This should be zero stars. This site stole my mom’s obituary WITHOUT consent. I will not be sending an email, I need a customer service line. There’s no reason that my mom’s obituary should be on a we... See more
Company replied
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See what reviewers are saying
Somehow an obituary has appeared for my Aunt on your platform without our family’s prior authorization or knowledge. What’s written makes no sense. I hope no one falls for this “light a candle” bs. Sh... See more
Company replied
How can Echovita continue to operate?? They rewrite obits and ask for charitable donations based on a fabricated obit? This happened to a friend of mine in Canada, which even made the National news.... See more
Company replied
How unethical and cruel to repost information about someone’s death and share their funeral and family details without consent. This company should be ashamed and shut down. They have not only r... See more
Company replied
1.6
Bad
125 reviews
Replied to 96% of negative reviews
Typically replies within 24 hours
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Grotesque show of humanity
Unfortunately, one is the lowest option. They stole my brother's obituary information from a legitimate site for their own gain. In a painful time of loss and bereavement they chose to feed off other people's grief. Despicable.
January 4, 2025
Unprompted review
Reply from Echovita
Hi Rebecca,
We responded to your email this morning. You requested the removal of the obituary, however, you didn't mention your brother's name, nor his date of death. Please respond to the email we sent you, so we can remove the obituary.
When obituaries are posted on the internet, we further share the basic facts only in a death notice format to inform society of who has passed away. We organize all obituaries and death notices by city, so that people can see who passed away daily in selected cities of their choice with a free subscription. We do this in an effort to create as much support as possible for families. People can share their condolences for free with the family via email or social media. Families can post full obituaries on our website for free or submit the full obituary to be shared by us and replace the pre-existing death notice. Families can then claim the obituary with proper proof, such as a photo of the death certificate to receive money raised through sales or donate it towards a charity of their choosing. Pictures can be posted to create a memorial page for free by friends and family. Any modifications, corrections, or requests for removal by the family or their representative are completed immediately upon receiving notification. We only have the best intentions and are truly sorry for your loss.
Echovita Obituaries
Echovita Obituaries
It is a shame that one cannot give 0 starts for a rating because this company deserves no better. This sentiment, and my opinion of this company, mirrors the experience and the opinions of many other individuals who have been affected by the practices of Echovita as you can see by reading other reviews of the company.
Essentially, they post obituaries completely unauthorized by the families of the deceased on their web site. The obituary is re-written from the official obituaries posted by the responsible funeral home, presumably to circumvent copyright infringement violations, and peppered with other family information such as identities, etc. garnered from internet sources. In our case some of this information in the obituary they posted was erroneous, and specific names were published without our permission.
The position of the company, as articulated in their responses to numerous complaints online, and in their specific response to my demand that the obituary in question be removed, is that they are serving a public good by communicating information. However, their unauthorized obituaries are completely superfluous. The information is already communicated in the family-authorized original obituary posted by the funeral home and readily available to all on the internet.
If the purpose of the company was to do a public good and communicate information, they should simply seek permission from the affected family in writing before posting the obituary, or even better, ask the bereaved family to review the obituary for content and accuracy before publishing it. This would not seem to be an excessive burden. They do not do this! Rather, it is my opinion, and that of many others who have shared in my family’s experience as noted in their reviews, that the purpose of Echovita’ s obituaries is to sell flowers and other memorial products. While I am a firm believer in capitalism, there have to be ethical limits and publishing unauthorized obituaries, with uncorroborated information by the family of the deceased, with the purpose of selling products, in my opinion steps over that ethical line. To reiterate, since the official obituary prepared by the family and posted by the funeral home on the internet is disseminated without limits and is available to all, and contains accurate information actually approved by the decedent's family, and the only information the family of the deceased wishes to be posted, there is absolutely no need or altruistic purpose for these Echovita obituaries. In our case, this unsolicited and unauthorized obituary has been confusing to acquaintances of our deceased family member who have contacted us.
As noted in several other reviews posted on Trust Pilot, Echovita’ s business plan uses families and their friends at a most vulnerable time in their lives.
I urge all who have unfortunately lost a loved one to make certain that the only obituary published is from the funeral home responsible, and the obituary that the family wants to see in print.
