7205 Eastern Ave
Baltimore MD 21224
Tel: 410 284-7404
Fax: 410 288-2364
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unhappy customer says: | 2009-09-04 12:23:22 |
| We ordered a plaque for a dear family members grave 2 months ago. Received a letter that it was in for us to pick up (my husband used to install them when he was younger so we had decided to save $30 on installation & make it a more intimate special moment by family members being together to install it ourselves). My husband called in the morning to verify it was there and ready for pickup, the secretary who answered was very unprofessional & acted as though my husband was wasting her time, she said it was there without checking. When my husband got there, she was giggling and wandering around the office, waving her hands and saying "It''s not my fault" to everyone there, and was again very unprofessional in appearance and manners. The plaque was NOT there and after they looked for it a while, they found out it was in the owner''s car, who was on the way to their Churchville office. There is no reason in the world for it to have gone to Churchville because neither the deceased, nor any family members, nor the graveyard are in that area, they are all closer to the Eastern Ave. office. When my husband was speaking to the owner on the phone, the owner said it was partially my husband''s fault. And that the reason for the owner having the plaque was because it had a sticky-note saying "Churchville" on it. No reason was given why it was my husband’s fault. Our only fault was in ordering the plaque through Loeblein instead of another more professional company. Their only reconciliation on this "miscommunication" as they called it, was to offer to install it for free. We did not feel comfortable with them installing it since they didn''t even have the plaque where it belonged, plus them installing it was just a convenience for them and inconvenience for us. After the owner told my husband he would be back in an hour with the plaque, he had his wife call & request more time because of traffic (the hour time was offered by the owner, he should have accounted for Labor Day weekend traffic when he first said it would be in an hour). My husband would have granted him the extra half hour time for drive had the man not said in the earlier conversation that the situation was partially my husband''s fault. It was not our fault the family member had passed away, nor that the secretary did not verify the plaque was in the office, nor that the plaque was mislabeled for Churchville & in the owner''s car. The owner was still not pleasant when my husband retuned, he even denied telling my husband that it was "partially his fault"! My husband was shocked at such further statements. Granted, the owner admitted he had family issues which were bothering him at the time, however, my husband was quick to point out that he had just lost a family member so they all had family issues to deal with. We are sorry about the owner''s family issues and wish him well on that but it should not have affected this. In the end, the owner told my husband he would give him his money back and the company would keep the plaque which does not help any customer in such a situation of grieving for family loss and trying to honor them with proper respect & a funeral plaque. They ended up giving him $30 for his gas and time lost (which was the installation fee, as they had offered to install it for free). It helped the situation but professionalism would have avoided the situation from the beginning. The secretary needs retraining & needs to get off her chair to verify when she tells a customer something, and whoever mismarked the plaque needs retraining, and the owner needs a reminder that he makes money off the loss of loved ones & that courtesy & respect & professionalism are requirements in such a field. This company may or may not be contracted with Gardens of Faith, so I recommend that Gardens of Faith customers also verify this. This company has completely lost sight of the fact that they are in the funeral business, where customers are grieving for the loss of family members, and sympathy and professionalism are NEEDED in this line of work. |
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