07/22/2025
A large sector of the monument industry that a lot of people may not realize is on-site engraving of existing monuments in the cemeteries. Most of the time this consists of adding a final date when someone passes that had purchased a pre-need headstone or when a spouse or companion had died and the other person was placed on the stone with just a birth date with their final date to be added later. Or a family might decide they want to add artwork or information after a stone has already been installed. It is a large industry in itself that takes a very highly skilled craftsman with very specialized equipment to do it properly. Unfortunately right now we are seeing a bad combination of an influx of new people that just don't know what they are doing and don't have the proper training and equipment or the older generation of engravers that either can't keep up with the technology required to match engravings on modern stones or just simply don't care enough anymore to do the job right. It's becoming so common nowadays that these stones are being damaged that nearly every time our staff is out working in cemeteries we spot another one that needs repaired or replaced due to another careless engraver.
In light of this we have made the decision to stop just ignoring the issue and do something to help get the families that have been victimized some retribution for the damage that's been done to their loved one's memorials. We have begun tracking down the families that the monuments belong to and making them aware that damage has been done. Sadly a lot of the time the person that may have paid to have the engraving done may not see it for a long time or may be out of town or just be incapable of getting out to see the stone so the damage may go months or years before its discovered.
The majority of the damages we are seeing being done are from engravers is not being able to match the font and style of the existing information on the stone. This is go/no-go scenario when making the decision to proceed with an engraving, but sub-par engravers are making the decision and just taking the customers money and hoping it's close enough that no one will notice. It is our duty to engrave these memorials to the exact same quality and standards as when they were originally produced and if that can't be accomplished that person needs to decline the job and let someone better equipped handle it instead of risking damage. Other problems we see are improper sandblasting techniques that blow out letters and spacing/sizing and alignments not being accurate.
And we are fully aware that mistakes happen, we are a full service monument company that also does upwards of 1500 on-site engravings per year so we know that having to repair or replace a monument from time to time from a mistake just comes with being in business. But there is a huge difference in an honest mistake and knowingly walking away from damaging someone's property and not taking accountability. This company was founded with a very simple principle to treat our grieving families the way we would want someone to treat us if we were in their place, and this new policy holds true to that core value. These families put their trust in the person or company they hire to do these engravings and they deserve nothing less than perfection. And in keeping in line with what this company was founded on we will also be offering our services for any repair or replacement free of charge for any families that have been refused any repair/replacement by the person or company that damaged their stone. We will do whatever it takes to make the family whole again and submit a bill to the guilty parties and let our legal counsel handle it from there. We intend to put our money where our mouth is by doing what's right no matter what the cost and that bill is already racking up which we will gladly pay. The cease-and-desist letters are already rolling in and we have ended a lucrative business relationship with a funeral home that we found out knowingly let an engraver that wasn't properly equipped damage a stone and wasn't forthcoming about it with the family. They thought they could intimidate this company by dangling our business relationship in front of us to not continue to notify families. The moral compass of this company isn't for sale and we have plenty of space on the wall to proudly display any cease-and-desist letters the shady people in this industry want to send us. we will always do what's best for the families we serve and put people over profits. We are fortunate enough to be in a position that we can pick and choose who we do business with in the death industry and we refuse to be associated with any people or companies that don't have the care and wellbeing of the customers as their number one priority. This is a very delicate industry that has become overrun with shady business practices and greed and we will continue to do whatever we can to go against it.
Please protect yourselves and your loved one's memorials by checking into whoever will be doing any work on your monuments. Whether you go through an individual or a monument company or a funeral home or a cemetery always verify that they are insured to do this type of work and ask to see pictures of completed engravings. Nobody is perfect and accidents are always going to happen but if you are contracting with someone to work on a headstone that costs thousands of dollars you better make sure they care as much about the stone as you do and have the ability to correct their mistake if things don't go as planned.
The attached pictures are some examples, the stone with gold lettering is the one that got us our first cease and desist letter lol. Notice that the font that was added is not only wrong but it’s not even in cursive to match the existing lettering not to mention the sizing doesn't match. This was done on a stone that costs in the $5k to $8k range, how would you feel if you spent that much just to have it damaged by carelessness? Sometimes a customer that is grieving may not even realize that something is wrong while they aren't in a right state of mind while dealing with a loss and by the time they bring the issue up it may be too late to get anything done about it from whoever they contracted to do the work. We will continue to be a voice for change in this industry that has turned into a greedy cash grab that takes advantage of people at the worst time of their lives. The people we p**s off in the process can threaten all the legal action they want, we have lawyer money too and look forward to spending it. 🙂
