Holy Cross Cemetery & Mortuary — Attraction in Culver City

I was initially satisfied with the planning & services of my mother's visitation & funeral. Things like no staff knowing how to operate the coffee maker in the reception room on the night of my mom's visitation did not affect me. A family member figured it out after a 15 min google search. However, the delay and run around I have gotten since regarding my mom's death certificates has caused me to now be extremely frustrated & disappointed. On 11/23/18, my family & I met with staff to plan services for my mother. We ordered 10 copies of her death certificates at this time. We were told death certificates would take 2-3 weeks to arrive. After 2 weeks, I called to inquire about them. The rep replied that they weren't in yet and would take 2 weeks from burial date (as opposed to date of death). Fine. However after waiting the additional 2 weeks with no call from Holy Cross, I called for an update. I was told they still hadn't arrived and the delay may be due to the Xmas holidays. Long story short ... I call at least once every week to follow up on the death certificates. Time & time again I was told, "they haven't come in yet but we will call you as soon as they arrive". On 1/9/19 (almost 6 weeks since my mom's burial), I called our mortuary rep, Marina. After she told me the certificates were still not in, I asked her if I could get a "working copy" of a death certificate as my mom's estate attorneys could not even give my family an appointment without at least a "working copy" from the mortuary. Marina said she had to ask her manager about this but she would get back to me. On 1/15/19, I called Marina to follow up on not just the Certified Death Certificates but also the "working copy" that I had requested. Unfortunately, she was not working that day. After expressing my frustration about the delay, I was transferred to Angela, who assured me that she had just spoke to someone who confirmed that the death certificates were ready and implied it was the county's fault that they hadn't been picked up. She added that someone was retrieving it and the certificates would be at their office by later that afternoon or the following afternoon at the latest. But guess what? I called the following day and they are not there. It was back to "we'll call you as soon as they arrive". This is unacceptable! It's bad enough that my family and I are still grieving the loss of my mother, but we can't even move forward in settling her affairs until we receive Certified Copies of her Death Certificates! I email our rep, Marina, to share my frustration and ask for the date the certificates were ordered because now I am suspecting no one even ordered them. No reply. So today, 1/21/19, I call Holy Cross again. I am put on hold for at least 30 min only to get cut off. Finally I'm able to speak with Angela, who is now back-tracking her statement from last week and now can't even tell me if the certificates were ordered. And because today is a holiday (MLK), she cannot give me more info. You would think that after all my calls, someone would be alerted to the fact that there is an unusual delay with my mom's death certificates and perhaps they should investigate the problem. So, 8 weeks after my mom's death, I still have no idea when I will receive the certificates and I feel like no one at Holy Cross cares to find out what happened to them. Thankfully, I found where I can file a complaint online ... cfb.ca.gov. Including my mother, I have 7 family members buried at Holy Cross. I have 7 more family members who have pre-paid plots there. Unfortunately, we will now think long and hard about having future services there through...

My mom died in May 2021 and for many years, my mom told my brothers and me exactly what hymns she wanted to be sung and what Psalms she want to be read at her funeral. This place did not give my mom the funeral she wanted. My mom did not want to be placed in a plastic vault, she thought it looked like a styrofoam cooler, she wanted to be in a concrete vault, and the mortuary rep said they were all out. On the day of my mom's funeral, there were all kinds of concrete vaults scattered throughout the cemetery. We want to pay or put a down payment on the funeral on the day we met with the mortuary representative, except the rep took off, so we had to pay the day of the funeral which I believe is wrong if a family wants to pay, let them. Why make a difficult day worse by haggling over money. My parents bought their plots and headstone years ago (it has been ten months since her funeral and they still have not put the date on their headstone), so Holy Cross had lost money on the deal. I believe the mortuary rep was upset because we did not order the most expensive coffin, my mom did not want us spending thousands of dollars on a coffin that would be seen for an hour or so and then have it put six feet under where no one would ever see it again. We did not purchase flowers through them either because of the markup on them. We did not have our mom made up because she wanted a closed casket, less money for them. My mom would haunt us until the day we died if we spent needlessly. These people at Holy Cross Cemetery are no better than the moneychangers and the merchants that Our Lord whipped and drove out...

Funeral Service planning has been poor. My father's final wishes were to have his service at Holy Cross Culver City, just as his wife. He is survived by 3 children, 2 older which live out of state, and the other in the LA area. The Holy Cross Culver City coordinator for our Father's service is Marina Luna. My sister and I have called and text Marina multiple times (no less than 7 times) to inquire about questions we have in regards to our Father's funeral service on 1/7/2025, because just as we will be coming from out of state, we have extended family reaching out to us as they would like more information before making travel arrangements from out of city &/or state. Marina Luna's lack of responsiveness is a reflection of her and Holy Cross lack of compassion and caring for those going through a grievance, and compounds the families stress during these difficult times. Heed caution if Marina is your assigned coordinator and ask for someone else, especially if out of city/state.

12/29/2024: I am still waiting on Marina or a manager to contact me since Holy Cross response.

We are 1 week away from the funeral service and Holy Cross lack of customer service/communication is causing stress to the family unnecessarily. Strongly...