Palm Valley Funeral Home

Losing someone you hold dear in your heart is never easy. You have to manage to grieve, to be there for everyone else who is grieving, you have to hold back anger, and feel a thousand other emotions all at the same time. With death, it extends further then emotional damage, too; death slaps you with a million other responsibilities that barely leaves you time for mourning.
The most important responsibility after losing someone, of course, is arranging the cremation or burial service. The problem with this: how pricey these services can be. This scared me more than anything…
On a more personal level, I am only 19 years old. My father passed away 3 weeks ago. I have very little money, I can count my family members on one hand, and I have no one in this world who is willing to help me financially. My father was my best friend in this whole world, and he has been since day one. I was stressed to the roof on how I’m going to handle such a life altering experience. Emotionally and financially.
Palm Valley Funeral Home was a thousand times better than I expected it to be. I thought I was going to walk into a place full of pre-​written speeches and people that pretend they care so deeply about what you’re going through then slap a bill of a thousand dollars in front of you. None of this was the case here.
I wasn’t even there for 5 minutes before Jeremy had me laughing about some bet he had made with his wife. (I can never express how great it felt to laugh after spending the passed two days wanting to do nothing more then cry my eyes out). Him and Audra both were oddly comforting to be around. I feel like it was due to them not drowning me in apologies and fake sympathy. On top of that, they were more then understanding about my financial situation. They helped me more than I could ever ask for.
Palm Valley Funeral Home is an amazing place. I would recommend this to anyone. On top of the amazing people, their prices are great, too. They made a seemingly impossible task, more then possible.
Jeremy, I couldn’t thank you enough in a hundred lifetimes.

I hate to leave negative reviews for businesses, but this is just a business you MUST avoid — especially during the time where you need to minimize stress, just after you lost a loved one.
The below is lengthy — so here’s the Reader’s Digest:
**Poorly managed
**Can’t meet deadlines set by their own team
**Can’t maintain or meet their commitment
**Can’t correctly copy information from death certificate application for submission.
**Can’t follow families wishes for privacy and mourning
**Makes excuses for every step along the way
*Poor management; failure to maintain commitment:
On 8/​21, my father passed away; that same day, I met with Palm Valley who handled the cremation and death certificate services for us. When we met with Jeremy, he asked us to complete the applications for death certificates along with providing some additional information. Throughout the entire process, I informed them that I would be handling all matters related to my father’s death, as my mother was mourning his loss. I instructed them to call me directly for all matters for a particular reason, nonetheless.
During the consultation on Thursday, 8/​21, we expressed that we would like to have the services the coming Monday (⁸⁄₂₅). Reasonably so, they told us it was not realistic to have the cremation complete by then, but that the cremation would be complete on Monday or Tuesday. Thus, services were slated for Friday morning. Thursday mid-​day, after not hearing from the Palm Valley folks, I called to find out when to pickup my fathers remains. Only to find out, that they did not have them back yet. I was told to expect a return phone call shortly, with a pick-​up time for Friday morning (cutting it close, right?!). Well, that return call didn’t come, and at closing time, I decided to call them back again. The answer I got? «You can pick up Friday AFTERNOON.» which was then corrected to be «I mean, Friday morning». Stressful, aye?
Friday morning, 9am, I arrived to pick up my father’s remains. Turns out, per the label on the container, HE WASN’T EVEN CREMATED UNTIL THURSDAY. Obviously someone dropped a very, very significant, metaphoric ball.
——
*Death Certificate; gross errors.
During that mess, I inquired as to the status of the death certificates, was promised that those to would be submitted on that very Monday/​Tuesday. That turned out to be a lie. One week past due, I decided to inquire yet again (after Labor Day). I was told that everything was submitted and that «due to the labor day holiday, ‘the County’ was backed up» and they would be ready the following week.
The following week, I inquired again and was told «Oh, we called *his wife* last week and told her they were ready». When I reminded them about the «only call me for any and all matters» part of our conversations, I was told «Oh, well the staff made a mistake». I was told to come pick them up anytime 9a-​5pm. At 4:10pm the following day, after a 1.5hr drive from Mesa, I arrived at Palm Valley to pickup said certificates only to find the door locked. I called, and was told they had to close early for a «family matter» as they are a «family owned business» and was told I could come back at 9am tomorrow. Sure, no problem — not your gas, time, or missed work, right? Well, I complied, and arrived shortly after 9am the following day. Much to my surprise, they had the death certificates! Those death certificates had not one small error, but 4 – 5 GROSS errors. Not even remotely close to what I put on the application. I expressed such concerns, and asked to retrieve my application — sure enough, they can’t seem to copy english from one from to another. When I inquired about the mistakes, I was told «the staff clearly made a mistake» and that it was something that Andrew had to «talk to the staff about».
He tried to make up for it… he said first thing Monday morning we would have the corrected certificates and his «staff» would call me from the County and hand deliver. Well, by 4pm Monday (yesterday) I didn’t receive his call. I called. The answer? «Oh yeah, that darn county’s system is just so screwy, they aren’t done doing their ‘verifications’» and that the certificates would be expected tomorrow. He said he personally would be going to the County first thing in the morning to pick them up, and that he would call me. Did I get a call? No. Do I have the certificates? No.
I will go to the County tomorrow and handle everything myself.