This is the revised review of my family's experience of my mother's funeral in Feb of 2012…read more
Since this company has been taking care of the members of her large family for quite awhile, we thought we were in safe hands. Boy were we wrong! There are almost too many complaints to list here, so I will just provide you with the most upsetting ones, so you, too, can hopefully avoid having to deal with an similar situations.
First of all, we took a meeting with these people a year before my mother died of brain cancer, to learn about what they can do, and to hopefully settle my mom's fears about how we would take care of things after the fact. They promised that if she died across state lines they can easily make all the arrangements to bring her back to her hometown. No matter what, they could figure it out, they do it all the time. BUT when the arranged day actually came for her to be picked up by these people, they did not show, and the excuse given to our family was due to "snow", even though there was no snow to be found in the area. Fortunately, another out of state funeral home (who had embalmed my mother) stepped in and graciously drove my mother down to Iowa. Out of great respect, this particular funeral director even handled a few things that Smith was not capable of handling, or possibly just didn't want to handle.
On the morning of her funeral, after having several issues with Smith Funeral Home already, we decided to double check their information and confirm that the grave was actually opened, like they had assured us it was the night before (because we also checked that night, and no one had been there at 9pm). Just before 10am we checked again, hoping that maybe the grave diggers had been busy, and they had come after we left. Since mom was to be buried around noon and we discovered an unopened grave, and now had to be on our way to the church for the service, there are almost no words to describe the horrible realizations we had about the choice in funeral services we made. Disappointed? To say the least! I ask, how would you feel in this situation?
At the end of the funeral, (yes, it happened, JUST BARELY!) Mr Smith, shook my dad's hand and said "we will have your wife's (death) date carved into the head stone by April". April came around. Not finished, but we were notified not long after, that it was "done". JULY came around, and I visited (all the way from CA) but it was in fact, not done!! Informed them again, said it would be handled. January 2013: My brother visited my mother (we all live out of state) and: STILL NOT FINISHED!! Even after being notified twice that it was "completed" or "being taken care of"!
**Update: The funeral home has offered my father some sort of refund for the trouble and has assured us it will be finished when the weather warms up--probably in April 2013. If this does not happen, you can be assured, I will give yet another update.
The problem here is that the services involve A PERSON. It is not a simple matter like returning a broken toaster, or giving tickets to the next show if something goes wrong, or they fail to provide decent service. It is a FAMILY MEMBER that you will be trusting to their care, and indeed the last nice thing you can even do for your loved one. I know you, dear reader, are here to make sure that you can trust that your family member is being treated with the utmost respect, and that your family has the least amount of stress to deal with at a time like this. What I give to you is my experience, and though, I raised the stars to reflect some effort on the funeral home's part to do better, I STILL WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND THEM PERSONALLY. And I understand that being in such a small town, you may not feel you have many options, but it won't hurt you to look around. I wish we considered our options more carefully, and didn't just trust their word on a lot of things. Don't assume that you don't have a choice--shop around. You will be spending more than 10 thousand dollars so make sure you find the people you can trust and will get your money's worth. Get everything in writing--notarized if possible and ask lots of questions, document everything. Good luck!
