I have an order confirmation and photo of the standing spray I ordered for my uncles funeral - I have another photo of the vase with a handful of flowers in it I received. There is no way to make this right as the funeral is over, the arrangement was embarrassing-it was the equivalent of a grocery store arrangement for $160!
Thanks to this website that trolls online obituary's some loved ones may miss my moms service. Besides adding words to the obituary they have created confusion by posting the wrong location. Now I have to deal with inquiries
Hi Jeff,
We sincerely apologize for the error and have removed the obituary as of 8:35a.m. EST on December 19th. The wording is not the same as the original obituary because we don't share the complete original obituary without the family's permission. We don't troll online obituaries, we further share the basic facts of publicly available obituaries to inform society of who has passed away.
It is a shame that one cannot give 0 starts for a rating because this company deserves no better. This sentiment, and my opinion of this company, mirrors the experience and the opinions of many other individuals who have been affected by the practices of Echovita as you can see by reading other reviews of the company.
Essentially, they post obituaries completely unauthorized by the families of the deceased on their web site. The obituary is re-written from the official obituaries posted by the responsible funeral home, presumably to circumvent copyright infringement violations, and peppered with other family information such as identities, etc. garnered from internet sources. In our case some of this information in the obituary they posted was erroneous, and specific names were published without our permission.
The position of the company, as articulated in their responses to numerous complaints online, and in their specific response to my demand that the obituary in question be removed, is that they are serving a public good by communicating information. However, their unauthorized obituaries are completely superfluous. The information is already communicated in the family-authorized original obituary posted by the funeral home and readily available to all on the internet.
If the purpose of the company was to do a public good and communicate information, they should simply seek permission from the affected family in writing before posting the obituary, or even better, ask the bereaved family to review the obituary for content and accuracy before publishing it. They do not do this! Rather, it is my opinion, and that of many others who have shared in my family's experience as noted in their reviews, that the purpose of Echovita' s obituaries is to sell flowers and other memorial products. While I am a firm believer in capitalism, there have to be ethical limits and publishing unauthorized obituaries, with uncorroborated information by the family of the deceased, with the purpose of selling products, in my opinion steps over that ethical line. To reiterate, since the official obituary prepared by the family and posted by the funeral home on the internet is available to all, and contains accurate information, and the only information the family of the deceased wishes to be posted, there is absolutely no need or altruistic purpose for these Echovita obituaries. In our case, this unsolicited and unauthorized obituary has been confusing to acquaintances of our deceased family member who have contacted us.
Echovita' s business plan uses families and their friends at a most vulnerable time in their lives. I urge all who have unfortunately lost a loved one to make certain that the only obituary published is from the funeral home responsible, and the obituary that the family wants to see in print.
Hi Bruce,
You stated that we posted specific names without your permission, however, all names we post would have first been posted publicly online in the original version of the obituary, so it wouldn't be possible for Echovita to post specific names that weren't originally posted online. You stated that Echovita should seek permission from families, and we do via the funeral homes who cooperate with us, as we post their complete original obituaries. For funeral homes that refuse to cooperate with us, which means they refuse to inform families they serve of the free service we provide to give them the option to post on our website for free, we are unable to reach out to the family because we don't have their contact information. Howevers, many of those same funeral homes who don't cooperate with us do work with paid websites who actually pay the funeral home to post obituaries onto their platform, but the funeral home charges the family to post to the other platform as well. That is something we disagree with. Families shouldn't have to pay for obituaries.
When obituaries are posted on the internet, we further share the basic facts only in a death notice format to inform society of who has passed away. We organize all obituaries and death notices by city, so that people can see who passed away daily in selected cities of their choice with a free subscription. We do this in an effort to create as much support as possible for families. People can share their condolences for free with the family via email or social media. Families can post full obituaries on our website for free or submit the full obituary to be shared by us and replace the pre-existing death notice. Families can then claim the obituary with proper proof, such as a photo of the death certificate to receive money raised through sales or donate it towards a charity of their choosing. Pictures can be posted to create a memorial page for free by friends and family. Any modifications, corrections, or requests for removal by the family or their representative are completed immediately upon receiving notification. We only have the best intentions and are truly sorry for your loss.
When we lost our uncle, the family created a page with a personalized obituary on the Dignity Memorial website. Less than a week later we found an unauthorized obituary, along with links to buy flowers, light a digital candle (for a fee of course), or plant trees in his memory. The link to the fake obituary was also posted to Facebook.
This has confused several family members, as they believed the Echovita page was the official page created by the family. At least one person spent $60 planting trees believing that this was asked for by the family.
If you create an account and attempt to reply to the person who mistakenly spent money on their website, it will show your comment as posted. However, once you log out and check again, no comment exists. They know what they're doing and it's absolutely shameful.
