How much is a £150 coffin ???

DG Phototraining

DG Phototraining

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My mum died last week after a short illness with a very aggressive form of Leukemia, so for the first time in my life I'm having to sort a funeral out

She, and we, have simple tastes, abhor fuss and waste (both environmentally & money too) so I knew a simple funeral would be fine with cremation as per her wishes

During our 30 mins meeting with the funeral directors all was sorted, and the only 'fuss' we had was to upgrade her coffin by £150 over their standard offering

So I was a little surprised at the cost being a little over £5,000, and the breakdown of costs didn't really make sense either, so I looked at their website for help a few days later as something didn't feel right

It turns out upgrading the coffin by £150 actually means you can't have the 'Simple' funeral and the cost jumps £2,040 - everything else is exactly the same as the Simple funeral would be

Of course that wasn't made clear until I asked for a fuller breakdown, which seemed distasteful tbh, but in short...

The cost of a £150 coffin upgrade was £2,040 added to the overall fee

Rip-off Britain anyone? And at a time when you're not thinking too clearly either :(

I'm both shocked and disgusted by this, and just thought to mention it here for others to both watch out and don't be afraid to query fees at what is obviously a sensitive time

Dave
 
Sorry for your loss Dave.
Yes its a bit poor that pricing.
Are you challenging it and moving to the previous option?

Paul
 
Sorry to hear this. Are there other options of people to employ. Sounds bad to me, there should be no extra charge unless there is a genuine reason but i cannot think of any
 
Wow. Sorry to hear about your mum. Condolences to you and your family.

It is a tragic time and whilst most people are understanding, some will take advantage. I had no real idea of the cost of a funeral but looks like average is £3-4k depending on cremation/burial, which is a fair whack. Suddenly those funeral plans look like a good idea!
 
Sorry to hear about your Mum.

I find it difficult to understand why upgrading the coffin should require any other changes that would add cost, but I'm also a bit surprised by the cost before the additional charges were added. It would be interesting to ask the funeral directors what extra is being provided that costs an additional £2040, but not really the time you want to have to deal with something like that.

My MiL died about two months ago and similar to yourself we went for a simple funeral as this is what she wanted.
I don't know the relative costs of burial and cremation but she wanted to be buried with her brother who died as a child in the 1930's, so a new burial plot was not needed, but the existing plot had to be opened.
We are a very small family and no cars were needed for the funeral. However, my MiL lived near us in London and her brother is buried in Doncaster so there were charges for transporting her body. We used the Coop Funeral Service because we thought as there are branches all over it would make arrangements easier and altogether the funeral was about £3,400.

Dave
 
Sorry for your loss Dave, the Funeral place should be disgusted with themselves for blatant over pricing after a modest upgrade.
Out of interest what was the difference between the 2 coffins to warrant a £150 upgrade.
I too will require the cheapest possible funeral as i think it's a rip-off so would be interested to know what this "upgrade" consisted of if you dont mind saying.

Matt
 
I'm sorry to hear about your Mum.

Just wow on the costs though
 
My condolences Dave, a tough time I know.

It’s absurd that by choosing a different coffin costing an extra £150 inflates the overall price to 2,040, I hope you feel able to challenge this. I can’t imagine why it should cost anymore.
 
boyfalldown said:
I'm sorry to hear about your Mum.

Just wow on the costs though
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You haven't watched day time TV lately have you "It's nice to know my relatives won't be caught short when I'm gone...", thats the same strap line for funeral cost insurance and incontinence pants... :D
 
Cheers all, it wasn't a plug for sympathy but its appreciated :)

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To answer a few points/queries at once - when I challenged them today I did present them with their own list of services for the £1995 fee and pointed out that the ONLY difference to ours at £4,040 was that we'd upgraded our coffin to what they told me was a £150 upgrade

They made no defense attempt whatsoever for the fact that a nicer veneer costing £150 was going to add a further £1,895 of pure profit. We thought we were getting the usual service (but without knowing at the time what that cost was) plus £150 for the upgraded coffin, there was no mention of it adding over £2,000. Its this 'sneaky' way of making us think we'd just bumped the price up a bit that I find so disgusting

The 3rd party costs - crematorium, 2nd doctor to agree on reason for death, celebrant to say nice words added the extra £1,000 and a bit; these remain the same whatever and don't seem like a P-take to me either

Dave
 
Sorry for the loss of your Mum.

Having been through this recently (and yes it’s one of those ‘how does this work: haven’t had to so this before / recently’ things).

I can’t comment on the funeral package but a couple of alarm bells were ringing from your post.

A coffin upgrade should be just that - not a package upgrade. There are limited styles that are suitable for cremation as the handles, fixtures etc need to be compatible with cremation but you don’t have to just stick to the selection. As long as they are cremation suitable then you should be able to mix and match styles of handles etc from other ones in the cremation ‘range’.

The costing should be itemised for things such as coffin, collecting your mother from hospital mortuary & preparing her, hearse, crematorium booking, service, ministers fees etc.

A funeral can easily top 4-5 grand depending on what you want. I know you said your tastes were simple.

We declined the funeral directors floral package and arranged that directly with another florist for a better spread at lower cost.

I’d say that as you had to ask for itemised costing and the package restriction then also consider a different funeral director (if available in your area). You just don’t need that sort of hassle at a time like this.

John.
 
