Obitus Reviews 498

TrustScore 3.5 out of 5

3.7

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Rated 1 out of 5 stars

I have just watched the stream of my uncle's funeral, and quite honestly the quality is very poor. I could not see the picture of my Uncle on the screen, it appeared as just blank white space. It wa... See more

Company replied

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

A cool and competent team. Nothing too much trouble. Glitches and issues a rarity. Actually think they’re all rather wonderful. Thank you, particularly during this past year when I’m sure as each o... See more

Company replied

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Thank you for your highly professional and conscientious care of our account. It is most reassuring to know that your team are there for us, under sometimes very difficult circumstances and tight time... See more

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Rated 5 out of 5 stars

We had a problem uploading pictures and video clips in the specific order that we wanted them in i.e couple of photos, then a clip, few more pics, another clip. Our wonderful funeral directors West... See more

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Company details

  1. Audio Visual Consultant

Written by the company

Obitus provide the behind-the-scenes technology that helps funeral venues and funeral directors across the country deliver a fitting, dignified and seamless service for the bereaved families they serve. This includes music, photos and live streaming. We’re a small, dedicated, family-run team who care deeply about every funeral we help with. Most of the thousands of people every day who attend a funeral we’ve helped with never even know we exist, partly because our systems work so reliably the vast majority of the time. Over 5 million people have used our live streaming service during the last year and we’re proud we’ve been able to support so many families at this exceptionally difficult time. There are a lot of factors involved in delivering a live webcast, some within our control and many others outside of it. For example, we send the correct, automatically-generated usernames and passwords via email to the funeral venue, however it’s up to them, the funeral director and the family to share these details – very occasionally these get altered or miscommunicated while they’re being shared by others. We also don’t have control over the timings of the live stream, the starting and stopping of this is done by staff at the funeral venue who are running the service on the day – we are not present at the service. We help all of the venues we work with to understand the importance of a fast internet speed so that we can deliver the best possible quality and speed, but some venues are unable to provide this, often due to location or budget. We really do understand how upsetting it is when a live stream doesn’t go according to plan, and we’d like to apologise on behalf of all involved for anything that contributes to this occasionally happening. But we assure you we work as hard as we can to ensure nothing does go wrong, or to try and help as quickly as possible on the rare times it does. We don’t expect praise from families whose funerals we’ve helped with. We’re just doing our job and they have far higher priorities than thanking us. But we do ask that anyone reading these reviews to consider the context that we’ve explained above. In the same way most of the good reviews here are actually praising elements of the service we’re not responsible for, many of the poorer reviews are also addressing something outside of our reasonable control. We know we’re not perfect, but we get it right the vast majority of the time and we really do care, deeply. Anyone with questions, comments or concerns is welcome to email cs@obitus.com and we will gladly talk to you and help however we can. Please always include details of the venue, time and date of the service in any communications so we can work out exactly service you are referring to.


Contact info

3.7

Average

TrustScore 3.5 out of 5

498 reviews

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Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Excellent service with the after sales…

Excellent service with the after sales department of Karen being especially helpful.I would have no reservations at all in recommending them nor in using them again.

October 22, 2021
Unprompted review
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Reply from Obitus

Hi Nick,

Thank you for sharing your experience, really lovely to hear. We're always happy to help.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

My brother passed away and his service…

My brother passed away and his service was in May 2020 I contacted this company over 6 times including via email and phone. My sister also rang them. The broadcast was uploaded almost a month after first being shown instead of 2 weeks as promised and was not able for download.

The video started with our minister mid sentence. I informed them that this was unacceptable and that they needed to rectify it. They then uploaded the broadcast but it was cut off before the end I contacted them again. They said they would upload in full then there was no download link and referred me back to the funeral directors to ask them for the link. This was distressing as we were trying to bring closure and move on and grieving as a family. I already had enough to deal with. We just wanted a decent memory of our brother's service. That we had paid for Instead we received shoddy service. This was an awful experience and we felt taken advantage of. In the end I just gave up, the broadcast that was uploaded cut off before we left the chapel.

Covid-19 was used as an excuse for incompetence. This is a digital business so therefore should not have been impacted to this degree. I would not be using the service again.

September 29, 2021
Unprompted review
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Reply from Obitus

Hi Dolly,

We are very sorry about the delay and quality of your Watch Again webcast from May 2020, at what was already an extremely difficult and upsetting time. You are right, it was unacceptable for any recording to have taken that long with little correspondence. During that time we had supported tens of thousands of bereaved families over those unprecedented times, and worked rapidly to scale our systems which were then needed on a much bigger scale then was ever intended.

