Cedar Park and Beth El Cemeteries

Amira Reiss

If you have a choice, inter your loved ones elsewhere. I can barely describe how disgusted I am with the careless, cold, and unprofessional ways we've been treated. Is this how all the bereaved families they deal with are treated?!?? There's a "CYA" mentality that permeates every interaction with the staff. No one owns up to mistakes or takes any responsibility. The "reception" area is behind glass with a rope line so you feel like you're at the DMV. Maybe the setup is due to COVID, but you're treated about as warmly as you are at the DMV too. No one came out of the back office to greet us or direct us when we arrived to inter my father in law's ashes, even though we arrived ahead of our appointment and we were a large group waiting in the rotunda for 30 minutes. Eventually, a maintenance worker came to escort us. It was then we discovered that the urn would not fit in the niche beside the urn of my mother in law. The funeral home had called previously and checked the measurements so we could select an appropriate urn. The cemetery had told them there would be no problem. The cemetery couldn't possibly have actually measured or it would have been crystal clear the new urn wasn't going to fit. We don't live in the area. We won't be there when the new urn is placed in the niche. Saying goodbye is hard enough and now we're left with these sour memories on top of an already difficult time.

David Reiss

Our father pre-purchased a niche at Cedar Park Beth El in the mausoleum. While scheduling services and coordinating with our family, I reached out to their office on Sunday, 7-3-2022. I was trying to get as late a time as possible for the services the following Sunday (7-10). The woman I spoke with said the latest was 2:45pm. I was trying to get a later time and asked if we paid an additional fee, would they let us come a little later. She priced out overtime costs at $750. I said it was better that we just take the 2:45pm time that we were told. On Wednesday, July 6, 2022 at 10:00am, I called Cedar Park Beth El to ensure things were complete and to see how to arrange payment. I spoke with Jessica in their office and she had trouble finding my reservation at first but then remembered the call on Sunday 7/3 asking about pricing out overtime. Jessica told me she would email me a form to fill out in about 20 minutes. After 90 min., I hadn’t gotten the email so I called back. Jessica was now telling me that they couldn’t honor the 2:45pm time. I stressfully expressed how unacceptable that was and that would destroy all the reservations and plans we had made based on arriving there by 2:45; they need to honor the reservation I had made 3 days earlier. She said she was talking with the vice president of the cemetery and would get back to me. The vice president, Mr. Laurence Rose, called me a short time later and bluntly and unsympathetically told me they don’t do services after 2:00pm on Sunday and refused to accommodate the original reservation or even acknowledge that a mistake could have been made on their part. He said they had no record of the reservation and asked who I spoke with. I told him I didn’t remember the name of the woman I spoke with on 7/3, but Jessica (who was on the call with us) remembered so maybe it was her. Laurence simply said it couldn’t have been her she wasn’t working that day. Ok……but she remembered the conversation about pricing out overtime that day? I asked Jessica directly to confirm that she had said just a few hours earlier that she had remembered talking about pricing out the overtime, and Laurence Rose interrupted me and said that he would not tolerate me “interrogating his employee”. I offered to pay the overtime costs; Laurence refused to accept that as an option. They know who was working on that day; they could ask who took my call. Laurence Rose reiterated the only other options were to move everything up an hour or shift things to another day. Neither of those options worked; plans had already been put in place on a tight schedule with the funeral home, family and friends traveling from far away. The funeral home has other clients earlier that day, people’s flights in and out of the area are arranged, car services were booked, restaurants were booked and deposits made. In the end, we were forced to forgo the cemetery service on Sunday with the full family and we will be separately going to drop our father off with just a couple of us. To make matters worse, our father’s 93-year-old sister who is struggling to make it to the service will now have to be told that if she wants to be there when her brother is laid to rest, she will have to make the trek from NY City again which is an agonizing feat for her to do once. Failing to honor their original reservation, Laurence Rose has created the situation where most of our family will not be able to be present to say goodbye at the cemetery and prolonging the pain of laying our father to rest.…..thanks to VP Laurence Rose and his staff at Cedar Park Beth El and their refusal to honor the reservation his staff told me on July 3rd that they would hold for our family. Do not do business with this cemetery; the stress and emotional trauma they are putting our family through is beyond words and we would not wish for anyone else to suffer through at an already painful time.

wendy reiss

Horrible experience so far. Not flexible and unwilling to work with families. Have put us in a very bad spot. Angry.

Bill H

Bright green team finish the burial. Gigantic place.