161 Old St, OL6 7SQ, Ashton Under Lyne, Lancashire
We are an independent family firm of funeral directors who will be there to guide you through all and any aspect of the funeral service, from the planning through to the day itself.
Funeral Director in Ashton Under Lyne, Lancashire.
As a family we dealt with Kenworthy's in November 2016 following the death of my Grandma. My Grandparents had paid for both their funerals with Kenworthy's in full some years ago. This company caused my family a considerable amount of upset and stress from the moment they became involved, up until July 2017 when we finally ended our dealings with them. Following advice from Trading Standands, a letter of complaint was filed in July 2017 outlining many complaints spanning the previous 9 months. I stated in my letter that "the manager (Sharon) was a liability to Kenworthy's and will run the business into the ground with her unprofessional way of working. She is not fit for the job and I am astounded at how someone like her with so little experience and poor people skills was ever offered the job of manager at Kenworthy's." The main complaints we had as a family were the complete lack of respect and dignity offered to my Grandma in the way she was presented to us, the unacceptable building they claim was their 'Chapel of Rest' which I can only describe as a cold, dark, miserable storage room. Other complaints were the lack of communication between Sharon and my family around funeral arrangements, concerns that the company were in financial difficulty and did not have enough funds to purchase my Grandma's coffin until a couple of days before the funeral. The money paid for my Grandad's funeral in advance was not protected and therefore claiming this money back to transfer to an alternative funeral company took 9 months, as the money had simply been spent. Sharon constantly lied and made excuses for everything and did not communicate any of our complaints to the owner of the company.
Sharon is a complete liability; she cannot even complete basic tasks relating to organising a funeral and supporting grieving families. Sharon's organisational skills are unacceptable for a manager of a funeral directors, and her communication skills are possibly the worst I have ever dealt with. The only thing that Sharon is good at is making excuses for herself. Sharon never phoned my family back once between November 2016 and July 2017, we always had to contact her for updates on the promises she made. In May 2017, Sharon passed all dealings of this case to the 'owner of the company' Rachel Turner, who I quickly realised from staff members at Kenworthy's was a made up name and we feel that any texts sent from Rachel Turner, were actually from Sharon. This woman was very disturbed to behave this way towards a grieving family filing a complaint against the company.
As a family we were messed around by Sharon for 9 months, before we finally tracked down the details of the real owner Robert. Robert said all the right things, including agreeing to a full refit of the Chapel of Rest, how sorry he was from the bottom of his heart for the distress Kenworthy's have caused my family and finally offering us compensation for my Grandma's funeral experience. As a family we felt reassured that he had taken on board all our concerns about the Chapel of Rest and the way the company was being run by Sharon. Unfortunately this does not appear to have happened and I feel very sad for all the families that have used Kenworthy's service up until them being investigated in February 2019.
We contracted Kenworthys to arrange the funeral of our late brother and paid Sharon Howell a deposit which she insisted on. Once she had taken our money she lied about not being able to get hold of the priest, crematorium and coroners office. She did not respond to our numerous emails or calls.
To our horror we found out that Kenworthys are under investigation by the police and trading standards, yet continue to take vulnerable peoples money with no obvious intention of delivering a service.
We had no choice to appoint another undertaker who thankfully was able to arrange our late brothers funeral within a couple of hours.
It’s shameful what this woman has done to our family at this difficult time and also to the reputation of a well known and respected local undertakers.
The Kenworthys founders must be turning in their graves
Terrible experience with Sharon, came to visit my family after my grandmothers death, and the first thing she said is that we owed her money!
The funeral had been paid in advance many years earlier, however it turns out Kenworthy's did not protect our money.
Chapel of rest had no heating, was unwelcoming and was bare. They had not prepared my grandmother in any way and we were shocked with the way she was presented, and this was last ever time we would see her.
Lots of other issues which resulted in compensation and complaints to trading standards.
after 50 years or more having generations of my family given first class service,Now after remaining loyal to you,my brothers body had to be taken from your chapel of rest to another funeral directors ,this delaying a funeral by up to two weeks because of things i cant disclose as a investigation is underway,from a first class service to an appalling service, What has gon wrong ?????????????
Shambles no communication took money when not authorized to do so would never use them again Sharon never replied to phone calls had to change undertakers in the end do not need this stress when you have to deal with not helpful at all its shame when a business fall apart
I could not possibly recommend this company to anyone. Communication was absolutely abysmal from Sharon Howell who never returned calls, failed to keep us updated on arrangements and the day before Mums funeral could not be contacted to confirm key details relating to the funeral. She eventually apologised and offered to cover the cost of the acknowledgement in the Tameside Reporter after the funeral herself as way of compensating for the poor service. This she failed to do so we ended up arranging and paying for it ourselves. Instead of making Mums funeral arrangements as smooth and stress free as possible she actually added to the stress and distress which is unforgivable. P.S. The guys attending on the actual funeral day were very good but need to work for another company.
The title says it all, from start to finish an absolutely amazing service before, during and after the funeral.
Like one of the other reviewers, my family have used Kenworthy’s for generations. No more. I have already told my mum that we will not be using them for her. My dear aunt passed away recently and to say kenworthys were bad is an understatement. My cousin had to constantly chase them for information about the funeral, the vicar, the date, when we could see her etc. They were constantly saying they would get back and never did. The vicars were all on holiday and they could not get hold of any...what a joke. We finally got a vicar and he only had a day to put together a service - thankfully he was amazing. We eventually got to see my aunt the evening before the funeral, and considering they had her remains for well over a week was shocking. If they were too busy they shouldn’t have taken the work. The acknowledgment in the paper after the funeral was just a replica of the announcement of her passing.
My family and I could not have asked for a better service. Kenworthy's dealt with everything from the start to the finish of the process with the utmost professionalism and compassion.
I would recommend their services wholeheartedly.
Kenworthy's caused me considerable work when I used them for my late wife's funeral. Everything needed, except the actual funeral day, had to be asked for several times, ranging up to the delivery of my wife's ashes to me, which took several requests, and even initially quoting the wrong date for the funeral.
I still haven't got a receipted Invoice, despite the bill having been paid the day it was received on 24th November 2017- even though they had missed off £480 disbursements for flowers, which I added to the account and paid the same day.
Today is the 14th January 2018 and my letter of 10th December 2017, asking, again, for the receipted account, is still not replied to - IGNORED in fact. I've just typed a reminder and tried to deliver it by hand - THEY DON'T EVEN HAVE A LETTERBOX, so it's another trip tomorrow when hopefully they will be open.
Kenworthy's have been my family's undertakers since as far back as 1942 when they 'buried' my Grandfather. They 'buried' my Grandmother, my Father and my Mother, and 'cremated' my grandson in 1990 and again in 1999 (remember Alder Hey hospital). They certainly won't 'cremate' me!
I've headed this review "Can't be bothered" - perhaps I should have added "They have my money". And yes, I'm aware that they have had illness amongst the workforce - but that doesn't shut a company down - does it?' I can't rate the service accurately - one STAR, is one too many!
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