Consumers


  • Bay Area Funeral Society

FUNERAL CONSUMER BILL OF RIGHTS


These rights are assured you in California by the Federal Trade Commission's "Funeral Rule" and state laws and regulations administered by the Cemetery and Funeral Bureau.

  1. Customers at a funeral home must be handed a General Price List before talking about funeral prices. If asked, mortuaries must also give prices by phone.
  2. Funeral home and cemetery shoppers must also be given a copy of the "Consumer's Guide to Funeral and Cemetery Purchases," produced by Department of Consumer Affairs, Cemetery and Funeral Bureau, before they discuss prices.
  3. The consumer can write out his or her funeral wishes prior to death and the funeral home is obligated to carry out the plans, if estate finances are sufficient.
  4. The person can choose NOT to be embalmed - there is no state law requiring it unless the body is being shipped by public carrier across state lines, and even then they can avoid embalming by using a Ziegler type shipping container and gel packs or dry ice. Jewish persons are routinely sent without embalming. Refrigeration and dry ice will keep a body preserved until it is buried or cremated.
  5. The consumer can choose only what he or she needs from the General Price List. They do not have to choose a package plan, which may include items they do not want. The funeral home cannot charge a handling fee if the family buys a casket or urn somewhere else.
  6. There is no state law requiring casket liners or vaults in cemeteries, yet most of the cemeteries in California require liners or vaults to keep the ground from sinking.
  7. Only one body at a time is allowed in the crematory retort to ensure the remains are not mixed with another person's. Mortuaries and crematories must have body tracking systems.
  8. The family may witness the cremation, space permitting. Extra fees may apply.
  9. Ashes may be scattered on private land with permission from the landowner, or in a public park with permission from the superintendent. Or they may be scattered on the ocean or navigable inland waterway at least 500 yards from shore by boat or airplane (although there are no "ashes police" checking). This is in addition to keeping the ashes at a private home, interring in a cemetery plot or scattering garden, placing in a columbarium, or putting them in a house of worship.
  10. A family may have a home funeral and transport the body themselves to a cemetery or crematory, but must obtain a proper death certificate and permits from their county.

Who We Are

  • The Bay Area Funeral Society (BAFS) is a non-profit organization that helps consumers in Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Francisco counties arrange funerals that are dignified and affordable. BAFS is one of more than 100 similar groups across the country, supported by the national Funeral Consumer Alliance (www.funerals.org). We are run solely by volunteers, and have no attachment to the funeral industry or to any religious group.

What We Do

  • We contract with local, independent mortuaries so that our members receive death goods and services at reduced prices. We also engage in consumer-education outreach. This includes group presentations, printed materials, personal consultations, local price surveys and membership benefits.

Our History

  • BAFS grew out of the Berkeley Co-op movement and has been in operation for over fifty years. In the past, our membership roster included the famous author, Jessica Mitford, whose best-selling book, The American Way of Death, exposed the excesses and high-pressure sales tactics of the funeral industry. BAFS continues her work.