Edward L Collins Funeral Home

We enlisted the help of Collins in the summer of 2011 when my mother in law passed away. Never having planned a funeral before we went on the website to view prices and see options. The family was in a poor financial situation as a whole and there wasn’t any life insurance. We all discussed beforehand that we wanted a basic, no thrills burial. At the time of her passing we had the nursing staff dress her for the funeral as we decided against embalming as a money saving measure and because the family as a whole weren’t sure how they felt about it. We also didn’t plan on having a viewing of any kind, just a simple graveside service.
Upon calling Collins we were shocked that during the initial phone call for pick up embalming was brought up — almost like asking «do you want fries with that» but not having any experience in this area didn’t know if that was the norm.
At the consultation it was apparent that the prices on the website were not accurate. Everything we said about wanting simple, no thrills was disregarded. When we scrutinized the numbers and found things added in that we didn’t ask for and questioned them we were made to feel like we were making the wrong choices. As a whole our family was often referred to as «you people» during the consult. In the end we couldn’t afford their «lowest» number and felt like this was more of a «disposal» then a burial. We left leaving a deposit with the intention to find outside financing.
I sought the assistance of a relative in the business that lives in another state. He explained to us the ins/​out and what we can expect, what’s legal, and what is not. At this point they were unable to get bank financing and had to work w/​in our means. We knew we couldn’t stay at Collins and informed them of our situation and told them we would have her moved w/​in the next several hours.
We found another home closer to us, Andrew Scheid, who not only treated us and our loved one with dignity and respect but was able to provide a better service then Collens for about 35% less. However when Scheid contacted them to make arrangements for pick up, Collins was not very cooperative and she remained there for another 2 days.
Upon pick up from Collins the new funeral home said that she had been embalmed (this was against our wishes) but her outfit, the one she was wearing that we planned on burying her in was missing. She was picked up in a paper gown.
W/​out going into further detail we cringe at the thought of what could have happened those few days at the Collins facility. NEVER, ever would I think that a professional funeral business would treat their customers the way we were treated. It’s now been over a year since this has happened and we are just now able to talk about our experience. If this review saves just one family from experiencing the same horrors as we did then we will be at peace.