Peter Elberg Funerals
5 reviews
Donata – My resent experience with Peter Elberg funerals were very positive. Staff were very helpful and supportive. It is difficult time and my family needed guidance with organising our mother’s funeral, staff listened to us and we arranged funeral for mum that were traditional and modern at the same time. I am very thankful to Donata and Rino for making everything smooth and special on the day.
Funeral – My name is Ivanka Pavic and I wanted to express my gratitude to Peter Elberg dedicated staff for kindest and support provided to our family whilst organising our mothers funeral. I especially like to thank Donata for being such a great and helpful person to me at my time of need.
"Professional" crooks – It appears we are not the first to experience this type of thievery. From the moment Bruce (the celebrant) opened his mouth at the pre-funeral meeting, we could tell that we were not going to be receiving the so called professional service we would pay $11,000+ for. In his words, they are "one of the top two" funeral services in Adelaide, however, I believe that is soon to change. Anyone thinking of opening a funeral service, I encourage you to go right ahead as your standards won't need to be too high to make it into the top two. At the pre-funeral meeting we found him to be a tad condescending, and he appeared quite encouraging of wrapping up our meeting because he'd had a long day. Someone has just died. A very beloved family member. It is common sense to show more compassion and regard to how one presents themselves to someone paying for you, a stranger, to conduct a memorial service for them. To give you some perspective of what this cost covered, it was a very small service of around 13 family members. Bruce spoke for around 20 minutes. My sister who made a personal speech did a better and more professional job and was much more deserving of the $550 Bruce made for his 20 mins. Outside on the illuminated sign informing attendees where the service is, it stated "Mr" - my grandmother was a "Mrs". How hard is it. During Bruce's 20 mins they had to fix the microphone twice. Afterwards we were served Coles brand biscuits in the gathering room, and were passively encouraged to leave although we still had another 20 mins according to their timings.
$200 for memorial cards for 13 people that we could have whipped out in 10min in Canva and printed at Officeworks for $10. $300 for a PowerPoint presentation of about 30 photos to be displayed on a TV. When I heard about the cost of $11,000+ many of us figured the majority of the cost would be in the cremation and body handling. But that portion was actually reasonable in perspective. We are still at a loss for what the $5,400 "professional service fee" covers for approximately 2 hours of work. Initially when we asked what the rough cost would be we were told $6,000. On top of that, when we made initial enquiries noone ever returned our calls so we had to chase them.
This service was not at all what I would expect from a "top two" funeral home. And no, this is not an angry in grief response, my grandmother was 98, she'd lived her life. This is to warn people, especially at a vulnerable time of their life, that they are likely to get ripped off and provided a less than A grade service.
The entire industry needs a royal commission – Price gouging at its finest. The entire industry needs a royal commission, the way these people charge is truly diabolical and they take advantage of people when they are at their most vulnerable. You have to pay for their staff to be at the funeral. Why? Aren't these employees already being paid? Isn't that just double dipping? For example: You have to pay for a canopy, the canopy fee is $600.00, it wasn't raining that day, nobody needed to sit under a canopy, that canopy has probably been paid over a thousand times by now. You get your bill and it's almost as though they make up the prices, they certainly inflate them and because they make you sign when you're at your most vulnerable, and then you're stuck with a bill for thousands of dollars that they want paid ASAP. They are only nice to you at the start, after that, you're of no use to them and they have moved onto the next grieving party.
Unforgettable Experience – I will never forget the job Peter Elberg Funerals did when my father died. My mum wanted my father to be laid out and they didn’t even bother ironing my dad’s tie when he was in his coffin. And when I was on my way in to the chapel to view him the hearse drivers made offensive remarks well within earshot . Not much was given in the way of consideration. It’s not so much me I feel bad for but mum as she paid for it and they couldn’t even bother ironing dad’s tie. It was such an awful experience. I will never forget it as long as I live.
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