Greenwell Funeral Home

The first thing to be done when a cemetery or funeral home has not lived up to your expectations is to contact the offending firm. This may seem obvious, but often we hesitate to express our displeasure directly.

Most disagreements with cemeteries and funeral homes result from misunderstandings about what was to be done and how it was to be done. Cemetery managers and funeral directors make assumptions based on their experience and sometimes do not check to make sure that those assumptions are shared by the customer.

This also happens in reverse: the customer "knows" how something should be done based on their experience in another part of the country or with another firm and it turns out that the firm they are dealing with does it another way. Because of the strong emotions surrounding a death, otherwise small differences between expectations and performance can seem to be major problems.

Talk over the problem with the firm involved. If this does not resolve the issue to your satisfaction a second level of conflict resolution is the relevant trade association, which may be able to arbitrate a solution.

In Illinois you may contact:

Funeral home issues:
Illinois Funeral Directors Association
(800) 240-4332
info@ifda.org

Cemetery issues:
Illinois Cemetery and Funeral Home Association
(866) 758-7731
icfha@hotmail.com

National:

Consumer issues:
The Cemetery Consumer Service Council
(703) 391-8407 or (800) 645-7700