The Co-operative Funeralcare delivers compassionate service with a 4.5/5 rating, but is significantly undermined by serious operational failures at certain branches including poor communication, administrative errors, and unmet commitments.
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We had a very disappointing experience with the Fleet, Hampshire branch which included, but was not limited to, staff changes without informing us so no continuity, meetings at their office weren't prepared for e.g. still printing out paperwork after we arrived and not having details of the funeral bond, our meetings were interrupted several times with customers knocking at the door and the attendant leaving us to deal with these unscheduled visitors at a very sensitive time. The final insult was on the day of the funeral the premises had been locked up incorrectly the previous evening and no one could get inside resulting in our dear Mum literally being late for her own funeral! It was so lucky there wasn't another service booked at the crematorium or our service would have had to be cut short. I would highly recommend NOT using the Coop in Fleet. At what was an extremely upsetting, sensitive time, the way we were treated with disorganisation, lack of communication and little empathy made the whole experience much worse.
One piece of advice- be careful not to over pay for the funeral. I've had a fight on my hands for weeks now for a refund. They will not give me my money back. The co-op, whom I trusted and have been a member of for years. Avoid at all costs.
What can I say!!!!, I've just read some of the reviews and they all seem very happy with there experience with the coop, so why us!!!, our experience was dreadful from day one and we couldn't wait for it to be over so we could just grieve for our poor mum , our mum had a funeral plan all paid for to save us from any problems, well that's a joke !!!! Because nearly TEN months later we are informed by the vicar that he can't approve our headstones as THE COOP HAVEN'T PAID THEM FOR THE GRAVE!!!!!!, what the hell is going on ????? , we don't deserve this , as a family we have been through enough, why are the coop doing this to us , and they just DON'T seem to care, I really hope this review makes people think about a pre planned paid up front is maybe not worth it, as in our case it's been nothing but a heart ache ,
I want to start by saying that this review does not reflect on Nicole who is only covering the hazlemere branch and is quite new to the job, our family lost dad in 2023 his death was traumatic to say the least, medical neglect of the highest degree, at the same time mum was diagnosed with altzheimers, he was cremated in hythe we used hythe coop, cant fault them at all everything was 1st class the attention to detail went above and beyond. Then we lost mum 10 months later, again her death was traumatic and devastating, again medical and care negligence, mum and dad have both got a funeral plan with coop, I was a funeral director and I got them to get a plan. The very place I worked in was now going to doing my mums funeral, the whole thing was awful absolutely no care shown, calls not returned, emails ignored, nearly 6 weeks till we were able to lay my beautiful mum to rest, we had to wait weeks for a funeral date as they could not get cars organised and we had to speak to church as they had not spoken to the vicar, funeral director on the day looked like she had slept in her clothes unironed scruffy, my mum would have been mortified, I was recovering from a nervous breakdown and could not deal with any of it at the time, now 10 months on and we have applied to have the headstone approved by the church, only to be told that they could not approved as coop funeral had not paid them for burial/interment fee even after emails and calls, 10 months !!!!! after breaking down on the phone and feeling totally broken, I was told that they would sort it immediately, 2 weeks on emails and calls I've got told today 2 weeks from the first call that they still have not paid call back in a couple of weeks, making it 1 month, I've tried to put across how much this has set me back only to have my email ignored by the wendover branch (diane) who was dealing with it as lady in hazlemere does not know enough about plans, absolutely no compassion or empathy what so ever, I've put in a formal complaint but which does not make me feel any better, spoke to someone last week promised a phone call, that didnt happen either .I feel broken AGAIN, back to square one, your staff need a lesson in care and empathy, its pretty obvious that coop lose money on funeral plans and thats why they dont care about the deceased or the family, just another body to you guys well that body was MY MUM and she didn't deserve to be treated like this, apologies wont cut it fed up with the lies.
After losing my son in January I entrusted the Farnborough branch as my family had been using them for the past 40+ years. What a mistake this was! So many errors made by Kerrie the worst being I was unable to say a final goodbye to my boy! The lack of communication and efficiency caused such added heart break and turmoil. Please don't let this happen to your loved ones....
Based on 40 verified customer reviews, The Co-operative Funeralcare - Southern Co-op holds an average rating of 4.5 out of 5 — rated Great on ReviewTerminal. 88% of customers gave 4 or 5 stars.