Three Common Funeral Scams

Obviously this is a very difficult article to write. No one wants to think about funerals and loved ones passing away. Realistically though, dying is a part of living and we must all be prepared for that eventuality, no matter what our ages are. You could suddenly lose a grandparent, parent, husband or even a child. Whenever it is God's will, loved ones are taken from us, sometimes without warning.

Considering the fact that when you do lose someone that's very close to you, you are extremely vulnerable to the pressures that some funeral directors place on you. Most are very compassionate about your loss, but there are many that just can't pass up the opportunity to make an extra hundred or thousand dollars from your grief. They will try to sell you their most expensive casket, or if cremation is the preference, embalming prior to cremation. My big question is, why embalm if you are going to cremate? No, it's just to charge you more. That's the only reason.

The First Scam - called the Casket Scam

As mentioned above, many funeral directors will have at least three of their topped priced caskets in their sales rooms. This is intentional. They know that the average person will select the casket from the FIRST three that they see. Normally the middle priced one of the three. Undoubtedly, they have more caskets on the premises, or very near by, if they are short on room, or the less expensive caskets can be as near as the phone.

The Federal Government has some protection for the consumers. It's called the Funeral Rule. The Funeral Rule requires the funeral director to show the customers a list of caskets or urns, the company sells, along with the price and description of each one. This list is suppose to be given to you BEFORE showing you any of their models.

There is also a web site that offers help and suggestions on planning, called the Funeral Help Program. The web site is http://www.funeral-help.com

Scam Number Two - The Funeral Package Discount

In the past, caskets and urns were only sold through funeral homes. Now that is not the case. There are casket stores or showrooms and there are also several web sites that sell caskets and urns. These are independent dealers and you may find they have cheaper prices for the same caskets and urns.

According to the Funeral Rule, funeral homes are required to use the casket or urn you purchased from any source, and to do so without charging you more for their services.

Not all, but some funeral homes will offer a promotional package to compete with the retail stores. These packages are very deceptive. They claim that you will get a "deal" on the price of your casket, if purchased through the funeral home. In other words, you get the casket at a reduced price. That "sounds" good, but wait. The funeral home director does not want to lose money by reducing the cost of the casket, so what he does is to raise the service fee high enough to cover that profit loss. If you bought the package deal, you were just scammed.

Be very suspicious of a package that has the service or mortuary fee in the thousands of dollars range. These fees include the directors time to plan the funeral, make cemetery arrangements and take care of the legal paperwork, i.e. the death certificate. According to the FTC, the time to take care of all this is approximately four hours or less and should not be that expensive.

Any casket pricing you feel is a scam should be reported to the National Casket Retailers Association at http://www.casketstores.com

The Third Scam - Casket Gasket

Typically, this is a rubber gasket that is proclaimed to delay the seepage of water into the casket and supposedly preserve the body from biological deterioration. The funeral directors will try to sell you this gasket under the above pretext and will add approximately $700 or more to the price of your casket. That being said, this gasket costs between $10 to $30 to purchase. Knowing that, you know this is a big rip-off. But there is more.

If you go and read about this at the Funeral Help Program site, you will find they say these gaskets most generally have the opposite effect and they could potentially cause the casket to explode. Because of the potential for explosion, mausoleums will not allow caskets that have these gaskets installed.

The Funeral Rule also states that claims for "protective" features are forbidden. They do not protect.

More information and help with planning and protecting yourself is available at the above mentioned sites and also at the FTC site. http://www.ftc.gov

Each state has it's own laws pertaining to funerals and burials. These laws will tell you what is mandatory by law and anything beyond that is strictly optional.