Crist Mortuary Apologizes for Dropping Casket

Responding to a lawsuit’s allegations that Crist Mortuary employees dropped the casket of a 20-year-old Boulder High School graduate on the day of his funeral, letting his body roll onto the pavement, the mortuary’s general manager apologized.

“We made a mistake,” said Michael Greenwood, who is named as a defendant in the lawsuit along with the Boulder mortuary. “I do apologize for that and have apologized to the parents.”

Greenwood declined to comment further because of the pending litigation, but added “this is the first time it’s ever happened to me.”

Phillip Maldonado, the father of Alex Maldonado, who was killed in a motorcycle accident July 4, filed the lawsuit in Boulder County District Court on Friday. He said he was with the employees as they brought his son’s casket back to the mortuary from the funeral, and has had nightmares about seeing his body fall to the ground.

Source: http://www.connectingdirectors.com

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Has Batesville Been Lying About Casket Protection?

The economic state of our country is forcing many companies to diversify themselves into new products as well as new industries, and funeral industry companies have not been excluded from this diversification.

Lets look at Batesville Casket company. In the last 12 months they have purchase a burial vault company, a funeral home website company, and a non-funeral industry company.

Batesville’s primary product and their name to fame has been their high quality caskets, but it seems now that burial vaults have been added to their product line their story on casket protection is changing.

Here is what I mean, for all the years that Batesville has been consulting with and providing services and sales techniques to funeral homes they have been enforcing to funeral directors that protection provided by a high end gasketed casket is all that the consumer needs, protection provided by a burial vault is secondary.

Read Full Article Here: http://www.connectingdirectors.com/articles/1272-has-batesville-been-lying-about-casket-protection

Exclusive: First Look at Batesville’s Burial Vault Graveside Set Up

Last December we reported that Batesville Casket Company (parent company Hillenbrand) bought the Goria Burial Vault company. We also reported in July that Batesville ran job ads on CareerBuilder.com and in local Cincinnati, Ohio and Louisville, Kentucky newspapers looking for Diver/Burial Vault Sales Representative, confirming speculation that Batesville was planning to service their own burial vaults and further solidifying that Batesville was taking burial vaults very seriously.

Yesterday I received an email from an Ohio funeral director who went to one of the Batesville distribution plants in Ohio to pick up a casket. While at the distribution plant he was given a sneak peek at the graveside set up Batesville is testing in Ohio, Indiana, and parts of Kentucky.

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There isn’t anything really special about the set up. A few things that I noticed are:

They are only using a 15’x15′ tent. Other vault companies in the testing area use 15’x20′ tents

There are only 4 chairs. Most graveside set ups in Ohio use at least 6 chairs

There is a speaker stand, so they must be including a mic system for the preacher or funeral director to use.

I do like how the lid is displayed

The funeral director also told me that the tent displayed the funeral home name as well.

It looks like Batesville made some changes to the look of the vault. The original Eonian made by Goria did not have such a raised lid.

It also looks like the vault is going to seal with screws much like the Batesville plastic urn vaults. You can notice on the end of the vault lid there is an inset where a screw could be placed. This was also confirmed by the funeral director who sent the picture. He did not think that the lid had a butyl tape seal also, but this could not be confirmed.

He was told that the price of the unit would be $750 plus $150 for the graveside set up.

If more information becomes available I will make sure to share.

What are your thoughts?

Big 3 Casket Companies Being Sued, Creating a Monopoly?

This week a federal judge in Houston, Texas will determine whether the three biggest casket companies (Batesville, Aurora, and Matthews) are shirking FTC rules and creating a monopoly in the deathcare market according to recent audio from marketplace.publicradio.org.

Bill Radke: Until the 1980s, a funeral home was the only place you could buy a casket. The Federal Trade Commission has since tried to allow more competition, but consumer advocates say the agency hasn’t done enough. They’ve sued the three biggest casket companies. Reporter April Dembosky says the case goes before a federal judge in Houston this week.

April Dembosky: To get around current FTC rules, the top three casket companies in the country wrote new internal distribution policies. They said they would sell caskets to anyone, but they would only deliver them to funeral homes. Consumer attorney Gordon Schnell says that allowed these companies to dominate 70 percent of the casket market.

Gordon Schnell: The defendants along with other funeral homes have entered into a conspiracy to restrict competition from discount casket sellers so they can keep their casket pricing artificially high.

