Policies
The standing commitments
What happens every time, whoever is on duty and whatever has been arranged. Several of these are not ours to give or withhold.
A policy page is usually a page of promises, and a promise is worth what the person making it decides it is worth on the day. These are written down for a duller reason: so that a family can hold somebody to them, and so that everybody working here knows what the answer is before they are asked in a difficult moment.
Read the list twice, because the second reading is the useful one. Several of the items on it are not favours at all. They are things every funeral provider in the United States already owes you, and they are on this page because a great many families are never told they are entitled to them and thank the funeral home for the courtesy.
What you are entitled to. You are entitled to price information over the telephone, to a printed price list to keep before any discussion of arrangements, to buy only the items you want, and to an itemised statement before you pay. Every funeral provider in the United States owes you those.
The distinction matters when something goes wrong. A favour withdrawn is bad manners. An entitlement withheld is a different kind of thing entirely, and knowing which one you are looking at is the difference between being annoyed and being able to say so. The page about the price list you are owed sets out that half of it in full.
The list
eight of them. None is conditional on what has been bought.
Everything in writing, before anything is agreed
The itemised statement is given to you and gone through in front of you before you sign, and you keep a copy.
Nothing is done to a person without authority
Embalming, cosmetic preparation, anything at all beyond keeping somebody safely: we ask, in writing, and a family that declines is not asked again.
Cash advances are passed on at what they cost
Flowers, notices, clergy, musicians, certified copies, the cemetery and the crematory. We add nothing.
You may decline any item but one
Every item on the list is optional except the basic services of the funeral director and staff, and we will tell you which one that is and why.
A casket bought elsewhere is used without penalty
No handling fee, no refusal, no discussion.
A price given over the telephone is a real price
Ask without giving a name, if you would rather.
Nobody is hurried
If you feel hurried in the arrangement meeting, say so. If it happens again, go somewhere else.
Care of the person, always
Refrigeration from the hour of arrival, and one of us present at every transfer.
If any of this is not what happens
Say so at the time, and to the person in front of you. It is much easier to fix in the room than afterwards.
The one worth acting on immediately is the feeling of being hurried, because it is the one that costs the most and the one people notice only later. An arrangement meeting that moves faster than you do is not a busy day; it is a decision somebody has made about you. Say that you want to stop, or that you want to take the list home, or that you want to come back tomorrow. Any funeral home worth using will simply agree.
If it happens twice, go somewhere else. Nothing has been signed, nothing is owed for a conversation, and a person in your care can be moved to another funeral home.
- The price list you are owed — what has to be handed to you, and when.
- The one fee you cannot decline — and every other item you can.
- What it costs, and why — the categories and what actually moves them.
- Terms — what this website is, and what it is not.
If you want the list before you decide anything
You are entitled to it in print, to keep, before any conversation about arrangements. Ask for it on the telephone and you should not have to give a name.