Echovita Reports & Reviews

Echovita Reports & Reviews (103)

• Jun 22, 2023

Fake obituary

Echovita also pilfered my father-in-law's obituary and rewrote it horribly from the site we officially hired to post. Yes, they respond that they removed it and they did but they miss the point. They shouldn't post it in the FIRST PLACE. They steal posts to drive business to their affiliates, and the fact that it is an obituary of someone who has recently passed is horrible. On top of that, they pay to have their site come up first and people searching for our father would've seen this instead.
I just want to confirm that his 'surviving' brother passed away 30 years ago and his grandchildren are NOT Patsy Cline, Neil Diamond and Hank Williams.

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• May 31, 2023

Unauthorized Misinformation

This site pilfered my father's obituary from the legitimate funeral home site that it was on just to sell people services. Not only did they do this without our permission, they posted misinformation which was very hurtful to my family. I find this practice distasteful and insensitive.

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George Edward Daigre, III - January 23rd, 2023

Take down this obituary NOW! Echovita has no right to profit of the death of loved ones. You should be ashamed and await the day this company is held accountable.

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Bogus and Botched Obits

The site content is the epitome of disinformation. Example: Claimed the decedent was divorced - not - and married to her daughter's husband when she died. They cling to their disinformation and refuse to own and correct it. Echovita doesn't just speak ill of the dead, they assassinate reputations with impunity FOR PROFIT. Totally tasteless and disgusting.

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Echovita is a scam

This operation published an obituary resembling the official one posted by the legitimate funeral directors we have hired. We did not give consent or payment for the Echovita obituary to be posted. Yes, the Echovita FAQ says that you can request removal of the site, but they have the nerve to ask for relationship to the deceased and contact info in the request form. Scandalous. Why should contact information be provided when we were never contacted for permission to post in the first place? Horrible people.

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Hi,
If you'd like your family member's obituary removed, simply send us an email or click "Report this obituary" on the obituary page. Of course, we ask for your name, family relationship and email address because we need to keep record of who requested the removal of the obituary and to make sure you can do so. I would like to verify some details, since you included some false information in your statement. First, we do not copy obituaries, we simply further share the basic facts of obituaries that are publicly available. The only way we would have a complete original obituary on our website, is if the family or funeral home created one directly on our website, which, in that case, would say "Created by: (name)" on the bottom of the obituary text; or if the family or funeral home gave their permission to post the complete original obituary by clicking, "Authorize the original obituary" on the obituary page, which, in that case, would say "Updated by: (name)" at the bottom of the obituary text.

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Disgusting company

Look at the complaints around the internet about this company. They claim to be acting in good faith, but if that was true they would realize they are hurting people who are already hurting and shut down this disgusting attempt to monetize grief.

Writing an obituary is not an easy thing to do, to then have it scrape, ruined and laced with affiliate links by some shameful company like this simply adds to the pain.

Don't hand over a penny to this company.

Please also send your concerns to the following companies to try and get them to cease working with them:

GoDaddy
CloudFlare
epsilon.com (affiliate network)
Bloomstoday
Ancestry.com
The Fruit Company

Stress to them that they are helping monetize peoples grief, and hurting people that are already hurting.

"Echovita has strong core values and we want families to know that our platform is designed for them" - absolute garbage, it's designed to monetise search terms based on recently deceased.

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The pathetic response from the company tells you everything you need to know. Hilarious. There is even news articles calling out the disgusting behavior of this company.

You may have "many testimonials" but it is far outweighed by angry and hurt families.

If you're so confident in your product then stop scraping and auto generating obituaries (which you admit in various places on your website) and only publish ones that are added to your website directly, the fact that this is not what you do highlights and confirms everything in my review.

YOU don't get to decide if you're hurting people or not, the people families of those people who's deaths your attempting to monetize do.

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Hi,
Your review is riddled with lies. The amount of false reviews that have been placed on the internet is ridiculous. We have many testimonials from families who very much appreciate what we do and what you claim we do is far from the truth. If you have something to say contact us directly.

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Unethical- Banking on the deceased

I confirmed with the family that they never gave you permission to advertise this on their behalf. What you are doing is unethical. I have filed a dispute through Paypal. Please refund my money

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• Jun 22, 2023

Also, Echovita put a report in on my reply to you. That's quite the company.

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• Jun 22, 2023

Thank you-you did the right thing! I can confirm they just recently pilfered my father in laws obituary and rewrote it. They removed it but what was hard was that anyone searching for it, would get the echovita site first instead of the thoughtful obit my husband had wrote. Here's the ridiculous obituary that appeared on their website

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Hi Cynthia,
You will have to contact us directly via our website regarding a refund. We cannot simply process a refund with only your name. We need your order number, email address, etc. We have no issue with providing a refund, however, if you purchased flowers and they've already been delivered, then no refund will be granted. In the future, when wanting a refund from any company online, it is best to contact them directly instead of going to a review website. Thank you.

