esrosedotblog

FUNERARY

We prebought our minimal funeral a few years ago.

The company we signed up with has been acquired by Forest Lawn, cemetery to the stars.

I have gotten a bit edgy about whether our contracts got poured over to the new organization, so I called today to check it out.

I realize that I have gotten used to 'perkiness' when I call on company business.

Forest Lawn is anything but perky.

Not somber or morose but serious and deep.

When they put you on hold there is a sort of celestial music going through the wires. Not harps. More like an electronic zither.

I told them that I wanted to 'update' our prepurchase or whatever she called it.

I found out that, first, we must authorize the transfer of the records from the old outfit to Forest Lawn.

Good thing that I checked. Hard to do if you are the deceased and want to get a ride on the old contract.

So, I have an appointment to go in to sign and see about all this.

I am fully prepared to find out that the kind old man who sold us these things was a scam artist and the whole thing is a fraud.

We will then immediately sign up for a new program with another organization.

Or something.

I don't want you to get the idea that this is anything fancy. Not a lot can go wrong.

Immediate cremation in a cardboard box with the 'cremains' packed in another low cost container.

I have a life rule about never buying anything from a salesperson who comes to the house.

I have violated that rule three times.

Once, to my sorrow, for a long term care insurance policy which we got out of by using the 'lemon clause'; state law. No money had changed hands.

That company has since been vilified for fraud by the press and is under federal indictment. Conseco.

Our solar panel pool heater is an at home sale that turned out well. The salesman botched the measurements because he didn't want to go up on the roof but we ended up only paying a couple hundred dollars more than quoted. Not perfect but OK. The system has proved quite successful and the company came to fix small leaks and all for almost three years!

The third at home buy was the cremation package. He was such a nice old man.

I will know soon if I got conned or not.

Teetering on the edge of a 2/3 majority for at-home buying. Success or failure?

We shall see.

Labels: consumerism, death