Hillcrest Abbey West — Local services in Garden City

The sudden loss of a family member is devastating, and planning a funeral is never a pleasant process; however most funeral home directors, florists, cemetery directors and others in that profession are trained to be sympathetic and compassionate toward the bereaved. Our experience with the staff at Hillcrest Abbey West Cemetery was appalling. We live 450 miles from Savannah, which adds another layer of stress to the situation. During our travel up to Savannah, my wife spoke with Jacob at Hillcrest, who told her that he had no times available during the entire week of March 15 to open our family vault, and that it probably would be into the next week before he could accommodate us. Said something about making advance reservations for the simple task of opening a mausoleum vault (??). When our family arrived at Hillcrest to discuss arrangements, Jacob would not allow the 3 family members to enter the office - Covid excuse - only 2 family members could enter. The meeting degenerated from there. Hillcrest would not order the full death date scroll, insisted on providing a death year only. Hillcrest's job was to open the vault, close the vault after interment, and provide a tent and chairs. We were provided 6 chairs. Our mausoleum building is decrepit, and in terrible need of repairs. There are cracks in the concrete construction, our side of the building has vaults for 3 families, and 2 of those families have removed their loved ones, leaving holes and dirty outlines where the name plaques once were mounted. The marble face of the mausoleum is dirty. Another side of the building has a missing slab of marble that has been replaced with ?concrete?. Our family members came out in advance of the burial and picked up trash and debris. Our family received no respect, no sympathy, no compassion from Hillcrest Abbey West. We were embarrassed to have our extended family see the place where we were interring...

Jacob is nice and very helpful however my grandma passed just a few months ago and went by to visit to find everything we put out there was gone including her name marker. I gave them benefit of the doubt that maybe it’s because her stone is getting ready to be replaced. Only to find out the owners had them take up all solar lights, and anything sitting out there. This was very disappointing that I can’t even take my grandma something nice to her grave on her birthday, Mother’s Day or Christmas or any time I mean that was the only thing that makes me feel like I’m still doing for her and now can’t even do that. Did not even get a notice so that we could get opportunity to pick up our items very disappointed but this time and day why should I be surprised no one takes pride in their jobs anymore or even respect living beings much less the dead. So you may not want to choose this cemetery or buy cheaper items. Grant it i know they aren’t responsible for items and they can also be stole. But just very disrespectful that they disposed of it without contacting us first. On the bright side Jacob did make it a point to find all the items and we were able to pick them up. So I am grateful for him taking...

My mom died on Monday March 15 , 2021 . We notified the cemetery as to making the arrangements for my mom . My father has been buried there since 1985 , Definitely did not receive the type of service from this company that we thought we would have after reading the heartfelt reviews on there website . We had the run around about the dates available to us for her burial. Also the condition of the mausolean is horrific, was embarrassed for out of town family members to see moms final resting place . Can only pray that the owners can complete the repairs in a timely manner for my parents. And pray that other grieving families have a better experience there than my...