Providence Funeral Homes - Summerland Chapel

Do not use this funeral home at all! They took an already horrible event, and made it 100x worse. Our loved one passed away suddenly, while on vacation. We went to them, on a whim, for a simple cremation. During the initial meeting, everything pretty much began with, "Due to BC laws.....According to BC laws...ect" . We were made to buy a coffin and an urn. Knowing we were from another province, and had no plans of a funeral or memorial, we had lasagna shoved down our throat from their in house caterer. This was only the beginning. They received our loved one on a Thursday and we were told he would be cremated the following day. We tried calling to find out, but our phone calls were never returned. We heard nothing over the weekend. On the following Monday, we tried calling again, SEVERAL family members called, and no return phone call yet again. On Tuesday, we called their Chapel in Penticton, and were told he was still there (in Summerland), not yet cremated and weren't sure when it would happen. This was now Day 12 of our loved ones passing. Tuesday afternoon we finally got a call, saying it was currently happening and a generic "sorry i dropped the ball" and then saying there was a planned maintenance on the crematorium (so why tell us the week before he would be done on Friday?). And we were told again due to BC law he had to be held for 48 hours before cremation. By the time he was received by them, he had been deceased for a week. (We had to pay beforehand for the 48 hour hold). Upon airing our frustrations, the manager called the spouse of the deceased, and became combative on the whole ordeal. When he was finally put in the mail, we were never notified. Even after passing, people deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. I do not feel our loved one, or our family received this. Nothing but the run around and absolutely disgusting behaviour. It seems like we were taken advantage of because we weren't from the area.....seems like they were only interested in our money. I urge people to find a different funeral home to assist them in their time of need.....no family deserves to be so disrespected and the deceased don't deserve to be forgotten about.

I would not recommend this funeral home. It starts off as a very friendly, caring proprietor, but we quickly realized the funeral director was playing on our emotions. Huge pressure to purchase a high-end casket, which did not make sense for cremation, where no one would see the casket. As soon as the proprietor realized we weren't spending a lot of money, the personality changed drastically and our meeting was done. I like to support local businesses, but only if they treat you respectfully. The last thing you need is someone trying to take advantage of you when you are grieving.

The place was reluctant to provide all available options. We were left in the casket room to make a decision inspite of many unanswered questions. The experience felt like a rip off, taking advantage of people are the worst time. I would not recommend this place to anyone.