L Beinhauer & Sons Co

Review: My mother's funeral presentation was poorly handled. There was a lack of continuity among the funeral home staff, and there was a lack of attention to detail. With one exception, the staff did not seem to genuinely care about our loss and did not handle the mistakes they made with compassion. Although they initially deducted money from our bill to compensate, the mistakes continued. Here are the details: We met with [redacted] on 12/26 to arrange the details but important details were incorrect following that meeting, and we did not see [redacted] again. *n 12/28, the day of my mother's viewing, my niece noticed that my mother's birthdate was wrong on the prayer card. She talked to [redacted] (I believe) and he said they would be unable to do anything about it at that point. No mention was made of correcting it. We were unhappy with my mother's appearance and although Funeral Director [redacted] later indicated we should have been asked on the day if we were pleased, we were not. During the viewing, I had to ask where my mother's clothes were and did not receive them. Family had to return to funeral home on another day to collect them. My sister and I made two calls and spoke to [redacted] who said she was "having a bad day" and complained of how busy things were there. This was so unprofessional. I spoke with [redacted] about the wrong birthdate on prayer cards and eventually did get some money off of the bill as he agreed "mistakes were made". However, I requested a replacement first page of the memorial book, as both my mother's name and birthdate were incorrect on it as well as corrected death certificates as they indicated the incorrect place of death! It is Feb 11 and we have received neither, and received no follow up calls from [redacted]. A call by me on Feb 7 was unreturned. I called again today, to ask about the corrected death certificates and memorial book page, still not received. *n Jan 20 my dad received a f/u letter with memorial bookmark and my mom's name is incorrect! This business is poorly run.Desired Settlement: This experience with [redacted] added to our stress and sadness. We paid the full bill of close to $10,000 promptly and as agreed, and I believe that they would have been more responsive had we not. For adding emotional pain and distress during this awful time of our lives, I believe [redacted]'s should reimburse us a minimum of $3,000. I would also like a call from the owner, [redacted], with an explanation of why things went so wrong with my beloved mother's service. She deserved better

Business

Response:

I will start by disagreeing with the statement that was made that our staff did not seem to genuinely care about the families’ loss. I personally spoke to [redacted] the night his mother passed away and spent several minutes with him on the phone answering questions and assisting him with his needs. The [redacted] family did meet with [redacted] Bums on 12/26/2013, and the date of birth that was documented was reported to us on the day of Mrs. [redacted] service to be incorrect.

Between 5-5:30 p.m. on 12/26/2013, the [redacted] family was sent an automated email message inviting the family to our "Book of Memories" which is the personalized and interactive side of our website. This area of our website includes all information related to Mrs. [redacted] services, obituary, tributes, and donations. Information about Mrs. [redacted] date of birth and date of death are included with her obituary listing on the obituary page of our website.

*n 12/28/2013 between 9-9:30 a.m. the [redacted] family arrived at the funeral home for their private visitation. The family was greeted by licensed funeral director [redacted]’[redacted], who was the funeral director that would be with their family the day of Mrs. [redacted] services. Mr. [redacted] escorted the family into the visitation chapel and gave them private time to be with their mother. After a few minutes had gone by, Mr. [redacted] ask the family if they were comfortable with their mother’s appearance and if we needed to make any adjustments. The family told Mr. *’[redacted] that they were pleased and that no changes were needed. This is documented in Mrs. [redacted] funeral record. The concern about Mrs. [redacted] appearance was brought to my attention during a phone call with the family several weeks ago. During this call I did mention to the family that it was documented that they were pleased and that they indicated that no changes to made to their mother. Based on this information neither myself nor Mr. *’[redacted] were aware that the family was unhappy. During the visitation for Mrs. [redacted], a niece did bring to our attention that her date of birth was incorrect. She approached Mr. *’[redacted] hours after her visitation had begun and just minutes prior to preparing to leave for church for her funeral mass which started at 1:00 p.m. Knowing that there was not enough time to correct the date on the prayer cards, Mr. *’[redacted] told the niece that he would look into it and correct the matter once he was back. Corrected prayer cards were given to the family when they returned to the funeral home after services at the church. At no point in time during Mrs, [redacted] service was I personally aware that there was a concern or problem.

I even made a point to have Mr. *’[redacted] introduce me to the family the morning of her service. I was introduced to [redacted] and ask him if the care that we provided was to his satisfaction. He told me that the family was satisfied with our services. We then proceeded to have a brief conversation about the unique and neat tie that he was wearing.

There was a delay in getting the clothing back to the family but this was due to us keeping her clothing in a more secure area of the funeral home. There was a very elegant coat that the hospital returned to us that we wanted to keep safe.

