfortunately I have no family in town and my mom used to watch my son full time, so with her sudden passing I was left with no option but to bring him in. I apologized for having to bring him, but set him up with some toys and a blanket to play on. Mitzi said she was just recovering from "something" and would not prefer to touch the child or otherwise she would have offered to help with him, so she said but somehow I doubt that. She was very cold, indifferent to the whole thing it felt like. If it was a hospital I would have said she had a very cold bedside manner. I was crying because I never thought at 32 I would be making arrangements for my mother. During paperwork, my son had a dirty diaper and needed to be changed. I asked if I could change him in the restroom and she hesitated for an awkwardly long time and looked put out by my question. I said " oh don't worry about it I will just change him right here" I pulled out my diaper pad, changed him right there on the office floor and then walked to their VERY nice restroom to throw it away and wash my hands. I finished paperwork and I left shortly after that. 3.4/28/17 she had emailed a document to me but I didn't know if I was supposed to sign or if my step dad was supposed to sign so I reached out and called twice and sent a text to get further clarification. She finally called back on May 1st and said she had phone trouble. In this day and age. Phone trouble with your personal cell phone that you use constantly for business purposes to be out of service for that many days, seems implausible. 3 days with no service? I highly doubt that. 4. 5/1/2017 When I finally got a call back she was very rude to me. Her exact words were "so you haven't signed that paper? Well I can't get any of THIS started until I get that doc back!" I explained that this was my first death and after life planning to deal with so I needed her patience and guidance to help we thru it. I sent back the doc. I also asked where my mother's rings were going to be so I could pick them up, hospice couldn't get them off her hand when she passed due to swelling. Mitzi said she didn't have any rings. I asked her to please make the call to the downtown facility and double check. She called me back shortly and said my mother was not wearing any rings. She knew that for sure. Etc. etc. so we began to panic as it didn't cross our minds at the time that we would need to worry about where the rings would go after she was taken. 5.5/15/2017- after multiple calls from me, my step dad, and my uncle over the last two weeks my uncle was able to make contact at 10am. We needed to pick up death certificates for a legal issue. I was not contacted by AC until 1pm that same day that the DC's were ready and needed to be picked up today before 3 pm. Really I have been trying to contact for two weeks and you give me a two hour window to come by and pick them up? So thankfully I was able to make arrangements and come pick up the DC's as I was told. NO ONE PREPARED ME for the fact that my mother's ashes were there/ready AND THE RINGS WERE THERE! The rings that I thought were lost forever! The rings MITZI ASSURED ME were not there or in their possession and that my mother wasn't wearing ANY jewelry. I was overcome by emotion at the sight of the black box and the rings. I had to call in for the rest of the day at work because I was too emotional. OVERALL my experience was AWFUL. They seemed unorganized, unconcerned and unresponsive. I guess I should add I mostly dealt with MITZI but the idea of her as a Funeral director haunts me. -4/12/2018. I wrote this last year and saved in my drafts for nearly a year. But with the anniversary of my mom's passing coming near, the nightmare they caused became fresh again and I am posting this now in efforts to maybe save someone else some heartache and grief.

This cemetery's location is very beautiful so we are happy with our surroundings. However, for…read moregrieving families, you may want to bring an advocate to help you through your appointment, since we found the customer service is hard sell and very chaotic because of software glitches. We encountered limited explanations, carbon copies instead of legible copies and nonexistent sales recipients. I recommend you push to get a full accounting of your purchases along with your sales receipts, preferably before you leave your appointment. Even after 6 weeks, their billing errors are not fully corrected. You will need to be proactive in order to understand what you purchased and how much it costs.

If I could give 0 stars I would. My daughter is buried here. When we purchased her plot we did…read morethe 'Magdalena special' or some such nonsense. Basically but 2 plots get 1 free. So super helpful to get the full on sales pitch while finalizing my 2 year olds final resting place. Thankfully my Dad dealt with everything and decided that, sure, he would play ball and bought the 3 plots. Everything was handled professionally for my daughter's service and plot. Fast forward to December 2020. My aforementioned Dad passed away. His death was very unexpected. We knew he wanted to be buried next to his granddaughter and immediately made arrangements for him to be transported from Houston to Austin. Everything related to the transfer and grave-side service was handled great. We took great care with designing my Dad's marker. My Mom placed the final order December 2020. We were told it would be placed on 3-5 months. It is now almost a year later and still no marker. My Mom initially reached out to her contact at Cook Walden (Kyle) multiple times via email with no response. She called and left multiple messages with no response. Luckily I live in Austin and was able to park myself at the funeral home until someone would speak to me. After multiple assurances that 'everything was being done' to get my Dad's marker placed, I left. I reached out via text message multiple times and was told that 'shipping delays were causing delivery issues, etc.'. Sure. This would be a valid excuse for a month, 3 months, 6 month delay, but it's been a YEAR. A whole YEAR. My last text message was unanswered.

