Earley Funeralcare

5 David Adams 27th Nov 2023

efficient, friendly and helpful

5 Hew Jones 23rd Nov 2023

Excellent service. Sympathetic and helpful as required.

5 Deborah Beaver 21st Nov 2023

So sensitive to the whole process.  Excellent communication leading up to the funeral and during the funeral. Nothing was too much trouble 

5 Kwai Yip 16th Nov 2023

The service is professionally organized…tks a lot.

1 Bruce Hedley 13th Nov 2023

Here is a copy of the letter sent to the CEO of Co-Op Funeralcare:

It is with great regret that I feel the need to write to you, as I would rather simply forget the difficulties your organisation created for us as a family. However, not only do we still have a policy for my father’s funeral in the future, but I consider it my duty to try to prevent such stress for others facing loss, who may not have the family support we had.

I am going to itemise the points I feel show a real lack of attention to detail, underlying a lack of true concern and care for recently bereaved clients. Some may appear trivial, but I would request your patience to read the entire letter please, as the overall picture is important.

• Upon calling Co-Op shortly after my mum passed away, I was met with a truly unsympathetic, robotic question and answer session where inexperience was obvious as a checklist was read. This was unsettling, as we were dealing with a bereavement of just a couple of hours.
• Your organisation came to collect my mum’s body, for which I am grateful. However, the lack of care in removing her was quite astonishing. We only discovered some days later, upon extensive searching, that one of your ambulance people had picked up the set of dentures and pushed them in mum’s mouth. They belonged to my dad!
• We called the Earley funeral directors several times to ask them to check mum’s body in case dad’s teeth had somehow been taken with her but were assured that after a thorough check this was not the case. It took my brother physically visiting your morgue and demanding someone look while he waited, for your staff to find dad’s teeth in mum’s mouth. I cannot tell you how horrific this is! I am sure you can use your own imagination.
• Returning to the first day of the proceedings, I gave my email address and contact details to your staff and they promised they would send me all necessary details. Some days later I had not received anything and called them. They had mis-spelled my email address, but had not thought to call me to check I had received the information.
• I arranged to meet Sally Matthews, Funeral Director for Earley and Caversham Funeralcare with my dad and 2 older brothers on Wednesday 4 October at the funeral directors. I had a long discussion with her about all the proceedings and we agreed how to conduct the conversation in front of/with dad, so that at 90 years old, he would not be over-stressed. Upon arrival, she had handed over the meeting to someone else without having either briefed this person (Shelley) or having had the courtesy to tell me I was meeting with another representative.
• I had called the Earley branch on Monday 1 October to ensure they had received the clothing for mum to be dressed in and to confirm they would prepare mum’s body for dad’s arranged visit on Wednesday 3 October. Although I am a calm person by nature, I felt physically distressed that your representative told me he didn’t know where mum’s body was. I pointed out that this is a very poor comment to a bereaved relative and that she should find a better way to communicate.
• I had discussed with Shelly that dad wished to see mum in her coffin and had arranged for this to take place on the Wednesday’s visit. Despite several phone calls and reassurances that mum’s body would be prepared and dressed in the clothes we had delivered in advance, this had not been done. Dad was mentally prepared to see his wife of 67 years and we then had to arrange to bring him a second time. Not easy or considerate for a man of his age.
• When my dad, brother and dad’s carer came this second time to view mum’s body, the carer observed the plaque on the side of the coffin has spelled DIED as DIAD. Such poor attention to detail once again, requiring yet another call.
• The final coordination meeting for the funeral was conducted at 16:00 the day prior. This felt uncomfortably adjacent to the actual funeral the next day. We confirmed the details and conduct of proceedings including routing between venues, highlighting that Church Rd in Woodley was closed to traffic and they would need to take an alternative route. I took down Sally’s mobile number as the agreed coordination number should there be a need to speak on the day of the funeral.
• On the day of the funeral, I had met with Sally and the hearse driver at dad’s house. We proceeded to drive the short distance from dad’s house to church in a convoy of some 5 cars. The hearse driver took the wrong turn within moments, and I called our agreed contact number, which she did not answer. It took several wrong turns and the whole convoy stuck in a road with no access for her to realise. Apparently, Sally had put walk-mode into the satnav. Unfortunately, she then proceeded to take another wrong route, and we ended up some 20 mins late to the church.
• After the funeral, I was confused as to why the hearse stayed put outside the church for so long, as we had a fixed time slot for the crematorium and were already at least 20 mins late due to the delayed mentioned above. I asked the driver when they planned to leave and she said ‘whenever we like’. As someone who has not had to arrange many funerals, I would have expected the title of ‘Funeral Director’ to include some actual direction and help. I asked them to leave immediately and we then arrived with just 5 mins of our time slot left at the crematorium.
• On arriving at the crematorium, it was confusing to find that our chapel only had a notice of cremation for another person at 3pm, and no note at all of mum’s service at 12.45.
• On leaving the crematorium, we asked where to go next and how we take the flowers to the wake. Sally pointed right and said to go that way and we would find the garden on remembrance and they would bring the flowers. We did as ‘directed’ and found ourselves joining a group of people from a different funeral, no garden in sight. After much wandering around we found the garden of remembrance and waited.
• After waiting for nearly half an hour after the cremation, having already been delayed at every stage of the proceedings, the funeral staff were nowhere to be seen and the flowers had been left in the building. We fetched them ourselves and proceeded, very late, to join other friends and relatives for the wake. This was the only part of the whole day that went smoothly, and was the only part that had no input from the Co-Op.