December 24, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Echovita
Hi Bruce,
You stated that we posted specific names without your permission, however, all names we post would have first been posted publicly online in the original version of the obituary, so it wouldn't be possible for Echovita to post specific names that weren't originally posted online. You stated that Echovita should seek permission from families, and we do via the funeral homes who cooperate with us, as we post their complete original obituaries. For funeral homes that refuse to cooperate with us, which means they refuse to inform families they serve of the free service we provide to give them the option to post on our website for free, we are unable to reach out to the family because we don't have their contact information. Howevers, many of those same funeral homes who don't cooperate with us do work with paid websites who actually pay the funeral home to post obituaries onto their platform, but the funeral home charges the family to post to the other platform as well. That is something we disagree with. Families shouldn't have to pay for obituaries. Just as there are negative reviews, mostly based on opinion, and other negative reviews left by disgruntled funeral home staff members acting as families, there are positive reviews and many testimonials displayed on our website. Are some reviews true about certain experiences on our website? Yes, and we respond to them, apologize, and try to rectify the issue, just as the majority of online companies.
When obituaries are posted on the internet, we further share the basic facts only in a death notice format to inform society of who has passed away. We organize all obituaries and death notices by city, so that people can see who passed away daily in selected cities of their choice with a free subscription. We do this in an effort to create as much support as possible for families. People can share their condolences for free with the family via email or social media. Families can post full obituaries on our website for free or submit the full obituary to be shared by us and replace the pre-existing death notice. Families can then claim the obituary with proper proof, such as a photo of the death certificate to receive money raised through sales or donate it towards a charity of their choosing. Pictures can be posted to create a memorial page for free by friends and family. Any modifications, corrections, or requests for removal by the family or their representative are completed immediately upon receiving notification. We only have the best intentions and are truly sorry for your loss.
This company poaches information from…
This company poaches information from original obituaries and posts them on their website without permission. There is no contact with the family. They posted my brother-in-law’s “rewritten” obituary without permission shortly after the original obituary was posted by the funeral home. They aren’t providing a service. They are being unethical.
December 20, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Echovita
When obituaries are posted on the internet, we further share the basic facts only in a death notice format to inform society of who has passed away. We organize all obituaries and death notices by city, so that people can see who passed away daily in selected cities of their choice with a free subscription. We do this in an effort to create as much support as possible for families. People can share their condolences for free with the family via email or social media. Families can post full obituaries on our website for free or submit the full obituary to be shared by us and replace the pre-existing death notice. Families can then claim the obituary with proper proof, such as a photo of the death certificate to receive money raised through sales or donate it towards a charity of their choosing. Pictures can be posted to create a memorial page for free by friends and family. Any modifications, corrections, or requests for removal by the family or their representative are completed immediately upon receiving notification. We only have the best intentions and are truly sorry for your loss.
They used our family members obituary…
They used our family members obituary and allowed a bitter ex girlfriend to change the photo and add tons of old photos making it seem like they were still together. How can you allow someone to change the photo on a families loved ones obituary???
December 18, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Echovita
Hi Kristy,
Echovita doesn't post the original photo or the original text of the obituary without the family's permission. We allow people to post photos as memories to obituary pages, just like every website that has obituaries. Generally speaking, main photos approved by us, are only photos added by an immediate family member and that are of the deceased only. In this case, the photo used as the main photo should not have been used as the main photo, so we apologize for that. However, we were not aware of "a bitter ex girlfriend" and the photos added were not inappropriate. Furthermore her name wasn't mentioned within the obituary. Had you of contacted us directly requesting for the photos to be removed and for that person not to be able to leave photos or messages, we could have taken action to prevent that.
This company was horrible
This company was horrible. I ordered flowers for my aunt’s funeral from their website. The flowers never came because the floral shop couldn’t deliver to that address. The funeral was a suburban area of the Twin Cities in Minnesota. You can’t tell me that they couldn’t find one local florist in the area that could deliver an order in a timely fashion. I would never recommend Echovita.
December 13, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Echovita
Hi Lynn,
I'm sorry to hear about the experience you had. I'd like to add some clarity to your review, as there are a few misleading discrepancies. First, Echovita is an obituary website, not a floral company. All of our flower orders are processed by our partner, Blooms Today. They assign each order to a local florist within the area of the delivery address. Sometimes, the local florist assigned the order is unable to fulfill the order on time, so they inform Blooms Today and they try and locate another florist. If they are unable to find a local florist able to fulfill the order, they inform the customer and cancel and refund the order, which is what happened in this case.
