Parkwood Cemetery & Mausoleum

My dad purchased 2 mausoleums @ $4100 many years ago and my mom is in one of them. Dad would like to have my nephew's urn placed in his casket when he passes. Parkwood charged $4495 for 2nd interment rights. This is more than he paid for the 2 mausoleums. I understand a fee can be charged, but $4495 to add my nephews urn to his casket, which by the way the funeral parlor will handle and not Parkwood. So what is the fee for, who gets its? Parkwood has to complete the paperwork. The fee should maybe be half the amount he paid for one mausoleum, which is $1050 and what most cemeteries would consider charging. My dad was definitely taken advantage of during his appointment with the sales counselor. Interesting fact, the paperwork was completed prior to my brother meeting my dad at Parkwood and thought this amount was ridiculous, he tried to get this amount lowered but the sales counselor would not budge. He even asked about purchasing a niche instead, but was told the cost for one would be more than $6,000. My dads health isn't great, and they signed the contract under duress because of it. The lettering, opening, closing and fees are paid and I am sure the cemetery gets a percentage of the fees. Many family members have purchased burial sites and some are already buried at Parkwood and no one paid these prices for their burial site. When young or old people have special burial requests and the prices and fees are outrageous its time to look elsewhere folks. Will be contacting state authorities on this issue as there needs to be an amount limit placed on these types fees.

My parents passed away 6 weeks apart. I ordered a memorial bench for both of their cremated remains to be together.Received a call when it came in. My husband and I went to see their memorial, only to find that there was a very large chip taken out of the back edge of the base and a large gouge across the back of the bench, where the bench had obviously been dropped while being placed at their site. The large chip was nowhere to be found! Which indicates that it was either broken and then moved, or someone picked up the broken piece and discarded it either way, they should have notified us and simply ordered a new one, rather than just pretend it didn’t happen.There is an area around the memorial where there is no grass to mow. It was not a mowing accident. We went to management who agreed to replace the bench saying they would have to eat the cost of the bench. Which I felt was inappropriate, due to the delicateness of the situation.This is our folks, which we lost close in time and we’re trying to honor them in a loving way and we’re not feeling the respect we had hoped from Parkwood.I called a few weeks ago to check on bench. Saleswoman said “the bench was already reordered and replaced”. I thanked her and told her I would come out to see it as soon as possible.When I went out today, I found the same damaged bench, but they had taken the top off and placed it on an old weathered slab of darker grey granite, which doesn’t at all match my parents light grey granite bench. I went to the maintenance office and spoke to the maintenance manager who seemed very sincere apologizing to a very angry and hurt me.He said he apologized and he didn’t realize how much darker the base was until now that it’s in the light.I told him that it was supposed to be replaced and he said that she said to repair it as close to the color as he can. Which tells me, it was not his doing. He is filling the managers orders. But I do feel that since he is the person who signs off on jobs once they’re complete, even if he isn’t the guy who dropped my folks memorial when it first came,he should have known it was damaged, because he should have inspected it and seen the damage and reported it to the manager. I went to the office and spoke to the saleswoman. Asked her why she lied to me and said that the new bench had come in, when really, they took an old slab of darker granite and tried to repair my parents memorial with it. She acted befuddled at first then called in the manager, who after I explained the whole entire back story after she had all the info and could come up with a good cover came up with a story to save face. She said it was an error and that they had been waiting all this time for the owner of Parkwood to authorize them to replace the memorial bench. Which is not true! We were told the day we first found the damage that they had gotten authorization to reorder it. long story short, bench came in, cemetery damaged it and said they’d order a new one.They then informed me that the new one was in, but it was not a new one. It was the damaged one with some odd or end old piece of darker grey mismatched granite I hope was not from someone else’s memorial at some point in time.When I called them out on it, they made up a story to save face.The cover story is that the owner of Parkwood has taken months and months and months to decide whether he will authorize the replacement of my beloved parents bench, which was damaged by their employees, before my parents could even be interred into the bench, before we could plan or hold a memorial, before we could honor our parents.Throwing the owner under the bus!?And if it’s true, I want to speak to the owner of Parkwood!Sir, why would you disrespect my parents in this way? They have not had their memorial and because you thought it over so long, whether you would or would not replace the memorial bench that your employeedamaged, what was a 3 month wait is now a 14-18 months!My parents memorial will be put on hold another year and a half because of your hesitation. K Driscoll Betz

the trees are lovely

I lost my baby at 36 weeks. She was buried in October 1982. Our first visit to the cemetery was great. However, in the last 5 years, the condition of the graves/grounds/mausoleum where my daughter is buried has decreased dramatically. I feel like since the cemetery was sold to new owners, it has gone down hill. There is mud and unsightly areas all over. And now, the bolts that hold the mausoleum stones in place are rusting and pulling away from the walls. The stones now wobble and I am worried it will fall and break. The lettering is also fading. I see people walking their dogs and runners/bicyclists constantly on the grounds. This breeds vandalism and should be discouraged. And to add, each time I call, there is consistently no one immediately available to talk with. Very disappointed to say the least.