I fully understand that mistakes can happen as this is part of human nature. However, the naumachy of instances led to excessive coordination and my losing faith in the ability of the funeral directors. The family chose to coordinate the Order of Service, flowers, Church Services independently and the extras offered for the coffin, motorcade, music and photographs were all declined. This was largely due to the interaction with the funeral directors. They remained, calm, polite and incompetent to deal appropriately with the detail required to deliver an adequate service.

My mum’s ashes remain with the funeral directors, and we will collect them when coordinated. I only ask that you review the performance of head office staff who take the initial call so they can move beyond reading a script to demonstrating empathy and competence with their role. I would wish Earley Funeral Directors is subject to a review. They must move beyond pleasantries and achieve a valuable attention to detail and competence which helps ensure an adequate service is provided.

The Co-Op is a large institution, and your reputation has been negatively impacted through the handling of my Mum’s funeral. I would wish to close off this episode and will clarify any points are they are helpful to you to appropriately deal with the issues, but I do not wish to debate whether my opinions about what has been observed are justified. Please understand the family remains astonished and disappointed with the service provided.

Yours sincerely

5 Keith Tiney 2nd Nov 2023

The staff were extremely helpful. as I live in London and they helped me with the process .

5 Ian Selinger 17th Oct 2023

Everyone was very helpful getting the funeral organised in double quick time. Went the extra mile to overcome the bureaucracy.

5 Kevin Atkins 19th Sep 2023

The care and guidance given by the staff was first class. My family and I had no concerns whatsoever as to our we were helped in the planning of our mother's funeral.

5 Margaret Weller 11th Sep 2023

Very caring and helpful from beginning to end.

The funeral itself ran very smoothly and professionally .

Colin's family could not have wanted anything more.

5 Tracy Thurston 29th Aug 2023

Organising a funeral for a loved one is never easy but I thank you for the help & guidance at such a very sad time in our lives. 

5 Sandra Barkwith 29th Aug 2023

Very helpful and considerate staff. Julian's burial went as planned.

5 Karen Rudman 29th Aug 2023

Excellent service from the Coop staff (thank you Shelley, Sally, and the driver of the limousine)

Staff very caring, empathetic. Explained options / choices

4 Bhupinder Rani 29th Aug 2023

Service was very good and staff is very polite and took care of our feelings 🙏I'm very happy with your service. Will recommend to others.

5 Carolyn Shakerchi 21st Aug 2023

Earley Funeralcare were professional, supportive and caring throughout the whole funeral process

5 Jane Cahill 16th Aug 2023

Great service thank you

5 Diane Osgood 8th Aug 2023

We are very grateful for the kindness and sympathy shown to us when arranging the funeral of our mum. The whole process was easy to organise and we had a wonderful service. Many thanks to all involved. Ian and Diane

5 Patricia Clough 9th Jul 2023

Very kind and gentle treatment at a difficult time, thank you. P. Clough daughter

5 Sonika Hartley 3rd Jul 2023

Made the whole process simple. Nothing was too much trouble. Would definitely recommend.

