Letters to the Editor

Mowell never charges in-county fee

Tue, 05/20/2008 - 4:03pm
By: Letters to the ...

I would like to respond to the letter to the editor regarding funeral processions. As a funeral director, this is something that greatly concerns me.

The procession to the cemetery is a vital part of what we do. The local law enforcement agencies render grieving families a tremendous service by safely helping them get to the cemetery.

We have never heard or seen any officers in Fayette County ever charging for these services, and it has NEVER been a policy or practice for our funeral home to charge for assistance with a police escort within the county.

I can only speak for our funeral home, but we do not charge for making phone calls or coordinating efforts through these agencies.

Fayette County and all the city law enforcement agencies have always helped us and the families we serve with traffic and safety issues regarding the procession. We are extremely grateful for this public service that the county and city law enforcement agencies provide.

There are issues when a burial will take place in a cemetery outside our county, at which time we give the family the option of letting us arrange a paid motor escort service. This is a private company which employs off-duty motorcycle officers.

If a family chooses this service, we gladly arrange with them on the family’s behalf, but we do not add on any fees or charges for making phone calls or any other coordinating efforts. The only fees ever charged for a funeral procession are for those of a private motor escort.

Our funeral home has been here in Fayette County serving this community for the last 44 years, and there is no way Mowell Funeral Home would be here if we treated people unfairly or unethically. The families we serve are to important to us.

If anyone ever has a question relating to a funeral or any of our services, we would welcome the opportunity to listen to their concerns and help them any way we can.

David Mowell

Carl J. Mowell & Son

Fayetteville, Ga.

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Mowell's response
Submitted by yousaidwhat on Wed, 05/21/2008 - 6:39pm.

Will the person making the "complaint" please step forward. Name names, name dates and let's see if what you say has any thread of truth.
My experience with Mowell Funeral Home has been nothing but steller. They are very caring, compassionate people at a time when you are most vunerable. They are PROFESSIONAL all the way.
Don't tell lies; they may have to bury you. Think about it.

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yousaidit
Submitted by sageadvice on Wed, 05/21/2008 - 8:31pm.

You mean they may do something bad to me if I tell a lie on them?
Is that what you mean by "professional?"

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sage
hutch866's picture
Submitted by hutch866 on Wed, 05/21/2008 - 8:43pm.

I bet your family will bury you face down just to prevent you scratching your way out.

I yam what I yam....Popeye


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Mr Mowell, grieving families have proof otherwise
Submitted by NeedtoKnow on Wed, 05/21/2008 - 7:00am.

We have never heard or seen any officers in Fayette County ever charging for these services

And no one, not in the original letter to the editor or here on the blogs, has suggested that they have or do.

As to Mowell's charging a fee... Maybe you don't know what your own charges are? That is my hope, because the alternative is that you are just plain lying, and that is not the kind of person I've heard you are.

I know of 6 families specifically that were charged this fee by Mowell's. None of them had requested a private motorcade escort and none of them had a private motorcade escort. All of them made their own arrangements with the Fayette LE agencies, and advised the funeral home of that. And yet they were still charged. Five of them disputed the charge and it was removed. I don't think the sixth family disputed the charge, due to their state of mine at the time the bill was paid.

If nothing else, this dialog will hopefully make folks more aware of what they're being charged for versus what they are getting.

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Mowell is honest
Submitted by susieq on Wed, 05/21/2008 - 7:12pm.

Mowell has never overcharged anyone in my family. He would never jeopardize his reputation by overcharging.

Are you a competitor, or what?

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Funeral Homes
Submitted by sageadvice on Wed, 05/21/2008 - 8:27pm.

Something crazy here! Either the Funeral Home charged for an escort or it didn't! As to the charges being removed when requested, that seems like too dumb a way to try to do business to be exactly true.
Sheriff's have for many years escorted funerals---the more important a dead person is---the more deputies escort him! It is probably somewhat legal due to safety factors, but we will never know since the Sheriff works for no one.
If the funeral home goes to the trouble to "arrange" an escort by the Sheriff--even if free, he would have a right to charge for the arranging of it.
I don't know if Joe Blow from Kokomo can walk into the Sheriff's office and demand an escort free of charge for a funeral! I have a feeling that this is nearly always arranged by the funeral home and should be a part of the cost of internment.
The cost of body internment has always been a cost problem in the US.
Some of it created by laws, some by gouging. Cremation has been in the news a lot lately!
I'm not sure anywhere else in the world has such a huge private industry to dispose of their dead as we do, but they are a dying breed since huge corporations now own most of them.
The funeral homes are somewhat like hospitals also about their charges---some can't or won't pay and the business will deal with them as best they can to get something. That is a messy part of the business!

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Funeral Home Horror Story
Submitted by glfrgurl on Wed, 05/21/2008 - 9:21pm.

Several years ago, here in Fayette Co., my family member passed away very unexpectedly. Of course our whole family was devastated and in shock as anyone who has gone through a terrible ordeal like this knows. We arrived at the funeral home the day after the death to make arrangements and were greeted by one of the staff, who was married to one of the funeral home owners. In the meeting she proceeded to tell our crying and in shock family we wouldn't be able to view the body until the morning, as she wasn't allowed to dress the body herself and no one was there to help her-it may ruin her GOLF SWING!!! Then she made a swinging motion with her arms as if hitting a golf ball. She then made innapropriate remarks to one of my family about her being divorced, trying to make jokes about it. If I had been emotionally able I would have insisted we leave and go somewhere else but we were incapable of dealing with anything at this point. I hope the funeral home has made a few changes in its staff. Working in a funeral home with grieving families is not a good job for someone missing the sensitivity chip!

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