Gillions Funeral Services

Fantastic service and care. My many thanks to Palo and Shannon for their kindness and assistance through the hardest loss our whanau has experienced.

Gillions 5 STAR care and service It's such a challenging task to write words of thanks and appreciation to the people who so greatly support you through one of the most difficult and emotional weeks of your life. My mother passed after a relatively short but intense period of illness 2 weeks ago after she suffered a fall which broker her arm. As soon as mum passed away and I mean within half an hour I was asked by the nursing home staff 'who are you using for the funeral'? This so standard practice so it's important to be prepared as I wasn't expecting it. I was alone with my dearest friend and I was at a loss. I literally had no idea how to make that important decision in that intense moment of utter loss! But of one thing I was sure and that was who not to use! One of my dearest family friends had told me only the night before "don't use these people" (and who she was referring to is a VERY well known funeral service place that used to be family owned - but is now owned by a wealthy Australian company and everyone seems to know who they are). These were her words, '4 years ago we got so terribly taken in by their disingenuous "care'. They were charged without any prior transparency almost $20,000 for their beloved mother's funeral. She died quite young in a shockingly short amount of time and they were so awfully grief stricken they were taken for an awful ride financially and under the guise of kindness. Little did they know every single action they took was being charged to them and they got an awful shock when they received a bill for that amount with the words written on the account To Be Paid with 14 days. If not paid it will be passed on to the debt collector. They were horrified!! This company had charged them $180 for the removal of their mothers rings!! With out their agreement for the charge. That is just one example. So that story had a great impact on my choice and at every turn I was so very very glad we chose GILLIONS! Instead! Genuine care, respect, kindness, support and reasonable costs were so gratefully welcomed during such a difficult time!! Lee was the most incredible support to us and it didn't stop there. Everything including all costs were completely discussed upfront and transparent, everything was totally up to us to choose. The genuine and kind attitude in everything they all did was so very very much appreciated. From the choice of coffin, how we conducted the service, the celebrant, even the beautiful service cards they produced were absolutely beautiful and we felt so heard by Lee. From the funeral and cremation expenditure to the video of the service, we felt totally confident that we had made the best choice for our budget and also wanting things to be of course beautiful amd elegant for Mums send off. It was our heartfelt wish to send our mother off with all the love and joy possible. Nothing was too much trouble for the team at Gillions even to the point of assisting us with help to complete forms and official documents in the aftermath. There were never any hidden costs or sneaky sly charges like the other 'family' owned business everyone seems to have heard of. In the end we had the most fantastic service and send off. The Gillions team was So caring and deeply genuine in every way. Our video was beautiful and every request we made was completely honoured. I will never ever forget Gillions! They too are a family owned business but what a difference we had with them to my friends experience. Thank you Lee, Keith, Elizabeth and Charlotte! You are the best!! We are so grateful to you all for your genuine care and support! We know we made the right choice with GILLIONS. By the way dear reader just to compare costs our entire costs for a most divine send off for mum was approximately $6500 (plus extra costs for catering and venue for the service itself). Please I urge you to choose carefully and do your homework. Funerals are an expensive business and right at the time of your greatest grief the last thing you want is to be financially taken for ride under the guise of care!

I just spoke with Elizabeth for some advice regarding my brother's passing recently. Our family did not use Gillions Funeral Services but we were after some impartial advice. Elizabeth was amazing with so much empathy and care. Gave me all the time I needed with constructive, yet impartial feedback. To be honest I had happy tears with the compassion provided. 😊 All the best to Elizabeth and her team.

We sadly lost our beautiful mum, sister and sister in law suddenly recently. We all live away from Dunedin and arranged the funeral via phone until we managed to get to Dunedin a couple of days out from the funeral. Elizabeth was outstanding guiding us and showed so much empathy and professionalism. She organised the perfect celebrant, Emma who did an amazing job of Marilyn’s service. Thank you also to Lee for officiating everything on the day. You are very special people. As a family we could not speak higher of Gillions Funeral Service.

From making us a cup of tea when we arrived to view our loved one, talking through the process with us and answering all our questions, to the highly skilled presentation of his body, which looked so lovely. Felt like we were the only customers they had, we were not rushed, they did everything we asked for, and they genuinely had time for us. Have experienced a couple of other funeral homes, this is by far the nicest. I also was particularly impressed with Leigh (not sure how to spell her name) who obviously is passionate about her work, which she carries out with great care and love. Could not have asked for a better preparation for our loved one.