Almost 15 percent of complaints were sent to the wrong state agency or are beyond the purview of any agency. Sometimes the elderly are victimized by unscrupulous salesmen who have clearly violated existing consumer protection laws. Although several state agencies handle such consumer problems, consumers who have been defrauded do not necessarily get their money back. More than 14 percent of all complaints relate to services provided by funeral homes, including mishandled bodies, damaged or incorrect coffins and failure to file a death certificate in a timely manner. These complaints fall under the jurisdiction of the Funeral Service Commission.
Consumers struggle to understand the pricing scheme and work out an affordable funeral.
Thirteen percent of complaints related to monument companies, which require a substantial downpayment to fill the customized orders. When they do not place the gravestone as promised, consumers can experience frustration trying to get a refund. Unfortunately, laws protecting a consumers money when prepaying for funeral services do not apply to monument purchases. The Department of Banking maintains complaint files for only one year, so this number understates the proportion of complaints that are actually filed about cemetery services. The largest category of complaints, representing almost a third, relate to preneed arrangements.