CPJ Field Reviews 2

I had to travel over to the UK to collect my brother’s ashes following cremation by Liberty Cremations. Gillian and Suzie were fantastic with the arrangements before and after the cremation. They even delivered the ashes (with all the necessary paperwork and airline approved containment) to my hotel in Hastings which saved me a detour to Uckfield on my he way back to Gatwick Airport. Great service.

Losing a loved one is a difficult time for any family, so I took my time before writing a negative review and have been putting it off.

Then I heard on the radio about another customer of this company with some of the same issues and it brought it all back.

I guess the first lesson is not to be fooled by the number of locations a funeral company has, I was shocked to find our father's body was shipped off to a fridge in Milton Keynes.

This put a logistics factor onto family who wanted to see the body on different days / times in or near where we mostly live and of course there is a cost. Moreover I did not like the idea of his body being carted back and forth.

My experience with this company which trades as Heritage & Sons was very poor, I can't go into all the detail for privacy reasons, but before they were even engaged they totally abused the privacy of the family. We had trusted them with confidential information and they divulged that information to third parties with no reasonable excuse or legitimate purpose.

They also seem to have expanded their business into into a turnkey operation, totally lacking in the sympathetic approach of a traditional Funeral Director.

I do not know if this is the way of the funeral market, but I do not like it. I guess you have to ask a lot more questions and really establish who you are dealing with.

Personally I would avoid anyone who has made their firm into a multi-site business, check where the fridges are held, go see them, ask if they have cctv covering every place where your loved one will be or pass through.

A Funeral Directors should not be a McDonalds operation with an operations manual and pushy "sales" staff seeking to "upsell".

Sadly this is not the type of business where you can rectify failings and it leaves a stain on the memory of the family. There is nothing the company can do but I hope that by leaving this review others will benefit.