Please be warned that Hems Brother Mortuary is not a reputable business!!!! You are despicable business. It's already hard enough with dealing a parent's passing but now I cannot even bury her due to Hems Mortuary lack of morality and business principles. My mother purchased a plot from Hems Brother Mortuary back in November 1999. My mother passed May 2022 in Long Beach, CA. I have been calling Hems Mortuary since late May 2022 to schedule her ashes burial and they will not take my calls or work with me to schedule her burial. Yet, Hems took my mother's money for the plot back in 1999. I have asked repeatedly for Kirk or Jamie Hems, and no one has returned my call to schedule my mother's burial. The staff keeps giving excuse is that they are so busy they don't have time to deal with ashes burials. Aren;t you a mortuary and funeral home? This is already a difficult time with a parent's passing but then to deal with Hems is unbelievable. My mother purchased the plot so she could be buried with my father and Hems is not honoring the purchase or my mom's last wishes. read more

Money hungry! Take your loved one someplace more caring and honest. Way overcharged! Charged us an extra $300 to keep her body while we had to go home to San Felipe to get cash because that's all they take which is weird! Then after we paid they tell us they can't do the cremation for months because they are so backlogged? Why charge extra then? Not an honest business. read more

Hems Brothers needs to be looked into. I waited to post this as they are the type of people who would delay the process because you said they were terrible. The business of death and dying. Short term profit trumps all for the Hems. These are three names to remember. I highly warn you to go elsewhere. Jose Caballero has zero understanding on how to be a decent human being. No people skills, no empathy, yells, and is petty. He will avoid your calls if you question him. He'll also try to gaslight you. I'm sorry my mom dying made it so hard for you because you had to answer questions. I'm terribly sorry. Norma is rude. When we asked where we needed to send the paper work to transport my mother "that's for you to figure out" she also forgot to give us a receipt. "Wow, I would've gotten in trouble with the big bosses!" I almost wish we didn't tell her. Kirk Hem. Making a terrible life experience even more painful. Thank you, Kirk. People are in pain. People are stunned, scared, and lost. Don't use that for your own profit. That's simply evil. I hope these three remember me. Don't let them scare you into just doing what they say. Seek legal help it needed. If you've had a terrible experience with these people, submit a complaint. read more

Great Service and very understanding. We received a lot of help when my Dad past away, guided us thru the process and had a great experience. read more

Before you bring this family any business take a look at this!!! If I can give this place and family 0 stars I WOULD. This cemetery is owned by the Hems family and is a reflection of how greedy the family is. The presentation of this cemetery appears to be abandoned/neglected. This is one of the saddest cemeteries I've ever seen. The grass is dead. There is no sprinkler system or enough of a system to cover the entire radius of the property. Families gather and take there own water and sprinklers to irrigate the area there family is in!!! Water tanks are loaded on the back of peoples trucks in order to water the area there family is in!!! SHAME ON YOU HEMS!!!!This should tell you that none of the Hems would want to be buried here that's for sure considering how much this place is neglected!! read more

My mom passed away April 2021. When asked where I wanted to send her, I hadn't even gotten that far with comprehending what was actually happening. I was in shock because 24 hours after being discharged from the hospital she passed away. The only name I knew at that very movement was Hem's Brothers because they were the ones who picked up a majority of the butterfly babies. After the experience I've had & continue to have shatters my heart because I think of mothers who have lost their babies and having to deal with a GROUP of such hateful, callous, uncompassionate people. Who thinks at the very moment when a loved one dies & your asked "where are you going to send her/him?", let me read the reviews! I had the pleasure of meeting the own & a woman who refused to give me her name, but had the nerve to tell me that I have a go fund me. & where is that money? IT IS IN YALLS BANK ACCOUNT BY NOW! AND?!? And that she's received all kinds of calls about me & my mother is not my mother. "Not your mother"! Yelled at me today while having to provide a birth certificate while your mother was one of the most hurtful things anyone has ever said to me. They went as far as calling me a liar. My grandmother & grandfather raised me from birth & then at the age of 7 I asked if they could be my mom & dad. I'd always thought of them as my mom & dad, but I wanted it "legal". So...the woman Hems Brothers is holding in their freezer is my MOM!!! The WOMAN WHO RAISED ME! Don't take your business to Hems. Have them shut down!!!! Everything happens for a reason & this is the reason! Let's not allow these people to cause more pain in your lives than you already have with losing a loved one. read more

I have been in the life insurance industry for about 10 yrs & have assisted several beneficiaries during an assignment/claim. I'm advising EVERYONE to stay away from this mortuary home. They make a simple process VERY complicated. Curt is very RUDE & non-cooperative. This is the first time that I have dealt with Hems Brothers & I hope to NEVER have a client go to them for ANY type of service. Please look elsewhere. read more

Extremely rude, uncaring people. I do not recommend them at all. It's so unfortunate we are so limited in the Valley.

