Budget Casket is now TEXAS FOREVER FUNERALS. Please visit our new web site at http:texasforeverfunerals.com.

MUST READ

An Except from the SCI Sales Counselor's Reference Guide: NOT INTENDED TO BE SEEN BY THE PUBLIC!

SCI is the largest owner/operator of funeral homes in the United States. Judge for yourself whether their main corporate focus is on funerals, or your money.

The link below will open in a new window:
http://www.funerals.org/alert/sciprene.htm

BREAKING NEWS

May 2, 2005

South Burlington, VT. - Funeral Consumers Alliance, Inc. (FCA), on behalf of its roughly 400,000 members and a nationwide class of consumers, has filed a lawsuit in federal court in California seeking to stop the country's three largest funeral homes chains and the nation's largest casketmaker from shutting out competition and fixing casket prices at artificially high levels. The suit has been filed against funeral conglomerates Service Corporation International, Alderwoods Group, Inc., Stewart Enterprises, Inc., and Batesville Casket Company. The suit seeks to prevent the defendants from boycotting independent casket discounters (ICDs), and from raising casket prices through price-fixing agreements.

Joining FCA in the suit are several individual consumer plaintiffs, who seek damages on behalf of all consumers who purchased Batesville caskets from the funeral home defendants.

"For years, funeral homes have conspired to artificially inflate casket prices," said Joshua Slocum, executive director of FCA. "We expect this lawsuit will put an end to these conspiracies, that it will bring free and fair competition to the casket market, and that consumers will be compensated for the damage this behavior has wrought."

FCA and the consumer plaintiffs allege the defendants and their co-conspirators have engaged in a group boycott to prevent ICDs from selling Batesville caskets and certain other brands. They also allege that as part of the boycott, the defendants have mounted a campaign of disparagement against ICDs and the caskets they sell. FCA believes this campaign has helped steer customers away from purchasing caskets from ICDs, and toward the artificially expensive Batesville brand of caskets the defendants sell. The plaintiffs further allege that the defendant funeral homes engaged in various forms of price coordination in further violation of state and federal competition laws. FCA alleges the defendants' conduct has suppressed competition in casket sales, which has cost families billions of dollars in overcharges.

If successful, the lawsuit will bring an end to these anti-competitive and anti-consumer practices so grieving families can enjoy substantially lower prices and greater choices for caskets. The lawsuit will also allow the consumer plaintiffs to recover the overcharges that consumers of Batesville caskets have been made to pay.

Constantine Cannon , an antitrust law firm with offices in New York and Washington, DC., is representing FCA and the consumer plaintiffs. The firm has extensive experience in antitrust litigation.

Funeral Consumers Alliance
FCA is the nation's oldest and largest funeral consumer education and advocacy organization. FCA comprises more than 100 affiliated consumer groups (often known as memorial societies) that provide families with information on funeral services and products. FCA groups have approximately 400,000 individual consumer members.

The link below will open a PDF file of the actual legal complaint ... you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this file:
http://www.funerals.org/FCAvSCIetal.pdf

The Jig Is Up

(The following is an excerpt from the casket chapter in "Caring for the Dead: Your Final Act of Love," available through the FCA bookstore.)

Barbara Osborne had no reservations about spending $4,000 for Daddy's "protective" copper casket. Two months later when she went to place flowers for Father's Day—the casket was "stinking to high heaven." Batesville took four months to respond. A video of the rotting flesh confirmed Barbara's worst fears.

"Protective," says the Batesville guarantee that Barbara was given. The Batesville website goes even further: "The urge to keep our loved ones protected and safe is fundamental to all of us. No wonder so many families are comforted by the ability to protect their loved ones with the Batesville Monoseal protective casket." It's going to keep out air, water, and other elements, we're told.

The dictionary definition of protection is "to keep from harm." Yes, the gasketed casket may keep out any bugs that didn't accidently get closed inside in the first place, but Batesville doesn't bother to reveal that—by keeping air out—a sealed casket (in anything but the most frigid weather) becomes a slow cooker that will turn the body into a smelly stew.

Some funeral directors are awakening to the problems presented by sealer caskets. One recently wrote to Mortuary Management (June '98): "Sealer caskets are in danger of being identified as an alleged consumer fraud that funeral service has been a party to for far too many years. . . . Funeral service should finally divorce itself from this emerging identity."

Return to Consumer Alert page.

Consumer Alert on Funeral Pricing

Greed Takes Over

Recently, many funeral homes announced lower casket prices in an attempt to shut out retail casket stores. They took $1,000 off the price of every casket, giving the appearance of casket store prices.

BUT! At the same time, they raised the price of their service by $1,000 to make up for the loss. So, the price remains the same. You are still paying the same $15,000 for a funeral at one of these funeral homes. There is NO real savings.

The smart thing to do is to call funeral homes to compare service prices in your area—make sure to ask for the price of the service without the casket. Many funeral homes will try to force you to purchase their casket package, and offer you some sort of sham discount.

Federal law states that funeral homes may not condition the sale of a service to the sale of merchandise, such as a casket, vault or flowers. Nor can funeral homes refuse you service or charge a higher price. You have the legal right to shop for any part of the service.

The cost of a funeral doesn’t stop with the funeral home. Often, you will have many other bills as well, including medical expenses.

Planning is the key to reasonable funeral costs. You shop for major purchases like homes, cars and even TV’s. Shop for a funeral the same way and avoid the scams of the funeral industry.