Response:
Response to Revdex.com Complaint from [redacted] Against Ratterman & Sons Funeral Home Ratterman and Sons Funeral Home takes all complaints to heart and we seek to provide better explanations for any misunderstandings, to take responsibility, apologize and remedy errors we have...
made and generally to help console grieving families in the best ways we are able. This being so, we thank the family for expressing their concerns a second time to us, this time through Louisville’s Revdex.com, and will attempt to answer all concerns herein. Hopefully, the family in the U.S. and in Bosnia-Herzegovina can gain some peace and comfort in knowing that the funeral home they choose did see to it that they received the very best and most prompt care that they could have gotten and that they were not deceived or over charged for services, and that for the three services we provided them, that we gave their families and the details our utmost attention. As I reviewed the complaint, I saw several claims which I will address individually below. Complaints 1. We made promises that everything would be done within 18 days. a. I have talked with our funeral director who had initial and main contact with the family. He did not state that everything would be done in 18 days. He did say if the death certificates could be gotten within a week (meaning the doctor is on the electronic filing system in the state of Kentucky), if the consulate responds promptly to our request for permission to transport deceased remains back to Bosnia-Herzegovina, and things go well with the flights that it could happen in 18 days to 3 weeks, best case scenario. We were in luck to receive the death certificates promptly, however the Bosnia-Herzegovina Consulate was going through changes and did not have a vice consulate employed to handle human remain shipments for the last 2 months. That position is set to be filled October 5th of this year. In the meantime, others at the consulate were attempting to respond, as they could, to these requests though admittedly, they were not responding promptly. It also turns out that the consulate in Chicago shares a block of data space in regards to how many voicemails they can receive (group quota) and for the entire month of August, their voicemail quota was completely full and they were neither answering the human remains line nor accepting voice mail. We therefore had difficulty completing the second step in a timely manner as we were held up by the consulate. In regards to us committing to 18 days in the first place, for this kind of international shipping it is unthinkable for us as we are at the mercy of the doctor being signed up on the electronic death certificate filing system in Kentucky or not (if not the DC could take 3 to 6 weeks) and the timeline it takes the consulate to respond. It makes no sense for us to make promises where the chances of success are not at or near 100%. To do this would be to set ourselves and families up for disappointment. When we ran into this difficulty with the consulate, we did call the consulate multiple times a day, as well as email them until we got a response on the 15th of August. The family made their arrangements with us on the 1st of August. It wasn’t until the 18th that we finally had shipping permission from the consulate’s office. After permission was obtained, we booked with the [redacted] for the international shipping. 2. The next complaint is a little unclear as we serviced this family 3 times this year and the complaint seems to date-reference his mother’s arrangements, though his main complaint to us and via the verbiage in the complaint seems to be for his father’s funeral and shipping arrangements. His father’s arrangements are what seemed to disturb the family the most because of the extended time it took to receive permission from the consulate and thus delay the process. We have kept a file associated with each of the decedents referenced, so I am able to comment on any one of the cases, but because this claim was vague and only one case had an extended delay, I will respond to the one the family seems to be referencing, the father. The second complaint is that we did not send in all the paperwork to the consulate on time or within 20 days. Also that when the family called the consulate themselves (no date is specified) that the Bosnia-Herzegovina consulate said that the funeral home had not sent anything in at all. a. The death occurred on 8-1-**. We filed for death certificates with the doctor on 8-2-**. We received the death certificates back 8-8-**. We are not able to start paperwork for international shipping with the Bosnia-Herzegovina consulate until we have the death certificates. So when we received them, we started calling the consulate’s phone number ([redacted] ) multiple times a day, every day, between the 9th and the 15th of August. Unfortunately, the consulate was not answering the phone and their voicemail was full and not receiving new voicemail as stated in the first complaint above. We also emailed their only listed email address [redacted] with the information needed to start the paperwork. We also reached out to the personal email of a lady who has helped us in the past to file for this paperwork and permission when she worked in the Bosnia-Herzegovina consulate. The only response we received between the 9th and the 15th was from the prior worker’s personal email notifying us that she has been gone from the consulate for a few months now and that we should continue to call and email until we get a response. This was on the 15th. On the 18th, we received a response from the consulate. From here we received the Scrobinica permit (paperwork permission to travel to