ComplaintsforHeavens Pets At Lake Lawn Metairie, LLC

• Initial Complaint

  03/05/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  on January 12th my pet died & on the 13th, Heavens Pets took him in & called me. i paid for the package & all and things were good. they apparently had a fire on that ********** was never informed. i had called to ask about my pets ashes because like i stated, i was never informed of a fire. they told me about it and said theyll be in touch about if he was okay and didnt burn. a week went by & nobody had contacted me so i emailed & called again (jan 19th) & they said they would let me know if he was okay, so basically no update. the next day (jan 20th), i was refunded and when i called about it, someone called back two weeks later (feb 2nd) about the refund finally and said they refunded everyone (which i dont believe according to the reviews on ******** i still didnt have his ashes. on february 22nd i emailed Heavens pets telling them i want them to send my pets body back to my vet so i can bring him elsewhere. on february 28th i contacted my vet to contact Heavens pets since at that point they werent contacting me anymore because i wanted them to ask if they can get my pets body back so i can go with another cremation place. they immediately told my vet that i need to call to identify his body so i tried to call but nobody contacted me back. on february 29th i emailed yet again basically begging them to contact me so i can identify his body and get him back to me so i can get him cremated somewhere else. still no contact from them. i called Heavens pets yesterday and left my name and number for the 6th time and still have yet to be contacted. theyre withholding his body from me and any information about him while theyre cremating new brought in dead pets. all i want is his body back or answers. their ****** reviews are full of negative reviews from a month ago up until now including someone having to threaten legal action.

  

  Business response

  03/21/2024

  Tell us

  In the early morning hours of Sunday, January 14, 2024, Heavens Pets suffered a devastating fire due to a mechanical failure inside our crematorium. Our entire crematorium and office facilities were rendered inoperable due to the catastrophic loss caused by the significant fire and water damage.In the days that followed, Heavens Pets coordinated with the *********** *************** and a Global Disaster Recovery team to secure the building.  Once the authorities deemed the building safe to enter, the Global Disaster team and Heavens Pets staff immediately removed 554 pets from our cold storage into temporary cold storage trucks secured on our property.  
  We were fortunate to recover over 250 cremated remains and 428 keepsakes that had not yet been retrieved by our families.  Sadly, we were unable to recover the remains of 50 pets that had been cremated in the two days before the fire that were being held in their individual containers inside the crematorium when the fire occurred.  We carefully removed and contained everything from where those pets were being stored.  We plan to place the collected remains in a special memorial we will construct in our Memorial Gardens,located on the grounds of Heavens Pets, where families can pay tribute to their beloved pets. 

  Over the last several weeks, our Heavens Pets staff and recovery team have been dedicated to undertaking the emotional and painstaking task of trying to identify each pet based on their location, physical description and microchip if detectable.  This task has been arduous due to the significant destruction the fire caused to our cold storage.  Even though the fire left many of the pets unidentifiable, our team will continue the identification process for each pet until all options and resources have been exhausted.  We will contact each pets parent as soon as new information becomes available.  For pets that are beyond recognition, under no circumstances will we make any assumptions or guesses as to the identity of a pet, as doing so directly conflicts with our company ethics, standards and values.  For these families, we will cremate those pets and place them in our special memorial as well.  

  While one part of our Heavens Pets staff is fully dedicated to identification and recovery efforts, we have other team members focused on business continuity handling daily operations and fulfilling the needs of families who have recently lost a pet.  Daily operations have been challenging without our office, crematorium, phone lines, computers or supplies.  Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home has graciously loaned us a conference room in their building to resume operations.  We have fully relied on our answering service to field calls, while our staff is using personal cell phones to make outbound calls through our answering service.  We realize how taxing this has been for everyone who have not been able to reach us directly.  Slowly but surely, we are regaining access to our computer records, replenishing supplies from our vendors and anticipate having our phone lines restored in the very near future.     

   

  Customer response

  03/21/2024

  [A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is not completely satisfactory but is an answer to what i was curious about. 
  
  Regards,
  
  ***********************

• Initial Complaint

  01/22/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  We sent our baby to ************* for a private cremation. A fire broke out on the 13th of January. We have tried continuously to find out the status of our babies. We are being ignored and getting no resolution to our problem. Our babies are not damaged items they are our family members. They have not shown any compassion or remorse for our losses. They have however busted **** to cater to any and all new business they can drum up. We have been swept under the rug with no resolution. This is the most disrespectful treatment that we have had to endure. Please help us get resolution for our babies and families.

  

  Business response

  02/02/2024

  Early Sunday morning January 14 at 3am, ************* suffered a catastrophic fire leaving ** with no crematorium or office.  ************* issued a statement regarding the fire on through their website and social media.  We quickly tried to get an office space together and recover what records we could until the authorities allowed us to enter the building.  On Monday January 15, a HP employee spoke with ******************************* regarding the fire and ************* also updated the public via our website and social media. On Thursday January 18, the authorities allowed us to enter the building and freezer portion of ************* to identify, recover and document. ************* issued another statement that day via website and social media. On Monday January 22, 2023, an HP employee notified ******************************* that ***** had been cremated on January 12, and his remains and keepsakes were in a box in the crematorium awaiting to be arranged to go home and that we had not been authorized to enter the crematorium to identify, recover and document.  On Tuesday January 30, a HP employee informed **** that we had just been allowed to enter the crematorium that day and that she would await a next update no matter how small.  ************* issued a statement that same day via their website and social media that they had finally been able to enter the crematorium to identify, recover and document.  On Thursday February 1, an HP employee spoke with both ****** and *************************** informing them that no remains or keepsakes survived the destruction in the crematorium other than *****'s identification coin that was assigned to him.  ************* also informed them that we had *****'s certificate of cremation, poems and nameplate for them, that ************* plans to construct a memorial honoring ***** and all the pets lost, and that they will be refunded her $365.

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