After Death: Behind the scenes of Australia’s funeral industry | Four Corners

Thankfully, there are still some good funeral directors out there. I found a small family owned mortuary when my 8 year old son passed away and they literally provided ALL OF THEIR SERVICES FOR FREE!!! Yes FREE! The owner said he would have given me the coffin for free if it were his to give. He didn’t have a child’s coffin available at his funeral home so he had to go through another mortuary. So I purchased it from a 3rd party essentially. They even had the priest preform my sons funeral service for free. My son was cleaned, embalmed, dressed, placed and cared for by the owner himself. My son was so beautiful at his viewing. He said he treated my son as if he were his own. ❤️ There are no words to adequately thank him for everything he did for my husband and I. He said no child should die and no family should be burdened by the cost of laying them to rest.

I'm a Funeral Director and an Embalmer. I've seen many Funeral Directors take advantage of grieving families. It's sickening!!!

I worked in a mortuary as a pathologist assistant when a child was brought in, many of my tears fell inside the child while stitching. We looked after each body with dignity and respect

I worked for a funeral home in Sydney, I actually really liked the job, it was very difficult but it was special, I did it all from cleaning the vehicles to putting the coffins together to transporting the deceased and preparing them for their funeral, I cleaned them dressed them. And that was special. It’s a job not everyone could do but I could and I was proud of that. Unfortunately my experience turned out really badly. The home I worked at was truely awful, I was treated very poorly, I had a supervisor who sabotaged me at every chance, and the first opportunity he got he sacked me.

My father is a funeral director in the UK and he always says that manipulation of families to spend more when grieving is so prevalent in the industry. He explains everything to the families clearly, he always goes for the cheapest option and allows the family to decide what they want rather than persuading them to spend every penny. He treats every person, dead and alive, with respect and I have the utmost respect for him and how he does his work.

being a nurse, I am in complete shock and saddened by the lack of respect. Absolutely disgusting

My father passed away a month ago, and we paid for a simple funeral, but with a beautiful service and ceremony. With the extra money we did something good for someone in need. Trust me it is a much better feeling that putting the money on this unethical people’s pocket.

When my husband passed the funeral director was quite helpful. He advised me different choices for his cremation. He told me to keep in mind that my husband wasn’t there. That he had passed on and that he was always wanting to save his finances. I was so grateful that after I was feeling stressed I went back to the funeral home and pre-arranged my own funeral and paid in advance. I had no children and I didn’t want my family to have to deal with that. I told the family I have left where to find my will and other important papers. I recommend to everyone I can to pre-plan and prepay their own funeral because funerals are getting a lot more expensive every year and it is not likely to go on sale. Prepaying is locking in the prices.

My father died in 2015 at his Nursing home. I went to see him before the people came to collect his body. I wasn't told where he was going until someone from Tobin Brothers in Flemington, Melbourne rang me & told me they had my father's body. I was never given the chance to choose my own preferred Funeral Home for my father. They needed payment there & then while I'm crying river's. I just didn't have the money. What money my father left in his will for my 2 kids is what I paid for his Cremation & Church service. It is time for change. Your ripping people off at there most vulnerable times. You all should be ashamed of yourselves.

Years ago my family owned a funeral home, it was in business beginning in the very late 1800’s. When I was approached by my family if I would take it over I thought about it for almost a week. I couldn’t do it because I couldn’t make money on other people’s sadness and grief. One thing my great great grandfather had set in place was we would NEVER charge families for the funerals of infants or toddlers.

My heart hurts for the young woman who's mother's was given such crappy care from White Dove Funeral Home. That man is a real piece of work.

When I was arranging my mother-in-law's funeral I was pissed. I was going through the list of costs and one of the charges was $500 just to close the casket. Told them I'd close it. I was loud enough that they were scared other families would hear and took the charge off. I told them that just goes to show that they were ripping people off.

Apologies??? Your “mistake” costed this family $4700 !! You wanna apologize? Then give this family their money back!!!

When I went for a job interview with White Lady Funerals, I was asked by the Area Manager if I would be willing to 'volunteer at least 2 hours of my shift, especially its a night shift". I replied "Do the savings to the company get passed down onto the customer?"...I was met with silence. So No!. What a scam. I reported her to Invocare Head Office and I got no response. Imagine hiring 6 women and each volunteer at least 2 hours..that's thousands of dollars saved by the company PLUS the added bonus of charging the client. Yep, its a scam. How unethical and unprofessional is that?.

