Michigan Christian Home Beacon Hill at Eastgate

They let me and my family down. Almost went to visit my godmother on Monday but other things came up. Turns out she had passed away a few days before --- i found out from the news paper....the staff never told us she passed. Infact they should have because even though we did not visit her as much as we would like to, we were still her 1st contact in her phone...

Non-existent customer service and abysmal communication with potential buyers. My husband and I (late 60's) are looking at CCRC and other multilevel retirement communities near Grand Rapids, MI because we have family in that area and would like to be near them in our retirement years. Of the five (5) communities I contacted to arrange for tours during a planned family visit, Beacon Hill was absolutely the worst regarding initial contact, follow up, sales rep courtesy, confirmation of the appointment, and ability to cancel the your when a family emergency arose. With regard to my initial inquiry, it was difficult to get anyone to answer the phone. It was nearly impossible to find an online "request for tour" form - the one that kept coming up wasfor businesses wanting to connect so as to provide their professional services on the facility expansion. I finally got to a generic form which I submitted. A week later, a sales rep (Tyler) tried to reach me by phone three times, leaving very short voice message, before I was finally able to speak with her directly - after repeated phone tag. Tyler was very abrupt on the phone and not particularly friendly. I made my tour appointment a full 30 days in advance of our visit. When I asked about touring the advanced care levels in addition to independent living, Tyler would not commit to showing them to us. I also asked for printed materials to be sent to my home so that we could study them and come with specific questions to maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of our tour time. After the phone call, I received nothing to confirm the the date and time of the tour: no phone calls, no email, no text message, and no snail mail printed materials. Nine days before our scheduled tour, we had a family emergency pop up that would cause us to cancel our trip to Michigan. The only contact information I had for Tyler was the phone number from her voice messages. I sent a text message which did not bounce back, so I figured it went to another cellphone number. In addition i tried calling Beacon Hill's number, but was put on hold or transferred to a black hole. I tried to find the "contact us" form on the website, but again the only one that kept coming up was for professional services providers. No response from Beacon Hill. On the morning of our previously scheduled tour, at 10:08 am Eastern time I received a phone call from Tyler who opened the conversation with "I have you on my calendar for an appointment today at 10:00." I attempted to explain the situation and the steps I took to notify them of our need to postpone when Tyler interrupted me abruptly saying, "that number is a land line..." There was no empathy for our situation, no compassion, no offer to reschedule. At that point, I pointed out my frustration with the contact form, poor support and lack of communication. I asked to be removed from their list, and the conversation ended. If this is the way Beacon Hill treats potential customers, I shudder to think about how they treat the residents especially those beyond the independent living level.

Beacon Hill is a superb facility. We had two generations of moms who spent many years there. They have superb empathy and caring for all their residents. Constantly growing and improving and how they can serve those who need help.