My mother in law died last week and provided instructions to call Neill and two other local funeral directors in Camp Hill PA area. Because she donated her body to a local University medical center(Penn at Hershey) less than 30 minutes from the hospital where she died-- Holy Spirit Hospital. I asked Neill and the others to quote us a price for transporaton to Hershey and to provide us with ten death certificates at $6 each.\r
Neill's director, who responded courteously when I called, quoted us a price of $1685 !!!!!! + certificates. After receiving other much lower quotes:\r
Hamer... $700\r
Mussleman $400 + $60 for certificates\r
I called again to ask why their price was 4 times higher than the lowest price competitor. They responded that this was required by their corporate office in Houston!\r
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We went with Musselman. They did a caring and effective job and are highly recommended. I talked with two directors at Neill and can provide their names if this price differential is close to unbelievable as it was to me.\r
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Funeral Directors have a special responsibility to not exploit bereaved friends and relatives at a time when they are unlikely to negotate or compare prices. I did ask Neill if they could compete. The answer was a terse ""No"" My mother in law was not a rich person. She did not want to contribute a substantial part of her small estate to corporate overpriced business like Neill and Dignity (their corporate HQ).
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