Ridgewood Memorial Park

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/08/05) */
Contact Name and Title: Howard ***
Contact Phone: ***
Contact Email: ***@dignitymemorial.com
We have confirmation from the manufacturer that the memorial will be placed before the end of SeptemberWe will contact
the next of kin in the event we experience any delays

My mother and I had an appointment with MsMarcia ***, Ridgewood Memorial Park, on April regarding another issue, and ended up being sold a Guaranteed Insurance Funded Prearranged (Pre-Need) Funeral Agreement on behalf of Oehler Funeral Home Marcia gave us a basic description of what a Prearranged Funeral Contract would include During this discussion, Marcia never gave us any documentation, and never discussed all the available individual services and merchandise (other than the Urn) or the available packages that bundle different services and merchandise at a discount, so that my mother could choose what she wanted Marcia then sat at her computer and created the new Guaranteed Insurance Funded Prearranged Funeral Agreement Contract Two & ½ hours after our meeting started, Marcia completed the contract on-line, made two copies of the new Prearranged Funeral Contract (one for my mother and one for me), gave them to us without reviewing it, and then she had to go My first chance to actually review the details of this contract was several days later during which I realized that the contract did not provide the services details that Marcia verbally told my mother and I would be included, and a piece of merchandise was missing that Marcia led us to believe would be included I then went to the Dignity Memorial website, found the Cremation Packages webpage at http://www.dignitymemorial.com/en-us/plan-now/cremation.page where I discovered that Marcia had chosen one of the packages herself without asking my mother which one she wanted, and had included or excluded services and merchandise without full disclosure to us So, I emailed Marcia with a list of questions After several months of back and forth emails, she never fully answered them I then talked to her supervisor Frank A***, Sales Manager, and forwarded him my unanswered questions After another month, he finally answered my questions but not to my satisfaction, and apparently based on information that Marcia must have claimed occurred during our meetingWhile waiting for answers, I did some research and found out that Marcia *** violated the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Funeral Rule (reference website at https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0300-ftc-funeral-rule and https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/complying-funeral-rule) by:
(1) NOT providing my mother with the required “General Price List (GPLs)” at the beginning of our discussion of the Prearranged Funeral Agreement for her to review and keep(2) NOT providing my mother with the “Statement of Funeral Goods and Services Selected” for her review before electronically signing the contractAfter over three months of unresolved questions and over emails sent and received with Ms***, Mr Aldama, and even Mr Howard Patterson, General Manager, I contacted Oehler Funeral Home directly for assistance I dealt with MrJim Murray, the Funeral Director, who was immediately responsive and helpful He answered all of my pending questions to Ridgewood Memorial Park, provided me the GPLs my mother should have received from Ridgewood Memorial Park, and accepted and approved an Addendum to my mother’s Prearranged Funeral Contract to fix some of the issues caused by MsWood’s lack of full disclosure On a scale of to 10, with being the highest rating of excellence, my experience with Oehler Funeral Home was a 10+, but my experience with Ridgewood Memorial Park was a -Thus, for Pre-Need Funeral Agreements, I highly recommend you go directly to Oehler Funeral Home even though you may already have, or intend to purchase, a plot at Ridgewood Memorial Park