NEVER USE DOVES TABLEVIEW - EVER AGAIN!

When my Father passed away in 2004 Doves presented the utmost professional service in the time of our bereavement. They came to our house to remove his remains, also to settle all required paperwork, they arranged flowers, the placement and removal of the coffin in the church and the sprinkling of his aches in the cemetery garden of remembrance. Fast forward to two weeks ago, i.e. 20 September 2021, when my dear Mother passed away. Doves Table View managed to turn this already tragic event into one of trauma. It started when they arrived at the scene (our house) where my Sister and oldest Daughter have been nursing my bedridden Mom (she was paralyzed from the neck down) for the past 11 months. My daughter had called the local neighbourhood-watch who arrived first on the scene. Then the paramedics. Afterwards Doves came to collect the body. My daughter took oversaw this activity to spare my traumatized sister further anguish. The one Dove employee totally unsympathetically stated that 'he suppose he should check if she (my Mom) is really dead'! Upon which he nonchalantly lifted and dropped the blanket that my mom was covered with and said: 'Yep, she's dead'.!!! As if this was not enough, we called Doves to hear what must happen next - when we were told that we must come to them (approx. 25km drive) to finalize the necessary documentation, but that we must first go to a doctor and 'get a death certificate'. Our house doctor told us this was not normal procedure and that she will sort out the issue with Doves - which she thankfully did. Arriving at Doves, my Sister and I were told that the funeral policy on my Mom's name 'covered everything', from taking the casket to the church, where it shall be pushed in on a trolley before the service and removed by Doves after the service -(we chose not to have bearers). Also included will be flowers and a 'shroud' over the casket. We had 'nothing further to worry about' related to the burial - we were told... But then - the next day the manager of Doves Table View called us telephonically, to tell us that 'your mommy was a bit big for the casket' and that a bigger casket is going to cost R3300 (approx) 'extra'! Also there is not enough money for flowers and for placing a death notice in the newspaper. We checked up with the Funeral Policy and found that R800 was included for placing such an ad. The Doves guy however said that R800 is not enough so a notice would not be placed. We asked if the R800 is then credited back to the policy if the facility is not going to be used - upon which he rep**** 'no'. We asked why not? He simply said 'that's the way it works' (so in other words, they score R800 in stead of crediting it against the extra R3000 for the larger coffin!!) Arriving at the church, we found the coffin inside the he****, without any flowers or 'schroud', with only the driver to off-load it and cart it into the church. So I had to help the driver get the coffin out of the he****, onto the trolley, and push it into the church - where the service was ready to start!! After prayers, I had to get up and help the driver remove the casket from the church (in front of all attending the service) and load it into the he****. After all of the above I shall NEVER USE OR RECOMMEND THE SERVICE OF DOVES EVER AGAIN!!!!