My Granny passed away early this morning & my Dads in Mexico so Im acting as next of kin.
At 8am I rang the Co-op funeral service & got through to a fecking call centre
I couldnt believe it,they have a call centre taking out of hours calls who pass a message to the funeral dirctor to ring you back.
When the funeral director came & made the arrangements he told me we have to pay £1000 up front for disbursements

So much for the caring personal service.

Funeral Directors have a licence to print money. They can charge what they like, and in the situation you're in they know most people will just agree, and pay up. But I'm sure you're well aware of this Groovy.

Sorry to hear about your Granny, Tony.

Cheers Ken
I knew it was coming,the hospital told us 10 days ago that we were losing her.Although Im sad to see her go its a relief that theres no more suffering & 95 is good innings.
Im disappointed in the funeral services because I worked for the co-op for 10 years & in my time we would never take a message & ring back,I (or my colleagues) would divert the phones to my own house & get out of bed any time day or night to go see people.
The funeral director himself was fine,its the orgainsation that Im pissed off with.Bereavement needs to be dealt with by real people on a personal level.

sorry to hear that, hope you and your family are ok.

ben

Sorry for your loss, Groovy.

good point well made GC

bad news mate

Cheers folks

There was a time when any fees came from the estate after the funeral had been completed, in fact Im sure thats still the case. For them to ask for money up front shows an uncaring attitude.

Sorry to hear of your lose Tone.

I would imagine its probably due to the fact they've been had over a few times. Especially in Hartlepool

Sorry to hear of you loss, Groovy.

Aye, Mr Crimes and from me as well. Not a job you'd do if you didn't have to. Head up mate.

on a lighter note if i can - boy did i love tony's 'tales of the embalmer' back in the day!!

Thanks for the good wishes everyone its much appreciated

In our case this wasnt a problem as my Granny left a cash card & a bank account with enough funds,it just means visiting the cash machine every day for four days but there will be quite a few families around who cant lay their hands on £1000 until the estate is settled.

Phil,yep I knew both Bob and Tim,didnt have much to do with Bob but I worked a lot with Tim,he was a good guy who wasnt fully appreciated by the Co-op

Col,I'll get a 'tales of the embalmer' thread done during the week