This review was mostly written this time last year, but I didn't have the heart to finish and post…read moreit until now. I made the decision to make this review more about the process than my experience; to help someone doing research like I was at the time, since it can be overwhelming. That being said these prices are from the end of 2022 and if you have a specific question about my experience you can always send me a message. I dealt with multiple people here and overall this is a wonderful service. I called while my father was in hospice to be prepared and get instructions, they were very kind to me and very helpful. While I was calling the Bryan office, it was my experience through this process that the phone systems between the Bryan and Austin locations are combined in some way and their answering service is as well. Their website is very helpful if you need to get information in advance. Since my father was in hospice, all we had to do was provide the phone number for ABCS to hospice and they called once my father was pronounced. They will send someone out to retrieve your loved ones body. They do prioritize removals from the home over the hospital, so if there are multiple calls in a night, they may use a third party to dispatch to your home to handle this in a timely manner (more on that later) but they do have their own staff that they utilize first. They will then email the next of kin several forms to be filled out in the next several days and transport the body to Austin. These forms include a cremation authorization, an authorization to embalm and a death certificate order form. On the cremation authorization you can order urns and engraving as well, but I believe you need to look at their catalog online and specify on the form. I did call several times for help during this process and they were very helpful. There will be a later email about the vital statistics and the accuracy of this form being signed off is necessary before the death certificates can be issued. The death certificates need to be paid for in advance and typically take 10-14 days to arrive in the mail. This is due to the current cost in the state but I believe the first one is $20-25 with additional copies being $4. They had a bundle cost for 10 and 15 and I believe we got 10 for around $55. If the 10-14 days won't work, the form had an option for expediting for an additional $30 and I believe this was an overnight service after processing instead of regular mail. The timeframe for remains depends upon how quickly you provide the cremation packet, the doctors, how long of a wait there is ahead of your loved ones cremation and the type of urn you order. At the end of September I was told it could take up to 4 to 6 weeks total, but it was sooner than that. A few years ago my parents used this process for my grandfather and I think it took 2-3 weeks. You will set up an appointment to go to Austin to pick up the remains and pay at that time. Although I believe arrangements can be made to have the remains shipped to you, I'm not sure of those details as my mother did not trust USPS with tracking for such an important task. The cost of cremation was $775 plus any expediting you choose and the type of urn you choose and if you arrange service through them. I did not look into their packages for arranging a funeral service. They will also post a photo and obituary on their website if you email it to them, at no additional cost. There were three mishaps throughout this process, which was about a month long. The first was the third party who picked up my father was inappropriate with my mother and sister. I spoke to ABCS about this who forwarded me to the owner, Robert, who took it very seriously and handled the situation. As I stated above, they only use a third party when time is a factor and they are already on a call. The second was an unnecessary delay for the death certificates. Anthony handled this situation and accommodated me by sending me a scan to handle my fathers affairs as I had travelled across the state to do so, and the physical copy wouldn't be available until several days later. The delay shouldn't have occurred, but they held themselves accountable and were accommodating, so I wasn't very concerned about this. The third was a much bigger deal, but I do acknowledge they did what they could to make it right and I do appreciate it. Long story short, there was a miscommunication and his ashes had not arrived in time for the appointment to pick up. However, they did agree to meet my mother and sister outside of business hours and offered a partial refund to rectify the situation. Again, I'm leaving out a lot of details because of limited space, but the important thing is that they did resolve it and if the person I had been dealing with on the issue had been available I don't think I would have been given the wrong information in the first place.

Just don't. Spare yourself the agony in your time of grief. This operation is sloppy at best…read more They will take your money, deliver services eventually, and not return your calls when there's problems (there will be). They've been screwing up the death certificates for months, made two promises to deliver, then disappeared without a trace. There's literally no one to talk to. IF they call you back, they'll blame it on their answering service. I haven't heard from them in weeks. They've basically stole the money and ran.

