Somerset FD warns against cold calling funeral plans

A Somerset funeral director has warned potential funeral plan purchasers to be wary of buying funeral plans from cold callers or email campaigns.

Matthew Aldridge, who is a funeral director at F H Halliday & Son, is urging caution because he has found that grieving families have become very disappointed when the plans don’t allow them to use their local and trusted funeral directors.

“I am getting very concerned about people replying to doorstep sellers and mail shots about funeral plans,” said the Portishead funeral director. “I have recently come across three different grieving families in the town who have been extremely distressed to find the funeral plans they had purchased were locked into certain companies and did not allow them to use their chosen local funeral director.”

Mr Aldridge also alerted the Weston, Worle & Somerset Mercury that one such family had come to him after experiencing such disappointment with a cold caller purchase.

He said that this was not a subject to be discussing on the doorstep with a complete stranger. “It should be something discussed with family, or at least given plenty of time to consider,” he added.