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The funeral industry truly is predatory. I get that everyone has to pay rent or mortgage, and put food on the table, but here’s a great example:
When my Mother passed away, the bills for the funeral services etc… kept adding up and up. We could pay them, but the attempts to nickel and dime us were ridiculous. My Dad (who was hit hardest out of all of us emotionally), had at least the wherewithal to start questioning line items. There was one for ~$500 that was noted as “escort/transport service”. My Dad (being the consummate smart ass) very flatly stated that he didn’t think an escort would do my Mom any good at this point as she was dead, had already been cremated, and count enjoy the services of an escort. The funeral director, squirreled out an explanation that this was for transport (of Mom’s ashes, in their nice small wooden box) from the crematorium to the burial site. My Dad called bullshit,and said that, for $500, he’d pick up my Mom one last time and take her the to burial site himself.
So yeah, the funeral industry definitely pads the bill, taking advantage of people who are at a point emotionally where they’re vulnerable and least likely to be able to stand up for themselves.
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Exactly right. Funeral business is one of the last, great rackets that prey upon people at their weakest. There has been so much consolidation in the industry in the past 10 years that basically all the funeral homes in America are owned and operated by just 2 or 3 major corporations. Very few mom & pop homes left unfortunately.
When my mother in law passed away 2 years ago, her children sat around and tried to organize her funeral but it was basically left up to my wife and I to pay for the whole thing so we were very strict about every detail. Even though my wife was an emotional wreck we were still able to negotiate a fair deal and avoided being scammed. We sought out an independent home and negotiated separate arrangements between the funeral services, the casket, the church services and the cemetery plot. In the end it saved us about $4000- $5000 dollars over a “full service” package.
The first place we went tried to nickle and dime us on everything - $20 here for some plastic crosses; $50 there for simple, basic prayer cards, etc. We stood firm and just said no, no, no to everything and finally picked up and walked out and found a locally run funeral home who treated us fairly. Very much like a used car dealership.
The worst were the homes and cemetery associated with the Catholic church (whom my MIL was a devout Catholic her whole life and wanted more then anything to have a church service and traditional burial). They really pressed hard with the guilt and obligation angle. They also overcharged by the order of 20% - 30% higher than others.
It’s not easy to do when you are dealing with grief of losing a loved one so I always advocate having someone else who is not a relative or close friend to handle arrangements unemotionally.
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