COWBOYS ROB US OF DIGNITY AS WELL AS CASH
THE move by the Competition and Markets Authority to investigate the funeral industry is not a moment before time. Rip-offs of various kinds are a fact of modern life, from insurance premiums to bank accounts to energy bills.
But the callous behaviour of rogue funeral firms profiteering at the expense of grieving families is in a league of its own.
The evidence submitted to the watchdog by individual customers is deeply disturbing because it suggests there is widespread malpractice, rather than just a few bad companies.
To state the obvious, bereft spouses and orphaned adult children do not want to shop around or haggle over the price of a funeral.
Dealing with a death is something for which most of us have little practice. Suddenly, families have to deal with a welter of unfamiliar financial and practical issues, at a time of maximum grief and pain.
Added to that, there is the natural feeling that a funeral should not be skimped.
Unscrupulous firms are cynically aware of these emotions and seek to exploit them in the most cold-hearted ways imaginable.
Despite the high costs of a funeral – around £4,300 on average – the watchdog found a lack of transparency about prices. Tariffs are often not published, allowing firms to hike them at will for clients they believe can afford to pay – and for families they brand ‘difficult’.
Even worse, however, is the emotional blackmail deployed to milk more money out of customers.
Testimony sent to the watchdog revealed families were coaxed into spending large sums on extras. If they baulked, they were asked whether they thought the deceased was ‘worth it’.
Lower- cost options were described as ‘basic’ instead of ‘simple’, as a tactic for making people feel guilty about keeping expenses under control.
Families were deceived in a variety of cruel ways. Some were made to pay for embalming that never took place. Others were given cheap coffins when they had paid for expensive ones. Shockingly, some relatives were charged for dressing the dead person, when all the firm did was fling a bag of clothes into the coffin.
Malpractice in the funeral trade does not only cheat customers out of money, but also out of human dignity and respect.
The industry has been poorly regulated for far too long, perhaps because of society’s squeamishness about death.
What is now needed is transparent pricing, minimum service standards and heavy penalties for cowboy practices.
A funeral is the final thing we do for the people we have loved and lost, to mark their death, celebrate their life, and to help ourselves begin to come to terms with our loss.
Anyone who enters the business does so knowing they have a huge responsibility to their customers – their fellow human beings – at a time of great vulnerability.
Exploitative funeral firms not only steal from the living, they dishonour the dead.
Shame on them.