Rapp Funeral & Cremation Services

A year or so ago, Rapp was sold. Previously great. Now, not so much. Had unpleasant difficulties with their service and billing this past week.

Disappointing 2^nd experience, especially given that our first just over a year ago was outstanding. But the business has been sold to a new owner, and most of the things that earned my gratitude and appreciation 18 months ago were no more. If we were ever assigned a main contact person, we never met or even got a call from him or her. The first person made it clear she was just filling in for another lady on vacation, but we never heard from that person, nor saw the first person again. Things were «handled» but there was not the personal relationship, the «I’m going to take care of you from start to finish» service we received previously. The gentleman coming to collect the body was the same person, and he was lovely, but as another reviewer noted, the «sullen woman» who accompanied him seemed uncomfortable and unsure what to do. There was a screw-​up with the doctor’s signature on the death certificate which could have caused a delay of many days in the cremation. The problem was solved by the grieving widow, not by Rapp. When I called to ask about the death certificates, I was told the cremains were ready to be picked up, which made me wonder how long they had been sitting there, and when they would have called. In general, the feeling was that they were under-​staffed and disorganized. «Customer relations» were not a priority. I was so deeply appreciative of the excellent experience we had with Rapp in 2014 that I had no doubt we would use this service again, and have recommended them to others. No more. We will not use or recommend Rapp again. Not the same company, and clearly not the same quality. (Yes, they accept credit cards, but charge an additional 8 percent.)

I chose Rapp based on the recommendation of the hospice my father was in. When he died, they came quickly, but came with 2 people, one being a sullen young woman who didn’t seem to have any role. When time came to pay the bill, I was told they had to add 90 $ for the extra person because the hospice had told them my father was a big man. He weighed at best 125 lbs when he passed and was never a ‘big man’. It felt like this was a con they pass off on grieving people who don’t have the wherewithal to protest. Prayer cards were over priced, cheap quality, and arrived late. I had to follow-​up with them several times to get the cards. The viewing area before he was cremated was not appropriate for family coming to view. Overall it felt functional but not helpful in the grieving process.

You get what you pay for. Their prices and transparency in prices is good, but their follow through is not. There was a very long delay in picking up the body yielding great distress at the nursing home where my family member died. Initially they were responsive to emails, then that stopped. It became difficult to work with them. They promised to help obtain an appropriate urn, but never followed through so eventually I ordered one myself from Amazon. They also assured me that they had opened a case file with Arlington Cemetery to arrange for a service, but months later I discovered they had not done that. Given that it already takes 12 – 14 weeks to arrange for a service, the fact that they never contacted Arlington Cemetery caused a major delay of over 6 months. I simply don’t have any confidence in this place that they will do what they claim. If you can avoid using this place, I’d suggest shopping around for someplace else.

Great funeral home. They’re a smaller funeral home but service was excellent and prices were lower than all the other homes I checked out.

We were initially impressed with Rapp and felt we had done ample research before choosing them. The undertaker who worked with us was particularly nice. Unfortunately he went away for the weekend leaving others in charge of our loved one’s arrangements.
We were first upset when our loved one’s body was not picked up when we were assured it would be. This led to us having to pivot on funeral arrangements.
On the day of the funeral we picked up our prayer cards. It wasn’t until we were on our way to the funeral that we discovered there were misprinted, ripped and just an overall mess (a line of text was cut off, some were blank, some were printed to the right of the card so half the text was completely gone, etc). We called and asked them to have someone deliver new cards directly to the funeral mass as we couldn’t turn around to get new ones. They apologized and came down to the church only to deliver cards that were still not correct (the person that delivered them assured me they were each hand checked but the first one I looked at and showed him had a mistake). Weeks later we found another typo in the replacement cards. They offered to credit us back the cost which we appreciated but we would have rather had a prayer card to pass out to loved ones at the church. Part of the problem was the quality of the cards themselves. They are equivalent to a make your own business card you might buy at staples. They are printed and seem to be pulled apart along perforations (which explains why many were torn). They are not worth the money.
The carelessness of the weekend staff also contributed to our bad experience. One woman in particular complained on and on throughout the weekend about their broken air conditioning system (they were hot and wanted to get out of the building). Ultimately the AC issue led them to close early the day we made time to go buy an urn and by their own admission played a part in their waiting till the last minute to print the prayer cards (hence, a sloppy, terrible job). I know it’s hot but do you really want to complain about heat to someone who has recently lost someone they love? It was unprofessional at best, tacky and insensitive at worst.
The last issue we had involved them quoting us an incorrect price on one of the add on services.
I’d like to believe if the person who originally handled our case had been there that weekend things would have worked out much better. They did credit us back on an add-​on service and the prayer cards.
Overall, apart from the misquote, the services were reasonably priced.

My family’s experience with Rapp Funeral was beyond expectations and brought us comfort in our time of grief. The staff was friendly and showed genuine concern for our loss. The prices were more affordable than other places I researched and really gave a better value that other funeral homes I’ve had experience with.