Jandt - Fredrickson Funeral Homes & Crematory

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response If you wish, you may update it before sending it.] Revdex.com: I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted] , and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me Regards, [redacted] ***

#ffffff;">I am writing this in response to the complaint that was filed with you by *** *** against our company on 6-18-2014. I apologize for the delay, as I have been on an extended vacation. I disagree with Ms*** regarding the concept of overcharging her on her mother’s funeral. I personally was the funeral director that met with her. We had applied for assistance funds with the state and that takes an extreme amount of time for requests to be processed. We do not send bills out to the families until we hear from the state as to what they are eligible for. Ms*** had called me asking what the status was and I told her we were on a holding pattern as to the answer from the state. I told her I would call her as soon as I heard from the state and she asked if I thought we would get all of the money, to which I answered “I’ll let you know as soon as I hear something back”. She said ok and to let her know if there was going to be a balance. As soon as I got the approval from the state on 5-29-for only $2250, I called Ms***. She asked why it wasn’t the full $and I told her they wouldn’t reimburse anything for the monument, which we knew was not a for sure thing. I told her I would call her when I received the check and tell her what the final balance would be. She did not answer her phone and I left a message on her voicemail telling her that the final balance due was $81.79. As far as her saying that I never returned her calls is simply untrue. We went through all of the charges together and she signed the contract on the day of the funeral arrangements. I have copies of all of the estimates from the very beginning. I understood we were working with a limited dollar amount and that is why we tried to cut corners wherever we could. For instance, she felt that she did not need a guest sibook which costs $30. However, on the day of the service, I put one out and was just going to give her the pages with the names on it for free but her and her sister agreed that they really liked it and “since it was only $30”, they preferred to keep it. For the procession to the cemetery, I told her we could use the funeral home van as opposed to the hearse ($vs$230), she agreed that would be great. I took $off of the cost of the funeral service charge because families normally have a visitation prior, which they chose not to have. On the day of arrangements, the only cost estimate that I did not have for her was the cost for the obituary that had yet to be placed in the paper. Otherwise, she knew every single charge on that first day which totaled $without the obituary cost. She had approximately $in life insurance. I had stated that the state funeral reimbursement program allows up to $if she was eligible, which is up to $toward the funeral expenses and up to $towards the cemetery expenses. I told her that on the cemetery side in this particular case, her eligibility was only $because that’s what our cemetery charges were going to be (I have my actual notes and examples from our discussion that day displaying how the state program works). I then told her we could try to get the other $portion (of the $1000) if she had a monument receipt, because they sometimes reimburse for those charges. Ms*** said that she had one and that would be great if I could try and recoup as much money for her that I could. That is how we could have had extra funds for her not to owe anything more. However, her mother was only eligible for $of which we received on 6-19-from the state. As you can see, the death was in April and I am just receiving the state funds in the middle of June
Actual contract amount $
Initial estimate amount $6733.00 WITHOUT obituary
Difference $
which represents the $for the register book and the $for the cost of the obituary
In this case in order to satisfy the customer, I will be happy to remove the balance of $from this account. We had a very pleasant interaction with each other throughout the entire procedure and am stunned that she feels this way. I sincerely apologize for the misunderstanding and for any undue grief I have caused Ms***. I hope this clears this matter up and I would be happy to address any further concerns that you or she may have
Respectfully Yours,
*** ** ***
Funeral Director

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. 
Regards,
 
[redacted]

Review: Funeral home over charged me for services. Also they knew that my mother was not eligable for the 2,500 dallars the county but they added it in the charges she also said I would never be billed one dollar more. My mother passed away April 15th was burried that Thursday I have not gotten any papper work and she will not return my calls, She left a message on my phone that I would be billed she wanted more money. But don't return my calls.I have the contract of what I was paying for and there was more money in mom's insurance above what we agreed on.The county of LaCrosse will only pay 250. She knew that 5 years ago I did not know.My mother had Pridential ins.Desired Settlement: Machell overcharged me after the funeral.

Business

Response:

I am writing this in response to the complaint that was filed with you by [redacted] against our company on 6-18-2014. I apologize for the delay, as I have been on an extended vacation. I disagree with Ms. [redacted] regarding the concept of overcharging her on her mother’s funeral. I personally was the funeral director that met with her. We had applied for assistance funds with the state and that takes an extreme amount of time for requests to be processed. We do not send bills out to the families until we hear from the state as to what they are eligible for. Ms. [redacted] had called me asking what the status was and I told her we were on a holding pattern as to the answer from the state. I told her I would call her as soon as I heard from the state and she asked if I thought we would get all of the money, to which I answered “I’ll let you know as soon as I hear something back”. She said ok and to let her know if there was going to be a balance. As soon as I got the approval from the state on 5-29-2014 for only $2250, I called Ms. [redacted]. She asked why it wasn’t the full $2500 and I told her they wouldn’t reimburse anything for the monument, which we knew was not a for sure thing. I told her I would call her when I received the check and tell her what the final balance would be. She did not answer her phone and I left a message on her voicemail telling her that the final balance due was $81.79. As far as her saying that I never returned her calls is simply untrue. We went through all of the charges together and she signed the contract on the day of the funeral arrangements. I have copies of all of the estimates from the very beginning. I understood we were working with a limited dollar amount and that is why we tried to cut corners wherever we could. For instance, she felt that she did not need a guest sign-in book which costs $30. However, on the day of the service, I put one out and was just going to give her the pages with the names on it for free but her and her sister agreed that they really liked it and “since it was only $30”, they preferred to keep it. For the procession to the cemetery, I told her we could use the funeral home van as opposed to the hearse ($85 vs. $230), she agreed that would be great. I took $100 off of the cost of the funeral service charge because families normally have a visitation prior, which they chose not to have. On the day of arrangements, the only cost estimate that I did not have for her was the cost for the obituary that had yet to be placed in the paper. Otherwise, she knew every single charge on that first day which totaled $6733. without the obituary cost. She had approximately $4200 in life insurance. I had stated that the state funeral reimbursement program allows up to $2500 if she was eligible, which is up to $1500 toward the funeral expenses and up to $1000 towards the cemetery expenses. I told her that on the cemetery side in this particular case, her eligibility was only $750 because that’s what our cemetery charges were going to be (I have my actual notes and examples from our discussion that day displaying how the state program works). I then told her we could try to get the other $250 portion (of the $1000) if she had a monument receipt, because they sometimes reimburse for those charges. Ms. [redacted] said that she had one and that would be great if I could try and recoup as much money for her that I could. That is how we could have had extra funds for her not to owe anything more. However, her mother was only eligible for $2250 of which we received on 6-19-2014 from the state. As you can see, the death was in April and I am just receiving the state funds in the middle of June.