A Lesson Learned

Last night I got called at 1am to make a removal in a city about an hour away. The family had pre-arrangements with us. By the time I got up there and back and was able to get back to bed, it was about 4am, and I had to be at work by 8am, so I got only a couple of hours sleep. My boss was sitting with a different family, so I had to sit down with this family. As I said, they had pre-arrangements, which called for no services, direct cremation and a few death certificates. At the time the arrangements were made, they had paid enough money for 7 certficates. However, since that time, the price of certificates have gone up. This is money the county charges, not the funeral home. So instead of being able to buy 7, the money set aside would have covered only 6.

This is where I made a small mistake, and I'll know better next time. What I told the family was that there were 7 certificates paid for. Technically, this was true, but with an increase of $2 per certificate, the family owed $14 more dollars. What I should have said was "there is XX amount of money set aside for death certificates. How many would you like? They are XX dollars apiece."