Nowadays people are so used to pulling the belt that they would like to save on everything.
And sometimes they don’t care about quality.
To save on money is possible and it is everyone’s right but you have to be careful about deceptive price.
When it comes to organizing a funeral, the pained customer loses sight of some important things.
Often, the customer relies on the best bidder, it doesn’t know about all the hidden costs of the funeral and he ends up into unreliable agencies. The good news is that most companies work seriously and with high-quality standards.
In order to give to the customers the opportunity to save on money, companies need to be clear about what services are indispensable and useful and which ones are optional.
Some “not very serious” agencies rely on the particular emotional condition of family members, sometimes they start from misleading funeral advertisements like: ” funeral at € xxx”.
Normally, a “serious” funeral agencies advise their customers to be accompanied by a friend or a trusted person who is less emotionally involved in the loss or even to plan in advance their purchase.
We can’t list the criteria of a serious company but what we can inform people, be transparent with them and say the alarm bells.
The organization of a funeral and the assistance to the mourning are very delicate things. It can be traumatic to end up in the wrong hands.
Another detail to remember: death is an event protected by privacy so the transmission of information about the tragedy or communication the names of relatives by third persons, is not an incorrect behavior but it is FORBIDDEN BY LAW.
The choice of the funeral agency or company is free.
You have to pay attention to some details when you need to choose a funeral agency.
YOU CAN’T TRUST:
- If strangers contact family members to suggest which companies to choose from.
- If advice is offered by nurses, health personnel, morgue staff/mortuary rooms, carers, nursing home employees, hospital employees, city hall employees.
A FAIR OPERATOR EVEN IF REQUIRED WILL NEVER RECOMMEND ANYTHING BECAUSE IT IS A FORBIDDEN BEHAVIOUR!
- Pay attention to hidden advertisements like company wagons parked in front of the hospital and non-hidden ones like an advertising flyer in the mailbox on the morning of the death.
- Do not believe in a company that claims to be affiliated with the hospital or nursing home of the deceased.
- Don’t trust a company that contacts you immediately after death.
- Be wary of those companies where “the service costs less if it is not billed”!
- Be wary of those who do not want to issue a detailed quote.
- Don’t tell about other quotes and don’t trust who ask for it!
- Be wary of those who want to do a generic quote with no explanation (function expenses and stamp duties, taxes, municipal concessions, etc.). The customer has to know what are the extra costs that are normally anticipated by the company (for example municipal and cemetery rights, the costs for cremation, the costs for the publication of the obituary or any holy cards) and what are the costs related to the function. The customer can ask for supporting documents before paying the invoice.
- The customer has the right to request a written quote and to know what are the necessary costs and the optional ones. It can be possible to establish and clarify immediately what the maximum spending limit is.
- A yellow note with a number on it IS NOT A QUOTE! .You have to ask for a detailed quote.
- At the end of the services, the funeral company issues a tax receipt or invoice for the entire amount of the service provided.
- The costs for a funeral service are exempt from I.V.A.
- THE FUNERAL COSTS MAY BE DEDUCTED FROM THE STATEMENT OF INCOME.
ABOVE ALL, READ CAREFULLY WHAT YOU SIGN AND NEVER SIGN WHITE SHEETS!
