Westside Cremation & Burial Services

EDIT: Based on Westside's response, specifically about actions they will take in the future, and my as noted earlier very positive experiences, I am going from 2* to 3*. And yes, Ryan's comment was accurate, that when I spoke with him I was more accepting of their mistake. This was after my phone call with SSA, where I was told I could swing by SSA office to correct the issue. Upon doing that (post chat with Ryan), CE to find out no, have to schedule an appointment with SSA, and bring a bunch of paperwork in - making the whole process far more complex than I was expecting. It's also post finding out that my late father's snap benefits were revoked 1-month early, resulting in monetary loss (not much, but still loss). I believe Ryan with Westside only filed with SSA, but that seemingly triggered notifications to multiple other places. So yeah, mistakes happen, but what an absolute pain it's become, and still in-process of rectifying. Original review below: I am torn on writing this review. Up until yesterday, I would have given them 5*, as evidenced by the fact that my father, followed by my mother and her husband, then my sister, and finally my wife and I had pre-purchased cremation services from Westside Cremation. That part was great. And, when the services were needed for my mothers late-husband, they were also fantastic, and 5*. The issue, is that upon my father's passing, they came out to get the body. Great! Very prompt, very professional, very courteous. I then inquired about how I get the ashes and death certificate, again, very professional, very courteous, 5*. Ryan, the funeral director, told me that he would send me a draft of the death certificate, and that I'd get to review it before it was finalized. OK, perfect. Upon receiving the draft, I promptly noticed that the date of death was wrong -- by a month. Mistakes happen, and as a draft, no big deal. I immediately notified him that part was wrong, but stated everything else correct. He wrote back that it would definitely be changed in the finalized death certificate. A week later, I get the death certificate. Date is corrected, life is good. Or, at least so I thought... I contact the Social Security Office, and find out that Westside Cremation submitted the DRAFT death certificate WITH THE WRONG DATE to SSA. This set into motion a cascading impact of problems. SSA, DHS, hospital, Medicaid, and more. I contacted Ryan at Westside. He stated that they'd definitely be better about policing for such mistakes in the future, but offered no real apology, offered NO effort to try and correct with SSA (which OMFG what a PITA that has now become!), and as he stated he only contacted SSA, offered NO help in addressing the others, nor offered any kind of financial conciliation/additional death certificates that may be needed because of this mistake. I get it... Mistakes happen. We're human. But to (a) submit the WRONG DATE TO the Social Security Administration seems BAD. To then compound this issue is that upon my informing him of the WRONG date, that he FAILED to alert me to the fact that it was submitted WITH THE WRONG DATE to SSA. This really starts to put me over the edge, and tank my review from 5* to 2*. Even further is the lack of any effort on their part to even begin to attempt to address the issues at hand... Now, I get the joy of having to take additional time off work to schedule an appointment with SSA, and spending a lot more time chasing down all the problems that cascaded because of West Side cremation. I don't believe West Side put the wrong date on the death certificate, but they PROPOGATED that date in a DRAFT, NON-REVIEWED COPY being submitted to federal government agencies.

We were grateful to have Westside to call upon when my loving son recently passed. We found Westside respectful, affordable & a kind man delivered his ashes. Many thanks🙏🏽 The Mom

Dealing with the passing of a loved one is obviously very difficult and Ryan and Westside were absolutely terrific in communicating, setting expectations and following thru with great communication and compassion. 100 percent recommended

The staff took care of us very well. We had questions they had answers. Our mom was prepared beautifully. We could not ask for a better service for her.

We reached out to Westside prior to my mothers passing and I have to admit, I didn't think it would be so easy. They were very friendly and helpful through the process of picking out the right services for our family. Thoughtful and empathetic. When mom finally passed, they were very respectful and careful when they picked her up from the house and gave us all the time we needed to say our goodbyes. And this was at around 9:00 PM or so. They contacted us for cremation details and cremation was quick and her remains carefully packed for us. They took care of all the paperwork with the county, SSA and IRS and even went out of their way to drive documents to the municipality instead of mailing them, speeding up the certificate process. This is a fantastic family owned business serving the greater Portland Metro area. You'll feel comfortable putting your loved ones in the hands of the great people at the Abbey.