Attorneys for the casket companies refused to comment on the record. But Mark Allen from the Casket and Funeral Supply Association of America insists theres plenty of competition in his industry.

Mark Allen: I’m contacted every week by a new upstart company thats trying to get some advice for getting started in this industry.

And thats getting harder these days as more people choose cremation. No burial, no need for a fancy casket.

I’m April Dembosky for Marketplace.

End of Transcript

Source: marketplace.publicradio.org

This type of lawsuit could have huge implications for other funeral industry companies as well. What about burial vault companies who only sell to funeral homes (or licensees who only sell to funeral homes)?

Could this bring about the change where minimal merchandise is purchased at the funeral home and the casket and vault are brought in by the family?

Could Walmart be the next big burial vault distributor?

I guess the only thing that has been protecting the big vault companies is the fact that their products are concrete and weight 1500+ pounds.

What kind of effect could this have on the funeral industry and funeral directors?

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Death Comes to The Shopping Mall, Hurts Funeral Homes

Casket stores have been popping up all over the country for the past few years. Out of all of the caskets stores I have been showed pictures or videos of, none were as impressive as this one.

The following video was posted on the CDsocial Network by member Nathan Smith. Nathan recently traveled home to Wichita, Kansas and recorded the following video from the local shopping mall.

Please watch the video below and let us know your thoughts in the comments.

My opinion and thoughts are posted after the video.

I can’t think of a better place to put a casket store. Can you just think about the amount of traffic they are getting? I mean, the owner of the store has direct contact and influence on people who maybe thinking about their own death for the very first time. The visitors guidance on getting a casket it directly influenced by the owner of the casket store. This could be powerful for the store and bad for the funeral home.

Here is what I think: Why hasn’t a funeral home done this? Shouldn’t the local funeral home be the one who is trying to help people think about and plan for their own death? Obviously this type of store does not seem to taboo for people or the store would not be able to stay open.

Here is a comment made by the owner of the store on CDsocial.com:

People come to us asking questions about the industry in general…wanting to know who they can trust, do they have to do everything that the FD has told them. We tell them our own experiences and where they can find the answers for themselves. Our existence doesn’t have to bad for anyone, but you wouldn’t know that to hear it from the FDs. We have sent families to the funeral homes that we know excel in customer service and that listen to the families. This could actually be good for everyone concerned if we all worked toward taking care of people and what they want, not what we want them to have. There really is enough to go around!

So, think of how powerful it would be for a funeral home to lease a space in a local mall and display caskets, urns, and other merchandise available during the funeral arrangements. You wouldn’t sell the caskets for at need but use the casket display as a way to open the door and talk with people about their own death plans. This type of store could be a massive preneed driver!! Your preeneed person could have more interaction with people in one week from a store like this, then in 2 months of cold calls.

Think about it and share your thoughts below.

Video Source: CDsocial.com. Cdsocial is the first funeral industry social network for funeral professionals.

Batesville Casket Raises Patent Infringement Claims

The biggest casket manufacturer in the country is hoping an investigation will close the lid on what it alleges is patent infringement by a Mexican importer.

The United States International Trade Commission in Washington is investigating whether a company called Ataudes Aguilares of Guadalajara, Mexico, violated trade laws by importing knockoffs of casket designs patented in the U.S. by Batesville Casket Co., an arm of Indiana-based Hillenbrand Inc.

Batesville Caskets filed a complaint with the commission after the company discovered that a funeral home in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico was selling 14 caskets from Ataudes Aguilares.

Shari Morey, communications manager for Hillenbrand, said the company’s representatives regularly inspect funeral homes to ensure that competitors are not copying their designs.

By company estimates, the patented caskets will rake in at least $130 million in sales to funeral homes this year. Batesville has obtained agreements from the funeral homes that purchase its caskets to stop selling the imports, Morey said.

One of the patented designs cited in the complaint is a compartment built into the lower lid. Known as a MemorySafe Drawer, the compartment allows personal effects to be stored inside of the casket itself.

In other caskets, a separate box containing memorabilia is placed somewhere alongside the deceased.

The company also alleges that the imported caskets featured another patented design that the company calls Lifesymbols Corners — ornaments, such as an eagle or angel or rose, which are attached to the corners of the casket exterior and can be removed before burial for keepsakes or for placement upon a plaque.

