CBS Evening News with Dan Rather: Friday Consumer Alert: Group Sues Funeral Homes, Casket Maker@ Highbeam Research

CBS Evening News with Dan Rather: Friday Consumer Alert: Group Sues Funeral Homes, Casket Maker@ HighBeam Research

Friday Consumer Alert: Group Sues Funeral Homes, Casket Maker

CBS Evening News with Dan Rather; 5/13/2005; Bob Schieffer, Trish Regan

CBS Evening News with Dan Rather

05-13-2005

BOB SCHIEFFER, CBS ANCHOR: A consumer group is suing the nation`s three biggest funeral home chains and a leading maker of caskets, accusing them of conspiring to fix casket prices. It`s a charge the companies deny.

Here is Trish Regan now with more on this controversy in our Friday "Consumer Alert." (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) TRISH REGAN, CBS CORRESPONDENT: Your mama here?

MILLIE RUIZ: Uh-huh.

REGAN: Did she mind having her picture taken?

RUIZ: She hated having her picture taken.

REGAN (voice over): When Millie Ruiz` mother died unexpectedly, she called Derek Wallace of the Wallace-Hart funeral home in Lawrence, Massachusetts.

RUIZ: My mom passed away on a Thursday, and I called him that day.

REGAN: They took her mother`s body and agreed to handle the funeral.

But when she bought a casket at a discount store, she was shocked by what the funeral director told her.

RUIZ: I said, "Are you telling me that you won`t do the funeral?" He said, "yes, that`s what I`m telling you." REGAN: Then she says he refused to release her mother`s body until she paid him $1,710.

RUIZ: One of the things that went through my mind is this man is really angry at me, and he has my mother.

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REGAN: We tried to talk to Wallace at the funeral home, and later by phone, but he has not responded to our efforts. State regulators ruled against him in this incident. The Funeral Consumer`s Alliance says, Wallace is an example of how the industry tries to take advantage of people in their moment of need.

JOSH SLOCUM, FUNERAL CONSUMER`S ALLIANCE: I think people, unfortunately, sometimes treat funeral directors as if they were clergy, ministering to the flock without price.

REGAN: Most people don`t realize that a funeral home isn`t the only place to buy a casket, often the most expensive part of a funeral. Caskets can be bought from online retailers and discount stores.

Posing as customers, we decided to do our own comparison shopping at a funeral home. Prices were significantly higher. For example, this Batesville 18- gauge, steel casket sells for $3,995 at this funeral home.

Online, an 18-gauge, steel Batesveille casket lists for $1,795. Bob Biggins of the National Funeral Directors Association says although he cannot comment on the lawsuit, funerals are not about making money on caskets.

BOB BIGGINS, NATIONAL FUNERAL DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION: Funerals are not about products or anything that a funeral director sells to a consumer.

Funerals are about service and care that`s provided at the hour of greatest need.

REGAN: But in Millie Ruiz` hour of greatest need ...

RUIZ: He used my state of mind to his advantage.

REGAN: Care was the last thing she got. Trish Regan, CBS News, Lawrence, Massachusetts.

(END VIDEOTAPE) END

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Content and programming Copyright 2005 CBS Worldwide Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Transcription Copyright 2005 Federal Document Clearing House, Inc., which takes sole responsibility for the accuracy of the transcription.

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