We were very impressed with this firm. They were very professional in every way and made an…read moreextremely difficult situation a little easier to deal with. They thoroughly explained the process, gave us an estimated timeline, and stuck to it. I hope it's awhile before I need their services again, but I will definitely call them when I do.

my mother passed on 5/16 and Hospice recommended this establishment and I am happy they did. The…read morehelp and customer service was great from the time the picked mom up to the time I went and picked her up. thank you for your kindness during this difficult time

Absolutely the best service. They take amazing care of their customers and clients. Cannot…read morerecommend them high enough and 5 stars doesn't scratch the surface. Thank you mission.

I want to thank Mission Funeral Home-East Location for the most professional and easy-going…read moreservices we received. We have used Mission Funeral Home for all our families' burial services and to have gilbert and his team help us along the whole process was such a blessing. We are truly thankful for all you have done for us to make our fathers services a beautiful remembrance experience. Thank you for everything! Lisa Rodriguez & Denise Seabrook & The Nuncio Family

Months ago I went and asked for my mom,s death certificate and didn't want to give it to me, they…read morewere so unprofessional and treated me and my Aunt with no respect.

I first used Austin Peel and Son for their direct cremation service for my dad's passing in 2003…read moreand the service was great then. Our friend passed away unexpectedly Feb 18, 2021 during the COVID locked down and the services they provided this time was truly extraordinary - especially Victoria. It was a very difficult situation as the next of kin and the family live in Hong Kong. From the first conversation we had with Victoria in Feb.... She provided detail explanation of the whole process, the direct cremation service, interaction with medical examiner office, timeline, expectation, and then the actual cremation event. The most extraordinary service Victoria provided was her willingness to go over and beyond to pack the remain per USPS and international shipping specs. Miraculously the package arrived in Hong Kong the day of the Zoom memorial service! The family and all of us were truly touched. Victoria was there every step of the way and communicated effectively and timely even after office hours due to the time difference in Hong Kong. This week we finally had closure with Victoria receiving and mailing to Hong Kong and I the official death certificate. I will highly recommend Austin Peel and Son and Victoria without any reservation.

Becky and Randy are amazing people! Becky worked with me for many hours getting my design just…read moreperfect on the computer for the template. Randy sandblasted out a perfect stone. They even had it done and set before my husband passed. I truly appreciated that. I was able to be there when Randy placed it all the way out in Andice. That was 2022....now I'm going back to start on my elderly parent's stone.

My wife passed away in February of 2014 and was buried in Oak Hill. I went to B-Remembered…read moreMonuments for her grave marker and was treated so nice I never looked anywhere else. The cemetery required a marble and bronze flat marker which was more elaborate than I expected. Becky made the process easy and I ended up with a beautiful marker that had a flower vase that could be turned over when not in use to make a completely flat surface. Years have passed and a few months ago I went out to the cemetery and found that the vase had been turned over and placed down in it's holder. I tried to pull it out and found that it was stuck. I was afraid of breaking it if I forced it. I went to B-Remembered yesterday and asked Becky and Randy how to turn it back over. They told me what was involved and Randy said he was getting ready to go down to San Marcos and would stop by the cemetery and see if he could get it out of the holder. I received a picture of it today, all cleaned and shiny with the vase sitting up. I asked Becky what I owed them and she said it was OK, he just stopped by on his way to San Marcos. It has been 10 or 11 years since I purchased it, I doubt I would have received that kind of service from any other company. If you ever have the need to purchase a monument, be sure and at least visit with Becky and Randy at B-Remembered. I don't think you will regret it.

Joesph was very helpful with a friend of mine that had no income. She was able to contact Joseph…read morequickly and it was a pretty easy process after that.

This review is far past due, but with all the difficulty that comes with mourning it was tough to…read morefind time to sit down and write it. My younger sister and I were in charge of handling my mom's arrangements and as two young women, we had no idea what to plan for or what we needed to do. Choosing Fuller-Sheffield as the funeral home to handle my mother's passing was the best decision we could have made. Brandon, the funeral director, provided service above and beyond right from the start. He helped us get what we needed to arrange military honors at her service, he was available to answer questions via text and responded quickly even after hours. He remembered the little comments we made about my mom in passing, like how she loved her patio garden and sunflowers, then incorporated that motif into her memorial slide show and program without us having to ask. He even helped to get my mother's ashes as quickly as possible so that I could have them when I left town, and stayed in the office late so that I could pick them up when they were ready. And even a few weeks after my mother's service, he helped us to get some additional memorial bookmarks made up for family members who didn't receive one. We're so grateful to have had Brandon and his staff during this tough time.