The last conversation that we had with the [redacted] family about the corrected death certificates was a phone call between my office manager and her daughter, [redacted]. At this time we informed [redacted] that we were doing all that we could do to speed up the processing and that we would call her as soon as we had them in our possession. [redacted] was very nice and just ask us to mail them to [redacted] once we had them.

The memorial bookmark is a complimentary service that is provided to the immediate family. We corrected Mrs. [redacted] middle name to read [redacted] instead of [redacted] and mailed new copies for each family member and a corrected memorial book page to [redacted] on 2/12/2014.

I had several phone conversations with the [redacted] family upon her services. I admitted that mistakes were made and I was sincere with several apologies about the events that took place. It was during this time that the family ask to have $2,000 dollars taken off of their service contract. I agreed to reduce our professional service fee by $1,500 and the family agreed this was fair.

Consumer

Response:

Your response of February 20, 2014 does not adequately address my family’s concerns and some of the information is incorrect. Additionally, you are still missing the entire point of the complaint, which is that a family is grief over the loss of their loved one should not have to place numerous phone calls, send letters, and file complaints. A funeral home business that knows and respects its customers would be more gracious and compassionate.

I will address the mistaken and irresponsible information in your letter

By pointing out that we received an automated email message inviting us to your website, you are indicating that you believe we should have been reviewing birthdate and name of my mother on December 26, 2013, two days after she dropped dead on Christmas Eve. As opposed to taking responsibility for the mistakes you made. My family was reeling with shock and contacting family members, not reviewing your website for very basic information such as the deceased’s NAME and BIRTHDATE!

Mr. [redacted] did N*T ask any of my family members if we were "comfortable with our mother’s appearance". In a phone conversation I placed to you on December 30, 2013, this was clarified for you. I agree that should have happened but it did not. The documentation in your "funeral record" is incorrect.

Mr. [redacted] did N*T tell my niece that he would "correct the matter (of the incorrect prayer cards) once he was back". And amazingly, in your letter, you flat out lie and say that "corrected prayer cards were given to the family when they returned to the funeral home after services at the church". Mr. [redacted], this speaks to the problem with your business – you are very out of touch, and even in the midst of this very serious complaint, are unable to get the information correct!! The correct prayer cards were only sent to us once I placed the call of complaint to you on December 30, 2013 and asked for them. You had no idea as of that date that there was a problem with the cards. You have a problem with communication in your business. And amazingly, you still don’t know, or worse, are misrepresenting information by saying we came back to funeral home. We did not! After the church, we went to [redacted] Cemetary for my mother’s interment (which didn’t happen, we had to leave her casket there unattended, because this was apparently a [redacted] issue, according to you), then returned to the church for a repast with our friends and family.

You continue to state that at no time were you aware there was a problem – again, not understanding your customers, who are focused on their grief and loss, not on the incompetence and mistakes of your staff. I’m sure my brother [redacted] said he was satisfied at the time – none of these issues had come to light at 9:00 am Saturday December 28 as we were struggling to comprehend our mother’s presence in the casket before us.

The delay in getting my mother’s clothes back to us – definitely not because of her "elegant coat" which was actually an old, worn coat. Again, you are not taking responsibility for your errors. There is no reason why a family member should have had to return to the funeral home days later for those clothes.

The error in my mother’s death certificate. You are missing the point. It’s not about the "nice" conversation you had with my sister [redacted], it is about the fact that you made a mistake on essential information such as WHERE the DEATH *CCURRED! Not in a hospital, in a church. And that my sister [redacted] had to call the coroner herself to get this error corrected. And that you never initiated a call to me when weeks later, I still had not received those corrected certificates. It would have been good "business" to let me know you were still waiting and would send them on their way. I had to initiate the call to you on February 7 (no return call) and again on February 10.

By that time, my father had received your letter along with complimentary bookmark, with my mother’s INC*RRECT NAME

Mr. [redacted], there are even more mistakes that I have not spoken to you about or included in my complaint or letter, so as not to muddy the waters. If you would like to hear more, I can fill you in, but I would think this would be enough. My family had to follow up on your "business" mistakes and incompetencies during the worst time of our lives, with numerous phone calls, and now a formal complaint. I am prepared to continue with this complaint as long as it takes but I sincerely hope that you put an end to this saga by doing the right thing.

Sincerely,

Business

Response:

There is obviously a difference of opinions between [redacted] and our staff as to the events that occurred in the funeral service for [redacted]. We have already reduced our professional services fee in the amount of $1,500 which the family agreed at the time was a fair amount. Richard and [redacted] are available to meet in person with the [redacted] family on Thursday, March 27, 2014 in the afternoon or Friday, March 28, 2014 in order to review the details of the service for Mrs. [redacted].

Consumer

Response:

We cannot accept [redacted]'s response, nor are we willing to subject ourselves to a meeting with the business. Can you please advise us as to the next step which will assist us in resolution of the issue? We appreciate your help. The [redacted] family