Giving one star because there’s no…
Giving one star because there’s no option to give zero. Stole details from my uncle’s obit and posted it without approval from the family for their own financial gain…. Couldn’t imagine a lower, grosser, greedier type of human being than those who run this company
December 11, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Echovita
Hi Nova,
If the family has already reached out to us, then I'm sure this has already been resolved. When obituaries are posted on the internet, we further share the basic facts only in a death notice format to inform society of who has passed away. We organize all obituaries and death notices by city, so that people can see who passed away daily in selected cities of their choice with a free subscription. We do this in an effort to create as much support as possible for families. People can share their condolences for free with the family via email or social media. Families can post full obituaries on our website for free or submit the full obituary to be shared by us and replace the pre-existing death notice. Families can then claim the obituary with proper proof, such as a photo of the death certificate to receive money raised through sales or donate it towards a charity of their choosing. Pictures can be posted to create a memorial page for free by friends and family. Any modifications, corrections, or requests for removal by the family or their representative are completed immediately upon receiving notification. We only have the best intentions and are truly sorry for your loss.
This company did not get my permission…
This company did not get my permission to write their inacurate version of my mother's obituary. It's horrible to that.
December 8, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Echovita
We sincerely apologize if we shared any inaccuracies in the obituary we posted. Please make sure you contact us directly via email, so we can either make a correction or remove the obituary. When further sharing public information, no permission is needed. Permission is only needed to share the original obituary, which is why each obituary page has a button for families to give their permission, if they'd like us to post the original obituary.
Company does not get permission from…
Company does not get permission from grieving family to post data about your lost loved one. They include links to purchase candle lighting/tree planting in no way connected with the funeral home that we used. Is that how they make money on my grief?
November 23, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Echovita
Hi Kathleen Docherty,
We further share the basic facts of publicly available obituaries, as well as, allow families to create and post obtuaries for free on our website. Permission to post such information, is not needed, however, permission to post the original obituary is needed, which is why there is a button on each obituary page for the family to give their permission to post the original obituary, if they'd like. No where on our website does it say lighting a candle or planting a memorial tree is connected to the funeral home's website. We don't make money on people's grief, and if that were the case, then it could also be applied to how funeral homes upsell to families to capitalize on their grief. Thank you for providing your email address. I can confirm that you have never contacted us regarding an obituary on our website. Since you also provided your son's name, we have removed the obituary from our website, and there were no sales of any kind.
I am heartbroken that this awful…
I am heartbroken that this awful website stole my mother's obituary and published it when we had only given permission for the funeral home and select papers. Not only that, information they published was incorrect. This shameful site preys on families at their most vulnerable times. Disgusting.
November 13, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Echovita
Hi Colin,
We sincerely apologize for any incorrect information that we shared. We looked through our recent emails and we don't have any emails from anyone named Colin. Have you contacted us regarding your mother's obituary? If not, please do, so we can either remove it or correct it accordingly. Echovita does not prey on families. Echovita further shares basic facts of publicly available obituaries to inform society of who has passed away. We also enable families to create and post obituaries on our website for free. The sharing of public information does not require permission, however, the republishing of original obituaries does require permission. Our website is designed to give families the option to do as they wish with their loved one's obituary. Each obituary page has a button to edit the obituary, a button to authorize the posting of the original obituary, and a button to remove the obituary. A member of our team then reviews each request received before approval and a confirmation of each action is sent via email. Our condolences for your loss. Thank you.
Huge scammers
Echovita stole information from my fathers obituary, changed the information and added untrue information.
What a disgusting thing to do! Huge scammers!
November 9, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Echovita
Hi Kathleen Dwyer,
We see that you contacted us via email yesterday evening and we will be making the necessary corrections and we will respond to your email momentarily. We don't steal information, we further share the basic facts of publicly available obituaries, which is not stealing information. Public information cannot be stolen. You stated we added untrue information. Did you mean we made an error? We don't purposely provide untrue information. Echovita is not a scam.
Preying on grieving families
EDIT (for additional clarity on their truly awful business practices):
I am not allowed to post links, but I would encourage you to do a search for Echovita online, in particular articles from Wired, CBC, CTV, La Presse, and others that give full details of the owner's previous business (which was sued for $20 million, lost in court, and then filed for bankruptcy to avoid paying out), the new business model (slightly different just to avoid complete plagiarism, but in the process making a bunch of costly mistakes), and the countless stories of grieving families who have had to deal with them during their most difficult times.
They can hide behind legalities all they want, but what they are doing is immoral and causes unnecessary pain for families. They may try to flag for defamation, but all I am saying is the truth. They don’t like being “insulted” so will try to defend their predatory actions. Just look at the numerous complaints from grieving families and confused funeral homes. Their “human” error can cause unimaginable pain for those who are already suffering. Just a terrible business.
