Help Protect Consumers!

There are currently two consumer protection issues that need your help.

1. Help Protect Consumers in New York by having us send a letter to the New York state legislators on your behalf. We strongly oppose the proposed bill that would allow the sale of package pricing of funerals in New York.

2.Help Protect Consumers in New York by having us send a letter to the New York state legislators on your behalf. We strongly support the proposed bill which provides a Cemetery Customer’s Bill of Rights.

To have us send a letter on your behalf, fill in your name and address at the bottom of this page and click 'Send Letter Now'.

To see the legislative bills that are relevant to our members, click here.

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Consumer Protection Issue #1, the following letter will be sent:

NYS Senators & Assembly Members
Legislative Office Building
Albany, NY  12248

OPPOSITION: A 05021 (Towns) / S 03194 (Klein):

Dear Senators and Assembly Members:

I strongly oppose A 05021 (Towns) / S 03194 (Klein), the Funeral Package Pricing bill. This bill will remove from New York law protections against the bundling of goods and services for sale to funeral consumers. The current law was put into effect more than twenty years ago because grieving families were being forced by the funeral industry to purchase goods and services that they didn’t want or need in funeral packages. Importantly, a spokesperson for the Federal Trade Commission has said that funeral homes can forbid substitution of items in funeral packages. Today, a grieving widow can compare prices of items and services by telephoning a funeral home. How would she compare prices of packages that contain different goods and services?

Under Federal Trade Commission regulations, all funeral homes in the country must offer an "itemized list," but clever salesmen can present that list in such an unfavorable light that they make it appear so undesirable that seniors and other consumers can be shamed into selecting only from the high priced packages. Current New York law already requires that the customer receive an itemized statement. An itemized statement is nothing new.

Service Corporation of America (SCI), the corporate death care giant, runs something called Dignity University for its employees. Is this where their sales force is trained? SCI stated in their 2003 annual report: “On a burial funeral, Dignity packaged sales generate on average approximately $2,800 more than non-Dignity sales. On a cremation service, Dignity packaged sales generate approximately $1,700 more than non-Dignity sales.” Additionally, in the 2006, 10 K Filing they reported another increase in average revenue per funeral service of $283 per funeral service and other increases were noted in the intervening years. Dignity packages contain pricey gimmicks such as a 24 hour Compassion Hotline, Internet Memorial Archive, Bereavement Travel Program, Aftercare Planner, and something mysterious called Signature Memories that raise profits, but are of little if any, value to most consumers.

The bill proposes a one year study by the Consumer Protection Board (CPB) of its effectiveness. By letter dated March 17, 2009, the CPB responded to an inquiry from the Funeral Consumers Alliance of L.I./NYC, saying that it had received six complaints in three years, but it does not handle them. The CPB does not have jurisdiction over complaints about funeral homes, the Health Department does. Recognize that the study proposed in this bill is a ruse to get you to support the bill. The study is assigned to the wrong agency and is unfunded. Will this study raise my taxes? The fact that there have been but six complaints in three years indicates that the law is just fine as it now stands.

How will the bill affect small neighborhood businesses such as florists, who cater to the needs of grieving families?

If this harmful bill becomes law, as the corporate death care giants well know, it will be extremely difficult to remove it.

VOTE NO.

Yours truly,

 

 

Consumer Protection Issue #2, the following letter will be sent:

Assembly Members & Senators
Legislative Office Building
Albany, NY  12248
 
SUPPORT: 

Dear Assembly Members and Senators:
 
I strongly support passing this bill, which will amend the Not-For-Profit Corporation Law to provide for a Cemetery Customer’s Bill of Rights.  Although the Federal Trade Commission’s Funeral Rule requires that important funeral consumer rights be included in the General Price List, which is to be offered in any face-to-face meeting of funeral director and consumer at the beginning of any discussion about arranging a funeral, there is no comparable federal or state requirement for disclosure by cemeteries.

Families need greater protection in the purchase of death care goods and services than New York law currently provides because the public lacks  knowledge about funeral and cemetery issues.  Often, families are dealing with cemeteries when they are suffering emotionally and under pressure to act quickly.  Additionally, a right to interment may not be used for many years after purchase and may even pass to another generation in a family before it is used, adding to the likelihood that the family will not understand its rights.   The death care industry closely resembles the insurance and banking industries in the need for the government to take a very active role in protecting customers.

The current law merely requires “posting” of rules and regulations and attachment of a copy to a contract at the time of a sale of interment rights. Families may not understand that the cemetery can refuse interment for nonpayment of the total bill, which may amount to thousands of dollars. Many families do not even understand that they are purchasing a right to burial rather than an actual piece of land.  Similarly, they do not understand their rights when they wish to transfer or sell their right to interment.  Nor do they understand other important matters; for example, that New York law does not limit the number of urns per grave, nor does the law require embalming or sealer caskets for mausoleum interment.

It is time to make this information easily available to families when they need it the most, which is at the time of purchase of interment rights or at the time they are interring a family member.  I urge you to support this bill for a Cemetery Consumer’s Bill of Rights.

Yours truly,

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	Yes, send letter #1 to help prevent expensive package pricing schemes
	Yes, send letter #2 to prvide a Cemetery Customer’s Bill of Rights
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