Barnett-Lewis Funeral Home deceptive practices, willful misconduct sioux falls South Dakota

This is copy of the complaint I sent to the state board of funeral directors. It is long and upsetting.
The Statement and Trust Documents

1 ) Barnett-Lewis did not give us an itemized statement completed in the presence of the family.

This document was not completed in front of the family and we were only quoted, by Brian Fritz at Barnett-Lewis Funeral Home, a general price for the items that were absolutely necessary.

Then Brian Fritz promised to send copy to Joan Jacobson, my mother and Jay's grandmother, as soon as the trust had paid Barnett-Lewis. He did not send it until July 3, which was the postmark on the envelope, which also was 4 months after the funeral. Why?

The statement was dated for June 4 which appears to be a back dating of the document. We do not believe that it sat on a desk all of that time. We feel it is strange that it showed up AFTER we had contacted your Board. SEE ATTACHED

During the several phone calls from March to May and our in person contact with Brian Fritz (which took place late in May) he said that the insurance had not paid yet so the statement wasn't done yet. He kept saying that he had to wait and see what the trust was going to pay each time we asked about a statement.

2) Brian Fritz did not tell the truth about the date in which Fortis paid the trust to him. The Fortis document states that the trust was paid on April 2. So when we contacted him on the phone several times from March to May and the in person contact with him at the funeral home in May, he had already been paid but said that he had not. He told us that it sometimes takes a
while for the payment due to the investigations the insurance company does.

That appears to be yet another lie and unethical practice. What was he hiding? Did he hope we would just go away frustrated and never worry about it again? He did not tell us, until sometime in June, that he had
been paid but did not state how much, just that the funeral was covered.

He also told us during the arrangement planning that there would not be much interest on the $4000 because not enough time had lapsed since we purchased the irrevocable trust (when we purchased the irrevocable trust we did not select any arrangements or merchandise - Brian Fritz
told us that whatever they do not need for the funeral would be returned to us -the purchaser or Jay's heirs. SEE ATTACHED)

We wondered about that since it was just a few weeks short of the 1 year anniversary of the date
in which we purchased the trust.

We feel that $2,216.58 is quite a substantial amount of money. It was definitely worth mentioning and would have changed our selections. Why was he leading us to believe that we were basically dealing with only the $4000 amount? We feel he wanted us to keep our selections as cheap as possible so he could keep as much of the trust as possible while fudging the numbers on the
statement. SEE ATTACHED (*1)

3 ) Brian Fritz didn't itemize the whole statement.
The whole first section on the statement sent to us had nothing but the subtotal and it was left a mystery to us as to what we got for the money spent. We believe the number to be inflated. Mom, Jay's grandmother, Joan asked for the statement at the funeral home during the arrangements and he said that he would send it to her home as soon as the trust had paid him. We asked several
times for a statement. We decided to ask the Board for help in getting a true itemization as we feel he was just trying to shut us up with the first statement he sent us. We also felt we would have no luck on our own due to his attempts to avoid us thus far. SEE ATTACHED

4 ) Brian Fritz didn't send us a full copy of the trust agreement when we requested it, after our
original was lost.

We asked for copy, in writing, of the trust agreement at the same time we sent the request for the statement and proof of what Fortis paid to the funeral home. He only sent us the signature page.

It specifically states on this page Please see reverse side for additional terms. We never got the
copy of the additional terms and would like a copy. SEE ATTACHED

5 ) We were charged $1750 for the casket.
Brian Fritz showed a picture of 6 caskets to us. There was no price on the pictures. There was no explanation as to the different types of caskets (18, 16 gauge steel, minimum steel = 20 gauge or the like.) I have later learned that some minimum steel casket bottoms are only spot welded, was this one or was it better than that? We were not even given any information on wood caskets or
any other type of option. The 6 in the picture were the only caskets we saw. There was no information on if they were protective or not.

These were the caskets he told us to pick from since we kept commenting on having to stay fairly close within the $4000 trust. (He never advised us that we would have more money to work with - in fact he said that we had very little more than the original purchase price of the
trust.) When we asked the price, he said the caskets in the picture he showed us were about
$1500. Well, there is a big difference between $1500 and $1750.

A friend picked up their casket price list and it only lists one Lynn casket, not the one we had. This casket is listed as $1596. SEE ATTACHED

I have done some investigating and found the retail price of that particular casket to be between $695 and $1200, depending on where you purchase it. I also found that a funeral home only pays between $395 and $595 for it, depending on where they purchase it. No matter which way you look at this, we were over charged by at least, $250, above the amount he quoted to us. (*2)

If I interpret the law right, Barnett-Lewis Funeral Home is in violation of SDCL 36-19-28 because it states that they must have a display room containing a reasonably adequate stock of funeral caskets and shipping cases and according to what the funeral director, Brian Fritz told us, they do not have a display room. (*3)

6 ) We weren't allowed a better vault after we requested one. Mom, Jay's grandmother - Joan, said that we wanted one of the better vaults because we had to settle for a low grade casket and Brian Fritz said that there was only one vault. He basically ignored mom's request. Not once were we offered a better vault if we paid some cash out of our pockets. We were not shown a price list or even a picture of the different vaults. We did not know how much it cost until we got the statement from Barnett-Lewis on July 5, 2002.

