National City-Chula Vista Mortuary & Cremation Service

Review: I, [redacted], along with my parents, [redacted] and [redacted], met with [redacted] at National City-Chula Vista Mortuary and Cremation Services at [redacted], National City, CA 91950 on December 30, 2013 to arrange services for my brother [redacted]. During this time [redacted] asked if my brother was ever married, which he wasn’t, but does have children who are now adults. [redacted] never asked us if my brother had children. Had we known that his children were legally entitled to kinship of my brother’s remains we would have included them in this process. My parents and I went ahead and organized services for my brother and entered in a contract with [redacted]/National City Mortuary for a viewing and the cremation of my brother’s remains.

After services were rendered on 01/06/2014, [redacted] contacted us on 01/08/2014, saying that that she wouldn’t be able to give us my brother’s ashes because his children were entitled to them due to their kinship. We tried to explain to [redacted] that my brother was physically and mentally disabled. Therefore, my mother had court ordered legal and physical over my brother. We took [redacted] a copy of this judgment; however, she claimed that according to their legal department it wasn’t sufficient to turn in the ashes to my mother. [redacted] also told my brother’s children that my mother denied [redacted] had any children. That is a false statement. We in fact brought it up to her on 2 occasions during this meeting. The first time when we were going over the cost of a rental casket, and the second time when we asked her if the urn would be sealed because we wanted to share ashes with my brother’s children. [redacted] admitted that was an error on her behalf because nor my parents or myself every told [redacted] my brother didn’t have children.

Now my brother’s children are upset and feel neglected due to [redacted]’s false statement. And we are pending the release of my brother’s ashes. This brought a great ordeal upon my mother and my brothers children.Desired Settlement: we want my brother's ashes given to my mother.

Business

Response:

To Whom this may concern,

Thank you very much for your letter with the attached complaint from Ms. [redacted]. Although, respectfully it is our position that the complaint contains various statements that are not accurate, we have been in touch with both sides of this family dispute and we are happy to report that this matter has been resolved to the satisfaction of both parties. We appreciate your attention to this matter.

Location Manager

Consumer

Response:

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.

Regards,

Although, we were able to get 50 percent of the ashes back, it wasn’t until after we hired an attorney. Ms. [redacted], demonstrated poor work ethics and behaved in a basis and partial manner against my family. We are very happy that this matter did not have to go to court; however, we remain appalled at the customer service we were given. Below are some examples:

· When my family decided to hire an attorney we did not inform anyone. Once our attorney contacted Ms. [redacted] and the mortuary, she disclosed our attorney’s information to other persons in this dispute. As a third party in this whole situation Ms. [redacted] had no right to give this information out to anyone. I would think it breaches client confidentiality.

· At one point my mother was asked to come in and resign paperwork. She was told that she needed to be there before 4pm on a weekday because the mortuary office was closed after that and on the weekend. However; when the other persons in this dispute had to sign paperwork they were allowed to come in on a Saturday.

· Even after the mortuary received all the necessary paperwork, it took them 3 weeks after my brother’s passing to have him cremated.

· Ms. [redacted] informed our attorney that we were allegedly harassing the other persons in this dispute. This is not true. Ms. [redacted] has no proof of this. Again, as a third party in this matter this is an issue that does not concern Ms. [redacted] at all.

I have saved all the emails between myself, [redacted] and the attorneys to support these examples.