It is a subject no one wants to think about. But sooner or later, most of us have to make funeral arrangements for a loved one. This article will guide you through the decisions you'll need to make and provides evaluations of 35 area funeral homes.

Read our article and findings (available exclusively to CHECKBOOK subscribers)

Back to Bay Area Consumers' CHECKBOOK Table of Contents.

Sample Subscriber Comments/Reviews About Funeral Homes

CHECKBOOK provides subscriber comments on their experiences with the firms they use. Please remember that individual subscriber comments are informal. Subscriber comments may give you insight into the types of features and problems that exist in a service field, but are not the best basis for selecting or rejecting a specific firm. To assess the quality of a firm's performance, we recommend that you give more weight to the percentages of favorable ratings. Those percentages are generally based on much larger numbers of consumers' ratings (the number of consumer ratings is noted above).

As You Can See Below, Some Funeral Homes Get High Praise from Their Customers. Some Others Don't. So Choose Carefully.
Here Are a Few Samples of the Thousands of Comments CHECKBOOK Has Collected on Hundreds of Different Funeral Homes.

• Subscriber from HILLSBOROUGH, CA wrote Another Firm: HAVE USED SEVERAL TIMES. THEY ARE VERY GOOD. GENERAL MANAGER MR GENTILE IS SUPER........
• Subscriber from SUNNYVALE, CA wrote Another Firm: Jefferson Lee did an excellent job of handling the funeral services of my mother. He..........
• Subscriber from OAKLAND, CA wrote Another Firm: Nice people in a time of need.......
• Subscriber from SAN FRANCISCO, CA wrote Another Firm: This service is hard to rate as in a cremation one receives a box of..........
• Subscriber from SAN FRANCISCO, CA wrote Another Firm: Honored my mother's pre-purchased services, knowledgeable about Chinese funeral practices, was accommodating and pleasant........
• Subscriber from CONCORD, CA wrote Another Firm: I've used the services of Sinai Memorial Chapel located in Lafayette, CA. I found the..........
• Subscriber from SAN RAMON, CA wrote Another Firm: We found them to be very caring and helpful at an awful time. There was..........
• Subscriber from SANTA CLARA, CA wrote Another Firm: I made up my mind checking out their referances. They were nice over the phone...........
• Subscriber from CLAYTON, CA wrote Another Firm: the people running oakmont today is like the difference between night and day compared to..........
• Subscriber from EL CERRITO, CA wrote Another Firm: Very low key, answered questions straight forward, no pressure for extras, cost was reasonable, enjoyed..........
• Subscriber from EL SOBRANTE, CA wrote Another Firm: Very nice staff you can feel they are working extra to helping you. Very nice..........
• Subscriber from SAN FRANCISCO, CA wrote Another Firm: extremely caring and competant. Three locations in the Bay Area........
• Subscriber from SUNNYVALE, CA wrote Another Firm: Last year, my spouse died and had the funeral service and burial at Chapel of..........
• Subscriber from MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA wrote Another Firm: Staff is knowledgable and sensitive........
• Subscriber from WALNUT CREEK, CA wrote Another Firm: I'm not gone yet but I called for info and the rep (Ray) was very..........