Really angry with Co-op Funeralcare.

niccinotts

The Co-op double booked my Grandmas funeral too!! Mum had arranged catering for afterwards and let all relations know the arrangements and then 2 days before the co-op rang and the funeral had to be changed to later on the same day.
The lady whose fault it was felt terrible and couldnt apologise enough but even so....
My mum never made a complaint because she felt bad for the co-op lady but surely these things should be double and triple checked. Noone wants that sort of hassle when they are grieving.
I would never use or recommend them to anyone...

Sorry for your loss, what an age!!

inkie

I would certainly write a letter of complaint clearly stating the things that you unhappy with and saying that you find these unacceptable.

I have to say that as a minister who does funerals - I find the Co-op to be one of the better undertakers. Eg they always check my availability before anything is booked from their end i.e. crem/family told etc. This can't be said for other firms. I once had an undertakers ring me up with details of a funeral that they had arranged (horse drawn hearse as well), all booked, family told etc, and then told me of the time etc without checking my availbility first. :oNeedless to say I couldn't do the time they had booked.

Sorry to hear of your experience, and your loss. Make sure you write and complain.

PaulJM

Really sorry for your loss there..

My father in law works for a probate lawyer, and they get a lot of comments about the Co-op group.
Most are not issues with their organisation, but more them trying to sell further services for their other products.

Can't beleive it was double booked though, that would be the last thing you'd have wanted to think about.

Savvy_Sue

Is it the crem / cemetery, or just their services which are double booked?

If the latter, can you get a closer time with a different firm?

Obviously not something you want to be sorting out at this stage, but perhaps worth a few phone calls!

bluenoseam

unfortunately when it comes to the "appointment" like attitude it's a part of the business to them - although you'll find that the vast majority of people in the funeral business will never treat it as such directly to a clients face! I would have a word to their customer service team, that should never have been the case that they put it across this way - as for the viewing, again i'd mention this as well, it may be better to hang fire a week or so before writing this as understandably you'll be angrier as your emotions are going through the ringer enough as it is.

Newly_retired

The Co-op were great for the funerals of both my parents. I don't think it is fair to condemn the company as a whole. It all depends on the local staff.
But yes, I would write a letter of complaint, to the local firm, copy to head office, after the event.

stelly

Thanks again everyone.


I wasn't trying to "condemn" the company as a whole.
I had just spoken to my mum on the phone when I posted so was really angry - have calmed down slightly now.

I know that my mum was unfortunate with the person she dealt with at the Co-op. As I said above we used the Co-op for my grannys funeral and they were great then.

But I do think their lack of communication and sensitivity needs to be brought to their attention. If my mum hadn't phoned them yesterday we still wouldn't have known it was double booked and that's the part that still makes me angry.

I think if you are running a business where you are dealing with people who have lost someone then sensitivity/tact should be their main priority.

Especially as zzzLazyDaisy said you only get to have one funeral for someone.


Stelly xx

sueeve

Coop funeral care varies enormously by branch. My husband had the same problem wth not being able to see his father, and even when we arrived for the apointment we had to wait for someone to change his clothing, for over an hour. I am a priest and made it clear what I thought, laying down the law about the funeral itself. The priest whom we had invited to conduct the service said that he had never had the cooperative so helpful before.

uolypool

Mojisola wrote: »

Don't label the whole company as awful. We've just had a funeral arranged by the Co-op and everything went well.

I was just about to say the same thing.I have a friend who is a funeral director for the co-op and when my great nephew died in a car crash in 2005 he was fantastic.My niece went into shut down and couldnt come to terms with what had happened and it was really left upon myself and my then partner to take over, well my friend went out of his way to make sure everything was exactly as we had asked , .I know that this could have been because he was a friend of mine but I have been to other funerals that he has arranged and they to have been outstanding and a real tribute to the deceased.



I am very sorry for your loss and am thinking of you all

pebbles88

Sorry but I have another bad experience of the co-op funerals.

My mum wanted to organise hers and get it paid for, she didn't want her kids having to arrange it.

We got the co-op round to discuss it, my mum only wanted something very simple, a cremation, simple casket, and 1 car for the family, wasn't even wanting a church service.

They offer a pre-pay service, so he rotted up what mum wanted and it still came to over £2000. Which horrified my mum (she had no idea how much it would cost). The man then started trying sell extras such as flowers which they would organise, trying to push her into a more expensive casket etc. When mum wouldn't budge he was actually starting to get stroppy, saying well you can't have that casket, people will think you don't care etc.

He went through the charade of completing the paperwork for payments to start the next month..... 2 months later we hadn't heard anything nor any payments had been taken.....

Rang the office, only to be told he had said we didn't want to continue..... Informed them of what had actually been discussed, and how we expected to be paying by now. They didn't care, actually said oh well we can't send anyone else out at the moment.

What's that saying, a happy customer may tell a few people of a company's service, but a unhappy customer tells as many as they can of the shoddy service received!

Probably why there is more tales of bad service than good on this thread I think!