Maynard Cheris

Impressive Casket Inc.

Gurnee, IL.

Laura Wend

Affordable Casket Inc.

Southgate, MI.

John Iwaniec

Direct Casket Inc.

Washington D.C.

De’Lores Arline

Arline Casket Co.

Longview, TX.

Laura Wend

Affordable Casket Inc.

Southgate, MI.

Robert Karlin

California Casket Co.

Los Angeles, CA.

A source close to the National Funeral Directors Association (National Funeral Directors Association) has supplied us with the June 1, 1998 bolder version of the "Guidelines For Handling Third Party Caskets " Or, in our opinion "How to put casket stores out of business".

Here’s what the National Funeral Directors Association is teaching under Pricing Practices Part 4. "Unreasonable Discounts: While funeral homes are free to offer discounted packages to encourage families to select a casket from the funeral home, they may not make the discounts unreasonable. For example, if a funeral home raised it’s itemized prices for a typical funeral to $10,000 and then offered a $3,000 funeral package to consumers purchasing a casket from the funeral home, it would open itself up to a claim that it is employing sham discounts. The amount of the discount should have some reasonable relationship to the revenue the funeral home would expect to earn on the sale of the casket."

In our opinion the National Funeral Directors Association is substituting the word "discount" for penalty. A funeral home cannot make up for lost revenue with a legitimate discount. However, the higher a funeral home inflates its prices the larger the so-called discount appears and the larger the penalty becomes. This is a no-win for consumers; A family that could have bought a lower priced casket elsewhere must buy a higher priced casket from the funeral home to receive the usual service prices.

If it is truly a discount and not a deceptive trade practice why limit the so-called discount? Who are they trying to fool?

A consumer recently reported that a funeral home in New Berlin, WI. Tried to penalize them $1500 for purchasing a third party casket, The family became irate and the funeral home wisely withdrew the penalty. Using the word discount in place of handling fee or penalty may fool the Federal Trade Commission, but there not fooling the public.

In our opinion these National Funeral Directors Association Pricing guidelines are another way for a funeral home to loose credibility within the community.

The National Funeral Directors Association seems to be getting reckless in their attack on casket stores. Anti-competitive tactics by funeral homes attract harsh criticism from the press and the courts. For example a funeral home in Illinois recently paid $12,500 to Impressive Casket, Inc. for anti-competitive tactics. Stay tuned for more.

Have a News contact, Let us know and we will make them part of our Wide Spread Press Release  Re: The National Funeral Directors Association pricing recommendations