The Federal Trade Commission’s Funeral Rule, which applies to all funeral providers in the United States, requires that providers produce a Generalized Price List (GPL) for anyone requesting information in person. While the FTC doesn’t require providers to send the GPL to individuals calling in requesting information, they are still required to disclose accurate prices directly from their generalized price list over the phone.
Note: Some state requirements differ. Arizona state law requires that consumers must be sent a GPL if they request it over the phone.
To ensure the regulation is being followed, the FTC conducts yearly undercover investigations, the most recent producing some key findings regarding the average consumer’s ability to obtain price information over the phone.
In their first undercover phone sweep, 278 randomly selected funeral providers were phoned and asked for price information. Callers made up to three attempts to obtain price information during regular business hours and up to three attempts outside of business hours. It’s noted that staff had to call some providers multiple times to obtain price information. During business hours, FTC staff had to call more than once or wait for a call back from 68 out of the 278 providers called.
The recently issued report also reveals that 21 out of the 278 providers did not or could not provide price information during business hours, and 73 providers were unable to do so outside of business hours. While most providers were willing to answer questions regarding pricing, just over half of all establishments called (51.1%) answered some questions with estimates and price ranges instead of concrete prices from an itemized list.
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