What Consumers Cannot Be Required to Purchase

You cannot require consumers to buy unwanted or unneeded goods and services to get the items that they do want. Consumers must be able to choose only the goods and services that they want, with certain limited exceptions noted below.

Accordingly, you cannot condition the furnishing of any funeral good or service to a consumer on the purchase of any other funeral good or service except for your basic services fee and any items required by law.(You also cannot refuse to serve a family because they do not purchase one particular item (e.g., a casket or embalming) or a combination of items or services from you.

In addition, you cannot include the charge for an optional item of service (such as embalming) in a non-declinable basic services fee. This would have the effect of making the optional item a required purchase for every customer.

The Rule expressly prohibits you from charging any fee, as a condition of furnishing any funeral goods or services, other than the fees for:

• The basic services of funeral director and staff (the one non-declinable fee allowed by the Rule);
• The funeral goods and services selected by the consumer; and
• The funeral goods and services required to be purchased by law (or by the cemetery or crematory), as identified and explained on the itemized Statement (see Statement of Funeral Goods and Services Selected: Information and Disclosures under Cost Information).

This means that you cannot charge an additional fee or surcharge to consumers who purchase a casket elsewhere. Such a fee would not fall within the three categories of allowable charges listed above. This extra "casket handling" fee is simply a hidden penalty for those consumers who exercise the right to purchase a casket from another seller.

Moreover, you cannot alter your prices based upon the particular selections of each customer. Such a practice also would defeat the purpose of the Rule to give people accurate, itemized price information that affords them the opportunity to select the arrangements they want.

Exceptions: The three exceptions to the consumer’s general right to choose only the goods and services wanted are:

• The one non-declinable basic services fee;
• Items required by law (or by the cemetery or crematory); and
• Impossible, impractical or excessively burdensome requests. You do not have to comply with such requests. However, you cannot refuse a request simply because you don’t like it or don’t approve of it.

Example: During July, a family requests that a funeral occur five days after death, but does not want embalming. You don’t have refrigeration facilities. Your state law does not require embalming under any circumstances. However, in this situation, you can refuse to provide these arrangements, unless the family buys embalming. You can consider such a request impractical or excessively burdensome.

Note: If a customer requests an item that you do not normally offer, you do not have to comply with the request. However, you are free to do so.

"Free" Items: You cannot list any of the 16 items required to be separately itemized on the GPL as "free" or "no charge." Because you recover the cost of the free item in your other prices on the GPL, the customer may not have the choice of rejecting the charge. However, you can offer items not required to be separately itemized on the General Price List (such as acknowledgment cards) at "no charge," as long as your state or local laws do not prohibit this practice.