Name: Pure Cremation
Address: Charlton Park Crematorium Charlton Down, Charlton Park Crematorium Charlton Down, Hampshire
Rating: 4.83

“Awful. Whilst our father booked a Pure Cremation, we would still liked to have marked the event, albeit from 170 miles away. Pure Cremation would not give a likely time for the committal. Surely, if this is so carefully managed, a time should be known, or is this just a case of lining up the coffins and wait your turn? Terrible for families.”

Helpful Report

Posted 2 years ago

Dear Ian, Thank you for getting in touch with us. We’re sorry you were disappointed. At Pure Cremation, we always provide families with the committal day for the cremation. We cannot provide the time of the actual cremation itself though. This should have been made clear to the applicant. We are no different to other crematoria where there is a service beforehand. The actual cremation can be many hours after the service. The actual cremation duration can vary from 75 to 120 minutes so the committal time can vary considerably during the course of a day. What we recommend for families that wish to mark the event is that they choose a time on that day, to gather and celebrate the life of the person. Kind regards, Olivia

Posted 2 years ago

“I am leaving a poor review as we had to chase all the way through. We were not told that my husbands father had been collect from the local hospital on the Thursday. We only found out on the following Tuesday when I called. Also the cremation was planned for 10th March but was put back to 23rd March which we were not informed of. It was only when we called to check. We were told that we would be contacted and updated all the way through. This did not happen.”

Helpful Report

Posted 2 years ago

Dear Joanne, I am very sorry to hear of the issues you experienced with your father-in-law’s cremation arrangements. Our staff should have contacted you once he was in our care and I share your disappointment that this did not happen. Part of our care for the bereaved is regular communication, especially if there are any issues that affect the cremation date. I apologise sincerely that our staff did not meet our usual high standards of communication and will be in touch to give you the chance to speak to me directly about your experience. Please be assured that I will address this with the individuals involved to ensure that they learn from this and, in future, deliver the standard of care Pure Cremation expects of them. Kind regards, Mia

Posted 2 years ago

“What a disrespectful company, My sister who I spoke to every day on the phone was married to a very disrespectful person who I could not keep in contact with because of his attitude. He phoned me via a carer on the day my sister death and said it’s John, Jenny Dead!! I found out who he was dealing with for the cremation and phoned them and explained who I was, they refused to tell me anything, because he was next of kin, I pleaded with them that I only wanted to know the date of the cremation as we wanted to arrange a memorial service at the church where she used to be a warden but they still refused. I spoke to Charlton Park crematorium which they use and managed to get a date but when they asked who I was they refused to give me the time. What a terrible company as I could not go to the cremation I only wanted a time to be able to stop and think of her.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

Dear Les, Family situations like this are both painful and challenging. While we always encourage families to communicate with all affected parties, we must fulfil our legal obligations to the applicant who has engaged our services. Kind regards, Bethany

Posted 3 years ago

“Unrequested marketing received (how did they get our details!). Avoid this company . And what a dreadful trading name!!”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

Dear Sir/Madam, Your details were provided to us by a data collection company whose details were included in the mailing that you received (at the bottom of page 2 in the coloured panel). Including this information means any recipient can contact the data company and request removal from their database. This also ensures we comply with the best practice guidelines of the Data and Marketing Association. I can add you to our STOP file which will mean that you do not receive any further mailings from Pure Cremation. Please let me know your full name and address including postcode, you can send this to me directly at customercare@purecremation.co.uk. Please note that this will take up to 4 weeks for this to take effect. You can also register your details with the Mailing Preference Service - https://www.mpsonline.org.uk. The Mailing Preference Service (MPS) is a free service, funded by the direct mail industry to enable consumers to have their names and home addresses in the UK removed from lists used by the industry. It is actively supported by the Royal Mail and all directly involved trade associations and fully supported by The Information Commissioners Office (ICO). Kind regards, Mia

Posted 3 years ago

“Staff unable to advise and update me regarding the arrangements that had been made with other family members. Therefore I was left not knowing the time of my dad's cremation. I totally understand confidentiality but even though I was able to give and confirm every detail about my dad and his identity, I was still not kept informed by anyone at pure cremation.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

Family situations like this are both painful and challenging. While we always encourage families to communicate with all affected parties, we must fulfil our legal obligations to the applicant who has engaged our services. Yours Sincerely, Mia

Posted 3 years ago

“Absolute bunch of morons. Pure cremations wrote to my mother on 2nd February 2022 about their services. She passed away on 18th May 2021, how they could be more tactless or offensive I don't know. Absolute scum,”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

Dear Craig, We are sorry that you have been upset by our mailing, that is certainly not our intention. Please feel free to get in contact with us and we would be more than happy to remove your details from our mailing list, simply email us directly at customercare@purecremation.co.uk and we will ensure that your details are removed.

