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Are grieving families exploited? Sign this petition to require disclosure of funeral costs

funeral costs

Funerals are not optional activities. Everyone dies.

That’s Colin Wong’s pitch as to why everyone should sign his petition to require funeral directors to disclose their price lists on the internet.

Wong, the founder of funeral home comparison website, Gathered Here, explains that grieving families planning funerals are the most vulnerable consumers in the marketplace. Highly emotional or in shock and with limited time, they are required to find a funeral director without access to the pricing details they need to make an informed decision.

Take pensioner, Susan Roskell’s story for example. When her husband passed away she needed to find a funeral director she could afford. But coming to grips with her loss, it wasn’t something she could bring herself to do. “I was too grief stricken to do the ring around,” she said.

With over 165,000 deaths expected in Australia this year, it’s a scenario that hundreds of Australian families find themselves in every day. It’s also something that Wong has been through himself.

“When my great aunt passed away, I took on the responsibility of researching and comparing local funeral directors. It was an incredibly difficult experience. Fresh from the loss, I must have called around 10 funeral homes, and none of them would give me a straight answer regarding pricing,” he says.

“Most ran through a list of excuses why it wasn’t possible to provide an exact quote. A handful said they wouldn’t be able to provide any information unless we came in to meet with them in person.”

This is a common strategy, explains Wong. Funeral directors want to arrange to meet with families in person where they can use traditional sales tactics to pressure a deal.

“Once a family has spent 2 hours planning with a funeral director, it’s difficult to back out. Most people can’t bear the thought of going through all of it again with a new funeral director.”

On top of that, Wong says that the majority of consumers in this situation find it hard to bargain or negotiate, as they feel ashamed of being perceived as caring more about money than their loved one. It means they can also easily be pushed into paying more for services and items they don’t need.

Robin James has been there. When she lost her husband 24 years ago, she says that her funeral director kept trying to squeeze more profits out of her by saying things like, “You want him to have the best.”

It’s for these reasons that Wong’s petition has struck a chord. In under 24 hours, the online petition has already received over 70 signatures.

“When you think that in almost every other market, pricing information is instantly accessible and comparable online, it just doesn’t make sense that the funeral industry should be allowed to continue to keep grieving Australian families in the dark. Our industry regulations need to keep up with the times.”

Wong wants to achieve in excess of 10,000 signatures before they take the petition to the relevant regulatory bodies. A considerable goal, but he’s confident they’ll get there.

His final ask is for anyone reading this to spare 10 seconds to sign his petition. After all, it’s something that everyone will benefit from. One day.

About the author

Alana Lowes

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