I would of given it a negative star if I could. I have never seen a mortuary so badly equipped. I know its covid but becuae of that you would think they would have their equipment working. There us no excuse for someone to pay so much money and being covid not have both the inside microphone and outside speakers working. All I keep getting from the workers were excuses on why they weren't working and they kept blaming the owner for not fixing the equipment. Do not use this place and avoid at all costs. Terrible business read more

i urge anyone who has lost a loved one to never NEVER do business with hems brothers. they are unprofessional & money hungry & will charge you for anything & everything even things they didn't actually do or provide. this place is a scam & waste of money for the "service" they provide & at no time did i ever feel like they cared about my loved one passing only about how much money they can squeeze out of you. they will lie about a multitude of things & even visiting the cemetery & seeing the condition of the other graves shows even more that they don't care about anything other than getting every cent out of you & taking advantage of your grieving. with all the money they're getting you would think they would upkeep the grounds but it's apparent they prefer to keep it in their pockets. having to wait 5 months for cremated remains (paid everything upfront) is absolutely disgusting & the excuses didn't even make sense because they just wanted MORE money. please dont ever do business here i would put ZERO stars if i could. read more

I have never seen a business run so poorly. They take weeks to bury people. They don't return calls. They give you the run around and they seem to dictate wHat can happen at a church when they are only the mortuary . People put up with this because they have no choice. It is the only gig in town. My parents knew the father of this business and he was caring and professional. Unfortunately thIs business has gone downhilL. They don't t even take credit cards for services that cost thousands. I know people will use them because they have no choice but if a someone wanted to open a mortuary in the valley, they would do very well. So sad. read more

We appreciate Kirk for all he did after our mother passed. He made a difficult situation a bit easier and gave us great direction and counsel on preparing for a wonderful service. My family is grateful. read more

My parents both passed away within 1 year of each other. We used Hems brothers in El Centro California. They provided us with great service. They were very kind and compassionate. They helped us in every way possible to ensure that they both had a beautiful service read more

I have never in my life seen someone be so callous about a person losing a loved one. A few years ago my grandfather passed away and this sorry excuse for a business handled things. During this experience one of the staff members tried to get extra money out of my Aunt and refused to let her say her goodbyes otherwise. read more

One of the worst business to work with. During sad times. Trying to work with uncaring group of people. Promise. Never again

My mother died back in 2017. I am very happy with the way Kirk Hems and his team handled her arrangements. She died in San Diego and they took care of the arrangments of getting her transported to the Valley. I have used Hems in the past for my father's passing (1995) and my brother's passing ( 2004) each time as difficult as it was, they were fantastic. They have handled the arrangements for family members and friends, each time they did a good job. Personally, I want to add that my family was very blessed that we were able to financially take care of my mother's arrangements with little issue. Hindsight being 20/20, if she had a final expense insurance policy, we could have avoided having to provide the cost of her funeral which is not cheap. A final expense policy is not that expensive (less than $50 a month). You can get this though Metlife or State Farm or any major insurance company. read more

As I said on my tip, go to Frye's! These people at Hems showed no signs of regret or wrong doing! They take advantage of peoples feelings and weaknesses at a fragile time. They blamed the lighting for the wrong color and the manufacturer. Basically they don't stand behind their products. The product on the catolog had to be described to my parents in Spanish and had nothing to do with what the catalog actually said. They basically told my parents what they wanted to hear. For a company to blame ALL wrong on the customer, is a company with no moral standards. Then the coordinator/manager told me that he's been doing this for over 40 years! So I guess that makes him perfect? I'm a clothing, interior designer and lighting specialist. Lighting changes a few intensities not complete color schemes. So remember that they've been doing this for over 40 years so they're perfect and at no fault. Beware!!! read more

this company disgusts me! there was no proper and thorough explanation of what the expenses were for their services! lack of communicating led to our loved one's ashes being placed in an unknown container, while her urn just sat at home! horrible, horrible, horrible and completely unacceptable! read more

Horrible place, our first experience....was with my mother when we decided to cremate her & Hems went ahead & embalmed her even though it was totally unnecessary & charged us extra without notifying us first. Then when my brother died unexpectedly we decided to give them another opportunity to redeem themselves hoping their service would have improved but in looking for a proper urn were told we would have to buy a second urn if all the ashes didn't fit into the one. Mind you my brother was a lean guy & were trying to force us to buy a more expensive urn. Secondly, after waiting 3 months for the coroner to determine the cause of death Hems dragged their feet when needing to update the death certificate from pending to natural causes & we kept getting the run around telling us they were too busy to update the certificate & to keep checking back. After several weeks & repeated efforts to request them to do so over the phone, we decided to go in person and we're finally able to get it. I feel that they were so insensitive to the needs of people that have lost their loved ones, the family is all ready suffering enough without adding anymore pain to the process. I feel they're just greedy and have no remorse for taking advantage of people when they are hurting the most. read more