Posted 3 years ago

“This is a truly profit focused company without any compassion. They sent their slick promotional material to my mother who died six months ago. Disgusting!”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

We are sorry that you have been upset and that is certainly not our intention. Please get in contact with us and we would be more than happy to remove your details from our mailing list, simply email us directly at customercare@purecremation.co.uk and we will ensure that your details are removed.

Posted 3 years ago

“My father passed away on Friday 3rd December and had arranged and pre-paid his plan with you. From the start, my experience with Pure Cremation has been awful. Firstly, my husband contacted Pure Cremation to advise on my father's passing. However, I tried to contact Pure Cremation Ltd a few days later, as had not heard anything from either Pure Cremation or the hospital about the collection of dad's body. When I rang, they said that they would not speak to me, as my husband was the one who contacted them, even though my Dad had put me as next of Kin. The communication has been very poor. I have had one phone call to advise that they could bring my Dad's cremation forward to 2 January 2022, which was fine and then the "Ashes" team would be in touch to arrange the delivery of my Dad's ashes. I received an email to say that this would be within 3 weeks. I had to chase by email to see what was happening on Thursday 20 January as I had not heard from anyone. I received an email to say it would be chased up. Finally I received a call on Monday I believe to say would be delivered Tuesday. I am extremely disappointed, as I feel we have had to chase for everything, during this really difficult time, I would certainly not recommend your services, as I feel that the whole experience has been extremely distressing and stressful. Also, I was extremely disappointed with the packaging that my Dad's ashes have been sent in. I would have expected a nice ornate urn, but to be honest it looks more like a washing powder box delivered in a shopping bag.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

Dear Zoe, I am very sorry to hear that your experience of our communication has fallen short of the high standard that we are known for. Our team is expected to support the bereaved with timely updates and please be assured that I will ensure that the management of your Dad's arrangements is reviewed so we can address the cause of this deviation from the expected standard of care. You will receive a separate personal response from us about this. In reply to your comments about the ashes container: we have carefully considered the container in which the ashes and identity disc are presented. Rather than opting for the traditional plastic 'sweet jar' or the more recent cardboard box that crematoria typically supply, we have selected a biodegradable container with a stunning photo wrapper (printed with vegetable inks) which is then placed into a soft cotton bag for its protection. We are always happy to place ashes into any suitable alternative container should the family send this to us. Yours sincerely Catherine Powell

Posted 3 years ago

“I Signed myself & my mother up in the summer. Mum died at home at about 17.30 on the 2/11/21 I phoned Pure Cremation at about 19.00. I was answered by a recorded message saying phone back during office hours. I tried again and got the same response. I phoned the next morning during office hours and was transferred to a full mobile answerphone. I phoned again this time I dialed 1 to their sales line and managed to talk to a human and Mum was picked up that morning. If Mum had died over Easter or the Christmas period would she have to have lain there for 5 days. I made a formal complaint to Pure Cremations and asked for a written reply to my complaint. As yet no reply has been recieved. I am now going to try to cancel my funeral. John Keys”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

Dear John, I want to apologise sincerely for the difficulties that you had in trying to reach us the moment you needed our service. This was caused by our telephone system provider and we have acted as swiftly as possible to change that provider and now all calls are answered in less than a minute, even out of hours. I am very disappointed to hear that you have not had a response to your complaint and I will be looking into this too. You will receive a formal response within 48 hours. Yours sincerely Catherine Powell

