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From: "bj21guy" <bj21guy@rconnect.com> To: HQ.DCMAIL3(FUNERAL) Date: Wed, May 5, 1999 3:26 AM Subject: Funeral Rule To whom it may concern, I am currently undertaking an investigation into possibly illegal and fraudulent practices of the Benson Funeral Home in St. Cloud, Minnesota. They definitely acted in a very unethical and immoral manner in their treatment of me. They acted with professional misconduct at almost every turn in the arrangements for my brother's disposition. I am currently working with the FTC, Minnesota Attorney General's office, Minnesota Department of Health, Better Business Bureau, Funeral Ethics Association, and National Funeral Director's Association in trying to reach a settlement with the funeral home for their gross mistreatment of me in this matter. Everything I am pursuing is covered in the Funeral Rule and there definitely is something lacking in enforcement of this area. I am not sure what can be proven as far as which actions were actually illegal. If their were more stringent guidelines to follow, the law would be more clear cut. They tried to keep all they could for "services" when they actually did a lot less than I had to do as far as planning and implementing everything. I have never, to this day, seen a price list or detailed billing of services. I was a qualified person in my brother's arrangements, but was treated as some sort of low-life by the funeral home. My brother was indigent and the county helped to pay for his funeral. It was only proper since he was disabled according to SSI and the county supported all his bad habits. The only problem with the funeral home, other than deceit, is that they kept as much of the money as they could for doing next to nothing. There was no where near enough left to give my brother's ashes a proper burial. That was paid out of pocket along with many expenses along the way. I'm not sure what this will accomplish, but I felt I should tell you about my story. My case number with the FTC is: reference #620708. Please feel free to get all the details of the case from them. It goes into much more detail than I have submitted here. Thank you very much for your time. Sincerely, Patrick
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