They claim to be providing a social service by sharing public obituaries, but they aren't simply sharing the obituary. They are making requests for money and only "sharing" the commission with the family if they happen to discover the page and claim it. If the family has wanted to work with Echovita they would have utilized it in the first place. If Echovita wanted to be an honest business, they would have contacted the family first. They didn't and their intentions are obvious.
We've made several requests to remove the page and have yet to receive a reply.
Hi Jess M.,
We already responded to your review on trustpilot on November 3rd. Once again, here is our response:
The obituary was removed on November 3rd at 8:00a.m. The reason you didn't see your reply posted on the obituary page is because we have a filter, which detects inappropriate language within messages, which we then have to further review before it is posted online. That is why you didn't see your message posted immediately. Only 1 order of memorial trees was made, which we have cancelled and refunded. We do NOT make requests for money, so that is false. Echovita doesn't ask for, nor accept donations of any kind, and if the original obituary mentioned where donations are suggested by the family, we provide that information, so that people are aware.
We further share basic facts of publicly available obituaries, which is completely legal. All purchases, which can be made on our website are legitimate and we put aside 50% of all commission for the family, which they can claim. We have no way of contacting the family ourselves to inform them of the obituary that has been created on our website, however, we do not hide and can be found with a simple online obituary search. When we work with funeral homes directly, the families are aware of their loved one's obituary. We are an honest business and we make it easy for families to choose to post the complete original obituary, make changes to their loved one's obituary, or remove the obituary.
We are sorry for your loss.
Ordered flowers thro Ecovia to Bloom, for a visitation. Three days later told they don't deliver to that postal code. Asked for delivery to my home for the day before. Were delivered, but left on doorstep, no doorbell. Founds hours later
Your pathetic company posted on my dear friend's wife's obituary advertising floral arrangements. I bought a huge arrangement only to be called on the day of delivery telling me they couldn't find a local florist. This was an absolute disgrace. It simply could not have been worse.
Hi,
We're sorry to hear about your experience. We don't advertise floral arrangements. As per the majority of online obituaries, there is an option to send flowers. In this case, the local florist should have contacted earlier to inform you if they couldn't fulfill your order. Notifying you on the day of delivery is unacceptable and we understand your frustration. A refund for your order was issued on September 7th. Thank you.
For the top price of the bouquet I would expect they would be outstanding. I walked around for a long time to find the bouquet because it was just an average bouquet, not top of the line. I would wouldn't buy it off the site again. I would just contact a florist independently.
Hi Debra W.,
If you are not satisfied with the bouquet delivered, please call 1-800-522-8707. You may be eligible for a partial refund if what was delivered did not reflect the photo on our website. Thank you.
The pretty small vase of flowers received was nothing like the Sentiments of Serenity Spray we purchased for $155.00. We also purchased an Eternity Candle for $9.99 which the recipients knew nothing of. Clearly an upsell that is not delivered.
Would not use this company again.
Hi Stacey J.,
We're sorry to hear that the local florist delivered a small vase instead of the spray you selected. Please call Blooms Today directly at 1-800-522-8707 and let them know, so that your order can be refunded, as per our policy. Also, the eternity candle is a virtual candle that appears on the obituary page. Since you were unaware of that, although, it is clearly explained in step 4 of the checkout process, we have cancelled and refunded the eternity candle. It will take 5-7 business days for the refund to be returned to you. Thank you.
Purchased $150 flower spread but was never confirmed they were delivered and were not at the visitation on the day scheduled. I believe I paid and never received the flowers.
Hi Kristen F.,
Please check your spam for a delivery confirmation from our partner, Blooms Today. If you didn't receive one, please call 1-800-522-8707, as stated on our website and on your receipt. Thank you.
Needed to send flowers to a dear friend's father's funeral. The team called me hours before the event to say that they could not make it. I had ordered over 500 in flowers. Worst experience ever.
Hi,
We're very sorry to hear about your experience. An issue must have came up with the local florist, which is very unfortunate.
Overview
Echovita has a rating of 2.9 stars from 1,691 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers dissatisfied with Echovita most frequently mention funeral home, next day and local florist. Echovita ranks 2nd among Funeral sites.
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Hi Tammy,
We are sorry to hear the flower arrangement wasn't satisfactory. Are you aware we have a 100% satisfactory guarantee or your money back? It is stated on your order confirmation email and on our website's refund policy. Please note that Echovita is an obituary website. We don't handle any flower orders. All flower orders are processed by our partner, Blooms Today, and are prepared and delivered via local florists. We checked our emails and we didn't receive any emails from you. As per our refund policy, if you are not 100% satisfied with your flower order or your trees of tribute order, or your flower order was not delivered, we will fully refund the cost of your order within 120 days. Please contact Blooms Today at 1-800-520-0573 regarding your flower order if you are not satisfied with the product you received, and have your order number ready. Thank you.