In Chicago-Land Funeral Ripoffs Abound!Your Funeral Guy

Thanks to the Chicago Tribune for posting a recent article  and warning the funeral consumer. Funeral Rip OFFs are alive and well in Chicago-land,  Being a Funeral Director,- this month I was given the privilege to sit with a Family in the Funeral arrangement for a mother’s son. At the Funeral I performed the ministers function at no charge.

The Funeral Director(doing the arrangement- did not hand the family a general price list. (Required by LAW). THE FUNERAL DIRECTOR DID NOT GIVE ME  GENERAL PRICE LIST When I asked for One-also required by Law.

The Cemetery charged $4,700 For the Grave site. I considered this theft. THE MOTHER HAD PROMISED THE SON THAT SPECIFIC GRAVE SITE SO THEY GOT AWAY with it!

I was able to assist the family with obtaining a third party casket on the internet which saved a few thousand.(Thanks to the Star Legacy Casket Network) But all in all the prices charged were way too high. In this instance as often is the case funeral cost became a factor in grief.

What was truly sad is that services at the Cemetery ALONE cost over $7,000.00. YES, it was a the High PROFILE WORLD”S LARGEST FUNERAL & CEMETERY Corporation, NYSE: SCI, Service Corporation International, SCI within the Chicago City Limits.

The NFDA average  funeral cost figure of $7,323.00 is from 2006, That average traditional funeral is much more today.

Snippet From the Chicago Tribune:

Death is big business. How big, you ask? The National Funeral Directors Association says the average funeral costs $7,323 — and that doesn’t include the cost of a cemetery plot, a gravestone and burial services.

In all, dealing with the death of a loved one can cost more than $10,000, making it one of the most expensive purchases most families will make. So why do we do so little research on the topic?

“People are in denial about death right up until the bitter end,” said Ed Markin, who runs the Funeral Help Program in Virginia Beach, Va. “You delay talking about it at your own fiscal peril is what it all boils down to.”

Markin said funeral costs vary widely, controlled almost entirely by the amount of research you do — and when you do it. He said you can save almost 50 percent by shopping around and getting written quotes before you need them.

via www.chicagotribune.com

Funeral Industry|Funeral News| Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy

Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sc-cons-0624-problem-solver-funerals-20100624,0,1533838.story

Central To Arlington National Cemetery Problems|Records-YourFuneralGuy

At the center of Arlington National Cemeteries latest problems is record keeping. The Cemetery still relies on a paper and card system.  Given millions of deceased it is conceivable for 100′s  (211) to turn up in the wrong place.

Snippet from the Washington Post

As a result, the nation’s most hallowed military cemetery uses a flawed and antiquated paper system for tracking the whereabouts of thousands of buried service members and their relatives. Although the cemetery has spent $5.5 million over seven years to upgrade its records, problems abound, according to an Army inspector general investigation and other Army documents.

One contract was so flawed that a handwritten note attached to a legal review of it said, “This is probably not the best way to do business,” according to the Army’s investigation, which was released this month. But the note said that the “contract is not illegal.”

via www.washingtonpost.com

Salon Magazine has been following this story for quite some time.

The Army inspector general probe focused in particular on millions spent on a fruitless, years-long effort to computerize paper burial records at the cemetery, work that if done properly likely would have halted the now-infamous burial mistakes there. Other large cemeteries computerized operations years ago. Experts say it could be done for a fraction of what Arlington has likely spent

via www.salon.com

Salon Magazine did extensive stories on botched IT contracts at Arlington National Cemetery in 2009, showing how contracts were given out continually as companies went under.

If the Bereaved Consumers Bill of Rights act, HR. 3655,  had become law some of this surely would have been avoided.

Funeral Industry| Funeral News| Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy