Appalling!

In line with stringent Covid regulations which prohibited a large attendance at funerals, we were initially advised by the AVBOB Team in Kempton Park that it would be possible to accommodate a private live-stream of my mum’s funeral. Despite repeated requests for the link to this inclusion, it was not until two days before the service that AVBOB admitted that their standard streaming service would not, in any way, be private to our family but, instead, would be broadcasted and saved to their public Facebook page. With a simple search for “Saying Goodbye memorial services” and a quick click of the ‘like’ button, absolutely anyone could watch what we had hoped would be a relatively private affair. Had we been properly notified of this bizarre option in our first meeting with AVBOB, alternate arrangements could have been better prepared by us. Instead, we suffered through a variety of confusing and contradictory updates from the AVBOB Team, before concluding, by their own admission, that they had no idea how their own technical offerings worked.

With the mid-week update from them that a 1 meter coffin had been secured for my 1.65 meter tall mother, and the fact that “she would need to be repaired” before anyone was able to make a visitation with her body, we were left with a feeling of utter disbelief at the complete lack of empathy from the AVBOB Team.

In my wildest dreams, I also never imagined that I would ever undertake a ‘professional’ business call with someone in the background repeatedly yelling out the word F@*K.

Firmly believing that things could only improve on the day of the funeral, we arrived to find a male member of the team casually picking away at the bare feet of a female member of the team, with a blasé explanation that ingrown toenails had become a concern. Absolutely no effort was made to stem these activities while the order of the day was discussed with them.

A closer inspection of the ‘Chapel’ supported that it had not been properly cleaned in some time, with memorial pages from many previous services being left strewn around the room and stacked haphazardly behind the altar.

Although the Covid registration sheet provided for our party was headed with the name of an unrelated person, the request made for the correct print-out was simply met with the suggestion that we “scratch that name out and replace it with today’s deceased”. We are yet to have our temperatures checked.

An obvious chip missing from the laminate veneer on the front lid of the coffin was the final insult to our family.

In an industry saturated with other options, one would imagine that a team like this would conduct themselves with grace and compassion. Instead we were repeatedly met with insolent contempt and extreme apathy at every turn. You should be ashamed of yourselves.