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Unless the standard coffin is extremely distasteful, I'd go back to that rather than the "£150" upgrade. To be brutally frank, I'm pretty certain you Mum won't care one way or the other and would far rather see any extra go towards a suitable charity rather than the fun(d)eral (re)directors.

After Mum died and we (Dad and I) were sorting the funeral (cremation) out, we went through the same options and plumped for the cheapest. Dad was most insistent that the same was for him - as he put it "It's only f#####g firewood!"
 
Sorry for your loss Dave. I had a very similar experience when my mother died, the representative from the funeral company was mercenary to what I thought a quite shocking degree. Pushing me to spend more and more, buy the flowers from us, use our transport let us do this and everything added to the cost. It felt very grubby at the time, I have no problem with somebody making a profit but they were ott, playing on the feelings of someone who is very vulnerable and wants to do right by their relative. Sitting in the church on the day I noticed the coffin that I had spent £1000 on was damaged on one bottom corner and I could see it was just chipboard covered in a paper veneer.
 
Its disheartening to hear that the rip-off approach seems to be pretty common :(

I too fully accept a healthy business needs a healthy profit, but I (and my other family members) still cannot comprehend how a £150 coffin can add £2,040 to the bill, and its that blatant rip-off that's really p***ing us off

Dave
 
Dave,

So sorry to hear about your loss.

I'm afraid I have no direct personal experience but it does sound like a rip-off.

Take care,
Ken
 
Firstly sorry for your loss.

That’s pretty disgusting if the extra cost of the coffin does add all that extra surcharge. Can you just go back to the original package? Also I would check if they’re a member of a trade organisation and notify them, it sounds like sharp practice to me and I’m sure a trade organisation would be interested to hear about it.
 
Been down the funeral rip off road with two people who were very close. Religious mumbo jumbo, mourners and formal funerals etc. mean nothing to me and only prolong misery. Life was over and I just wanted a minimum possible cost for body disposal. That too was a swingeing rip off designed to extract money from people who are in a very vulnerable state and who have no access to a facility that is simply a basic non profit hygenic service.
 
Sadly I lost my mum 5 weeks ago and had the very same problem, we ended up paying just under £3k for a cremation and as there are only a few of us left and she stated she didn't want any others at the funeral we went for the basic send off, still a rip off if you ask me, all we had was the hearse as we all used our own cars.

Its not nice when you lose someone special so take care and take things easy, you have my condolences at this sad time.
 
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Dave, sorry for your loss.

This does sound like fodder for Trading standards as the laws on hidden charges get tightened up ( or possibly watchdog if you fancy a media circus...).
 
DG Phototraining said:
Yep - I did go back to the standard package - the plain & simple coffin saved me £2,045 so it'd be insane not to

I may consider taking it further but not until after the funeral

Dave
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First, sorry for your loss Dave ...

Second, personally, you've done the right thing as I agree with @Nod - and I think you should leave til after the funeral, if you are going to discuss / take it a bit further - I think (could be wrong) it's more the £150 upgrade that adds £2K to the price thats hidden - if it was open and upfront, you may / may not have gone for it, but you would know why / where the difference was going...

And I do think, more so at this period of time - grieving having just lost someone - it's pretty shallow to do this...
 
andyred said:
First, sorry for your loss Dave ...

Second, personally, you've done the right thing as I agree with @Nod - and I think you should leave til after the funeral, if you are going to discuss / take it a bit further - I think (could be wrong) it's more the £150 upgrade that adds £2K to the price thats hidden - if it was open and upfront, you may / may not have gone for it, but you would know why / where the difference was going...

And I do think, more so at this period of time - grieving having just lost someone - it's pretty shallow to do this...
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Thanks bud

My family & I are obviously a bit sensitive just now, but we can't stop thinking about how a simple £150 upgrade was about to cost us over £2,000 more and that the well know, well respected local firm were clearly happy to take the p*** and charge us nearly £2000 extra for NOTHING

We feel so let down by this company, and at such a sensitive time too - its that that is so annoying rather than the cost itself

£1995 plus the £150 upgrade would have been fine, still is fine, but telling us the coffin is £150 extra then adding another £1895 for NOTHING AT ALL is just sickening

Its a disgusting industry if they all treat grieving families like this :(

Dave
 
That's appalling Dave!

I'm really sorry that you've had to cope with that at what's already a difficult and stressful time.
Do what you need to do to get through the funeral and the stress of the next few weeks, but if you want to take the complaint further once things settle down, I think you'd be well within your rights to do so.

My sincere condolences to you and your family.
 
Dave firstly my condolences,

I've had the misfortunate task of arranging my Big Brothers and my Mums funerals over the last 6 years. It's a dreadful task at best but whoever you have been to are purely loathsome in every way.

If it's not too late then I would sincerely suggest you get yourself to your nearest Co-operative funeral directors. They have what is called a simple service, just the bare necessities which is what my Mum wanted for my Brother and herself. They have a basic list of costs and if they are like the two I've dealt with very honourable in what they do.They will not haggle or ask you to add anything.

My Mums funeral with a Hearse and crew, simple ceremony with a few hymns and a eulogy, A signature from a priest, and cremation came to about £2,200 just 32 1/2 years ago.

Don't be ashamed to ask for prices and deals they know that some people like my Mum and myself would be happy to do away with the whole thing.

Again condolences from me.
 
I'd have gone with the Co-op if I could (and tried) but they don't have any representatives up my way. I'd recommend them, they have a set price and everything is laid out clearly for you to see before you decide so you know exactly what you are spending and on what.
 
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