ComplaintsforReed Funeral Home Inc

• Initial Complaint

  08/21/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  **** Funeral Home misfiled my father's date of death. This caused me to have to leave work early to visit ****** ********, the insurance company, voter registration, and the bank. There was a negative balance for months, due to this error. (I have photos and paperwork for all of these things, but I am hesitant of sharing this personal account documents at this time; it doesn't seem relevant if I am not seeking compensation, which I should have.) They also botched my father's guest book. It is not completely fixable. It was supposed to combine my mother and father's guest. Steve told me (and 4 other witnesses) that he would add a page with Dad's information to separate the two. This did not happen, and Dad's signatures start on the back of Mom's last signature page. I visited and shared with Steve how hurt I was with the entire process. They minimized all of the hassle they created, and they showed zero compassion. I asked that they at least complete the page insert that should have been included. Steve told me he would do so, and he never did. I then wanted to speak with a manager. I was told that would be Elizabeth ****. I just wanted to share the experience. She would not return my call, nor did she reach out. She was aware that I wanted to speak with her, but does not care about her customers once she has her money. I wanted to share my experience, and I want the book to be complete.

  Business response

  09/15/2023

  I have tracked the death certificate through the state system and do not find any error. Other documentation will be needed than what the agencies are seeing.
  We are required to notify ****** ******** and I find that they were notified timely and the ****** ******** number “passed the ****** ******** verification system”; however, ****** ******** administration’s timeliness or requirements for additional verification needed for processing benefits or turning off deposits or retrieving unqualified deposits are not the responsibility of the funeral home.
  The next step was that the physician who was to sign the death certificate, received the death certificate for completing their portion timely as well and their offices responded that the physician was out of town until 1/2/2023. On 1/2/2023 our offices sent a reminder to the physician of the death certificate still awaiting his approval. The physician signed it 1/4/2023, we filed at the health department on 1/4/2023 and also received the certified copies the family requested, the family was notified on 1/4/2023 that they were ready and they were picked up on 1/4/2023. No error on the date of death has been reported.
  I have discovered no delay or errors on our part per normal protocols, it was the physician’s absence delaying the filing and the health department and physician office could concur. This may have led to the person having all those rushed death notifications but a physician being out of town or delaying their signing is not in our jurisdiction and has become regretfully more commonplace for some physicians to take longer to process their portion of the death certificate.
  The family did not wish to purchase a registration book. According to the funeral director they just wanted additional pages for visitors to sign in using a previous book. We often have to add visitor sign in pages to even current register books if more pages are needed so we had them available. If they had wanted all the biographical pages a complete book should be purchased and then they could dispose of simply the cover and add the pages to the previous book. It is my theory that the book would have been open to where visitors should have signed on the added new pages, guests typically leaf through the pages and someone found the gap in signatures and felt they should not skip a page and opened the book to where the previous visitation group had ended. We rarely suggest doing this for the very reason and unless families are insistent, we do as asked.
  The funeral director conveyed to others that all was handled with this family. That funeral director is thus no longer with our firm for reasons similar to this family that were not taken care of, many of which are still surfacing as this one and he did not like me questioning such matters so he left employment. I am disappointed that the family does not know me because I do care about the families we serve first and not the money because we do not exist without putting them first. This was never conveyed by me unless by that former funeral director. 
  If the family would like a complete registration book which should have been ordered initially, I will provide one at no cost. We no longer complete the biographical pages though because other families have expressed the desire to fill in themselves with their own preferences and liberties on how they wanted them completed.  
  I do wish to have my name removed from any social media postings as it is slander and conjecture by this family whom I don’t know that I was made aware they wished to speak with me. A lot was hidden from my knowledge of this case and now I’m led to address this formal complaint which was also posted on various sites without a chance of meeting an understanding. My apologies but throughout my professional response I mentioned no customer name, no deceased name, no physician name, no employee name. I wish Better Business Bureau to do the same respectfully.
  

  
  

  Customer response

  09/20/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
  
  The response was not empathetic or apologetic, and it shifted the blame to me. I have attached a scan of a document showing that his date of death was initially entered incorrectly into the system. This is what I stated and is the Reed employee admitted to doing. I have also attached a word doc with everything that I felt was unacceptable with the response to my complaint.

  
  Regards,
  
  ****** ********

• Initial Complaint

  01/17/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Made a preneed purchase in 2021 for Paul. He had already paid for all cemetery costs in 2011. I was asked if vault was purchased then and I said I believed so. Adam said he would check with *********, He apparently did not and charged Paul for another vault -$990. Paul died Nov of 2022, On the day of his burial, there were 2 vaults. One he had bought in 2011 and the one Reed FH bought in 2022 when informed of his death. The charges for 2 vaults has been known to both Reed and ********* since 12/5/2022. They have both admitted that there was a miscommunication but blame it on each other and will not refund the extra charge, The day of burial was the most disrespectful I have ever been treated in my long life. I have made numerous calls/letters with no response. Reed also charged me $200 for Death Certificates which they have yet to produce. Certificates were available 11/30. Today is January 12. I have had to purchase them myself. Still no refund by Reed's. This is a warning that prepayment for funeral/burial expenses is just an opportunity to cheat survivors at their lowest point. The deceased person at the time of need is not available to confirm their purchase . And even when the survivors are aware of the cheating, the funeral home and cemetery ignore their complaints and won't act with honor. NEVER use this Funeral Home.

  Business response

  02/01/2023

  Once made aware of the vault discrepancy and situation by the cemetery, a credit was given for the vault in calculating how to apply the preneed funds. I have provided a statement of additions and adjustments between the preneed agreement and the atneed charges.

  We sought a credit from the ******** ******** ******** ******** company for the death certificates which the Florida representative was unable to get without proof of kinship which is why the cousin was able to get personally from the State of Florida. We’ve never run across this limitation of kinship in Florida but I learned that anyone cannot get a death certificate with cause of death listed unless they show a vested interest in needing them.
  

  This calculation includes proportionate interest from those areas of the preneed agreement is attached and would have provided a credit of $375.99 on the account.
  

  A larger refund of $495.93 was issued 2/1/2023 to the Estate of the Deceased which included any interest even we were entitled to as well from the preneed policy. We do not need any interest in light of the family’s disappointment in Reed Funeral Home.

  The State of Ohio mandates that any overage or credits from preneed agreements must be issued to the Estate of the Deceased because it is viewed as an unused asset of the deceased and needs to follow probate law. We apologize for this inconvenience that we are mandated to adhere to by law

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