October 31, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Echovita
Hi Phil,
We appreciate your feedback. What we do is not immoral. When obituaries are published on the internet and are accessible without a password, they become public information. Echovita is an obituary aggregator that further shares the basic facts of publicly available obituaries, while also allowing families to create and post obituaries for free on our website. Our actions are not predatory, and nobody likes being insulted. Some funeral homes appreciate what we do and cooperate with us to assist families, while other funeral homes believe they are the sole owners of obituaries posted on their website, which we disagree with. Funeral homes do not own basic facts of publicly available obituaries. We have some funeral homes contact us, saying that they own all the information of the families they serve, including their names, and many families are unaware of this. Furthermore, if any sales are made via an obituary page, we put aside 50% of any commission received for the family, which they can claim with proper proof to ensure any money is released to the rightful person. We do not ask for, nor accept any donations, and we provide any family suggested donation information for visitors to the obituary to be aware of the family's wishes. If errors are made, we make any necessary corrections almost immediately. Human error is possible and even obituaries posted on funeral home websites have errors, and we have lots of proof. We understand you may not agree with how we operate, however, many families appreciate what we do, as it gives them the opportunity to inform more people of their loved one's passing at no cost. Thank you.
Shameful business practices that take advantage of vulnerable people
When we lost our uncle, the family created a page with a personalized obituary on the Dignity Memorial website. Less than a week later we found an unauthorized obituary, along with links to buy flowers, light a digital candle (for a fee of course), or plant trees in his memory. The link to the fake obituary was also posted to Facebook.
This has confused several family members, as they believed the Echovita page was the official page created by the family. At least one person spent $60 planting trees believing that this was asked for by the family.
If you create an account and attempt to reply to the person who mistakenly spent money on their website, it will show your comment as posted. However, once you log out and check again, no comment exists. They know what they're doing and it's absolutely shameful.
They claim to be providing a social service by sharing public obituaries, but they aren't simply sharing the obituary. They are making requests for money and only "sharing" the commission with the family if they happen to discover the page and claim it. If the family wanted to work with Echovita they would have utilized it in the first place. If Echovita wanted to be an honest business, they would have contacted the family first. They didn't and their intentions are obvious.
We've made several requests to remove the page and have yet to receive a reply.
November 1, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Echovita
Hi Jessica,
The obituary was removed this morning at 8:00a.m.. The reason you didn't see your reply posted on the obituary page is because we have a filter, which detects inappropriate language within messages, which we then have to further review before it is posted online. That is why you didn't see your message posted immediately. Only 1 order of memorial trees was made, which we have cancelled and refunded. We do NOT make requests for money, so that is false. Echovita doesn't ask for, nor accept donations of any kind, and if the original obituary mentioned where donations are suggested by the family, we provide that information, so that people are aware.
We further share basic facts of publicly available obituaries, which is completely legal. All purchases, which can be made on our website are legitimate and we put aside 50% of all commission for the family, which they can claim. We have no way of contacting the family ourselves to inform them of the obituary that has been created on our website, however, we do not hide and can be found with a simple online obituary search. When we work with funeral homes directly, the families are aware of their loved one's obituary. We are an honest business and we make it easy for families to choose to post the complete original obituary, make changes to their loved one's obituary, or remove the obituary.
We are sorry for your loss.
I have used them twice and am very…
I have used them twice and am very happy with the quality and the beauty of the arrangement - the heart shaped with white flowers smaller standing one. i will continue to use Echovita when the need arises. The flowers were delivered timely and they got my whole very lengthy message on the card. Easy to use and great experience.
September 17, 2024
Unprompted review
Thoughts & Prey-ers
Paco is at it again!
After getting sued for his website "Afterlife" Pascal "Paco" Leclerc has replaced it with the new and improved ""Echovita" where they copy information from legitimate obituaries, throw it through what I can only imagine is the b*stard child of a blender and chatGPT, and spit out garbage to entice grieving people to buy flowers, light a candle etc. Learning from his previous lawsuit* and the complete lack of legislation surrounding abhorrent sites like these, no photos are posted. Because he's nice like that (no really it's because he needs permission for that) But they'll use you for site traffic and hope you click on the ads and maybe even "send flowers" and who is kidding who. Is anyone checking up to see if they actually get delivered? No. The rest of us have class. Take notes Paco. (They use Blooms Today for flower orders. Look up their rating and reviews and draw your own conclusions.)
