January 22
Texas Funeral Service Commission:
RE: San Jacinto Memorial Funeral Home
14659 I-10 East Freeway
Houston, Texas 77015
713-453-7114
We went to this funeral home over 3 weeks prior to my Mothers passing away to make prior funeral arrangements. My Dad was buried here over 16 years ago and we had problems then and told them this was to save us grief and heartache this time. They were so apologetic and assured us everything would be taken care of.
We met with William, the sales manager, who even toured the site with us so there would be no problems. We discussed with William purchasing sites for me and my wife for which he said we could get huge discounts. After going over what we wanted for my Mother when she passed, he gave us a bill and said Claudette would go over her part with us. We signed, left down payments, picked a casket, and were to return.
My Mother was critical and they knew this. All we were supposed to do is call when she passed and everything was taken care of. Not how it happened again.
On January 10th. My Mother passed away. I called the number and they said the funeral car would be out. When the men arrived they first wanted to know if we had prior arrangements with San Jacinto before they could remove the body. I told them yes we had and were told that everything would be done for us, just to call the number. The emn said nobody shared that information with them.
On January the 11th. We received a total of 6 calls from the San Jacinto Funeral Home with mass confusion. They had no record of our coming in, no paperwork could be found, and William was out of town. They could not even find my Fathers Plot which was paid for years ago and walked a few weeks ago by us and William. The calls just kept coming so I threatened to have my Mother picked up and taken elsewhere. I was told to call Reneee at the Pasadena location, he was the supervisor. Renee got arrogant and defensive with us, and wound up hanging up on us refusing us the name and phone number of an owner.
I called another location who gave me the name of Vic, supposedly over the funeral homes. He assured me they do not treat people this way and he would get it handled. We still got questioning phone calls trying to find the paperwork. They had William call us from a conference in Dallas who apologized and said he did not understand all the problems, he wanted to meet with us tomorrow morning at 10am.
We met with William who said he would do his part of the paperwork over and then we would have to meet with Claudette who could not find anything. William re-did his paperwork, we signed. Claudette came in and had to re-do the paperwork 4 times becaue of mistakes such as spelling mother's name wrong, wrong date of death, etc..
After all this confusion we were going over the bill and found where we were charged double for some things, she again had to re-do the bill. We wonder how many this happens to that do not catch these mistakes.
On about the 6th. Try we had her remove a $500 fee for putting Mother's name in the paper which would be published days after the funeral, so why? And why $500. They were charging us $350 to take the flowers about 400' to the grave site. There were other charges just as deplorable. It is obvious and we told them, they are only in this for the money and Mother was being disrespected as we were. When we left it was supposed to be all settled. We were to use their sound system and keyboard.
They could not bury Mother they said until Monday or we would have overtime fees. On Monday January 15th. We showed up at the funeral home. We were told their keyboard system was old and shot. We had to make arrangements quickly for music. As people gathered, I was approached by William who said Claudette forget to charge us for opening and closing the grave. I asked him why this could not wait. William said the owner would not allow them to continue without full payment. I asked him what we would do if we had no check? William said he would stop the funeral, Mother would be put in a holding room until we paid, and the funeral rescheduled. As upset as we were we got a check and paid them another $1130. My sister learned they had not even started digging the grave yet.
As the Church singers tried to use their microphone, it crackled and went in and out. Just another screw up dishonoring my Mother an this family. And to think we had considered buying numerous plots here for the entire family. We also learned the discounts we wee given were taken back in the cost they forgot to charge us. We only had two employees working with us even though I know e paid for their staff. The memorial programs had not even been done yet. This was no doubt all about the money, no compassion at all. This owner should rot in hell.
As the funeral service was ending in the Chapel, the pall bearers were to carry the casket. Claudette had them go outside and she wheeled it outside by herself shaking it all over, for the pall bearers to load into the funeral car. We had to drive our own cars but Claudette drove the Limo by herself for which we were charged. At the roadside it started drizzling so she said it would be muddy and best if we conclude here. The pall bearers unloaded Momma's Casket, flowers on top. We had the Minister say words here. We were shocked as then, two Mexicans started rolling the casket towards the grave running, the flowers fell off on the ground, my son-in-law ran to pick them up, Momma was being bounced all over the place as they ran toward the grave freshly dug. We got no tent, no carpet, no chairs, all for which we paid. This was just as disrespectful as the prior treatment we got. ALL ABOUT MONEY
We have again contacted Vic who said he would take care of this and return our call. He never did. We now received a bill from San Jacinto Funeral Homes in New Orleans Louisiana billing us for the services we paid in full but did not get. We called and the lady said she could give us no names of owners or numbers but would have a supervisor call us. She suggested we pay for now and it could be researched and refunded if they made a mistake. I told her no way was I giving them more money, they owe me money.
We pray to the Commission to stop this type of scam from happening to anyone else. They never had any compassion and it was all about the money. We were scammed and did not even get what we paid for. These people should not be in the funeral business. We would still like our money back for the services we did not get and to talk with an owner. Please help us. They will not.
I was also under the assumption that a certain person should remain by the grave until closed. Everyone drove off as we did, the funeral car as thy dropped the flowers on the wet ground breaking them, this arrangement cost us $575.00. The limo left when we drove off as they were lowering the casket, leaving only the two Mexican men. I sincerely think these people do as they wish, scamming innocent people of their money, and causing much more grief than just losing a loved one.
Ed
Crosby, Texas
U.S.A.
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