5 Jacqueline Jarvis 3rd Jul 2023

The team of Shelley and Sally were very compassionate and made what could have been a very difficult time  so much easier than we had imagined. Attention to detail ensuring that we had enough time to cover our options. Shelley’s recommendation for Rebecca as our celebrant was just perfect and fitted our requirements perfectly, speaking as though she knew our Dad personally. Would thoroughly recommend.

3 Valarie Fountain 22nd Jun 2023

Very disappointed with the service we received 

5 Ben Clarke 19th Jun 2023

Brilliant and efficient funeral directors. 

5 Susan Tweedie 19th Jun 2023

Everyone was kind and considerate. They were so helpful and respectful. The service provided was first class and could not have been better. The  funeral service was lovely and beautifully done.

5 Steven Cook 19th Jun 2023

Very helpfull and understanding did mum proud.
Made us all feel at ease at a very difficult time.

3 Theresa Newman 17th Jan 2023

When we arrived, Toniann was very warm and friendly but did not have the details of Dads Funeral plan as she was waiting on a document from us. I feel maybe this appointment could have been postponed until she was in receipt of the Document and Funeral plan and Dads wishes as she was unable to advise if Dad had any wishes.



Communication was poor throughout, a couple of examples below:-

Yvonne telephoned and spoke to Toniann to say the flowers had been ordered and gave her the details of the florist. I spoke to Toniann that same day and she told me that she had spoken to Yvonne, yet a couple of days later we received an email from her chasing the details of the flowers. Yvonne phoned her again.

I approved the Order of Service, my Brother Ray made a couple of changes added a photo and the Logo, I assumed this was approved between Ray and Toniann after the changes were made. Toniann then sent an email a few days later to say she needed approval by the Monday Morning. I had already approved the order of service before the additional changes, this needed to be checked with Ray as he made them. Why not pick up the phone and call Ray, everyone wants to hide behind an email these days.

I sent a word document of the plan for the day, yet Toniann phoned me to ask me what the plan was? she obviously did not read the document.

I was just getting in my car to drive to Dads the day before the funeral and I got a call from Lez, the Funeral Driver to ask me what the plans were ? all he knew was that he was picking us up at 12.30, he wasn't sure of the address. I said did you receive the plan of the day I sent to Toniann? he said no. He didn't have a clue about the details, I gave him dads address, The Travellers Rest address and who the Pall bearers were and who was traveling in the limousine. I had to go through this with him over the phone the day before when I had already put it in writing, surely this was Toniann's Job

I felt there was very little guidance in regards to the Order of Service and the Eulogy. I was hoping that the printers would go through some design ideas and show us some examples. how do display the photos, what we could include etc, I googled examples myself. If you were a person that was not computer literate you probably would struggle with the Eulogy and Order of Service and what to select in regards to poems, hymns and family memories.

Ray had told Toniann that he had power of attorney and was looking looking after Dads Estate, However, Toniann sent the invoices to me, I have then had to go to the post office, buy a stamp and pop them in the post to my brother Ray, Toniann could of just sent them to Ray directly, not very helpful.

My partners father died a few weeks later, Organising his funeral was so much easier and nicer. The Funeral Company sent us a Link and all we had to do was download the photos and the Poems, Eulogy, any other additional information. We could select a charity, music, we could select a candle and choose how many days we would like it to burn for, order flowers. order cars. all information was held on this one link, this link was then used by the funeral home to put the order of service together check the eulogy, really took the stress away from us. The link then is sent to those that cannot attend and they could watch a live stream from the link. We also selected 25 photos that would be displayed in a loop during the ceremony, what a lovely touch

I felt I lead and organised most of the Funeral with very little guidance. I have only ever organised one before so can't really make much of a comparison really, but having just completed my father-in-laws, I think you certainly have room for improvement and better ways of helping people rather than leaving them to there own devises when they are already in an emotional state

4 David Hazell 17th Jan 2023

Very good but our first meeting was in their local office that they had closed and was very cold as there didn't appear to be any heating on. But their attention to detail and organising and emotional support was excellent.