Do funeral homes have a say in the usage of third-party caskets?

 Being illegal since 1994, despite years of FTC rulings, and how shortsighted it is, some funeral homes still throw obstacles in the paths of consumers who exercise their right to buy a casket outside of the funeral home (Slocum). Funeral homes usually provide the deceased and their family with a casket. They often make a profit from selling and arranging for the casket to be brought to the mortuary for the family. When a family decides to buy a casket from an online company such as WalMart, Costco, Amazon, or any other online casket store, they are buying a third party casket. This reduces the revenue that funeral homes earn from a burial.The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requires funeral homes to accept delivery of third party caskets, but has not limited the fees that funeral homes charge in accepting them or delivering them. The issues funeral homes have with accepting and delivering caskets are that they don't have a lot of personnel/employees to help unload the caskets. If you purchase a third party casket, you may be charged a handling fee from your funeral home to accommodate having an employee on-hand to accept delivery (Theobald).

 Slocum, Josh. "Final Rights." » Casket Disclaimer Form Prompts Complaint to Federal Trade Commission. Upper Access Publishing, 11 Sept. 2011. Web. 28 Mar. 2012.

 Theobald, Donna. "WalMart Caskets." LoveToKnow. Lovetoknow.com, 3 July 2010. Web. 28 Mar. 2012.

Sites:  http://dying.lovetoknow.com/walmart-caskets
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