Blue Ridge Funeral Home & Memorial Gardens

“My experience with Blue Ridge Funeral Home in Beckley, WV was extremely disappointing and caused unnecessary stress during one of the most difficult times of my life. My mother passed away in Ohio and already had a $1,400 burial trust fully paid and in place through a funeral home there. Her burial plot, headstone, and burial costs had been prepaid years earlier by family. The remaining expenses (casket, transport, etc.) were paid in full, which is required under Blue Ridge’s own pay-in-full-before-burial policy. There were no payment plans, and everything was settled before the burial. From the very beginning, communication was extremely poor. It was difficult to reach the funeral director assigned to us, calls were rarely returned, and questions about the service, costs, and process went unanswered. We repeatedly received incorrect paperwork, were not given clear explanations of what was included, and were often left guessing about important details. My family has buried multiple relatives at this same cemetery over decades and has never experienced anything like this. On the day of the service, the director we had been dealing with was not even present. After the burial, I had to repeatedly call to obtain death certificates, with little to no follow-up. Six months after my mother was laid to rest, I was shocked to receive a collection notice in my personal name for $1,400, which also impacted my credit. When I contacted the collection agency I was told that Blue Ridge reported that they had tried to reach me multiple times, which was untrue. Calls were rarely returned even when I was actively trying to reach them. Eventually, I was told by a new employee that the burial trust from Ohio was never transferred, and that this was the reason for the collection. I was informed that the transfer of a burial trust must be handled funeral-home to funeral-home, meaning this failure was due to their administrative error — not mine. Services had already been documented as paid in full. Receiving a collection notice months later forced me to relive the trauma of my mother’s death and the chaos surrounding her service. Families should never have to deal with collections or credit damage because of internal failures after everything was paid and completed. I strongly urge others to document everything and follow up constantly if a burial trust is involved. This experience added pain where there should have been care and professionalism. If I could give no stars I would!!”

— Brandy Redden

“If I could go zero stars, I would. When my mother passed away here in Florida, we needed to get her back to West Virginia. There were a couple of bumps along the road for that service but nothing in comparison to what we experienced with Blue Ridge Memorial Gardens. From the very beginning, this felt like we were dealing with brand new employees that have no experience in the funeral home business, nor any experience in a professional environment. Email contracts were sent to the incorrect place. Once they were sending contracts to me in the correct location, I received emails throughout the week to sign with little to no direction of what was being signed and what the purpose was. I had to wait, repeatedly, to make payments and or get balances from the staff because it was so disorganized and either Roanna could not find Stephanie or vice versa. We were crystal clear that we needed a graveside service. I asked about pricing, and was told that the service was included. From what I understand, remains have a bracelet on the left ankle to verify the casket holds the correct remains when there is a travel situation. Four casket angels were packed with my mother for travel, and the funeral home and/or cemetery must have never opened the casket, because they did not know where the angels were the morning of the service and said Florida must have lost them. If the angels were in the casket, and the casket was not verified to hold my mother - how do we know the correct body is in her burial plot? I get incredibly queasy just typing this out, because this shows a complete lack of respect for my mother and concerns me that she could be somewhere that is not where we intended to bury her. This wakes me up at night, this gives me heart palpitations, and I am beside myself that we trusted your services with everything leading up to the day of burial for it to also go so wrong. We selected the Friday time slot as there was not an upcharge for this day at 11am. The funeral home was absolutely not prepared and seemed - from the moment I walked in - to be irritated that we were there. There was no pastor scheduled, there was no music, there was absolutely nothing done for her service other than the tent at the burial site and the chairs sitting out. The women in the funeral home called someone that was thankfully able to deliver a quick few words. Immediately after the pastor was finished, either Stephanie or Roanna came to the grave side, CLAPPED HER HANDS together and said "this concludes the service" and asked what we would like to do about the angels. We were then asked, over and over, if they could get started with the burial. This was more rushed than a Chili's Bar and Grill on a Friday night. My husband had to physically intercept Stephanie and Roanna and pull them away from the tent to get them to leave myself and my sisters as we were sobbing over the casket. I looked over the Dignity Memorial website today and found a video - and it almost made me throw up because our experience was the exact opposite of anything Dignity Memorial claims to care about. These lines specifically: "There are no second chances. No dress rehearsals, and no reset buttons.... we need to get every detail right the first time. Every time." "A life well celebrated is one in which every detail is well remembered. That is our promise, that is our passion, that is our purpose. With every detail remembered, they are honored with dignity." I was yelling at my computer watching that video and I feel STRONGLY that this should be taken off your site until you get your employees trained with the MINIMUM requirements of being a professional in this industry. This well produced video was not the case for my mother, and I am disgusted with how she - and we - were treated. My mother deserved so, SO much more than this. Update - the reply below from Brian asking for me to reach out was posted well after he has talked with me on the phone, and he knows all that we went through and has not addressed the problems.”

— Amy Anderson

“The people who work here were so kind and patient with us. They truly make this difficult time a little easier. My parents had chosen Blue Ridge, and I am glad they did.”

— Libby Pollack