In a Barnett-Lewis price list obtained by a friend, it states: A complete price list will be provided
at the funeral home, prior to your selection. We were given no price list or options. We had no idea what kind of vault or anything about it before we saw it at the cemetery, the day of the funeral. There are several different vaults through Wilbert! And that is the company that made Jay's vault.
On the Barnett-Lewis price list for vaults obtained by my friend, they list 8! Then he gave us the lowest end Wilbert there is! A Monticello. It has been described as value priced and entry level by the vault industry,
including the Wilbert company. Even on the Barnett-Lewis price list obtained by my friend, it is
the lowest priced vault. We have not confronted Brian Fritz on this matter. We were billed the
price that was on his price sheet for that particular vault. SEE ATTACHED (*4)
7 ) Jay was left in the body bag. Jay was still in the body bag while laying in his casket. When
his dad and sisters viewed him after the visitation, he had a towel wrapped around his head and a
piece of plastic....but Brian Fritz took the towel off and turned his head to hide the bad side in the
pillow when his mother wanted to view him. Just imagine your child laying in a body bag and
still bloody, the night before and the morning that he is to be buried!!! How would you feel
and react? This is totally devastating to our family. It sickens me to think they could not at least
clean him up!!!!!!!!! It was as though Barnett-Lewis was just simply taking out the trash! Jay
deserved better than this type of treatment! Detective Runyan was the person that ordered a
closed casket BUT I never dreamt that closed casket meant that the funeral home did not properly
take care of our beloved family member! We thought that funeral homes treat the deceased with
dignity and respect. They took all of that away from Jay by leaving him in this condition! Jay's
parents and sisters did not mention this to us until recently due to the shock and mental state they
were in at the time. For that reason, we have not confronted Brian Fritz on this matter.
8 ) Brian Fritz didn't tell us that they were going to put out coffee and cookies and that it would
be at an additional charge.
They charged us for coffee and cookies in which we did not even ask for. We never even were
given a choice in the matter. These items were not even mentioned to us. On the price list
obtained by my friend, this charge or item is not even mentioned. Yet another charge that is very
questionable ($35.00.) (*5)

9 ) There isn't anyone's signature on the statement from our family. It states that we were shown a casket and outer burial price list before the showing of them - NO
SIGNATURE FROM FAMILY. On the Barnett-Lewis price list my friend obtained, it even states: A complete price list will be provided at the funeral home, prior to your selection. SEE ATTACHED

It states that we should have been given/offered for retention a General Price List upon the beginning of the funeral arrangements and/or selection of merchandise - NO FAMILY SIGNATURE.

This is because none of these things happened!!!! Everything was done blindly and trusting
Brian Fritz to be truthful. (*6)

10) Barnett-Lewis did not treat us as they would a walk-in customer inquiring on pre-need
arrangements.

I had someone go to Barnett-Lewis and get whatever price lists and information they could. They were given the general price list and a merchandise price list and information on the various vaults. This person was even offered to go look at caskets but chose not to. (Do they or don't they have a casket display room?) My friend spoke with Brian Fritz. He also gave them information on the steel caskets as to weather or not they seal. Could it be because your Board has contacted Barnett-Lewis about our original letters so he felt he best be up font or could it be because he saw another jackpot coming in the door due to the interest he would gain and not have
to return any unused portion to the family on a pre-need arrangement? SEE ATTACHED

11) We were charged the full package cost of a Traditional funeral, which is evident on the general price list my friend obtained from Barnett-Lewis, when we did not receive all of the services listed and without a choice in the matter. Why?

We did not receive embalming, cosmetizing, normal restoration, or a casketbearers vehicle as is covered under their description of a Traditional Funeral Service. We were not even offered by Barnett-Lewis to have these items done and/or used. We assume that the utility vehicle
was for transferring Jay's body from the coroner to the funeral home, although we are not sure of
this.
Plus this document, at the bottom - just under the price, also states that the price is for clients that
purchase a casket from them. The FTC states that funeral homes can not charge you a fee or
special charges for a casket bought elsewhere. So I would say that this is yet another regulation
broken as it appears to Barnett-Lewis charges more for package services if you bring in a casket
purchased elsewhere. (*7) SEE ATTACHED

