Possible scam for elderly funeral services

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

I was recently asked to review a package for funeral services with the Neptune Society. This company sells packages to elderly people with the pitch that the company will handle all (every single little detail) of the funeral arrangements and cremation and ash disbursement over water.

The deal looks OK and the price is good.

Except for one rather large problem.
The people who would object to any mishandling and non performance under the agreement are not parties to the written agreement. They are the survivors. This is to say they have no enforceable contract rights. So the Neptune Society can take the money and when the person with whom they had an agreement passes they can quite literally dust their hands of the whole matter.

This society owns and operates funeral service providing companies in several states. They have the capacity to dispose of bodies VIA cremation and it appears that they are doing that part of the deal but, it also appears that they are not doing much more.

If you have an elder who is looking into a pre-paid package for funeral arraingments Make sure they speak to an attorney first.
As the Survivor the best and most certain way you have of obtaining enforcable contract rights is to be a party to the deal and paying for part or all of it VIA check which payment is stipulated to flow from you to the company as "Consideration" for performance of their obligations. You don't just want to write the check, you want to be a party to whom performance under the contract it owed.

It's a great business model.

[David G Baker]

I don't know about the Neptune Society packages but when I was working as part of a TV news crew in San Francisco we did a story about the Neptune Society getting nailed for telling folks that they would fly over the Sierra Nevada Mountains and disperse the cremated family member's ashes. The ashes were dumped but not in the manner which was implied by the Neptune Society sales person. The ashes were dumped in a pile and commingled with many other peoples ash remains. If I remember correctly the person that dispersed the ashes drove to the site. I do not know if Neptune did this or someone that was contracted to disperse the ashes was at fault.
Another dispersal service person had a storage unit filled to the brim with boxes containing the ashes of loved ones. There were hundreds of boxes in that unit. Don't remember if this guy was associated with Neptune. The guy was paid to disperse the ashes but never did.
My parents had a pre-paid funeral package through a local cemetery in California. The funeral home had changed hands a few times in the years prior to my parents passing. Me and a couple other family members visited the funeral home prior to the burial of my Father. The operators of the funeral home were in shock when they found out that they were not going to get a penny for the burial. My parents had paid for everything back in the 1960s and the new owners had to honor the contract. We had to pay for the funeral notice in the paper and for the 12 death certificates. The opening fee was already paid along with everything else funeral homes try to sneak in to make an extra buck.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

TV news crew in San Francisco we did a story about the Neptune Society getting nailed for telling folks that they would fly over the Sierra Nevada Mountains and disperse the cremated family member's ashes. [...] The ashes were dumped in a pile and commingled with many other peoples ash remains. [...]

Another dispersal service person had a storage unit filled to the brim with boxes containing the ashes of loved ones. There were hundreds of boxes in that unit. Don't remember if this guy was associated with Neptune. The guy was paid to disperse the ashes but never did.

Why am I not surprised.

[Jamie Delker]

As a former funeral director and growing up around the business, I can say that there are as many unethical people in the business as you'll find anywhere else... especially the corporations that own groups of funeral homes. The bigger the business, the less personal care you get.

It's best to find a local 'mom and pop' funeral home to establish a relationship with. Yeah, you might pay a little more, but chances are you'll get treated with a higher level of respect and less runaround and empty promises. They have more incentive to do an honest job than the funeral factories do.

[Brent Leonard]

The operators of the funeral home were in shock when they found out that they were not going to get a penny for the burial. My parents had paid for everything back in the 1960s and the new owners had to honor the contract. We had to pay for the funeral notice in the paper and for the 12 death certificates. The opening fee was already paid along with everything else funeral homes try to sneak in to make an extra buck.

I like that story.....
all execpt dad passing away part of course.

That would have been a VERY hard pill to swallow for the owner of the funeral home.