“Our lawyers tell us our price sheet is not illegal – you can always go somewhere else” according to Tommy Kutis IV. Our mother passed away recently, and we went to several funeral homes to get comparative prices. We asked for prices without the cost of the casket because we were planning on having a custom casket shipped to the funeral home of choice. After careful review, Kutis appeared to have competitive prices – with the price sheet clearly stating the casket was extra. There was no mention or notation in the price sheet requiring the purchase of a casket from Kutis. We had our mom sent to Kutis to begin funeral preparations, and then met with Kutis to finalize the arrangements. When we mentioned we were having a casket shipped in – Kutis was OK with that – but then surprisingly all of the other prices increased. We thought it was illegal to bundle or represent pricing in such a way as to inhibit comparative shopping – but I guess not. By the time Tommy Kutis IV told us we could go elsewhere, we were already locked in from a timing perspective. The prices were jacked-up up so much that we ended up having to buy the casket from Kutis at a 200% - 300% markup. I encourage everyone to shop around – look at prices on the internet - but since we are all infrequent buyers, we don’t know the right questions to ask to keep from getting caught in this sting. \r
more