We were extremely disappointed in the service they provided and the obscene prices they charged. Several different people handled our mother's service with very little communication between them. First mistake, publishing the wrong date for the funeral in the Boston Globe. We were told they would send the draft of the obit before it was sent out....but they did not. Second mistake, they provided no receipt for the jewelry left with them and later they misplaced (but finally found) my mother's jewelry. At one point we were told to come to the funeral home for a meeting but NO ONE was there. Outside it said for service to pick up the red phone, but there is NO red phone. When we did finally meet, the "tech person" was there to help us do a test run of the slideshow I had prepared. It took her 20 minutes and finally I took the remote and showed her how to get it going. They never told me there was a fee associated with "renting" their TV and DVD player! The program for the funeral was late, with plenty of typos, and once at the church, half the people didn't receive them.
But the final and worst blow was the day of the service. It was raining. No One was outside with umbrellas to walk guests to cars either at the funeral parlor or when we arrived at the church.
At 9:30 as public viewing starts at the funeral home, we asked, when are you closing the casket. - we had told them that my mother had wanted a private viewing for family and closed casket for others. This was not communicated to that day's attendant. Then she asks "do you need the jewelry back", and I said at some point, yes. Then they close the doors to casket room as our visitors are arriving, remove her some of her jewelry, all while visitors are waiting in the vestibule...and hand my sister a bag of jewelry to hold.
Then after prayers, the director says, "proceed to your cars". Many visitors to the funeral home were NOT planning to go to church. So they left the parking lot and that started a trend. NO ONE from the funeral home was directing traffic to separate the churchgoers from the others. So there ended up with no procession from funeral home to church. You've heard the joke about screwing up a one car funeral -- we lived it!
Once at the church, in the vestibule, it was not clear if family should go in or wait. The director, irritated, says, "I guess your family has different ideas about how to do this" - essentially blaming us for not knowing what to do.
We only bury a parent twice on our lives, so at an emotionally fraught time, you'd think the funeral home personnel could show a bit more leadership, coordination, organization.
Lastly, they did not tell us we would be penalized $300 for not using Mt. Auburn crematory, and send remains to another crematory and they did not provide original cremation certificate from crematory which Mt. Auburn needed. read more