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"Ricky Maximo Lara" Unauthorized obituary written by strangers

My son's photo and obituary written by strangers appear now on the internet by the company called Echovita. I never gave authorization to Echovita to announce nor steal my son's photo and post it across the internet. Shame on you Echovita! This has to be one of the worst heart-wrenching acts a company can do to a grieving family. Remove my son "Ricky Maximo Lara" and his photo from your site now. I shouldn't have to wait 3 days. There are only 2 places with authority to post his obituary and his personal information. Your company has no rights and you were never given any authority to post anything.

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Hi Deb,
We have removed the obituary of Ricky Maximo Lara. You never contacted us directly asking for the obituary to be removed from our website. Had you have done so, the obituary would have already been removed. We did receive 1 removal request for the obituary, however, it was not from anyone related to the family or funeral home, so it was not approved. You claimed we stole your son's photo, however, there was NO PHOTO on the obituary page. As you can see in the screenshot you provided, the photo is of flowers. We simply further share the basic facts of publicly available obituaries and categorize them by city to better inform society of who has passed. At any time, the family can request for the obituary to be removed, if they wish, and it will be removed. Furthermore, the family can decide to post the complete original obituary on our website, it's free. We are sorry for your loss.

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Never sent flowers

Well I fell for it. I researched a name of someone I knew just passed. It linked to the obituary on Echovita, and I clicked on the option to send flowers to his military burial in another state. The flowers never arrived and I finally figured out why…it’s a scam. How pathetic and sad to do this to anyone, let alone a military family.

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Hi,
If your flower order was not delivered, please contact us directly via our website and we can provide you with a refund. Also, there is a phone number provided on your receipt to contact if you have any questions or concerns regarding your order. Echovita is not a scam and we work with a highly reputable floral company who works alongside local florists. We have a 100% satisfactory money-back guarantee, and of course, if an order was not delivered, or simply not delivered on time, the order will be fully refunded.

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Unauthorized obituary - please remove immediately

My father-in-law passed away recently and we've discovered that Echovita helped themselves to the obituary that we wrote, re-wrote it with grammatical errors, and posted it without our consent. (Note to Echovita: My father-in-law did not leave "to mourn family and friends". It's his family and friends who are mourning, not him. If you're going to rewrite someone's obituary at least have the decency to make sense.). I also highly doubt that anyone at Echovita is feeling "deep sorrow" at my father-in-law's passing, considering you've never even met him. What a load of disingenuous, insulting garbage, all to make a profit.

Remove your obituary for Salvatore L Mortelliti from the internet immediately. Not three business days from now, as your website states. Considering you were able to post your pathetic version of our obituary a few hours after we posted the actual obituary online, there should be no reason for you to take three days to remove it. Remove immediately.

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Hi Kati,
The obituary of Salvatore Mortelliti was removed on April 26th at 11:36p.m, which was within hours of receiving a removal request. It is standard that we say it can take up to 3 business days. Grammatically, "leaving to mourn family and friends" refers to his family and friends being left to mourn him, not him mourning his family and friends. However, I can make a suggestion for a change of verbiage in our default texts if you find it confusing because we haven't had anyone say it was confusing or incorrect before. It's sad to hear that it is so difficult to believe that our intentions are good. We use verbiage that is emotionally sensitive out of respect for families who have lost a loved one. You don't have to meet someone to believe it is sad or sorrowful that a person who was loved by their family and friends passed away. We are empathic, as humans should be. We are sorry you believe it is disingenuous to care for others. We wish you nothing but happiness in your future. We are sorry for your loss.

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Fake obituary very upsetting

The "Robert Jacques Lanois Obituary" on Echovita is fake and unauthorized, and it seems they wrote their own copy. It was very upsetting to the family of Robert when we discovered it recently. We would like this to be removed immediately, as it is extremely disrespectful to do such a thing, and also leads people to leave their condolences in the wrong place. Shame on you, whoever is behind this.

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Hi,
The obituary of Robert Lanois was removed on March 31st immediately when the family asked for it to be removed. Please read our About Us on how and why we operate or refer to the multiple responses below.

Thank you

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ECHOVITA scam website

Echovita posted parts of my father's obituary. My mother, who is 75 years old, found it and was devastated that this happened. The website took the liberty to write an entry paragraph, as though we wrote it. This is so so unethical, immoral, and if it is not illegal it should be. Shame on you. You have no soul.

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I see echovita’s reply and it’s absolute bull. They did this to my dad who died in a motor cycle accident.

How about you let the family send their message about the loved one. An automated text with stolen snippets of the real obituary is not a “sincere condolence.” The fact you show up on the first page of google l, make regular twitter blasts, and profit of the death of people who are not connected to you in anyway is wrong.

