Dayton Memorial Park Cemetery and Mausoleum — Attraction in Vandalia

The worst Cemetery I've ever visited. I have many family there and they just do a terrible job would not recommend the cemetery to anybody. They try to pass off the trees that are dying and they're having to cut down off on the customers like help them by trees. NO Cemetery it's your responsibility you know the insurance done paid you for them. They personally taken upon themselves do anything they want to cut your trees cut your bushes stuff that's been there for 50-60 years they decide they don't like it they just take it down even when it does not interfere with maintenance of the property. New management and ownership sucks they have no care for your family whatsoever all they want is the money. When my mother passed I have to go to their office and settle final arrangements for opening the grave a grave that was already paid for and ahead of time they talk like to me like I was a dirty dog and told me if I was one second late coming across their Bridge it was going to cost me $375 in overtime. This Cemetery has no feelings they are cold and heartless all they want is your MONEY that is it, just your money and they want to do what they want to do. THEY POST NEW REGULATIONS THAT THE BOARD MEMBERS HAVE APPROVED AS OF MAY OF 2018 BUT THEY'RE SO ASHAMED OF IT THAT THEY HIDE IT IN THE VERY BACK OF THE CEMETERY INSTEAD OF PUTTING IT OUT FRONT FOR ALL THE VISITORS WHO ENTER TO SEE.....!!!... IF YOU HAVE PLOTS AT THE CEMETERY SELL THEM SELL THEM RIGHT AWAY BECAUSE THEY WILL NOT TAKE CARE OF YOU OR YOUR FAMILY THAT'S LEFT BEHIND ...OR YOUR HEADSTONES OR MARKERS THEY WILL DO NOTHING FOR YOU. AND DON'T BE TRICKED BY THEM...WHILE WE CAN CARVE THE FINAL RESTING DATE ON YOUR STONE FOR $200 ...WHEN YOU CAN WALK RIGHT A CROSS THE STREET TO DODDS AND IT'S $50 LESS AND THEY DO A BETTER JOB. IF I HAD THE MONEY TO MOVE REMOVE MY FAMILY FROM THE CEMETERY I WOULD DO IT IN A HEARTBEAT BECAUSE THIS IS MOST WORST CEMETERY YOU COULD EVER DECIDE TO HAVE YOUR...

I would not recommend doing business here!! Unprofessional staff that has tried to take every nickel and dime from my grieving family during the most difficult time of our lives.

My mother recently passed away this last January (2021). My family and I decided to bury her ashes next to her parents at Dayton Memorial Park Cemetery for a place of remembrance.

During our consultation, we worked with Anne regarding my mother's burial arrangements and pricing on January 12, 2021. After agreeing to the terms/pricing, we paid a total amount of nearly $3K (grave, granite marker, marker install). After final payment, Anne then informed us she had "forgotten" another $725.00 fee for the open/closing of my mother's grave (digging a small hole for the urn/ashes). We agreed to pay the fee, even though it was very unprofessional for an establishment to charge an additional price after final payment agreement. Again, mistakes happen.

Fast forward to months later... My family was still waiting on her marker to be finished (months late with no update, we had to call the establishment for any updates) After her marker was finally complete, we were planning to schedule her burial, where we were then informed that we would have to pay an ADDITIONAL $725.00 to bury her during the weekend. Anne told us we had agreed upon this during our consultation, which was NOT THE CASE AT ALL. She had supposedly given us a document that stated it was only Monday - Friday, which was never given to us. We have out of town family and would have never agreed to do the burial during the work week / week days. This clause was never communicated to my family and I, nor did we agree upon such. This cemetery is distrustful and has continued to squeeze every dime out of my family.

WOULD NOT RECOMMEND DOING...

Today, (May 25th, 2024), we went to put flowers on the graves of several family members who are buried here. When we got to my sister and brother-in-law's graves, his footstone appeared to be missing. We drove to the office and the person there quickly looked up the section where they were buried. She called right away to get someone to meet us by the grave site. Within less than 5 minutes, Jordan and Larry joined us at the grave site. Jordan discovered our brother-in-law's foot stone had been covered by a couple inches of dirt because of recent storms. He told us they would clean up the footstone and the area around the grave. In less than ten minutes, he came back with Jack and the two of them worked quickly to clean the footstone. When Jordan realized we had a flag but not the military flag holder he and left and got us one. He even remembered that our brother-in-law had served in Vietnam as the flag holder was one specifically for someone who served there. My husband and I were so impressed with the level of service we received. Larry, Jordan, and Jack made sure that we were able to put out our flowers and pay our respects to our family members. Many thanks to Dayton Memorial Cemetary and their staff for a...