The price of similar full-service funerals were found to range from $2,580 to $13,800, in the national survey of 150 funeral home.
“We have got to get the funeral industry over this aversion to the same ordinary transparency that every other retail sector does voluntarily. It is good for customers, and even though they don’t think so now, it’s going to be good for funeral homes, too,” said Joshua Slocum, the executive director of the Funeral Consumer Alliance.
By law, funeral homes are required to give consumers a detailed price list over the phone or in person, except in California, where the FTC requires funeral homes to post their detailed price lists online, said Slocum.
This newspaper randomly selected eight Dayton area funeral homes and found that only one, Newcomer Funeral Service Group, with locations in Dayton, Kettering, and Beavercreek, listed funeral prices online.
“Most funeral home providers don’t want you to know what the service charge is. They want to get you in the door first. Once they have that, more often than not, you are not going to leave, said J. Perry Hasselbeck, Newcomer executive vice president and chief operating officer.
Newcomer’s website has a list of packaged prices, and comparisons charts, but Slocum said, that is not enough.
“You have the right to select only the goods and services that you want; that’s missing from websites that feature package funerals,” said Slocum.
Hasselbeck said posting an itemized price list may be confusing for consumers.
“If they want a general price list we will send them one, that’s not an issue. The challenge becomes they are difficult to understand. There is a lot of terminology required by law,” Hasselbeck said.
Although most funeral homes in this area don’t lists costs on their websites, but many will give their prices to customers when asked.
Neeld Funeral Home Inc. in Xenia and Anderson and Breitenbach Anderson Funeral Homes, in Springboro, Middletown, and Franklin emailed an itemized price list to this newspaper when asked.
The FCA will give the results of its survey to the Federal Trade Commission and encourage the commission to change the law to require funeral homes to post complete itemized price lists online, according to Slocum.
In the meantime, what should consumers do?
“It is during the very emotional times and even if it’s sudden and you weren’t prepared even for a death in your family, you are going to have to take a deep breath and do some comparative shopping,” said Better Business Bureau president John North, adding that the BBB has not seen a lot of complaints about funeral home prices.
Slocum agrees.
“If you’ve got the time, and if you are not dead, you have the time. Pick up the phone. Call four or five different funeral homes in your area. Make yourself a short list of funeral homes that fit your budget. You shouldn’t have to, but that’s your best bet today,” Slocum said.
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