Posted 3 years ago

“My beloved wife died on the 3rd of November at a lovely hospice and was taken to the local hospital . You we’re informed of where to collect her from when I contacted you there was only two things I requested from you that was the date of collection and date of cremation after three days I had heard nothing so telephoned too find out was told the cremation was provisionally booked for 1st December so asked what date will you collect her from hospital and was told normally two days before cremation … which was totally unacceptable it would have meant 26 days in the morgue for her before going into your care . After complaining she was collected after 16 days which is still to long . This caused a lot of needless distress for my family and I at a very sad time . When I phoned to find out if the cremation was going to take place on said date I was told that on the system I was down as not wanting to be told !!! Outrageous !!! . When I rang the day after the cremation (they were supposed to ring me) I was told it might have the scheduling manger would ring me back . Totally shocking service . my wife only chose you because she didn’t want any fuss for us. If only she knew . Minus 5 stars if I could .”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

Dear Mr Knott, I am truly sorry to hear about your experience which appears to have fallen far short of the service that my husband and I set out to deliver. I will personally investigate how your wife's arrangements were handled, by whom, and why our standards and processes for communication were not followed. Once I have completed my review I will contact you formally. Yours sincerely Catherine Powell

Posted 3 years ago

“Cancelled my Scottish Friendly policy For no good reason and did not return call when promised.Problem currently being looked into but how can you trust them.Wish I used a reliable company.Policy always paid on time and running for nearly 2years,What happens now”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

Dear Daphne, I will be investigating this mattter for you urgently. While Scottish Friendly administer the policy we want to ensure that this is done correctly for all of our Over 50's plan holders so they can receive the service they have signed up for. Yours sincerely Catherine Powell

Posted 3 years ago

“The people on the end of the phone were nice enough, but the service was shocking. I would never use them for a loved one again or even recommended them to anyone else.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

Dear Teresa, I have reviewed the arrangements and agree that the level of communication did not meet our required standard and additional training has already been put into place to address this. We have also restored our system of a named case manager to provide a consistent point of contact for the bereaved. I am very sorry that you did not have the key updates that were promised, which are usually a hallmark of our service. Yours sincerely Catherine Powell

Posted 3 years ago

“Apart from you wanting money up front before you do anything ( I now know why because no one would pay for this service after) you never once did what you said you would do, communication was zero, we kept phoning you to find out what was going on, you kept saying that you were waiting for documents to come back from the hospital but the hospital phoned us and asked us what was going on and apparently they had not even been informed by yourselves that you were handling everything, when you told us you would phone back you didn’t, my last phone call to you was 2 days before the cremation date as we did not know if it was going to take place or not on the date you said, I was told I was on the list to phone later that day, but was all going ahead and that you would phone us after the cremation normally the next day or the one after just to let us know everything went ok, NOTHING, finally we heard from a man who told us he would bring the ashes back on Wednesday 24/11/2021 which he did. The only reason we used pure cremation was because my wife’s mother had no one left but us two and that we thought it would be really sad just to have 2 people at the funeral, I really wish now we had gone for a proper funeral service as I know we would have been looked after right from the start, we are both sorry we ever used you. It has made my wife quite ill and very sad.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

Dear Mr Holland, I am very sorry to read this account and have investigated how the team handled your mother's arrangements. I want to apologise for the standard of communication you received, which did indeed fall short of the standards that we expect our team to offer. I am sincerely sorry for the distress that this must have caused. While I am confident that we have addressed the root cause of these issues through our work to handle the extremely high volume of calls we are experiencing, I will take this opportunity to remind the team of the vital importance of excellent communication for every bereaved family. Yours sincerely Catherine Powell

Posted 3 years ago

“Worst experience i have ever had. 1. Mum died at 610 am i couldn't contact anyone until 830 and when i did they processed and said they would phone me back never did so i rang them at 10am same i will phone you back never did so rang them at 11am and they said we cant pick your mum up until late evening. I wasn't happy so they ended up using a local undertaker then picked my mum up 4 days later please never use.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

Dear Mr Skitt, we are sincerely sorry that it took so long to arrange for your mother's transfer of care. The August Bank Holiday weekend was an unexpectedly busy period and while I can see that our teams did their best to expedite the arrangements we acknowledge that this must have been distressing for you. The timescale for transferring your dear mother from the local funeral director into our care was agreed with the Funeral director, taking the Bank Holiday weekend into account. While yours has been an exceptional experience, we are undertaking a review of this case to understand what we may need to do differently to avoid any family feeling that they are left waiting for communication and response in future. Yours sincerely, Catherine Powell