“No other caskets in the United States have those,” Morey said. “These were proprietary features.”

Products patented in the U.S. are protected from infringements by foreign importers under the 1930 Tariff Act. Batesville also has patents for the designs approved or pending in Mexico and Canada, according to the complaint.

The commission opened the investigation into the possible violation July 2, and will set a target date for completing the investigation within the next month. Commission spokeswoman Peg O’Laughlin said the decision to look into the matter is not indicative of the commission taking any position on the case.

The results of the investigation will be heard before an administrative law judge. A judgment in favor of Batesville would halt import of the copycat caskets at the border. However, the judgment could then be reviewed, modified or overturned by the commission and the U.S. trade representative.

Representatives for Ataudes Aguilares could not be reached for comment, and the Mexican Embassy did not respond to requests for comment.

Source: Connectingdirectors.com

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Batesville Getting Serious About Burial Vaults

It was announced a few months ago that Batesville purchased the intellectual properties of the burial vault portion of the Goria Corporation. It is obvious that Batesville is looking to other outlets to recoup some of the profit they are losing from dwindling casket sales.

Not much has been said or heard from Batesville regarding their involvement with producing and or supplying burial vaults since their purchase until the below ads starting appearing in newspapers across the country (confirmed newspapers have been in Cincinnati, Ohio and Louisville, Kentucky, others have been rumors) and on online job sites like CareerBuilder.com.

From the text of the job description it sounds like Batesville is going to try to deliver and service their own burial vaults. This is a HUGE task. It would require Batesville to purchase tents, grass, lowering devices, chairs, and carts (for vault transportation in cemetery). This is not something to look at lightly. If Batesville were to do this it would cost them millions. And if they are willing to pay millions, my guess is this is not something they are just “testing”.

Below is the job post and description that appeared on CareerBuilder.com and in the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Read more: Batesville Getting Serious About Burial Vaults

A Funny, Yet Moving Eulogy

Much like an obituary a eulogy should tell the story of someone’s life. A eulogy can be an extremely hard thing for someone to deliver, especially for a child or spouse.

The following eulogy video was email to me by a member, and I found it very eye opening to how a eulogy could be give. This eulogy has you laughing and crying all at the same time. It is sad yet funny, casual and serious, personal and transparent.

I would love to read your thoughts below in the comments. Has anyone experienced a eulogy like this? What is the craziest eulogy you have been witnessed?

Check out the video below.

Read more: A Funny, Yet Moving Eulogy

Stiffing the Dead: How the Pentagon Blew Memorial Day

Guest Post –

Memorial Day is trumpeted as a day “to honor the memory of America’s Fallen.” But rather than live up to that lofty goal, the Pentagon routinely falls short, lapsing into cosmetic rituals and empty rhetoric with volleys of ceremonial gunshots followed by volleys of commemorative clichés.

In public speeches, editorials and the Pentagon’s own Website, the rhetoric of sacrifice is rife with euphemism. The uniformed victims of war are always “heroes” (even though many of them died screaming in pain and begging God to let them live). They are “fallen soldiers” (which suggests mere misstep followed by a clean, almost balletic death — even though they may have been blown to bits or burned beyond recognition). They always “gave their lives” (when the fact is, there lives were taken from them. It would be more honest — and ironic — to note that suicide bombers “give their lives.” In contrast, most American soldiers hope to return alive and intact to a welcome from their families back home.)

Read more: Stiffing the Dead: How the Pentagon Blew Memorial Day

Aurora Acquires Canadian Casket Company

Aurora Casket Company, the largest family-owned funeral service supplier, has completed the acquisition of Canadian casket provider Alliance-St. Laurent Caskets. Based in New Brunswick, Canada, Alliance-St. Laurent will now operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Aurora, following the acquisition of the remaining 50 percent of the business. Aurora acquired a 50 percent share of the business in 2006, and has been a distributor of Alliance-St. Laurent products for more than 15 years.

Founded in 1978, Alliance-St. Laurent is a leading provider of hardwood and cloth caskets, and cremation and transport containers to funeral service providers throughout North America. Paul Michaud will continue to serve as president of Alliance-St. Laurent. “Our partnership with Aurora has been mutually beneficial for our companies, our employees, and the clients we serve,” Michaud said. “As a wholly owned subsidiary, we will continue to focus on quality, innovation and business growth.”

Read more: Aurora Acquires Canadian Casket Company