My family looks for the obituary my fathers son wrote, not some bot. What’s wrong with you?

Hope you have the decency to stop or someone takes you down.

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Hi Julie,
We are terribly sorry you feel that way. The entry paragraph of each obituary varies a little with our default texts used to introduce and incorporate the basic facts we share, as a heartfelt gesture from Echovita to the family. They are not written as though the family wrote it because it clearly says "Please accept Echovita's sincere condolences" and then refers to the family as "the family", not "our family". This is a free service we provide and family's can either give their permission to post the complete original obituary, edit the obituary, or remove the obituary all via one click of a button on the obituary page. Echovita is a free online obituary and memorial page platform that informs society of who has passed away. None of the information we share is private because all of the information we share has already been publicly announces via the internet. If you have already requested for your father's obituary to be removed, I'm sure it has. Again, we are sorry for your family's loss.

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Disingenuous Posting

There was a posting on Echovita of my family member to which was not approved. We are currently not accepting candles or flowers or planting memorial trees and Echovita does not have permission to sell any of these things in her name. We have requested removal of the posting today and are awaiting its removal.

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Hi A T,
The photo you attached is incomplete and missing a part of the last name. However, if you have already contacted us, then I can confirm that the obituary shared for your family member on Echovita has already been removed.

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REMOVE FAKE OBITUARY

This is not the official obituary. Echovita used data from the official obituary for my mother, Shirley Broomfield, to give the illusion that we hired them as our funeral home or memorial service - which we did not! I demand this obituary and any reference to my Mother or her death be removed immediately!
Posted by her grieving & distraught family.

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Hi Matt,
The obituary of Shirley Broomfield was removed from our website immediately following your removal request on March 11th at 12:11p.m.
As I stated in my response to your email, we do not give the illusion that you hired us as your funeral home or memorial service because we are not a funeral home, nor do we charge families for our services. We further share basic facts of publicly available obituaries as a way of further assisting families in fulfilling the purpose of an online obituary, which is to inform society that a loved one has passed away and create support for the family. Furthermore, we provide the family with the majority of commission we receive via any sales made pertaining to the obituary, which no other company provides. Thank you.

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No decency or Shame

I was surprised that I could not find the Obituary that we paid for at our funeral home online. Rather I see this company who we never heard of, Echovita, has copied most of the information to their own site and is trying to drive business to themselves. I did contact Echovita and they removed the page. I had to provide this company shameless company with my private email address and phone number in order to do so. I have read Echovita excuses and justifications about how they remove the obituary upon the request of family, but this is not the point. A decent company would ask permission or ask before publishing a second obituary in order to make money. They are claiming some nonsense about how the family makes money as an excuse for their indecent business strategy. People are dealing with the death of a loved one and then they have to deal with this too? This company exploits grieving families for financial gain. A class action lawsuit is in order.
I have one comment for the person who is replying to these complaints: You reply's are actually more damning of your company than the complaints. I did not see one apology to the grieving families to which you are causing more hardship during difficult times. To the contrary you attack grieving family with legitimate complaints. You are an [censored] low life and it shows from your pathetic attempts to justify what is unjustifiable. Do yourself a favor and shut your mouth.

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Another garbage reply from the company, if they cared so deeply, and were not just trying to exploit people - they would get permission first, not post first.

Novel ideal for you, let people decide to use your service, not force them to ask you to remove things - of course, you wouldn't exist if that was the case.

Everyone sees through your immoral actions Echovita.

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Hi,
In most of these cases concerning comments that have been left on this website, any valid comments are replied to and the majority of families that have left messages here have already been dealt with via email directly. You stated you did not see one apology in the replies by us, Echovita, so I would suggest for you to re-read the replies we've left because that's not true. The first statement you made in your comment is one of the main reasons we exist. You said it yourself, you were surprised you could not find the obituary you paid for on the funeral home's website. The fact you couldn't find the original obituary on the funeral home's website is a problem in itself, and Echovita is not responsible for that. You paid for a service, that doesn't truly help because if the family themselves are unable to find the original obituary, imagine others, outside of the family, who are unable to find the original obituaries of their loved ones. Echovita provides a free service by further sharing the basic facts only and we let the family decide whether they would like to replace what we've posted with the original obituary, or remove it. There is a button on the left-hand side of each obituary page that reads, "Authorize the original obituary", which allows us to post the original obituary for free and give more access to more visitors to see and easily find the original obituary, so that they can give their support to the family.
We understand that families would prefer for us to contact them to get consent or notify them that we have shared an obituary for their loved one on our website, however, funeral homes do not provide the family's contact information, therefore, how could we contact the family in advance? Believe it or not, we have contacted hundreds, if not, over a thousand, funeral homes to explain our platform and how it helps families, but the majority of funeral homes would rather have the family pay for the obituary service they have then partake in one that is free. Why do you think that is? Yet, somehow, we are the ones who are wrong in your eyes. We want families to be aware of the free service we provide for them that actually gives back to them, so of course, we want the families to be notified. We share various methods on our website, so that visitors can notify the family of the obituary and its condolence messages.
We will continue to find more ways on how to notify the family in advance without the cooperation of funeral homes. We want you to know that we hear you and we will develop more ways on how to meet your needs.