Webcasting is a hugely complicated service as it relies on many factors, not only those which we provide ourselves, but also those out of our control. The broadband connection at the crematorium, the one in the viewers home, as well as many links in between. Just before covid-19, we provided a music and media service to around 100 crematoria round the country. Webcasting was something that many of these crematoria offered as an additional service to those who lived too far away to attend the service. On average we had a around 100 requests per week and we were able to provide this with relatively few issues. During the time of your brothers service these increased 100 fold, viewed by tens of thousands of people, around the country and worldwide. This at the time not only put huge pressure on our teams but also the systems we provided. At the time we were doing everything we possibly could to keep up with the demand and keep our systems robust, but were not at the 100% service we aimed for.

So as you can understand, like so many other companies at the time, our systems were put under a huge amount of pressure. Although not an excuse, but just thought we'd share some insight into what was going on at the time in May 2020.

When it comes to a family member/friend asking for recording links unfortunately we cannot release these as a matter of privacy so the funeral director is the only person that can share this. But we are sorry for the distress this caused at the time.

Once again please accept our apologies for this.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

2 weeks and Video not online

My mum's funeral took place on 16th September, we paid for an obitus livestream and video available for 28 days as we had relatives abroad who couldn't attend. Almost 2 weeks later the video is anot avaialable to view and there has been no contact from Obitus let alone an apology or an explanation as to why. I have had to ask the funeral director to contact Obitus to hopefully get the video online for those relatives who have yet to say goodbye to my mum. This has been very distressing for the last 2 weeks - we waited a few days as the message on the webpage said there was a short delay, but 2 weeks in unacceptable. They have been paid and not delivered but most upsetting is I would like to put a line under this now but can't while I am waiting for the funeral to be broadcast.

September 28, 2021
Unprompted review
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Reply from Obitus

Hi Jennifer,

Our sincere apologies with the delay of your Watch Again webcast. The service had been in query due to a question about whether a private moment at the end was to be included in watch again or not. The time it has taken to call the funeral director is not satisfactory and we have raised an escalation internally.
We have now sped this up and put it online for you, and there will be no fee for this service. Once again please accept our apologies for this.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Perfect experience.

I have just watched a friend's funeral via Obitus, and it was perfect.
The sound and picture quality were amazing. During this awful time of restrictions because of the covid pandemic, it made me feel as though I was actually part of the service. Thank you.

July 5, 2021
Unprompted review
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Reply from Obitus

Hi Mrs Kathy Buckler,

We're grateful we were able to help you feel a part of the service. Thank you very much for taking the time to leave us your kind feedback, very much appreciated.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Great service and communication.

We have had a few family's leaving photos for a photo slide presentation during a service on the last minute, and occasionally music that has been difficult to find, however the staff at Obitus never let us down and never fail to amaze us. They are extremely efficient, dedicated and professional, we would highly recommend each and every member of the team and can't thank them enough for the times they have come to our rescue without any hesitation.

June 6, 2021
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Reply from Obitus

Hi Sue,

Lovely to hear you have enjoyed using our service, and we appreciate you sharing your feedback thank you.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Excellent service

I'm approaching my two-year anniversary as a celebrant and have contacted Obitus several times for help and advice when planning funerals.
Every time I've spoken to a member of the team, they've been more than helpful, accommodating, efficient and knowledgeable.
When we're all striving to make sure everything is as perfect as possible for families, it really helps to have this response when needed.
Thank you.

June 1, 2021
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Reply from Obitus

Hi Katy,

Thank you so much for your fantastic feedback about our lovely team. It really is so important to us that we are able to support you and the families in your care.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

On a whole the service is ok our main…

On a whole the service is ok our main issue is that the products are not checked until the day before the service which if their is a problem doesn’t give much time to fix. Also we are not able to have a preview of visual tributes so do not know if the correct amount of photos have been put on.

May 26, 2021
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Reply from Obitus

Hi Graham,

Thank you for your feedback. We would also like you to have your products uploaded sooner and for you to be able to preview your visual tribute in advanced and have looked into improving this in the past, but due to a few reasons we have to carefully consider we're unable to provide a preview at this current time, but will take your feedback onboard and share with the relevant teams.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Highly recommend Obitus

Obitus is easy to use, I have yet to ask for something they don't have. If you need to call and speak to them, they are friendly and professional.

