O. W. Ellis Funeral Directors

### My Experience

I recently had an appointment with this funeral company regarding my mum’s funeral. Initially, everything seemed to go very well. A number of options were discussed as part of the funeral payment plan, and at first I felt that we were being looked after.

However, when I explained that I was applying for a grant to help cover my mum’s funeral costs, the experience changed completely. Jeanette told me that an **85% deposit had to be paid within 24 hours** and that nothing further could be done until that payment was made.

The very next morning, at around 9:02am, Jeanette called me and told me that she had already booked my mum’s funeral and had a date and time arranged. I was completely taken aback. I had been told that nothing could be done until the 85% deposit had been paid, so I could not understand why the funeral had suddenly been booked. At that point, I told her that I would not be proceeding with the company.

I came away from this experience feeling **totally let down, destroyed and extremely upset**. At a time when I was already dealing with the devastating loss of my mum, I needed compassion, understanding and guidance. Instead, I felt as though I was being treated more like a salesperson’s customer than a grieving daughter trying to arrange her mum’s funeral.

I understand that funeral companies are businesses and that costs and payments have to be discussed. However, when dealing with people who are experiencing total grief, there needs to be a much greater level of sensitivity, compassion and understanding.

I genuinely feel that this company needs to **re-address how its staff communicate with grieving families and consider further training in compassion, empathy and bereavement care**. Staff need to recognise what their customers are actually going through emotionally. These are not ordinary customers making an ordinary purchase — these are people who have just lost someone they love.

I sincerely hope the company takes my experience seriously and uses it as an opportunity to review and retrain its staff, because no grieving family should leave a funeral director feeling as **destroyed, upset and let down as I did**.

Sadly, based on my experience, I would not recommend this company to another family at such an incredibly difficult and vulnerable time.

The OW Ellis team were very helpful and supportive throughout arranging our mums funeral. Information was clear and sensitively shared. The actual funeral was delivered with the utmost respect for our mum and consideration for the bereaved family's needs.

Thank you to all involved

I was happy with the care my husband was given, no funeral but straight to cremation. Only problem was access to Shotton premises, parking was a problem as I use a wheelchair.