“My mother died on the 28 th of August
Today is the 22 nd of September and her ashes have only arrived
I rang Bare the day that she passed away
Tomorrow I can pick her up from the post office.
Bare in SA were different from Brisbane
My son passed away in Brisbane and Bare were absolutely wonderful
And things happened quickly
Just feels like this took a long time
I should of gotten a private courier to pick her up after she was cremated
Just feels …”
“I can't say I was happy with this service.
My reasons are I was told I'd be contacted by the funeral director Tim. I was not, I was not contacted by anyone. All through the process noone rang me.
I got messages emails.
I rang and spoke to 3 different people who were nice.
After her passing I received 3-4 invoices asking me to pay. I told Bare it was out of my hands, they have frozen my sister's bank account.
The other I received another one saying it was due 14th December.
I again say I can't pay it until I have access to funeral bond or her account.
I am upset and feel sad that the service wasn't as I was told it would be.
I am pleased that my sister was handled well when she was picked up by your people. They were very respectful to her.
I think your business is a good service BUT there is no communication between client and your people.
Less computer work would be a good thing. Bare has forgotten that people over 70 aren't all computer literate, this in itself was a stressful process. I read and was told you'd get help, but no friendly phoncall to ask if I was managing, or if I needed help.
Once again communication is needed more for the client.
I will say that the gentleman that returned my sister's ashes to my brother was wonderful.
If that was done for all parts of the process you would have an award winning business.
Regards
Wendy Winter”
“My consultant was nice but given we were grieving and trying to process everything the first call she made to me was very overwhelming and wasn’t a pleasant experience. Too many questions, to bubbly on the phone - it was awful! she even apologised on our next call. More compassion is required for this role - it felt like a case of ‘just get the box ticked’.
The booklets took many attempts to complete with soo many typing errors - an eye for detail is required for this, it shouldn’t be up to the grieving family to proof read for spelling errors. I asked for two ‘low key - less is more’ booklets to be designed but they were way over the top. I felt like Dee didn’t listen to me at all.
On the day of the service the music list was not communicated from Bare and it was very stressful for me to have to write it all down for
and the order we wanted it played in - I sent this list to Dee prior to the service, an obvious lack of communication.
I also specifically asked in writing that the handwritten letters in the bottom of my husbands urn remain there with his ashes placed on top - this did not happen, they were removed when the ashes were placed in the urn.
I also requested a large easel for my husbands portrait - the one Greg brought was broken and was not big enough to hold it. Dee had asked me for the dimensions but this was obviously not communicated. Lucky I had my own easel for another picture I had on display that could be used during the service.
It was all disorganised from the beginning and very stressful. You need to get your business model in order - you are dealing with grieving families.
The only good thing was that our Celebrant Kim Oslo was absolutely beautiful and perfect.”
“Communication lacking in detail. When death is only hours ago, the 'arranger' must provide ALL information in writing to the only person who is to make arrangements for the deceased. This includes pricing, options for cremation without service, delivery of and containers for ashes. Being told a couple of days later that this should have been decided at the time is no comfort whatsoever, and adds to one's distress. It all comes down to 'not knowing what you don't know'. Please, please amend your procedures and protocols to include all of the above in writing.”
“An overall heart wrenching experience.
Emails with no follow up calls and phone calls not returned meant I was not notified my father was cremated until the day after it had occurred.
Furthermore, I specifically request a courier service to deliver my father‘s ashes to me, and clearly stated that I did not want him put in the post. I would arrange for the ashes to be collected if this was not possible. I was notified via email with no phone call stating that my father had been posted. This caused me a high level of distress at an already distressing time”