Posted 3 years ago

“My grandad is being cremated today 28th and I'm very upset how the hole process has gone so far ! My mum was not told she had to pay upfront so the day he was supose to picked up My mum phoned them to be told cos she never paid they didn't pick him up ! No phone call nothing so this has be delayed ... on the leaflet says that your called 15 mins befor cremation they would call you to let you know its going ahead but shes told this dont happen ... im very disappointed the lack of communication is dreadful they where supose to phone her yesterday once they had picked my grandad up and no phone call how can they do this to a greving family 😪😪😪”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Terrible customer service and please try other providers such as the Coop Funeral Care who are much better and less expensive. My experience was all bad and I’m relieved that they never returned calls or emails as it meant I went elsewhere. The tone of the customer care wasn’t brilliant either and I suspect they were overwhelmed with the resources they have to deal with callers. I would have worried if we’d gone ahead given how poor the rest of the operation would be. Please try elsewhere to check your have the right solution for you at what is certainly the worst time you can imagine. Also with the Coop you can pick up your loved one much nearer to home than the Pure Cremation option.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

Dear Carl, I am very sorry to hear about your experience, which is far from typical as our reviews clearly show. We will investigate and would invite you to make contact to share your experience directly with us so that we can gain a complete picture and understand what needs to be learned. I am pleased that you found a provider to care for you and your loved one. Kind regards, Catherine Powell

Posted 3 years ago

“Didn't inform me of my late father's cremation day ,bad communication ,wasn't told cremation date then told ashes would return within 3 weeks a month later no show so rang today told he wasn't on the list unknown why ? So poor dad's been up there 😢 finally told he will be back to us tomorrow thank god .”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

We are sorry that it has taken longer than it should have to arrange the return of your father's ashes. PLease be assured that we will look into why this has happened. The team immediately prioritised this once you brought the matter to our attention. The detailed notes confirm that we had considerable difficulty reaching your mother to progress your father's arrangements and that the cremation date was moved as a result. This new date was confirmed by telephone with your mother at 16.15 on August 4th when she returned our call.

Posted 3 years ago

“You could not be bothered to get back to me after I completed an on line form for requesting a cremation following my Fathers death. Many phone calls later ended as the lines were busy so it goes you end the call. I suspect if i was after a pre-paid plan, you would have had no problem getting in touch. Luckily, I found another vendor, Simplicity Cremations, which answered the phone immediately, and dealt with me with kindness and dignity during this difficult time.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

We acknowledge and apologise sincerely for the difficulties you experienced in contacting us. We pride ourselves on responsiveness but recognise that while we worked hard to minimise the exceptional effects of the 'pingdemic', you did not receive the swift response you needed. We are pleased to hear that you found a provider to support you.

Posted 3 years ago

“Shocking high volume conveyor belt cremation service avoid at all costs”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

We respectfully disagree with your comments. Our entire team worked extremely hard to ensure that your mother's cremation was not delayed following the error that you made regarding your mother's date of death and the subsequent confusion caused by the registrar's initial misunderstanding of the legal position. Our commitment to caring for the bereaved meant that the cremation went ahead as originally planned even though this critical matter was not resolved until the day itself. In fact, all the arrangements were completed well ahead of our usual timescales and we are at a loss to understand what more any organisation could have done to satisfy you.

Posted 3 years ago

“My mum's last wishes were for her ashes to be handed delivered to me. Unfortunately I was not the policy holder my alcoholic brother was because he lived with my mum. When he knew mums wishes you let him change them and I was told by a member of your telephone staff I was no longer getting mums ashes and there was nothing I could do.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

We are very sorry to hear about this situation but we are bound by UK law which says that we must follow the instruction of the person organising the cremation, even if these differ from the deceased person's wishes. Family disagreements are always challenging to deal with and we do our best to mediate if this is possible. We hope that , in time, you and your brother can come to a mutually agreeable resolution in respect of your mother's ashes.

Posted 3 years ago

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