Cleansing and Disinfecting of the Body
There was still flecks of blood on Jay's face, there was blood from his ear to his mouth and his
hands were still bloody when his parents and sisters viewed him after the guests had left from the
visitation and before the funeral. Didn't they even cleanse and disinfect his body? It didn't appear
to have been done.
Embalming
Jay wasn't embalmed.
On the death certificate it says he wasn't. After purchasing a copy of the Death Certificate was the
first time we had known that fact. We understand that all the funeral homes in town always
embalm gunshot victims unless they are not found for quite some time after death, with or without
a viewing. Jay died on the 4th, at 4:00 a.m. and wasn't buried until the 7th at about 11:30 a.m.
Mary, Jay's mom, saw Jay at the funeral home before the visitation and funeral. The disturbing
part of this was that when she asked to see him, he was at the base of the stairs that went into
the basement, inside the body bag. He was not in a refrigerated unit of any kind. All family
members that viewed him said that he smelt terrible. There are health codes involved here.
There was no public viewing but the family did view him. We were not given the choice on
embalming either....as far as the arrangements were concerned. (*8)
Other
Barnett-Lewis did pay the organist, soloist and the lunch fees (or so they said,) which came out of
the trust BUT we had to pay the priest $100 out of our own pockets. This was a very basic
funeral. We had no frills or extras. We had no extra cars for the flowers, family or pallbearers.
Barnett-Lewis did not even take the time to line up the cars as has normally been done at most of
the other funerals I have attended. We even paid, out of Jay's checking account, for the flowers
in which sat atop the casket, his clothes, his plot and the opening and closing of the grave. There
was no make up used as it was closed casket. All Barnett-Lewis had to do was wash him up (and
this was not done,) dress him (T-shirt and jeans which we purchased and brought to the funeral
home - we know that they put the shirt on Jay but we do not know about the pants as we could
not see that low) and they had to put him in the casket (they did not even fold his hands together -
they were just laying along his side.) There was no hair dressing as he wore his hair cropped
very short. So, just where did all the money go?
This whole thing appears to be proof of unfair practices, deceit, many unethical practices and
willful misconduct. We are very disappointed that a funeral director would take advantage of a
family grieving after something as terrible as the suicide of a 23 year old, mentally disabled man.
You see, he not only hurt us but he ripped off my nephew after he was dead! The money
used to purchase the trust was out of Jay's checking account. That is sad and it is sick! We
trusted Brian Fritz in the same way you would trust a doctor. This is very painful as we feel taken
advantage of at a time when you can not think straight. We are sure he knew we were very
distraught and we feel he thought that we were easy prey. (*9)

Brian Fritz came across to be a very nice and compassionate individual so we never thought to
question anything he said, especially at such a tragic time. But I would say that telling outright lies
and charging us for services we did not get because he knows a family is too lost in their grief to
know any different, is not ethical or of good moral character This seems to be malpractice as
Barnett-Lewis did not perform their duties in accordance within the funeral industry and he sure
did not give us what we thought we paid for.
We have talked with all the funeral homes in town, just inquiring on prices and services. Each of
them was very open and honest with us. They gave us price lists and offered various information
about their funerals (information varied depending where the conversations had led.) None of
them seemed to be hiding anything. They offered quite a bit of unsolicited information, also. All of
them had casket display rooms and invited us to see their products. All of them had sample
displays of vaults. They were all willing to discuss different types of trusts. At no time were they
told that we were ready to purchase anything. At Barnett-Lewis, Brian Fritz knew we were
purchasing as he held the trust and then he held the body. So, why wasn't Barnett-Lewis like
the other funeral homes?
I am angry and hurt. I can't hardly sleep knowing that Jay is laying in that nasty body bag and
covered in blood. The nightmares are horrific from knowing how he is laying in his final resting
place. It is also causing problems for me at work as I can't seem to get my mind off this horror
story. My poor mother, his grandmother - Joan, is going through a terrible time over this whole
thing. I am concerned for her health due to the stress this has caused her. Jay's grandfather, Jake,
is very, very upset and angry at what has happened. Mary, Jay's mother, has been unable to speak
of this situation until about 1 1/2 weeks ago. She is very distraught. She is not herself and cries at
the drop of a hat. It is hard for her to keep her mind on her work. Randy, Jay's father, still is
unable to speak about it. Chanel and Jenna, Jay's sisters are very hurt and angry about the events
of this matter. They are totally upset! This has been a very terrible experience in every way. No
family should have to go through such a painful situation with any funeral home. We have not
been allowed to grieve appropriately for Jay's loss due to the fact that we are so devastated over
how he was put into the casket and knowing that Barnett-Lewis did not take care of his body
properly and the way we had expected. We are now occupied to make this thing right. So, when
will we be allowed to grieve?
We were not given options or information of any kind in the planning of this funeral. We believe
that Brian Fritz knew what he wanted to do so as to get the most profit. We feel he railroaded us
to settle for the little bit we did get, while charging us a premium amount. He totally abused and
exploited our trust and confidence in him!

Brenda
sioux falls, South Dakota