|
Study: Local funeral homes’ prices for basic services vary widely
By Rachel Pleasant
Staff Writer
Planning a funeral is a confusing task. Emotions are raw. Time is short. Decisions are many. For help navigating the myriad options that come with such an event, grief-stricken families turn to funeral homes, expecting competitive prices.
A recent study of Charleston area funeral homes suggests that may not always be the case.
The study, conducted by the Funeral Consumers Alliance of South Carolina, found wide price variations among 17 funeral homes for services that should cost relatively the same no matter where they are purchased.
“For a consumer, it’s not that there is a difference in prices, it’s that there are such glaring differences,” says Gere Fulton, president of the Funeral Consumers Alliance, a group made up of 120 affiliates across the country, including the FCA of South Carolina.
“What immediately comes to mind is embalming. Everyone has (approximately) five quarts of blood, so when you embalm, you push out five quarts of blood and put in five quarts of embalming fluid. When you see the wide price swings, it causes you to question. I think lots of people are getting ripped off. It’s harsh to say, but the reality of it is they are.”
The cost for embalming, a process of injecting chemicals to preserve a body for a viewing and funeral, varied from a low of $250 at Walker’s Mortuary Chapel to a high of $925 at G.W. Heyward’s Funeral Home, according to the study.
Study disputed
A representative from Heyward’s quickly disputed that figure and was uncertain how the FCA of South Carolina obtained it. The FCA provided the Business Journal with a fax from Heyward’s with the $925 price clearly marked.
Heyward’s contends its price is much lower and could not explain where the $925 price came from.
“Our normal embalming price is $640 and underneath that (in the general price list) it says it is subject to change depending on the type of case,” says Tracy Scott, record and bookkeeper. “If you have to do a lot of restorative art work to the body, it’s going to cost more.”
At $640, Heyward’s still ranks as the third most expensive embalmer, but Scott says that can be misleading.
“(Others) might charge less, but it will balance out to $6,000 (the approximate cost for an average funeral),” Scott says. “They might be charging more for professional services or for caskets. You have to look at the whole price list. We’re one of the cheapest ones.”
In another example, the cost to transfer a body from the place of death to the funeral home will cost as little as $50 at Walker’s Mortuary Chapel to as much as $300 at Jas. A. McAlister Funeral Home.
McAlister defended its price.
“I’ve not heard of anyone doing it for $50,” says Carol Buchanan, administrative assistant. The $300, she explained covers liability insurance, overhead costs on the home’s fairly new hearse, pay for the driver and workers needed to remove a body.
The $300 covers anything within a 30-mile radius of McAlister’s Savannah Highway location. Beyond that radius, additional charges are added.
“I would question what kind of vehicle they’re using, what kind of insurance they have. How much is that person being paid,” Buchanan says.
No one from Walker’s returned reporter’s phone messages.
Inconsistant reporting
Though differences in prices take the biggest financial toll on consumers, the FCA study points out inconsistencies in the way funeral homes report their prices.
According to the Funeral Rule, enforced by the Federal Trade Commission, funeral directors are legally required to provide itemized prices and, should a customer request it, additional information about products and services.
The problem, the FCA found, is that there is no clear formula for calculating prices, making it more difficult for the consumer to comparison shop, which is the essence of the Funeral Rule.
The FTC provides guidelines for price lists; however, it does not require funeral homes to use a standardized format.
Fulton says that is the source of a number of problems.
“We need standardization,” he says. “When you buy a car, there’s a sticker on the window with all the stuff the (Environmental Protection Agency) requires. You get the price. Those things are standard, so you can do a little comparison shopping.”
Presenting prices
While the FTC’s guidelines make it easy for a funeral home to present its price list on the front and back of a standard piece of typing paper, Fulton says he received a 28-page price list from McAlister-Smith Funeral Home as part of the Charleston survey.
“What the FTC had in mind when they produced a guide was basically ‘Funeral Directing for Dummies,’ you know those books,” he says. “It was so that people who don’t know anything could go home and compare price lists side by side. When that doesn’t happen, my contention is that people are obscuring things. They are trying to make it more difficult to make a more meaningful comparison.”
The FCA obtained McAlister-Smith’s price list in September, Fulton says. A 13-page version, dated effective as of Dec. 1, 2004, was provided to the Business Journal.
Mark Smith, co-owner and operator of McAlister-Smith, says his funeral home has never had a price list of more than 13 pages. That is four to five pages longer than other funeral homes, but Smith says that is because his business offers a number of ways to personalize funeral services.
Everything from balloon releases to horse-drawn carriages are listed. Additionally, a large typeface is used to help older people read it.
Smith says he could not recall providing the FCA with a price list because his funeral home receives so many requests on a daily basis.
Despite price disparities and multi-page price lists, Fulton says what was most upsetting about the Charleston survey was that six funeral homes did not respond to the FCA’s multiple request for price lists.
Fulton says they have been reported to the FTC.
Rachel Pleasant is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail her at rpleasant@crbj.com.
|
E-Mail This Article
Printer-Friendly Version