Some people make the profession look bad

Maybe you didn't know this but you can walk into any funeral home in the country and ask them for their General Price List (GPL) and they are required by law to give you one to keep no questions asked. You can walk right out with it. You can call any funeral home and ask them what their prices are and they have to give them to you over the phone no questions asked.

Now....I have no reservations about the prices I charge, I think they are fair and I strive to make sure that families get their money's worth and more. When someone genuinely needs help I will deviate from that and work with them.

Where am I going with this? A local funeral director went to a website and bought for 29.00 a report of local funeral home prices in the area. He gave this report to the local newspaper who ran it as an article. I could not find it on their online edition or I would link it for you. To be fair the article did state that the report was prepared for this certain funeral director. Here are the interesting things about it:
1. My prices are wrong. I honestly would not care if the report showed me as the most expensive as long as all the prices listed are correct. Since mine are wrong, the other prices may be wrong as well.
2. He did not use all the funeral homes in the area. He left out certain firms that are closer to him than I am and some firms which are completely out of his market area which he did use. Wouldn't it be best to use all firms in the area instead of pick and choose?
3. Guess who is listed as the least expensive funeral home. Yep, the guy who bought the report for 29.00 and gave it to the paper. The guy who could pick and choose which funeral homes to run in the report.
4. (Wifey pointed this out to me) This certain funeral director and I have always gotten along. Last year he called to see if I could cover for him for a day he was busy. We had two funerals that day but I told him I would help if he needed it and I could. If he wanted to run a price comparison, why didn't he just go get the GPL's himself. I could not care less about what other homes charge. I pay people to tell me what to charge based on my expenses and what I need to provide for my family. I don't just pull random numbers from the air.

A good funeral director will explain in detail what their charges are and what you get for the price they are quoting you.

If you want to know how much a funeral will cost, don't look up crap on the internet, just call the funeral home of your choice, better yet call more than one.