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Scammer's website www.echovita.com
Country United States
Type of a scam Family/Friend Emergency
Initial means of contact Website

REMOVE FAKE OBITUARY

This is a disgrace to society. My brother just passed away a few days ago and JUST as we finished writing his obituary, we sent it straight to our funeral home to post to THEIR website. We sent it last night. This morning after a hard night, we googled our brother's name to search our funeral home's obituary.

Echovita (not our funeral home) was incorrectly at the top of the google searches, which means they pay for this right. Their information is false, misleading, and quite honestly a dishonor to our brother's memory. He was a local firefighter that has hundreds of firefighters coming to his services and he is also from Ireland so we have tons of family coming from overseas. This fake obituary has wrong information regarding his services and life details, and there is no way to stop people from going to the wrong service because of the bad information. PLEASE STOP MAKING US HURT MORE BY STRESSING ABOUT STUPID ISSUES! WE HAVE ENOUGH GOING ON RIGHT NOW! REMOVE MY BROTHER'S FAKE ECHOVITA OBITUARY!

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Hi,
The obituary of Seamus Culligan has already been removed and an email response has already been sent to either yourself or another member of your family.

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Horrible misrepresentation of floral gift

I ordered a floral gift for a funeral and paid over $100 for them. The flowers that were received were PATHETIC. I have photos of what was ordered and what was received. I’m so embarrassed that this is what the family received from us! I feel like it’s a scam since it went through the funeral home website so they just chose to do a horrible job!

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Hi,
We are terribly sorry to hear you are not satisfied with the flower arrangement you received. As stated on your order confirmation email, our partner, Blooms Today, has a 100% satisfactory guarantee or your money back. If you are not satisfied with what was received, please call Blooms Today directly at the phone number provided. All of our flower orders are processed by Blooms Today. Blooms Today then sends the order to the closest local florist of the delivery address for preparation and delivery.

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Interested in Class-Action against echovita

If your family has been wronged, if the words you wrote about your lost loved one were plagiarized and butchered and misrepresented without any authorization by Echovita.. I stand with you. There seems to be many of us.
Please contact me:
[email protected]

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Hi,
Please contact us directly at [email protected] . I searched your email address in our system and you have never contacted us, so I'm curious what your statement is based off of. We look forward to you reaching out to us directly. A lot of funeral homes have been spreading false information about Echovita is a continuous attempt to claim and retain ownership over families they have served, which is wrong. At Echovita, we believe the family is in control of there loved one's information and we invite families to take full advantage of our platform and what we offer for them. We also have the means for families to be able to provide their authorization to post the complete original obituary on our website or remove the obituary. Thank you.

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Scammer's website www.echovita.com/ca
Country Canada
Type of a scam Other
Initial means of contact Website

Echovita FAKE!!!!

UNAUTHORIZED Online obit put together by info scraped from the internet. Offering purchase of flowers, tree donations for family when the family specifically does not want this. Unauthorized family photos shared on their website. They claim a copyright on the info they scraped at bottom of their page. The REAL scam: they harvest the data from family members making donations/purchases AND any family member requesting removal of the unauthorized data. You MUST submit your Private Information to request removal of the unauthorized post specifically NAME, RELATIONSHIP to deceased, EMAIL, PHONE NUMBER which they then share/sell. So even if your post has been removed you still lose and they still win. This is a PRIVACY violation. Criminals will always find a way to profit off the grief of others smh

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Scrapes data from real obituaries in order to recreate them on their website

Usually their data scraping software misses key details, making a mockery of the original obituary.
For instance, it doesn't mention my grandfather's two surviving sons, but it mentions his daughters.

This comes off as a disgusting way to trick people into paying for "memorial trees" and "lit candles" without any consent from the family of the deceased.

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Hi Eric,
Our sincere apologies for the error that arose. If you've already contacted us directly, I'm sure this has been resolved. If you haven't contacted us directly, please do. I would like to point out that you mentioned we "usually miss key details", which is incorrect. To make such a statement, you would need to review all obituaries on our website. I can confirm, that we do NOT usually miss key details. Refer to our other responses on this website for the truth of what we do and why.

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Echovita Contacts

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Phone:

+1 (581) 684-7856

Website:

www.echovita.com

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