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The “Sham Discount Package” is designed to negate any savings a consumer might have realized by buying a discount casket. Some funeral homes are attempting to eliminate consumer choice by claiming to offer a “Package Discount” to consumers who buy a casket from the funeral home. Through this deceptive technique, the funeral home inflates service prices, and then claims to offer a discount.
Here’s How It Works: A $2500 bill for funeral services is inflated to $4000. If you buy the casket from the funeral home, you get a $1,500 discount, which brings your price back down to $2500. The only people who actually pay the inflated (non-discounted) price are those who choose not to buy their casket from the funeral home. The “Sham Discount” is designed to force a consumer to either (A) buy a more expensive Funeral Home casket, or (B) pay for it anyway.

To Avoid this Scheme: Shop around first. Do not allow a Funeral Director to pick up the Deceased until you get a General Price List (GPL). The Funeral Rule Requires Funeral Directors to give you a GPL when you ask for one in person. They must have one on their person when they come to your house to pick up remains. Go over the prices before you allow them to pick up the body.

If a funeral home attempts to run this scam on your family, report it to: The National Casket Retailers Association immediately.

Since many consumers have saved money by buying a casket from Budget Casket Superstores, some funeral homes are now attempting to fool consumers with the appearance of low price caskets. They simply increase their service prices, and lower their casket prices. You pay the same total price as before, but the casket price is deceptively competitive.

Example:

Typical Funeral Prices
$1078.98 Non-Declinable service charge
$ 369.51 Embalming
$ 132.92 Other Preparation of body (Cosmetology, Hair, etc.)
$ 304.84 Visitation/Viewing
$ 325.73 Funeral Service at Funeral Home
$ 134.17 Transfer of remains to Funeral Home
$ 161.24 Hearse
$ 80.76 Service car/van
$ 18.74 Acknowledgement cards
$2606.89 Sub-Total
$2175.57 Casket 18 Ga. Steel, Sealer, Velvet interior
$ 760.79 Vault asphalt coated concrete sealer
$5543.25 Total

A Funeral Home playing the “Numbers Game” may offer prices like this:
$1800.00 Non-Declinable service charge
$ 500.00 Embalming
$ 250.00 Other Preparation of body
$ 500.00 Visitation/Viewing
$ 400.00 Funeral Service at Funeral Home
$ 200.00 Transfer of remains to Funeral Home
$ 200.00 Hearse
$ 100.00 Service car/van
$ 25.00 Acknowledgement cards
$3975.00 Sub-Total
$ 900.00 Casket 18 Ga. Steel, Sealer, Velvet interior
$ 668.25 Vault asphalt coated concrete sealer
$5543.25 Total (No Savings — you still pay the same)

To Avoid this Scheme: Shop around first. Do not allow a Funeral Director to pick up the Deceased until you get a General Price List (GPL). The Funeral Rule Requires Funeral Directors to give you a GPL when you ask for one in person. They must have one on their person when they come to your house to pick up remains. Go over the prices before you allow them to pick up the body.

If a funeral home attempts to run this scam on your family, report it to: The National Casket Retailers Association immediately.

Eight years ago, Bob Davis realized he had paid way too much for his fathers funeral. A $20,000 insurance policy just barely covered the costs.

After the dirt had settled, he began to question why it should cost so much to bury a loved one. It seemed that there were no alternatives to being fleeced at the time of need.

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Funeral Consumers Alliance Files Class Action Lawsuit Against Funeral Conglomerates and Largest Casketmaker for Antitrust Violations

South Burlington, VT. - Funeral Consumers Alliance, Inc. (FCA), on behalf of its roughly 400,000 members and a nationwide class of consumers, has filed a lawsuit in federal court in California seeking to stop the country’s three largest funeral homes chains and the nation’s largest casketmaker from shutting out competition and fixing casket prices at artificially high levels.

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(from AdAge.com)
NEW YORK - In last Sunday’s edition of the Dallas Morning News, a full-page ad for Budget Caskets of Fort Worth notified Texans that they had the right to bring their own casket to a funeral.

The ad pointed out that Federal Trade Commission rules allowed for this and then called on consumers to exercise their God-given (or in this case, government-given) freedoms by purchasing a Budget Casket. “We will beat anyone’s price or give you the headstone FREE!” . [Read Article]

Readers’ Forum; Prepaid Funerals
Source: Courier - Journal
Publication date: 2001-05-14
Arrival time: 2001-05-16

Just in case I missed it, three people gave me copies of the April 23 Courier-Journal article, “Rethink Prepaid Funerals,” and two more called to tell me about it. They know I’m an advocate for less rather than more, smaller rather than bigger, simpler rather than grander, reasonable rather than expensive. And they know that I belong to the Funeral Consumers Alliance/Funeral and Memorial Society of Greater Louisville. Our local affiliate (454-4855), one of 126 affiliates of a national organization, has been active since 1958. In recent years, many of the friendly neighborhood funeral homes in every big city have been taken over by one of several conglomerates with a marketing strategy that does not bode well for the consumer.

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