Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:30/11/2022

  Type:Order Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  In July 2021 my dad & I made cemetery & funeral preneed/prepaid arrangements for my parents at Beech***d. Sadly my mom has since passed away & in June 2022 Beech***d notified me of an extra fee of $450+tax to inscribe my mom's date of death on the monument/headstone & another fee for my dad in the future. Our sales rep had over 25 years experience at Beech***d & did NOT provide full disclosure. We were misled & deceived. Beech***d demonstrated a lack of open, honest, clear & transparent communication.
  
  Beech***d has accepted only partial responsibility & offered to cover the cost of my mom's inscription but not my dad's. I feel this offer is unacceptable & that Beech***d should complete the inscriptions for both my parents at no additional cost.
  
  During pre-arrangement discussions I asked why the monument price was so high & our rep said it was a package price that "included everything related to the monument". The rep acknowledges that he said it, but now he says he meant "everything" only included inscriptions done at the shop before monument installation, but he certainly did NOT make that distinction back then. Inscribing the date of death on site after monument installation is Beech***d's normal procedure for pre-arrangements.
  
  I made it clear to our rep to ensure no surprise costs & specifically asked about any future costs. Again he did NOT mention the extra fees.
  
  In the contract dated Aug 1, 2021 next to "Inscription", our rep wrote "Existing Designs & Letterings Incl.” I understood that to mean all inscriptions were included if we chose from Beech***d's existing designs & letterings, which we did. Our rep showed us monuments at the cemetery with existing designs & letterings to choose from, and they all included the dates of death. Beech***d claims the phrase referred to my PARENTS’ EXISTING designs & letterings, but at the time of contract signing, those did NOT exist, not even in draft form, so how could it refer to something that didn't exist?

  

  Business Response

  Date: 01/12/2022

  Good morning, *** *** is not willing to make any type of compromise to something that is a misinterpretation. Beech***d does not, nor never has taken pre-payments for future inscriptions on memorials. This work is something that we have a subcontractor perform, so we are not in control of costs. In light of the misinterpretation, Beech***d has offered to pay for his mother's inscription and have *** *** sign a letter stating the he understands his father's inscription would be the family's responsibility to pay. This was not acceptable to *** ***, so he took his complaint to the *********** ********* ** ******* (***). After their review of the contract and my explanation and offer, they concluded that the contract is clear and that Beech***d has made reasonable attempts to resolve the situation. This clearly is still not good enough for *** ***, who recently reached to me in another attempt to get everything for free. Again, I reiterated my previous offer, but added a dead line of December 31, 2022, as this is taking up too much of Beech***ds time and need to be resolved. Beech***d's final offer has been made. it is reasonable given the fact that it's a misinterpretation, to which *** *** will not acknowledge.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 02/12/2022

  
  
  Complaint: ********
  
  
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  
  Beech***d calls it a misinterpretation but I call it Beech***d's lack of transparency, failure to provide full disclosure and using deceptive wording. I tried to resolve this dispute through the *********** ********* ** ******* (***), hoping they would be impartial but that was wishful thinking since Beech***d's President is on the ***'s Board of Directors. We paid Beech***d close to $50,000 for the pre-arrangements so we are certainly not getting anything for free. Since Beech***d failed to disclose it, how can the average person possibly be expected to know that cemetery and funeral pre-arrangements costing almost $50K would not include a routine process like inscribing the date of death on the headstone? It seems once Beech***d has your money, they no longer have time for you.

  
  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  
  
  ******* ***