WARNING: This is not the compassionate care you seek while dealing with the loss of a loved one.
I am still at a loss for words at how uncaring and unprofessional this establishment is. There's only one chance to get you or your loved-one's final resting right. If nothing goes wrong, Reed Funeral Home may seem status quo. From my experience, if something does go wrong, Reed Funeral Home does not care.
I took 4 other family members with me to make arrangements for my father. Mom and Dad had prepaid their funerals. We met with Steve, one of the funeral directors, to work out the details. During the planning, he kept mentioning that they were going to "take the hit" on the casket, due to how prices had gone up over the years. He mentioned this more than once. I found it a little off-putting, but I kind of brushed it off at the time.
During this meeting, I asked him if it was possible to use Mom's guest book for Dad. That way, I'd have everything in one place. He said we could definitely do that, and he would add pages in there to separate the two sets of signatures, which would include the birth and deceased date for Dad. I felt good about this.
Following the meeting with Reed Funeral Home, I started getting duplicate medical bills from August. These were medical bills that had already been paid by the insurance company. Mind you that he passed in December. I then got a letter that the insurance company. It stated they had overpaid for 4 months, since they thought Dad passed in August. I also noticed that Dad's bank account was negative, but I had no idea why at this point.
I took Mom's guest book to Reed one afternoon to be modified, and that's when I found out that Reed Funeral Home had entered the wrong month of death for Dad. The lady kind of laughed it off. She said she caught it after she did it, and it was fixed in her computer. I was told to just call Social Security, and they would fix it.
I went home and spent a little over 2-hours on the phone with SSI. The guy told me that an electronic chain of events has been set off, and there was no way it could all be corrected electronically. I had to take Dad's death certificate to SSI, in-person. The certificate wouldn't be available until the doctor got back to sign the cert. Dad died 8 days before Christmas, and the doctor was out of the country for the holidays.
To make a long story short, I had multiple trips and hours of phone calls to get this settled. This was over the course of 4 months. Dad's account was negative, in the thousands, due to Reed Funeral Home's careless mistake.
At one point, I went over to Reed. I spoke with Steve directly. I told him that I was very disappointed. I said that I know mistakes can happen, such as the data entry error, but I opened the guest book, and there was not any information for Dad. In fact, the signatures for Dad's service start on the back of one of Mom's pages. There's no way to separate them now.
He said he could probably get some pages made up, but the tone was somewhat dismissing. I didn't want to assume though. I felt that would be a gesture of caring, and that's all I really wanted. Plus I wanted an "official" page for the guest book. I wasn't looking for compensation. I felt grief, feeling like I failed Dad. This experience added to the grief one already feels. Fixing the book would be one small, yet big, gesture that could help me feel closure. Reed Funeral Home definitely does not care about easing grief, which is sad, since it's their business.
Two weeks passed, and I heard nothing. I called and asked to speak to a manager. I was told that would be the owner. They said they would have her call me. It has been months, and I have heard nothing.
The burial site had contacted me at least 3 times since the funeral. They wanted to know if I needed anything and how I was doing. I shared this experience. They said they were sorry, and surprised to hear this. Mind you, I broke down some just sharing this. They were so compassionate.
It was suggested that Reed Funeral Home may have gotten overwhelmed, and I may have gotten lost in the shuffle. This person said that they would contact the owner directly, as she may not be aware of hour distraught I was. They were sure she'd want to know somebody was that hurt and unhappy with their service.
It has been months since, and there was never any effort to reach out to me. At this point, I have just lost all respect for Reed Funeral Home. I know that the owner is aware. I assume she is used to unhappy clients, based off of the limited reviews online. A funeral home is supposed to be about compassion and helping those who are grieving. They only care that they get their money. I now realize that Steve's unprofessional comments about "taking a loss" were more deeply rooted in their culture than I thought. His insincere promise, and lack of following through, are also a testimony to this.
Please, please, please, stay away from this place, and spread the word. They are not about compassion. They should not be in the business. My family has used them since the early 70's. They are not the same Reed they used to be.
Thankfully, my aunt's service was changed to Karlo-Libby Funeral Home. I was not aware that my cousin had a bad experience with Reed Funeral Home when my uncle passed. Karlo-Libby was night and Day. The co-owner also works at the cemetery where Mom and Dad are buried. That is one of the people who reached out to see how I was doing. He remembered me from when Dad and I made Mom's burial arrangements. He even greeted me at my Aunt's burial to see how I've been doing since Dad passed. Top notch compassion.
Don't trust your loved ones to the horrible people, careless, and heartless people at Reed Funeral Home!
