Six-Feet Underhanded

After the death last year of World War II veteran and longtime Boeing worker Wayne C. "Ace" Colley, members of his Seattle family turned to Costco in their time of need. "We aren't all Microsoft millionaires," says Marilyn Colley, whose husband of 60 years, a Navy tail gunner who shot down four Japanese Zeros over the Coral Sea and Guadalcanal, died from bone cancer at age 83. Since 2004, Costco, the Issaquah-based warehouse club that specializes in appliances, electronics, and bulk food, has also successfully marketed a lower-end line of caskets. Sold in just a few stores originally, Costco coffins are now shipped to 25 states and the District of Columbia. Some sell for as much as $3,000, but the "In God's Care" model, an 18-gauge steel container from Universal Casket, can be had for $924.99, shipping and handling included. That's hundreds, even thousands of dollars less than some caskets sold by funeral homes and a comparative bargain to Americans looking for a better deal on death.

Except, once their discount coffin arrived at a Seattle mortuary, Colley family members discovered they were required to uncrate it themselves. They undertook the somber task in a room next to the crematory, where the roaring remains of others' dearly departed were being incinerated, and where, state investigators were later told, a mortuary employee said their warehouse coffin was inferior to the funeral home's products. Once they were done with the uncrating, relatives had to haul away the packing materials themselves.

That led to a lot of finger-pointing. Randy Kolar, an attorney for Universal Casket, calls it "outrageous and reprehensible" conduct and a violation of fair-trade practices. The funeral home, Butterworth-Arthur Wright Chapel on Queen Anne, denied its employee said the Costco coffin was inferior, and the state found no violation of its regulations.

But funeral home officials conceded they required the unwrapping and packaging disposal of "third-party" caskets—something the home has now discontinued following an investigation by the state Funeral and Cemetery Office. The home's management, which did not respond to a request for comment, agreed "that changes in its policy were needed," according to state funeral office manager Dennis McPhee. The policy also might have defied federal law to protect consumers from being "penalized" by funeral homes for buying coffins elsewhere.

The do-it-yourself casket unwrapping is a new twist to Washington consumer complaints about the "death care" business, as funeral home and cemetery operators call their work. But it's the more traditional grievances that keep state investigators busy watching over an industry whose services all of us—except for those who choose alternative funerals and burials—will require sooner or, preferably, much later. A review of state files reveals complaints about bodies buried in the wrong graves, cremated when they should have been planted, or occupying plots that have been resold. There are protests over misspelled headstones, mishandled remains, and high-pressure sales pitches by the industry's "grief counselors."

"We have less infractions than most other states, I'm sure," says Kathy Mathews, a member of the state Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers. "We're working really hard to police ourselves and I think we're doing an excellent job of it." Brad Carlson, who heads the separate state Cemetery Board, agrees. "I feel very fortunate we have a high standard of laws and regulations, and operators who want to comply in general." Still, along comes the occasionally impatient funeral director who tells the bereaved they'll have to wait for a viewing while he sews limbs back on—as happened in Kennewick—or the minimalist cemetery operator who puts two teenage homicide victims in a single grave when no one is looking.

"We had no idea it had happened," says Terry McNeal, whose son Terrell, killed in a shooting, was placed in a Renton grave atop a young victim from another shooting. "We didn't know who the other boy was." McNeal found out about the double burial only because a woman, who coincidentally attended both funerals four days apart, alerted the families. (See "A Tale of Two Bodies.")

Like Buying a Honda

When someone fouls up the last act of your loved one's existence, it resonates eternally. And few consumers are more vulnerable to service and sales abuses than the grieving survivors facing the average $6,500 cost of a funeral and burial of a friend or relative. In Washington, as across the U.S., survivors frequently are forced to balance cost with fulfillment of a deceased's last wishes. They may have to negotiate a consumer's obstacle course through the $15 billion funeral industry, wary of what many fear most about death—the cost—and likely unaware that, under federal law, all providers must first provide you with a price list.

And a long one at that. Besides the cost of a casket, there can be fees for collection and transportation of remains, refrigeration, the plot, opening and closing the grave, headstone, etching, funeral service, hearse and limo, clothing, dressing, cosmetology, stationery, flowers, obituary notice, death certificate, and tax. If necessary—or sometimes when unnecessary—there's also embalming and burial vault costs. Under state law, embalming is required only when a public viewing of the body is preferred; vaults, to preserve the coffin and shore up the ground, are optional at some cemeteries.