ComplaintsforEddy Funeral Home

• Initial Complaint

  07/17/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  The date of services was conducted on June 17. Cost of services was over $5000. The business should have provided prepaid funeral services that were stress-free and showed respect to the family and to the deceased. He failed to take care of the details and responsibilities. We had told him earlier what date we wanted the services and set up a meeting to verify all the details. On the meeting date of May 30, he seemed surprised to see us. We asked about the service folders, brought up the music, gave him a list of the urn bearers, etc. He never asked questions. He said 3 times during the meeting "I think we covered everything". He failed to make sure the printing of the services was in our local paper on time, in the Jamestown Sun, on *************** announcements, and updated on his website. We noticed on June 13 that his website wasn't updated and called the next day and he then updated it. On June 15 the website obituary had been updated and we had assumed he had taken care of the other announcements. We found he failed to do this because when we checked each of them, we found they hadn't been done until June 14, the day we called him. He knew what day our local paper came out but only e-mailed them the day we called which meant it would be printed too late. He had them print the full obituary and usually, the service announcement is included with the printing of the obituary. The editor wasn't charging us for reprinting and he gave a copy of the e-mails from ****** showing when he was contacted. ****** failed to mention that he forgot all this. We wrote him a letter concerning the changes in costs and our concerns about his error and we received no reply. The first copy of the bill was different than the second and since there were deductions we wanted a new copy and if all the money had to be spent (which he told us it did), to give it to the person who took care of the grave. ****** never contacted him. A letter was e-mailed twice to ******.

  Business response

  08/15/2023

  The date of ********************************* death was February 9, 2023 and the date of the memorial service was June 17, 2023.  The over four-month arrangement process between *******'s three sisters became very difficult since all three sisters were giving conflicting wishes and desires.  *********************************** (sister) told me she was in charge of arrangements, but ****** and ***** (sisters) visited me also to make arrangements.  I apologize for being confused and frustrated with the multiple orders that I was given by multiple sisters.  I apologize for the newspaper notices being tardy, but changes to the obituary were being made for over four months.  I apologize for not being excited to work *******'s memorial service on a Saturday afternoon in Ellendale.  I never spoke to the gravedigger, some friend *****, who I was told (by the sisters) would take care of things and I would not need to be involved with the gravedigging.  Since the gravedigger was not in Ellendale the time it was needed to be closed, I was asked if I was going to close the grave.  I declined to use the backhoe machinery, and apologize for not being able to operate a backhoe.  

  I am willing to give a refund for half of the newspaper notices because the sisters made me run two notices, one at the time of death and one announcing the memorial service.  I will not refund my service fees as I took care of *******'s body from *****, to Jamestown, then to Ellendale for over four months.  The Eddy Funeral Home even discounted $160.60 because there were not enough funds in the burial fund for all of the charges incurred.  The statement was changed once because the sisters kept changing their wishes and orders.  

  Customer response

  08/15/2023

   I am rejecting this response because the statements he made are not true.  We had written a letter to him shortly after the services.  It was sent twice and he failed to respond.  He never acted respectful or professional because he never took notes so he would know what we had asked him for concerning our sisters services.  We feel he made a mockery out of her death and services by not respecting us and following through with his responsibilities.
  

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