Bosnia-Herzegovina) on August 22, [redacted]. We then requested flights from Louisville, Kentucky to Sarajevo Bosnia-Herzegovina on [redacted]. Tickets had to be arranged on two [redacted] and Turkish. This was on the 23rd. We didn’t hear anything back immediately from the [redacted], so we followed up with them on 24th, 25th and on the 26th found that the flight was booked and we were given the travel arrangements and times. We relayed this on to the family. On 8-27-** we took the casketed and crated remains to [redacted] in Louisville. Mid-day on the 27th, the father left Louisville on flight [redacted]. Evidently the flight arrived in Istanbul, Turkey, by way of London, on 8-29-** at 4:20 a.m., and was scheduled to leave for Sarajevo that same day on flight [redacted] at 12:30 p.m. There must have been a plane malfunction of some sort and the father’s remains did not leave until later that same day. The transport completed in Sarajevo Bosnia-Herzegovina on 8-29-** at 7:35p.m. The Bosnian funeral home should have been called to receive that night or the next morning. 3. The late shipments of his mother and father combined to cause the family a loss of $12,000 dollars. a. I was told by the family that this is because of a delay in transporting the first of the family members back to Bosnia-Herzegovina. In making arrangements with the family, they wanted to know hard dates as to when things would happen. Several times we told them we cannot give exact dates until we have flight arrangements made and then, we still couldn’t give them for sure times as [redacted] experience unexpected delays from time to time. There were too many plane transfers and other outside parties that we would had to coordinate with go give exact times. As it turns out, for the first family members we transported back to Bosnia-Herzegovina, we were given information by [redacted] that we could ship with the permit only. [redacted] accepted the deceased and cleared them for customs at the time of our delivery to the airport. Later, another person along the route halted the shipment and requested additional documentation. We overnighted those additional documents and the flight left after a 2-3 day delay. This was the first of the 3 family members and it was an unfortunate delay, so from this point forward, to avoid delays the best we could, and even though [redacted] did not say they required the documentation, we included extra copies and had no further problems of this type. 4. Ratterman and Sons Funeral Home held the remains of his parents in order to charge more and to look for cheaper flights. a. A review of the bill for our services would reveal there was no holding charge attributed to their bill. Also, we make airfare arrangements for the family and simply charge whatever the [redacted] charge. We do this complementary and do not mark this up. We simply bill the family for the exact figure the [redacted] charge our funeral home. We stood to make no increased profit from the family and never alluded to the point we would be charging them anything additional for holding time or flights. I did ask the family about this and was told that no, we in fact did not charge them, but someone at the consulate said we may be doing this. The family then decided that because the consulate said we may be doing this, that they would levy this as a complaint too, but again, there were no holding or up charges ever assessed or intoned towards the family. In fact, we did get a less expensive flight for them by spending an extra hour or so looking at the options. It saved the family $1000. 5. [redacted] prefer to bury within one week and we caused this custom to be broken. a. We care for other [redacted] families each year and it is generally understood that they prefer for the burial and funeral to take place as soon as possible. Locally we try to do this usually within 24 hours. Either way, there was no way a “one week” burial could have taken place with shipping international. With all the preparation paperwork, contacts and consent that is required to perform such arrangements it just isn’t possible. Again, if the deceased’s pronouncing doctor was not on the electronic filing system for death certificates in the state of Kentucky, this step alone would take 2-4 weeks. 6. Emotional toll on the family has been tough. a. We fully agree. The family has lost three dear members within nine months. This is tragic for any family. As a company we strive to assist with as much of the burden of caring for arrangements during this difficult time as we are able. It appears that for this family our efforts were not adequate in consoling and assisting them. I understand the anger for this process and in particular the extended time it took to get permission from the consulate between the 8th and the 18th. We wish the whole family to know that we sympathize and also are frustrated with how long things took. We remain committed to doing what we can to further assist their family, just as we do for all families we are honored to serve.
[redacted]
Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
First, we called [redacted] and they told as that they always asked For same documents in this case death certificate. Same documents were required for the past 20 years and funeral home of course won't admit that they forget forget send it. Second they stated that they called Embassy and couldn't get thru..wel I called 7 times and each time I went thru. As I stated before we have witnesses and voice recordins and we will bring this to court and if needed to high Supreme or international court foloving with all media coverage. They politely find excuses for all 3 mistakes but we'll prove that they were wrong.
