Forest Lawn — Local services in Covina

Arnet Sanders (Memorial Counselor) gets a zero rating. He is a horrible non caring person & nobody going through a grieving process should ever have to work with a person like him. In May 2019, we lost our beloved sister, at a very young age of 61. Her passing was unexpected. She had the flu which led to pneumonia which was not able to survive. So you can imagine the emotions we were going through in making arrangements for her Memorial Service. In 2016, we had lost our mother & I worked with a great lady (Memorial Counselor) at Forest Lawn. Unfortunately, she no longer works there. Therefore, we were assigned Arnet Sanders. He was unprepared for our meeting. My sister's two sons were out of state, therefore, I took a day off of work so that I could attend the meeting in person & my sister's two sons were scheduled to be on a conference call with us to make the memorial service arrangements. Arnet Sanders did not even have a phone available for a conference call, therefore, I had to improvise & use my two cell phones to simulate a conference call. This was the 1st Red Flag. Several more were to come. The process of making arrangements for a loved one is never easy; however there are some things that can be made a little easier for the family, however not in our case with Arnet Sanders. Not only did he not have a phone available for a conference call, he did not provide the required forms to my sisters two sons before we had the meeting. This was a task that I had personally asked him to ensure that he sent the forms prior to the meeting because the forms & contract are difficult as it is, but not having it in front of you when making decisions is close to impossible to complete. This was another Red Flag. We had two glaring red flags within the first minute of our meeting with Arnet Sanders. Again, I improvised & took pictures of the forms with my cell phone. We ended the meeting so that my two nephews could review the forms & contract. The arrangement was for them to contact Arnet Sanders by phone the next day which was a Friday, however, Arnet Sanders took the day off. Red Flag #3 . Not only did he take Friday off, he took the entire weekend off as well as Monday. We were scrambling to get the arrangements completed & could not because Arnet Sanders was not available. Getting through this process was emotionally heartbreaking for the family. Fortunately, we found another Forest Lawn counselor that was able to help us get through the process. So we thought. The day of the viewing, with all of the family present, Arnet Sanders, comes out of his office with a stack of papers & shook them in my face, & said we could not have the service because the contract was not completed. He had never tried to contact us before this day. Fortunately, for us , there were some other very caring Forest Lawn individuals who were able to quickly assist us. So we thought we were done.. But no wait there were more Red Flags. It was at this time that we found out that Arnet Sanders had not scheduled the Small Chapel that was clearly requested on the completed documents. Fortunately, for us again, there were others at Forest Lawn that stepped in and with a little modification to our schedule were able to provide the small chapel as requested. Losing a family member is a tragic event for any family and no one should ever have to work with a person like Arnet Sanders during these difficult times. My reason for writing this is to let everyone know who is considering Forest Lawn as a final resting place for your loved one, that if they are assigned Arnet Sanders as there Memorial Counselor, save yourself some grief & request another...

DO NOT BURY HERE. YOUR LOVED ONES WILL NOT REST IN PEACE! Forest lawns is negligent, cheap, and only care about your money. My brother has only been here for 10months and nothing but issue after issue!! We picked a full flower arrangement for his casket center piece and even paid couple hundred extra, they gave us half greenery and other half flowers. My mom didn’t notice because she was too busy grieving her 22 year old son, but I noticed because I wanted everything perfect for my brother. He deserved the best. A month later the big machine they use to pack the dirt down on the plots tipped over and slid down the hill my brother is buried on and took out numerous peoples Christmas decorations, cracked and scratched up headstones. Thank goodness he don’t have his permanent headstone yet but the temporary one we paid for was all messed up. Nobody called to notify us of the accident! We have at least 1 family member go a week to make sure he has fresh flowers and to check on his grave site and to their surprise they see a trail of destruction. Didn’t tell my mom afraid to break her heart some more. They raised hell and forest lawns replaced the little temporary stone. Whatever. And because we want our family to be buried together, my mom bought 3 places on the sides of my brother. They have a contract with forest lawn and are paying monthly, we went to visit him recently and what do we see?? SOMEONE ELSES HEADSTONE in one of our places. This is getting too much. And to top it off all the car break ins that were happening, it didn’t stop until a victim called the news channel and they finally did an airing about it. My aunt had her car broken into the first time she visited my brother not even a month of him being buried there😡!!! I read the yelp reviews here before my mom chose this place to bury and multiple people have dealt with theft and break ins. Forest lawns did nothing to take care of it, it’s been an issue for awhile. Of course they weren’t helpful, my aunt had to do a police report. We can’t even grieve in peace. I have a baby and don’t feel safe taking him there alone. Where is security?? What do they even do there?? AND only some places get watered. My brothers spot happens to be a place their sprinkles must not reach. How ridiculous. His grass is always dead, all the spots around that area are dry and look sad. My mom has had them replace the grass on our plots a few times. I hate to see the dead grass and remind me of death. If we had the money I would definitely find somewhere nicer to move him but it’s not the same. We should be at peace but not with the service we’ve been receiving here. All forest lawns does to try to make up for their mistakes are give us a few free bouquets of flowers, or free tent rental for our next visit. Do better, nobody...

I can't even began to express the emotional and mental distress Forest Lawn - Covina Hills has caused my family since we buried our father in March of 2021.

On Saturday 7/2/22, my family and I visited my dad's grave and spent quite a bit of time cleaning, decorating, and caring for his gravesite. There are many graves in the surrounding area with beautiful artificial flowers, stones, and other decorations. So naturally, we wished to do the same to honor our father's memory. We were extremely proud of how our work came out & his grave looked beautiful.

We returned to visit my dad on Sunday 7/10/2022 and found his tomb and plaque disturbed and severely damaged. As you can see by the pictures, the maintenance people threw away his flowers, destroyed our arrangement by removing his stones, ran over his plaque with their muddy golf cart tire, and scratched his plaque severely. You can also notice that his tomb was the only one disturbed and destroyed in his whole section. It is clearly not an accident as the tire mark crosses through the middle of the plaque. Additionally the scratches are far beyond something that can be buffed out. This is not only highly disrespectful to his memory but ETHICALLY UNACCEPTABLE.

This is not the first incident we have brought to Forest Lawn's attention. Since my father was buried here last spring, we have had an array of issues ranging from items being removed without being notified, things being thrown on top of the plaque, expensive items being broken, and now what seems to be intentional physical damage to my father's plaque. Once again, on each occasion, there have been graves surrounding my father's with the same decorations and flowers that we attempt to display. However, those gravesites have not been disturbed anywhere near the amount of times that ours has.

We sent an email to Andreea Koval (Vice President) and David Worker (Maintenance Supervisor) as well as left a voice mail for Ernesto Weaver (Interments Supervisor Maintenance Dept.) on Sunday 7/10/2022 begging for an explanation for these actions, for the person responsible to not only face consequences, but also apologize to my family, and for Forest Lawn to take complete financial responsibility for replacing our father's damaged plaque. Despite our numerous attempts, we have not heard back from anyone as of today, 7/12/2022.

Please DO NOT, DO NOT bury your love ones in this awful place. I don't understand how they can just ignore the HORRIBLE, UNACCEPTABLE AND DISRESPECTFUL acts committed by their maintenance staff to my father's...