May 25, 2021
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Reply from Obitus

Hi Debbie,

Thank you so much for such great feedback about our service and our lovely team! We really do appreciate it.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

Very supportive and responsive staff

Very supportive and responsive staff - they've been invaluable in helping me with a couple of complex ceremonies and sourcing unusual music. The music library is brilliant and generally it's easy to find what is needed.
The service drops one star because:
the touch screen in the chapel really needs a slider volume control rather than a button that needs to be pressed repeatedly to increase and lower volume. This sounds a small point but as ceremonies become increasingly creative and personalised, it would make a big difference to using music with more finesse.
no one at Obitus spotted that the audio on a family video tribute played out of synch with the visuals - it would have been good if this had been identified when the video was uploaded
there is currently no way of live stream viewers being able to see visual tributes clearly. I'm looking forward to the day when we can flip the stream to the tribute and back to the camera as needed.
There are (apparently unnecessary) duplicates of tracks in the library, often filed slightly differently so that it's not clear if it is, in fact, a duplicate or a different version
being able to listen to only a few seconds of a track makes it difficult to compare tracks.
Other than that, an excellent service for officiants and the families in our care. Thank you for all you do for us.

May 25, 2021
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Reply from Obitus

Hi Sue,

Great to hear your feedback, both about our music library and the constructive criticism about the music volume, the music on the video tribute - we will share this with our teams.

As for the ability for live stream viewers to see visual tributes, we too would really like your families to have this experience and we can totally do this, but it requires the funeral venue to make a small change to their AV kit. About 1/3 of our venues have done this already. We will check which funeral venues you use and give you a call at the end of this week to advise any nearby who have this new kit, or when they might be getting it.

The duplicates that you see in the music library are different versions of any particular piece of music, as families often request a specific version of a piece of music.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

I have always found the system great…

I have always found the system great only thing that I would say could be improved if the visual tribute is always (For me) last minute being uploaded only the day before and for some reason it always seems to be at the start of the service and I have to get it moved to where I want it to play.

May 24, 2021
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Reply from Obitus

Hi Leila,

Thank you for your feedback, your opinion is important to us and so we will share it with the teams. We are able to place the tribute where you'd like it to play, please may I ask if you are specifying this on the dashboard?

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Always very helpful and honest staff

Always very helpful and honest staff, nothing is too much trouble.

System is very easy to use and always good feedback from the families.

May 24, 2021
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Reply from Obitus

Hi Michael & Barbara,

Thank you so much for such great feedback about our services and our team - we really do appreciate it.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Helpful and professional

The colleagues at Obitus have always been so helpful, especially when I have needed to call them for support with specific pieces of music etc. for a service. Always kind, helpful and in my experience have always done as they have said they would. Thank you.

May 24, 2021
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Reply from Obitus

Hi Wj Franklin,

Thank you so much for such wonderful feedback about our lovely team. It really is so important to us that we are able to support you and the families in your care.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

We have found Obitus to be a great…

We have found Obitus to be a great resource for both ourselves and our families. Always an obliging team who help us out when we are perhaps a bit uncertain or struggling with a particular piece of music. Since the pandemic, the service has "come into it's own", the photo tributes, webcasting and subsequent keepsake copies of the funeral service itself has been invaluable. Families have been able to feel part of the proceedings whether far or near, avoiding the need for unnecessary travel. Only slightly adverse comment we have had is that sometimes the photo tribute is not very clear to those watching on webcast, otherwise all completely satisfactory.

May 24, 2021
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Reply from Obitus

Hi Ledbury Funeral Services,

Lovely to hear you have enjoyed using our service, appreciate you sharing your feedback.

We provide funeral venues the ability to share visual tributes to live stream viewers directly on the viewers screen, not just form afar, but it requires the funeral venue to make a small change to their AV kit, and about 1/3 of our venues have done this already. We can check which funeral venues you use have this if you would like to email us at cs@obitus.com we'd be happy to help.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Great service

Great service, always helpful and knowledgeable. The team go above and beyond to help, are really friendly and patient! highly recommend this service.

May 24, 2021
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Reply from Obitus

Hi Waters and Sons Portchester,

Great to hear you have enjoyed using our service, thank you for sharing your feedback.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

First time I have used the live feed…Happy

First time I have used the live feed which worked perfectly. Always love the music side of Obitus. After years of dodgy CDs burning and copying and trying to find obscure tracks this is brilliant

May 23, 2021
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Reply from Obitus

Hi Wrens Funeral Directors,

Grateful we are able to help funeral directors like yourself, appreciate you sharing your feedback.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Obitus is a very effective music and…

Obitus is a very effective music and media system, easy to operate and keeps all involved with updates of any changes. The staff are excellent, both knowledgeable and very helpful.

May 22, 2021
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Reply from Obitus

Hi Ceremonies with Sentiment,

Lovely to hear your feedback, thank you for sharing.

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