When planning my mom’s funeral they were responsive and as nice as possible. Told us to call whenever we’ve encountered issues any small thing they said. It wasn’t a month after mom died that I visited. Her stone wasn’t there yet but I saw someone isles marker at the top of my moms resting place. I called. Never heard anything. I visited again to find her marker was paid but I never received a call saying it was there. Today I visited to find her gravesite over grown with grass/weeds. I excused this thinking it’s new grass and they didn’t want to disturb it yet. However what I can’t excuse is her marker was completely covered by this tall grass and clippings from mowed grass. Not acceptable. I wish I Could post the pic I took.

Our family recently laid my sister to rest. After waiting on the parking too long for the cemetery attendant, we were taken to her site where her ashes container was in the ground waiting to be covered. Our complaint, a rather sad complaint, was her ground marker, along with her late husbands, was covered with dirt and mud. It was hard to even read their names. How can a cemetery employee not see this before our family came? Such a small detail, but important to a grieving family. I can't get that image out of my mind.

This has to be the worst place to have family members buried EVER. There is not one redeeming quality of this place. Unfortunately my parents bought plots there 40 years ago, so I had to deal with them. Their service is non-existent, their care of the areas around the graves is poor, and the staff here is made up of just bad people--completely insincere and ignorant human beings. We buried my father 25 years ago, and had to return this year when my Mom died. When meeting with these people, I noticed bird crap all over my father's head stone and asked that they cleaned it up before my mother's services and they agreed. Of course we show up for my mother's funeral two days later and the head stone had not been touched. Just one simple request that they promised to do and they did nothing. What makes it even worse is that I was quoted $200 to finishing engraving my mother's head stone--all it needed was the year of her death added to the stone. A week after her funeral, I get a call from these people telling me that they under-quoted me, and the new charge would be $700---and this is only for putting 2015 on the stone--nothing more. When I complained, I was told there was nothing they could do---which is obviously a lie like everything else they told me. This place is just horrible and I am sorry that my family bought plots there so long ago. I would rather have my corpse fed to a pack of wolves than have my remains laid to rest at Parkwood.

The experience was not only horrifying, but the grounds were just a bad. The front staff lacked professionalism and were less than friendly, while the grounds workers were sitting under a tent lollygagging. Although the passing of my grandmother was sudden, I refused to leave her in a place where the property was not maintained. Markers are sinking, some were not visible because they had sunken or they were covered with dried grass and leaves. More so, the staff was not truthful. The price that was quoted initially, was double what other cemeteries offered. When I shared I wanted a copy of the price that was quoted and documented, the cost was cut in half, as a result of a referred company and a miraculous sale that was occurring. Even though time was not on my side, took my chances after they shared I had to complete the paperwork immediately for the burial to occur five days later, I left and went to another cemetery in the same area and received quality service in a pristine environment. Yes, it was a little more expensive, but for the professionalism, the care of the facility, and the care for my grandmother, it was worth it! Unprofessional, unkept, and poor service describes the experience. Sad!

Worst place ever! Stay away if you vale respect for the living or for those who have passed. The employees are rude. They have no compassion and they lie about required fees. They take advantage of grieving family members and then they never deliver on the services that were paid for. Graces are not kept up and if you complain they refer you to the cemetery board. Tony is cruel and makes his living taking money from people. He lies. He won't respond to emails because he doesn't want to put anything in writing. They refuse to give you the contact information of the higher ups. I'm sure they aren't responsive either.

My dad was buried there 8 years ago. The forklift battery was not charged the night before. My fathers casket swayed in the air until my husband assisted to fix it. My mother's chapel ceremony was yesterday. We followed the office personnel along with visitors for the burial, following a car which advertised "chocolates and nail salons" down to the chapel. So unprofessional. They did not even have a professional vehicle. We could not drive to the sight, because the roads were so muddy. We had to walk from the chapel to the burial area. We go into the chapel which had not been vaccuumed, the piano had about 1 inch of dust on it, and the table in which the urn was placed, was covered by indoor/outdoor green carpet. It was a cold damp day. No heat of any type in the chapel. The groundsmen were extremely polite and nice. The office staff doesn't know the left hand from the right hand. Apparently it was my job to tell everyone to park at their office for the lining up of the cars. Unfortunately, I did not meet up with everyone at each viewing. They did not have any staff outside to direct people on where to park. I would not recommend this cemetary for the burial of a pet, let alone your loved one. I will look into having both my mom and my dad removed from this cemetary. It was extremely unprofessional and the office staff spoke over me while I was speaking to them.