Oh no! Flagged for defamation! Everything in this review is also public information, so go on. The Bereavement Authority of Ontario warns the public about this** It's cute how you instantly defend your vile practices. You are making money off the deaths of people whose loved ones did not choose you. Legal or not, it's disgusting, and no matter how much you defend it, you know it's true. And you still do it. Your morals have receeded further than your hairline. I have proven my allegations with credible sources. My review is true and well informed. Compare it to the "favorable reviews" that seem to pop up quite quickly after a negative review has been posted. Interesting.
* Trustpilot does not allow links, please Google "Afterlife obituary piracy" where you will find news articles from Global news and the Globe and Mail reporting on the $20 million lawsuit which names Paco Leclerc
** The Bereavement Authority of Ontario has a notice on their website specifically naming Echovita and describing their practices
September 13, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Echovita
This review has been reported for defamation. Personal information and public information are completely different. Personal information cannot be found with a simple internet search. Echovita has no affiliation with Afterlife. Our partner for flowers insures flower orders are delivered, as well as, the guaranteed satisfaction of these orders. Customers are notified if an issue arises with the fulfillment of a flower order. Any flower orders that are not delivered or delivered late are refunded. Any unsatisfactory deliveried for flowers are handled on a case by case basis redulting in either a partial refund or full refund. You also mentioned no photos are posted, which is half correct. We don't post photos unless they are approved by the funeral home or added by the family and friends of the deceased directly. You resort to using insulting language to support your false allegations, which only shows how uninformed and wrong you are.
Beautiful flowers
Fast delivery & the flowers offered are beautiful! The ease of use is wonderful!
August 19, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Echovita
Thank you! We appreciate your feedback!
Beautiful arrangement and user friendly…
Beautiful arrangement and user friendly website
August 15, 2024
Unprompted review
No option for zero stars? - Shame!!
No option for zero stars?
My family is being victimized with an edited version of the original obituary. They re-wrote the obituary which is full of grammatical errors and incorrect information. I sincerely hope our friends and family don't purchase anything linked from this unethical site!! I've requested for the obituary to be taken down and I hope they comply.
August 23, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Echovita
Hi Cathy,
We're deepy sorry to hear you feel victimized by us further sharing the obituary announcement on our website. We sincerely apologize for any errors. We only rewrite the obituary because we can't post the original obituary without the family's permission, which is why there is a button on each obituary page to authorize the posting of the original. If you already requested the removal of the obituary, then it has already been removed. Kind regards.
What Joy H said
What Joy H said. This website takes obituaries and republishes them using different wording then asks people for flowers. Do not trust this website. May karma absolutely come for you echovita. This is low.
August 21, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Echovita
Hi,
Another false review, and of course, no name provided. To start, Echovita is not a scam. Do we use different wording when further sharing obituary information? Yes, why? Because we operate legally, so we don't post the complete originaly obituary without either the family's or funeral home's permission. There is a button on each obituary page to allow family's to give thei authorization for us to post the original obituary, as well as, a button to edit the obituary, and a buttom to remove the obituary. Do we ask people to send flowers? No, but we offer the opportunity to send flowers easily, via our website. Do ask for donations? NO. We don't even accept donations. If the family suggested donations, then we share that information and provide the link for people to make a donation on the appropriate website. If the family requested no flowers, or mentioned that people may donate to a charity or cause in lieu of flowers, then the obituary states that and we activate a pop-up message that appears if someone were to click the flower button to remind them of the family's wishes. We also deactivate the flower button when requested to do so. For religions that don't accept flowers for funerals, there is no option to send flowers on the obituary page. Your review has been flagged for defamation.
Pleasantly Surprised
I was worried after reading some of these reviews, but our plant arrived on time. It was also absolutely beautiful, healthy, and much larger than I expected. The family was very happy with it.
August 19, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Echovita
Hi Christy,
Thank you for your feedback. We very much appreciate it and we are pleased to hear the family was very happy with it.
The flowers were delivered to wrong address
The flowers were delivered to Birmingham to my home address not the Funeral home 2-1/2hrs away 704 Perryman Road which was clicked on the website??? Maybe a quick call would have cleared up any confusion?
For $175+... Also the wire stand that holds the flowers - appeared to be reused a number of times. It was bent and not painted and scratched up.
August 10, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Echovita
Hi Rich,
The reason the flowers were delivered to your home address is because that is the address you provided as the delivery address. We, nor our partner, Blooms Today, are responsible for this, nor would either of us, call you to confirm that the address you provided is correct. Flowers can be ordered from our wesbite to home addresses, since the customer either clicks the service they want the flowers delivered to or they provide a delivery address themselves. We understand this is unfortunate, however, this was your error.
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