Lima Family Milpitas-Fremont Mortuary and Cedar Lawn Cemetery

“I'm sure this place is great to work with when things go according to plan, but not so much when plans change. My in-laws had purchased burial plots and prearranged funeral arrangements about 12 years ago with this business, but a few months ago my father-in-law expressed his wish to instead be cremated when he passed. The family called the facility to see if anything needed to be done to change the pre-purchased funeral arrangement plans, but were advised by one of the employees that nothing needed to be done at the time and that changes could be made after he passed. Well he passed away and when we went to the facility to coordinate the next steps, they told us that we needed a signed statement from my now deceased father-in-law that he wanted to be cremated instead of buried. The family members are not ones to miss this kind of detail when they spoke with the business previously, so clearly the employee that advised us month before had made a mistake. Frustrating, but a forgivable mistake. When we asked what we could do to change the arrangements, they said they were bound to the terms of the original contract, but we could send a written request to their legal team to see if we could change it under the circumstances. We agreed and they drafted the letter for us to review and sign. The first draft didn't mention anything about their staff's mistake of not properly informing us of needing a signed statement from my father-in-law, so we asked them to update the letter with that detail and also that we, as his immediate next of kin, would accept any legal liabilities for the changes if someone were to come after the funeral home afterwards. While waiting for that update we continued to talk through the details of the funeral services with the assumption that our request would be approved. By the time we were done with planning we asked about the status of the letter to their legal team, and they said it turned out a signed request letter wasn't necessary and they would call us once they heard back from their legal team. We never got a call from them, which turned out to be a continuing theme whenever they promised to call us back. We had to call them the next day (over 24 hours from originally speaking with them) and they informed us that their legal team had rejected our request. This was a family in mourning already and now we had to deal with this. To cut this shorter, all I heard was empty sounding apologies from their staff the entire time. We were passed up through two levels of management and always told they would call us with updates as we tried to work things out, but we ALWAYS had to call them. I can understand that the company has legal obligations they need to stick to, and an operating license to protect, but I don't see how some solution couldn't have been reached given the circumstances. My father-in-law's widow, 2 children, and sister were the only ones I think would have a solid legal standing to come after the funeral home for breaching the original contract, and we were the ones requesting to fulfill his wishes to be cremated, and were willing to sign a legal letter saying we would take on any legal liabilities from the change if someone had standing and desire to sue later. I got the feeling that they never explained the whole situation to their legal team, and wanted to avoid the embarrassment of admitting to their staff member's mistake. In the end we took my father-in-law to another funeral home in Campbell, where the staff were exceptional and kind. The only grace I will give this business is that they waived their storage and handling fees for my father-in-laws remains when they were transferred to the other funeral home. Mistakes happen, but their staff handled this in the worst way possible in my opinion.”

— Craig Early

“Clarice was very attentive and supportive throughout the entire process with my family and I. She made the process very seamless from start to finish. I could not be happier with the decision we made to get the support from her in these extremely difficult times. 10/10 service- highly recommend”

— Raymond Lazaro

“They did a wonderful job laying our veteran to rest. Thank you Sokhann!”

— MJ L