Memorial Oaks Funeral Home & Cemetery — Local services in Houston

I wish I could fully communicate my outrage & sadness regarding the treatment of my wife's final resting place by Memorial Oaks Cemetery. When I met with their sales representative to make arrangements prior to my wife's passing, I was told that part of the money I paid would go into a perpetual trust account to ensure that the grounds would be maintained pristinely & indefinitely. I was also told about various wealthy families, business leaders, & professional athletes who were laid to rest in this newer, more expensive portion of the cemetery. It was marketed as a tranquil, park-like setting & it gave me & my children peace to know that our loved one would be in a well-cared-for setting.

Devastatingly, this is not what we have experienced over the 1 ½ years since entrusting Memorial Oaks with our loved one.

The grounds are littered with garbage. The grass is 8-12 inches tall in some areas...dead & balding in others. Mud & debris from more recent burials are tossed without regard onto my wife's grave. The marble bench that we purchased so we could sit at her grave when the grass is wet has been repeatedly displaced by backhoes rolling in to dig newer graves & returned in haphazard disregard to its intended location. Grass is growing over the face of her grave marker requiring me & my children to pull the grass with our bare hands to reveal the full face of the marker & then clean mud that has been allowed to accumulate with paper towels & napkins. The flowers that we have placed there have been repeatedly torn up by either the lawn mower (when it is finally used) or a weed eater...but the flower bouquets are shredded by the equipment used & still the grass around the flowers is 6-8 inches tall & growing through the tattered flower bouquets we lovingly placed there.

In life, my wife had a wonderful sense of humor & a funny affinity for baby pigs. It used to make all of us laugh. More than once she tried to persuade me to buy a baby pig & make it our suburban family pet (through laughter I resisted this bad idea more than once). Instead, me & our children would occasionally find beautiful or funny ceramic pigs...some small & one almost pig-sized for the backyard.

About 4-months after she passed, on the street corner at a stoplight, I saw a small ceramic pig with angel wings in a local vendor's display. I knew instantly she would have loved it. I pulled over & bought it & the kids & I took it to her graveside a few days later. It made us smile thinking of her & her funny "angel pig" now nearby. A week later, I returned with a new bouquet of flowers to place near her grave marker & to clean the weeds, grass, & mud again. The ceramic pig was gone...stolen in less than a week. While I knew that there was some risk that it could be stolen at some point, I had hoped that Memorial Oaks would have sufficient security to prevent it for a while.

I have brought ALL of my frustrations...repeatedly...to the attention of Memorial Oaks. Phone calls, emails, text messages, & written complaints…the most recent left for the General Manager. They go unanswered & unaddressed. In person, I’ve been told that they have a “bad” contract with their landscaping company. I’ve been told that construction in an adjacent section of the cemetery is partly responsible. But it has been this way long before the construction & they could resolve the maintenance issues easily.

My family paid approximately $45,000 to purchase a beautiful place to honor the life of our family member & lay her to rest. I truly regret the trust that I placed in Memorial Oaks.

They describe their amenities as “…breathtaking cemetery estates [and] cemetery plots & cremation gardens”. Admittedly, my breath has been taken away by the poor condition of my wife’s grave & the grounds & their indifference. The “contact us” page of their website says, “We are always here for you”. They aren’t. They haven’t.

I urge you not to make the mistake that I did. Go elsewhere. Otherwise, it will upset you & your family each time you think of the family member...

Nice property. Well kept grounds. Poor (in my opinion) service.

Allow me to explain. Prior to attending a service and internment on 5/11/2022, I contacted the funeral home three (3) times via their websites contact us page. Twice on the general contact page and once on the "death occurred" page (which promised a response in 24 hours). I received ZERO RESPONSES.

Being from out of town, I simply wanted to confirm the services and obtain a copy of the obit. The obit was never published on their website. The service was never published on their website (even under their upcoming services - the day of the service). I have zero idea if this was do to what the family wanted or poor service of the funeral home. Regardless of the actual reason, the impression is poor service from the funeral home.

On the day of the funeral, the air conditioning was broken in the chapel. The staff needed to call other staff to operate the lift for the internment (which was in the mausoleum) . The other staff were working the grounds and, lets say they were fragrant when they arrived to help. The staff also didn't have all the tools they needed and had to send for them as well.

The issues (lack of A/C and wait for trained staff) caused 1/2 of the attendees to leave before the internment was completed.

That said, I was at this funeral home several years ago for another funeral. That one went off without an issue.

Therefore, something changed from the mid 1990s to today in 2022.

The complete lack of communication to those who reach out for answers along with the issues during the service are the reason for the 2 star review.

Update 5/19: Per the response, I did do a follow up. They don't know why my attempts at contacting them were not replied to and they are looking into it. They responded that they were not instructed by the family to post an obit and never addressed the lack of service notice on their website (likely the same). It's nice to know but as I said in the review, impression pointed to the funeral home. Suggest making it a policy to list the obit and service unless specifically directed not to by the family.

They nicely said that planning was the issue on having trained staff to do the internment - service was shorter then expected and the team wasn't available. Suggestion - assign a team for each internment and not have them do other duties until that is done.

I giver them credit for reaching out and taking the time to...

My mother passed away 2 weeks ago on Sunday afternoon and 2 hours later they picked her up for funeral. The next morning we had a meeting with them and immediate payment of over 4K was needed to do anything and the remainder of 10K was need the next day, very much Cash On Demand mentality. Thankfully mom had purchased the plot in 2006 when dad passed or else the price tag would be much larger just to bury her. The service felt rushed as at one point being told to move away and let their people do their jobs as they had other things to do. 2 days later, received call that an additional 2K was need for her headstone and an additional 150 dollars would be added if we could not come up with it within 30 days. So the total is 16K to bury her in her own plot. The real kicker was a week later when the death certificate came in. I went to pick them up the next morning and the gentleman at the front desk asked me to check for any mistakes and sign. I found an error on my address and pointed it out to him and he called to have someone come and see. After about 10 minutes of no one showing up, he had to call again. A lady finally came down and when I pointed out the error on the certificate, her first words were to blame me for the mistake " I have a signed document with the error on it and its your signature. I will be glad to go get it and prove it to you". I should have made her go get it, but there was a large service going on and didn't want to make a scene, was getting with my probate lawyer later that day anyway and would see what the next step was. When I eventually got back home, we checked all our copies and the address is correct on all of them, so she lied to my face and it was the funeral home personal who made the mistake. After going through her papers, found they messed up on my dads death certificate and she had to get it corrected in 2006. Lying to me and accusing me a week after my mother death is not something I like. The basic take away is this, if you enjoy being blamed for thier mistakes, being lied to, demanding full payment COD and an attitude at the worst moments of your life, then this is the place for you. If not, don't go near this place for...