When my mother went into Hospice care on April 2nd, her Hospice Social Worker recommended Funeral Caring USA as a reasonably priced alternative for her cremation service. My first interaction with the funeral director, James, was positive and respectful. And, Funeral Caring USA is reasonably priced. When we were asked to pay for the cremation/urn, death certificates, obituary, and keepsake urn, our family decided to pay by debit card for the cremation/urn and death certificates, with me paying separately for the obituary and keepsake urn on my credit card. Within a day or two of providing our debit and credit card information, I reached out to James for an update, only to learn that the credit card company they did business with had ended their relationship. In order to move forward, I was asked to pay with cash or by writing a check. Shortly after this conversation, our family paid for my mother's cremation/urn and death certificates by cashier's check. At no time thus far did James say the death certificates would be withheld (since they had already been paid for with a cashier's check). Slowly, communication began to get worse and more vague, to the point where we wondered if our mother's ashes had been lost. Thankfully, this was not the case.
Because communication became so sketchy, approximately two weeks ago, the office manager, Fernando, joined the conversation. By the end of that phone call, he agreed to release the keepsake urn (which I appreciated), keep the obituary up on their website, and allow the death certificates to be released (or so I thought). At no time during that conversation did Fernando say they were no longer accepting debit or credit card payments - even though he had every opportunity to do so when I would say "please let me know when your credit card system of payment is rectified and I'll make the payment," or "I can pay when I come to San Antonio in June for my mom's service". Not ONCE did Fernando or James say that using a debit or credit card would not be acceptable ever. And, when I spoke to James last week, on Friday (May 15th), he again failed to mention this important detail. Also, during our May 15th conversation, James told me the death certificates were in a locked room, and no one currently at the office had a key. Finally, James told me he would call me Monday morning (yesterday, May 18th) to let me know that the death certificates could be picked up by my sister. He never called. Which brings me to today and my last conversation with Fernando, the office manager.
I called to make sure the death certificates would be available for pick up and was put on hold...until Fernando picked up the call. He proceeded to tell me that they would not release the (paid-for) death certificates until my additional balance was paid in full AND that this was their policy. He went on to say that they had changed their payment policy (to exclude credit cards), but it was my job to have figured that out. After all, they were just a "small mom and pop business" that couldn't possibly reach out to all their customers by email to provide that information. And, when I asked how they expected all of their customers to come up with cash (in my case, $338 more dollars) instead of using credit (if that was a family's only option at the time), Fernando replied by saying "you don't have 338 dollars...it's just 338 dollars". "Doesn't your sister have 338 dollars?" I found this to be extremely offensive and insensitive, given what our family is going through! I ended the conversation almost immediately after these comments.
To summarize, our experience started well, but quickly dissolved into a communication nightmare. Once the communication began to fail, our family just felt in the dark and as if we were being punished for Funeral Caring USA's missteps and "changes to policy" after we had already signed a contract and given credit card information. If you had asked me on April 13th, would I recommend this company, I would have said yes. Sadly, my position (along with my family's) has forever been changed to a resounding NO. read more