Thank you
[redacted]
Response:
Response to Revdex.com Complaint from [redacted] Against Ratterman & Sons Funeral Home Ratterman and Sons Funeral Home takes all complaints to heart and we seek to provide better explanations for any misunderstandings, to take responsibility, apologize and remedy errors we have...
made and generally to help console grieving families in the best ways we are able. This being so, we thank the family for expressing their concerns a second time to us, this time through Louisville’s Revdex.com, and will attempt to answer all concerns herein. Hopefully, the family in the U.S. and in Bosnia-Herzegovina can gain some peace and comfort in knowing that the funeral home they choose did see to it that they received the very best and most prompt care that they could have gotten and that they were not deceived or over charged for services, and that for the three services we provided them, that we gave their families and the details our utmost attention. As I reviewed the complaint, I saw several claims which I will address individually below. Complaints 1. We made promises that everything would be done within 18 days. a. I have talked with our funeral director who had initial and main contact with the family. He did not state that everything would be done in 18 days. He did say if the death certificates could be gotten within a week (meaning the doctor is on the electronic filing system in the state of Kentucky), if the consulate responds promptly to our request for permission to transport deceased remains back to Bosnia-Herzegovina, and things go well with the flights that it could happen in 18 days to 3 weeks, best case scenario. We were in luck to receive the death certificates promptly, however the Bosnia-Herzegovina Consulate was going through changes and did not have a vice consulate employed to handle human remain shipments for the last 2 months. That position is set to be filled October 5th of this year. In the meantime, others at the consulate were attempting to respond, as they could, to these requests though admittedly, they were not responding promptly. It also turns out that the consulate in Chicago shares a block of data space in regards to how many voicemails they can receive (group quota) and for the entire month of August, their voicemail quota was completely full and they were neither answering the human remains line nor accepting voice mail. We therefore had difficulty completing the second step in a timely manner as we were held up by the consulate. In regards to us committing to 18 days in the first place, for this kind of international shipping it is unthinkable for us as we are at the mercy of the doctor being signed up on the electronic death certificate filing system in Kentucky or not (if not the DC could take 3 to 6 weeks) and the timeline it takes the consulate to respond. It makes no sense for us to make promises where the chances of success are not at or near 100%. To do this would be to set ourselves and families up for disappointment. When we ran into this difficulty with the consulate, we did call the consulate multiple times a day, as well as email them until we got a response on the 15th of August. The family made their arrangements with us on the 1st of August. It wasn’t until the 18th that we finally had shipping permission from the consulate’s office. After permission was obtained, we booked with the [redacted] for the international shipping. 2. The next complaint is a little unclear as we serviced this family 3 times this year and the complaint seems to date-reference his mother’s arrangements, though his main complaint to us and via the verbiage in the complaint seems to be for his father’s funeral and shipping arrangements. His father’s arrangements are what seemed to disturb the family the most because of the extended time it took to receive permission from the consulate and thus delay the process. We have kept a file associated with each of the decedents referenced, so I am able to comment on any one of the cases, but because this claim was vague and only one case had an extended delay, I will respond to the one the family seems to be referencing, the father. The second complaint is that we did not send in all the paperwork to the consulate on time or within 20 days. Also that when the family called the consulate themselves (no date is specified) that the Bosnia-Herzegovina consulate said that the funeral home had not sent anything in at all. a. The death occurred on 8-1-**. We filed for death certificates with the doctor on 8-2-**. We received the death certificates back 8-8-**. We are not able to start paperwork for international shipping with the Bosnia-Herzegovina consulate until we have the death certificates. So when we received them, we started calling the consulate’s phone number ([redacted] ) multiple times a day, every day, between the 9th and the 15th of August. Unfortunately, the consulate was not answering the phone and their voicemail was full and not receiving new voicemail as stated in the first complaint above. We also emailed their only listed email address [redacted] with the information needed to start the paperwork. We also reached out to the personal email of a lady who has helped us in the past to file for this paperwork and permission when she worked in the Bosnia-Herzegovina consulate. The only response we received between the 9th and the 15th was from the prior worker’s personal email notifying us that she has been gone from the consulate for a few months now and that we should continue to call and email until we get a response. This was on the 15th. On the 18th, we received a response from the consulate. From here we received the Scrobinica permit (paperwork permission to travel to