Bruce C. Van Arsdale Funeral Home

Reviews, get directions and contact details for Bruce C. Van Arsdale Funeral Home

Address: 111 N Gaston Ave, Somerville, NJ 08876, USA

Phone: (908) 725-3111

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State: New Jersey

Zip Code: 08876

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Reviews

When a loved one passes, the family is left with the arduous task of making the final arrangements while enduring the grief of their loss.  That task is even greater when the decedent had no means.  

As the daughter of a decedent without life insurance, I had the task of shopping around for the best arrangements I could find, while allowing my mom to be handled with dignity.  That's what I thought I found when I initially spoke with Bruce Van Arsdale about my mom's arrangements.  

Bruce presented, on the phone, as a thoughtful, caring person who had the best interest of my family at heart.  He quoted us a fair price ($1,300) and told us the only additional expenses would be $200 for the crematorium and $20 for a tip.  Imagine our surprise when, after meeting with Bruce at his funeral home, the bottom line figure was actually $1,965.  Of course Bruce was able to itemize all the charges, hence justifying them.  Nonetheless, we were surprised.

Bruce explained that my mom, being a medicaid recipient, might qualify for a death benefit which would cover her expenses.  Turns out, she did qualify; however, since she was being covered by medicaid, her new cost was $2246.  

When I asked Bruce why the cost had inflated, he explained that he was doing me a favor by offering the lower price.  When I asked if his expenses had increased since learning about the medicaid benefit, he said they hadn't.  When I challenged him on the fact that he was committing fraud, he proceeded to tell me, and I quote, " You came in here in your fancy Jaguar, crying about money, and I did you a favor by offering you a low price".  

In summary, Van Arsdale is the most unprofessional, rapacious, insensitive organization I've ever had to deal with.

To add insult to injury, when I phoned Bruce to inquire about the death certificate, he confronted me about my review, threatening to come after me if I filed a complaint with the State Board of Mortuary Science.  And, he removed my mother's obituary from the Van Arsdale Memorial page.

 9 years ago (06-02-2017)

Spectacular service. Bruce went above and beyond what was required.

We had to arrange a service on an extremely contracted timeline. We were also not from the area. Bruce did everything to accommodate our desires. He spend a lot of time working on a Sunday to make sure that our plan for the ceremony could come to fruition.

Would highly recommend.

 9 years ago (02-05-2016)

My baby boy passed away last year.  Bruce is straightforward and seems like a kind man.  The location of the funeral home was an added plus very close to our house.  The exterior and the interior of his funeral home is beautiful.  

Now, why the two starts only?  Well, after our initial consultation with Bruce, he said his apologies for the loss of our baby, but he then proceeded to say to my husband and I that we are a young couple and to not worry because we would have more children.  Eight months later and this comment still keeps me up at night.  Bruce, I could have 25 healthy children, but no one would take the place of the son I conceived, carried, birthed, and raised for five months.  This ignorant comment from a funeral director, of all people!  I was speechless.  I just lost our son that morning at 3 am and to be told this just 14 hours later I felt like my son didn't matter at all.  Our tremendous loss was minimized and was really very painful to hear.  

The other complaint I have is during the actual wake.  It was during the afternoon session while we were using the funeral home and relatives and friends were paying their respects to my son.  The owner Bruce and a lady (business partner, we think) were arguing just steps away from my dead son's casket.  Family and friends heard the fight.  It was loud and it went on for a while.   It was very unprofessional.  Have respect for the dead and the family, please.  I had no fight in me left and was too consumed by grieving that I let it go.  However, it left a mark on my family and my friends.  They were very upset for me.  think I wrote him letter of how that was so unprofessional, but I don't remember.  Think twice before you consider coming to this place.  I wouldn't want an insensitive comment by someone leave such a hurtful mark on another griever's psyche.  I have enough stress and pain to literally last me a lifetime that I didn't need the insensitive comment by the owner and their up professionalism to above to deal with.

 9 years ago (18-05-2016)

I had the unfortunate experience of planning a funeral for my 5 month old son. Bruce Van Arsdale was amazing to work with during this difficult time, I would recommend him to anyone.

We decided to check out a few funeral homes before settling on Bruce - his facility was the nicest, he was the most experienced, and although this wasn't our deciding factor, his price was the lowest too. Bruce was great at explaining the process and was very patient when we had a few emotional moments. He was even kind and understanding when my 2-yr old magically produced a crayon from nowhere and started writing on the walls. Bruce also did an amazing job preparing my son's body for the viewing - even after the state medical examiner's autopsy (legally required for SIDS cases) butchered him up, Bruce did a great job making him look presentable. 

I have nothing bad to say about our experience.

 10 years ago (26-09-2015)

Couple months ago, had to use this funeral home's services. Very professional, quick, and compassionate service.

 15 years ago (27-12-2010)

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