Ocean View Funeral Home & Burial Park — Local services in Burnaby

Giving 1 star for the way my little sister’s allergic reaction was handled at the funeral reception.

My family and I went to a funeral here. At the reception, my 14-year old sister grabbed a cookie from the snack table and took 1 bite. She instantly started to feel her mouth tingle. She has a mild allergy to peanuts, and we found out that there were peanuts in the cookies, however there was no allergy warning sign at the food table. I quickly notified the staff of this, not with the intention to blame, but to simply provide them with feedback on how to improve their services and prevent situations like this from happening in the future, however the reception staff supervisor (middle aged blonde woman with glasses) approached us with indifference. She told us that the family who planned this funeral should have alerted them of allergies and “if there are no allergy warning signs, then we should always assume that there are nuts in the food”. I responded back saying that usually it would be the opposite (if you work in the food industry, you should clearly communicate what ingredients are in the food item), and to prevent this from happening in the future, they should consider putting up allergy warning signs.

Rather than meeting us with empathy and compassion, we were met with defensiveness and an insincere apology. The reception staff told us that putting up allergy warnings “is not how they do things here” told us to carry an epipen next time. First of all, she had no right to tell us how to handle my sisters’ allergic reaction without knowing the full extent of it. I explained that we don’t carry epipens because my sister’s peanut allergy isn’t anaphylactic. She then responded with “well I’m glad that it’s not anaphylactic” and walked away.

Secondly, I understand that the reception staff sounded defensive because she didn’t want to be held liable for allergic reactions, however the way she had navigated this conversation was inexcusable, dismissive and extremely insensitive. I am shocked to have experienced this kind of customer service, especially at a funeral home, where we would expect guests to be treated with compassionate in a time of grief.

My sister’s allergic reactions are usually mild, however 1.5 hours later after ingesting the cookie, my sister unfortunately went through one of the most severe allergic reaction for the first time in her life - wheezing, cough and throat tightness, and this put my sister and my family through a lot of unnecessary stress.

If putting up allergy warning signs is “not how they do things”, then management should truly RE-EVALUATE how they “do things” and make the necessary changes to their safety practices/protocols in order to protect their customers and prevent these situations from happening in the first place. This was the most insensitive and disheartening customer service I’ve ever received from a funeral home, and the staff had the ability to handle this situation better, but sadly, didn’t.

UPDATE: 3 days later, I received a phone call from the funeral home director expressing their apologies and letting me know they’d follow up with the reception staff about this and will consider making some changes, such as putting up signs. I do appreciate this follow up and am thankful for their...

I would like to send our best compliments to all staff at Ocean View Funeral Home & Burial Park who have delivered excellent service for our family member's burial. In particular, we would like to express our appreciation to Jennifer Whatley as our main contact from the beginning, and Carlo as the operation chief on the day of the funeral. Both of them have paid meticulous attention to details and assisted us greatly during our most fragile state of mood. Personally I have experienced bad service from Valley Views who have changed their attitude to "no care" once the family decided to purchase a different casket from a third party instead of through Valley View. However, Ocean View staff maintained their compassion, professionalism and high quality of service even though we purchased casket from a third party company. We couldn't say enough times how caring and understanding the staff at Ocean View have been, and their fast response time was immediate and impressive answers with productive suggestions. Ocean View would definitely be our first and only choice in terms of funeral service and would highly recommend to anyone who have to arrange for the last stage in life for their loved...

I recently had to arrange for the funeral of my father. Ocean View made the process clear and simple, and pretty much free of stress. I appreciated the professionalism and empathy of the staff in the preparation stage as well as on the day itself. I feel that the funeral unfolded beyond expectations. In my grief, I had prepared two slideshows on Powerpoint, but discovered only the night before that Ocean View didn't have this capability to display the presentation while I read my eulogy. Despite this, the Funeral Director was able to work with my husband to present my eulogy in a seamless way. The guests were very impressed as well. Following the funeral, we had a reception on-site. The catering was well done, reflecting both western and Chinese food. At the burial site, it had stopped raining, and instead of waiting for another day to set the marker, they were able to do everything that afternoon. I was so grateful that Dad would be with Mom and that it was all completed. Overall, I found the experience very positive and I feel a sense of calm and dignity when I visit...