Family’s first letter of complaint to Acropolis Funerals

The letter was sent on 14 June 2010, several months after my father’s funeral. All correspondence and attempts at resolving this issue have been scanned and kept by me and my family. 

This was the first letter of complaint sent to Acropolis Funerals:

To whom it may concern, 

We, the family of the late C.B., are writing to complain about the issuing of a funeral car for our father’s funeral procession, without our authorisation and consent as your clients.

When arranging the funeral, which was held on 9th February 2010, we requested one car for three people, the immediate family of the deceased. To our shock and dismay, on the day of the funeral, we were told by the funeral director that certain people, estranged relatives, contacted the business to arrange their own vehicle to follow the procession. This was arranged without our knowledge or approval and was only revealed to us on the day of the funeral, in which case it was too late for us to actually do anything about it. 

With what authority did this funeral business arrange and issue another vehicle without direct permission from the clients? In addition to the pain and grief of losing a father and husband, we had to endure the pain and anger of having a group of people in the funeral procession that we have absolutely nothing to do with. How could your business inflict such pain upon us? These audacious “so called” relations had no right to request a funeral car directly from you in the first place. However, it was unprofessional on your part to issue the vehicle without consulting with us and obtaining our consent. 

We, the family, would like to know the reason Acropolis Funerals made the decision to go ahead and give those people the funeral vehicle without our consent. Be aware that on top of our grief these last few months, this incident on the day of the funeral has caused us greater emotional pain. This situation is totally unacceptable and was more than we could bear. 

We would like to find a solution to this problem. We expect a written response as to why this vehicle was issued without our knowledge, within ten working days of receipt of this letter. If we are not satisfied with the response or reason, we have no choice but to take this matter to a higher authority. 

Sincerely, 

The [family].

_______________

We never received a written response. We did receive a call from the then funeral director, Kon Grillis. Refer to my previous post regarding excuses and more salt rubbed on our wounds as he tried to get out of his responsibility and deflect the problem onto us: eg. “but we respected your family and gave them the car for free” (would he be so bold as to charge us? But he didn’t charge the offending party either, most likely “because he’s a priest”, to use his words, verbatim. Again, refer to the previous post). 

We are consumers and we have a right to share our experiences. The bigger issue, for me, was the dodging of the complaint and refusing to cooperate for a fair and reasonable solution to the problem. It by no means ends here. A second letter was sent (next post), betrayal and closing ranks from the Funeral Directors Association, another government toothless tiger in the Department of Fair Trading, the trauma at the NCAT, and my letter to the ACCC, after my own research regarding consumer rights, specifically in relation to funeral businesses. 

Let the buyer beware. 

To be continued, with the second letter, which was allegedly never received by Acropolis Funerals. Perhaps now Australia Post is to blame. Our mistake for not sending the letter express or registered post, with an allocated tracking number. That was our lesson learned.