Bosnia-Herzegovina) on August 22, [redacted]. We then requested flights from Louisville, Kentucky to Sarajevo Bosnia-Herzegovina on [redacted]. Tickets had to be arranged on two [redacted] and Turkish. This was on the 23rd. We didn’t hear anything back immediately from the [redacted], so we followed up with them on 24th, 25th and on the 26th found that the flight was booked and we were given the travel arrangements and times. We relayed this on to the family. On 8-27-** we took the casketed and crated remains to [redacted] in Louisville. Mid-day on the 27th, the father left Louisville on flight [redacted]. Evidently the flight arrived in Istanbul, Turkey, by way of London, on 8-29-** at 4:20 a.m., and was scheduled to leave for Sarajevo that same day on flight [redacted] at 12:30 p.m. There must have been a plane malfunction of some sort and the father’s remains did not leave until later that same day. The transport completed in Sarajevo Bosnia-Herzegovina on 8-29-** at 7:35p.m. The Bosnian funeral home should have been called to receive that night or the next morning. 3. The late shipments of his mother and father combined to cause the family a loss of $12,000 dollars. a. I was told by the family that this is because of a delay in transporting the first of the family members back to Bosnia-Herzegovina. In making arrangements with the family, they wanted to know hard dates as to when things would happen. Several times we told them we cannot give exact dates until we have flight arrangements made and then, we still couldn’t give them for sure times as [redacted] experience unexpected delays from time to time. There were too many plane transfers and other outside parties that we would had to coordinate with go give exact times. As it turns out, for the first family members we transported back to Bosnia-Herzegovina, we were given information by [redacted] that we could ship with the permit only. [redacted] accepted the deceased and cleared them for customs at the time of our delivery to the airport. Later, another person along the route halted the shipment and requested additional documentation. We overnighted those additional documents and the flight left after a 2-3 day delay. This was the first of the 3 family members and it was an unfortunate delay, so from this point forward, to avoid delays the best we could, and even though [redacted] did not say they required the documentation, we included extra copies and had no further problems of this type. 4. Ratterman and Sons Funeral Home held the remains of his parents in order to charge more and to look for cheaper flights. a. A review of the bill for our services would reveal there was no holding charge attributed to their bill. Also, we make airfare arrangements for the family and simply charge whatever the [redacted] charge. We do this complementary and do not mark this up. We simply bill the family for the exact figure the [redacted] charge our funeral home. We stood to make no increased profit from the family and never alluded to the point we would be charging them anything additional for holding time or flights. I did ask the family about this and was told that no, we in fact did not charge them, but someone at the consulate said we may be doing this. The family then decided that because the consulate said we may be doing this, that they would levy this as a complaint too, but again, there were no holding or up charges ever assessed or intoned towards the family. In fact, we did get a less expensive flight for them by spending an extra hour or so looking at the options. It saved the family $1000. 5. [redacted] prefer to bury within one week and we caused this custom to be broken. a. We care for other [redacted] families each year and it is generally understood that they prefer for the burial and funeral to take place as soon as possible. Locally we try to do this usually within 24 hours. Either way, there was no way a “one week” burial could have taken place with shipping international. With all the preparation paperwork, contacts and consent that is required to perform such arrangements it just isn’t possible. Again, if the deceased’s pronouncing doctor was not on the electronic filing system for death certificates in the state of Kentucky, this step alone would take 2-4 weeks. 6. Emotional toll on the family has been tough. a. We fully agree. The family has lost three dear members within nine months. This is tragic for any family. As a company we strive to assist with as much of the burden of caring for arrangements during this difficult time as we are able. It appears that for this family our efforts were not adequate in consoling and assisting them. I understand the anger for this process and in particular the extended time it took to get permission from the consulate between the 8th and the 18th. We wish the whole family to know that we sympathize and also are frustrated with how long things took. We remain committed to doing what we can to further assist their family, just as we do for all families we are honored to serve.
[redacted]
Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
First, we called [redacted] and they told as that they always asked For same documents in this case death certificate. Same documents were required for the past 20 years and funeral home of course won't admit that they forget forget send it. Second they stated that they called Embassy and couldn't get thru..wel I called 7 times and each time I went thru. As I stated before we have witnesses and voice recordins and we will bring this to court and if needed to high Supreme or international court foloving with all media coverage. They politely find excuses for all 3 mistakes but we'll prove that they were wrong.
Thank you
[redacted]