My dad had a funeral plan so when he died we used his funeral plan. They picked him up from the care home at 5pm and the next day they told us it will cost us £200 because they picked him up after hours. We explained that we simply don't have the money and that's why he had a funeral plan. They completed the cremation but told us we will have to pay when we pick up the ashes. I checked the small print and the only thing I could find that would cost extra was travelling distance that didn't apply in this case. Basically if we didn't pay up we couldn't have dad so we said OK you keep him then. I know that sounds cold but I really didn't have any money and I was cross they were trying to get money out of me by emotional manipulation. My father was as stubborn as iam so I knew he'd be right behind me on this. They had his ashes for a year sending me the occasional letter to remind me then one day they called me. They told me I could come pick up dad and no mention of money. I did just that and scattered him in his favourite place. Some of these companies are crooks. It's better to have a funeral plan in place and paid for because you don't need an oak coffin if it's going to be cremated but you may just be talked into one when your greaving

This time three years ago, my Mother was in the last stages of her life here on earth, she had a peaceful passing for which I am truly thankful for, in the days leading up, dear friends and loved ones came to say farewell, to hug, talk, cry and help Mum pass with dignity and love surrounding her. Here’s the thing though, death is almost a taboo subject, we fear it and we don’t talk about it, but we should. We celebrate births and birthdays but we mourn instead of celebrating a life and all the beautiful moments, love and laughter we shared. I want to share this, Mum and I talked about death regularly, we were open about it, and even joked together that I could take her ashes travelling to see sights etc, probably due to her health issues and the fact she lost both her parents when she was 17, she was honest and insightful. Today I am grateful to her because I think those talks and her openness made it easier at that incredibly difficult moment and all the times since when I I’ve been overwhelmed by her loss. She showed me I would survive. It’s important to share your wishes so people know what you want. For instance, Mum knew it would be hard for me to let her go, she raised us on her own, and that I would suffer if she was whisked away straight after her passing, so we asked the funeral directors to bring her home (she passed in hospital) after she died, she was with us for 5 days after she passed, we asked for no extra procedures as she’d had so many in her life, though I stayed in the room whilst they removed her pacemaker at home (for cremation), and we cared for her body right up until her service, moisturising her skin, trimming her nails, doing her hair, makeup and dressing her in beautiful Pyjamas, loved ones came over and shared memories, talked and played beautiful music in the lounge room with her right there, I wouldn’t have done it any other way looking back, the point is, if you don’t know you can ask, you won’t, end of life stuff doesn’t need to be the “funeral directors cut”, do it your way. After 5 days, the funeral staff collected her and I followed them to where her service was held, we then had the family/friend service, then we left and went to another chapel for final private goodbyes, then in the next room my brother, his two sons and I, lifted Mums soft eco casket into the cremation chamber, and my brother and I pushed the buttons to close it. We were there with her till the end, just as she was at our beginning of our lives. And she never spent a night in the mortuary, we just had our air conditioner on for 5 days. I have so many people to be thankful for in my life who have supported us at that time, it was a small and loving environment and it gives me comfort to know she was never alone.

The most insane business practice is shaming a family into spending $1000’s on an expensive coffin to then burn it into ash.

I am an ex funeral Director, I was a Funeral Director/embalmer in New Zealand, in the 1990s in a time when it was mainly a male domain, it was an independent funeral home, our aim was to listen and to care. I applied for a role in Melbourne, Australia, and was appalled by the lack of care and empathy for the grieving families. It was just about money and building in costs. Hence I never took up the role. This is an industry that needs to raise its standards. Respect is required and should always put the grieving families first. Service before adding on costs. And always show respect for the deceased with love and duty of care. The Funeral Directors Association and Australian Government just need to close down the funeral homes that are unethical.

Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING in this life is all about money. Even death.

I had a stillborn baby back in November 2001. Where most funeral homes give services for babies or cremations for free we however had to pay $700 with a credit card because I was a high risk pregnancy and couldn’t work. When we went to pick up our babies ashes the funeral director didn’t even take us to a room to bring us the ashes. He just handed them to us standing In the lobby like 2 idiots. That was 21 years ago and it still bothers me.