Edward Sagel Funeral Direction

Review: We contacted this company to arrange for the burial of my father. While they are located in Maryland, the funeral was to take place near Boston.

We met with a sales person who said they were very familiar with what we wanted to do, and would work with a local funeral home on the specifics for Boston.

They gave us an estimate for all the charge.

When my father passed away, we met with Edward Sagel and signed a contact. They asked for payment in full - $9500 - and we paid it. We signed a contract stating that all expenses were paid in ful. Where exact charges were not known (the cost of the obit in the paper) - an estimate was included.

The day before we were to leave to drive to Boston, they called and told us we would have to pay another $1700. They told us that if we didn't pay, there would be no funeral. Obviously we had no choice and paid the extra money.

We later learned that they decided not to use a local firm, decided not to fly my father's body to Boston, decided to drive him up there instead, and in the process they would save a lot of money. They gave us no refund - instead - due to their lack of experience - made a serious error - and wanted us to pay for it.

They offered no apology or explanation - just held us hostage until we paid. We were literally driving up to the funeral - when them demanded a credit card or we could expect no funeral.

They used the most base and unacceptable strong arm tactics to extract another 20% fee from us.

Needless to say, I will dispute the charge on the credit cards. And am filing complaints about their tactics.

They were recommended to us and we are alerting the organizations about our experience and recommending that they no longer do business with this company.

[redacted]Desired Settlement: I expect a written apology - a full reconciliation of all the charges - and a refund for the error they made in calculating the costs.

If we knew in advance the extra charges when we signed the contract, we never would have used them. They got us to sign the contract by promising excellent service at a reasonable price. They increased the price after it was too late to pick another funeral home. That is unethical and probably illegal.

If they refuse the refund, we will pursue legal action against them.

Business

Response:

August 21, 2013

VIA CERTIFIED MAIL & FACSIMILE (###-###-####)

**. [redacted]

Revdex.com of Metro Washington DC & Eastern Pennsylvania

1411 K Street, NW, 10th Floor Washington, DC 20005-3404

RE: ID [redacted]) - **. [redacted]

Dear **. [redacted]:

I am the General Manager of Edward Sagel Funeral Direction, Inc. and [redacted] Memorial Chapels, Inc., and we thank you for bringing the above-referenced complaint to our attention. Prior to receiving your correspondence, we have been in contact with **. [redacted], and we reviewed his concerns. We have since resolved **. [redacted]’s concerns to his satisfaction.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach me at ###-###-####.

Sincerely,