When you purchase a headstone from an outside vendor, someone that is not affiliated with the cemetery. Always ask your cemetery what the setting fees are for placing the monument or flat grave marker on the grave. It is illegal for cemeteries to charge the consumer a different price for setting the marker because they did not purchase the stone from them. The FTC (Federal Trade Commission wrote the Funeral Rule) to help consumers during time of need. The FTC does very little to police this because families do not file complaints. They look at it as if there is no problem since there are no complaints. Cemeteries continue to abuse this rule. This is a deceiving practice.
I recently helped a family with their headstone, they were quote a setting price during the initial counseling meeting but later the cemetery raised the price because and I quote “the marker was not purchased here at the cemetery”. Always get the setting fee in writing. There is a general price list that the cemeteries must by law give to you when you begin talking about goods and services.
Do not get blind sighted by this unethical tactic. The price to set a marker should be on the price list irregardless of where you purchased the goods from. It doesn’t make the installation any more difficult because you purchased the goods from an outside source. It’s all about the loss of revenue and the cemetery feels they need to make it up thru the consumer by discriminating fees.
These tactics leave a long lasting bad taste for the funeral industry especially during your time of grieving.
