The cat is out of the bag. Monday’s Dispatches will mount a televisual airstrike on Co-operative Funeralcare. Channel 4 managed to get an undercover reporter into a hub and filmed bodies stacked “like TV sets” in racks – a disturbing image which will have a devastating impact on an organisation which has spent a great deal of money marketing itself as the people’s undertaker.
This is not all that the Dispatches team achieved. There will be more.
Responses so far from beleaguered Funeralcare spinners include:
‘We are … shocked and disappointed by the information provided to us by this programme, which goes against everything we stand for.
‘We do not believe that the instances shown in the programme are representative of our many caring staff.
‘We have however, launched an immediate investigation into the programme’s findings and will take any action necessary to ensure our high standards and our policy of enabling clients to make informed choices is maintained.’
Funeralcare boss George Tinning told the Sun on Sunday: “This isn’t the way I want our funeral directors to behave. We will investigate and deal with it appropriately.”
Here at the GFG we have never hidden our loathing of an organisation which has both betrayed its foundational values and is also commercially cretinous. It couldn’t go on like this. The truth was bound to come out sometime. And when you take your stand on ethical probity, you’ve a heck of a long way further to fall.
Tomorrow is going to be a horrible day for bereaved people who have entrusted their dead to Funeralcare. It is going to be a horrible day, too, for decent, caring Funeralcare employees who have been badly let down by their management.
And the catastrophe will not be confined to Funeralcare. There will be contagion. Funeralcare is a member of the NAFD. What does this say about self-regulation and compliance controls?
Charles an excellent image, I have to say, particularly when stacked so high anyhow:- 1) it will of course be shocking for all who have instructed f’care; 2) and also for, I am sure, the vast majority of their staff at ‘ground level’; but 3) I have nil sympathy for the ‘vast layers’ of middle management and the constant spin that they employ after all, an ‘expose’ on f’care had clearly been up and coming for a number of years, let’s not forget the horror stories that you have focused on in this (excellent) blog, all of which have been… Read more »
and there are also ‘local issues’ involved when a new independent opens up on their patch, here are three such true cases:- 1) a featured fuceral director (in your recommended guide)found himself up against some less than charitable comments from f’care; 2) a further one heard that f’care staff locally would receive bonuses if they managed to severely curtail the growth of his business; and 3) not far from me, a new operator was suspiciously called out at night for a removal which turned out to be bogus and undeniably there’s far more, but I expect that this will come… Read more »
I hear there are letters displayed prominently on notice boards in Funeral Care branches
TAXI for TINNING!
Hopefully profits will be down from £52 million next year. Mr T may not get his bonus!
I am doing a service this week for a family who had a pre-paid plan with Co-op Funeralcare. I feel desperately sorry for my very lovely family and only hope they won’t be watching tonight. I also feel sad for the arranger at this particular branch who is one of the best.
However I do accept that if this is a catalyst for improvements, it has to be a good thing.
Very sad, for those who’ve already put their faith in F’care’s own projected message to have such images of betrayal flung at them. It would be hard to ignore, and leave an uneasy feeling.
But if it leads people to question the Tesco-sterone of this overblown outfit that professes care in its title but lacks it in its practice – as well as, yes, in its principles – that’s only going to help in the greater scheme of things.
Yes Charles, well done for copying and pasting a generic picture of tv sets to highlight Professor Whatever’s sound bite regarding coffins that are delivered shrink wrapped and stacked to keep them in pristine condition ready to be prepared for the deceased. Or was the tv set some sort of ill thought out analogy concerning a multi tier rack system commonly used throughout the funeral profession and hospitals. Now I’m not one for resorting to personal comments,however, Mr Plume sir it would appear that you have indeed wedged yourself so far up Charles’s bottom I fear you may be lost… Read more »
Dear Mr Employee, this is not an elitist and biassed blog, it offers an open forum for anyone to say whatever they like, and it does so with an open mind. If you feel that majority opinion is against you, then that’s just the way it panned out. You have not been the victim of a clique that always thinks it’s right. Sure, we can be provocative to get people talking because we’re interested in the complete spectrum of opinion. Where there is consensus, we like to say, let there be discord. So we hope you’ll come back one day… Read more »
Dear Mr Employee In the event that you are still reading this (excellent and indispensible) blog and in response to:- “…..however, Mr Plume sir it would appear that you have indeed wedged yourself so far up Charles’s bottom….” now Mr Employee, I most certainly haven’t although it is clearly obvious that Charels and I share very similar views when it comes to the not so mighty f’care – I will also say that Charles’ humour when it comes to illustrations on here are entirely appropriate incidentally we are not the only two who comment on here with our views regarding… Read more »
Co-operative Funeralcare response to Dispatches up on Youtube already. No comments at the time of posting here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVRw5kbokNA&feature=youtube_gdata
Thanks Richard. What’s your supernatural power?
Supernatural power?
Searching YouTube to watch the programme again, I came across this video of independent funeral director recommended by this blog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HLYu6K99aA&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Now that is shocking !
Oh god Simon, I haven’t got time for this. Everyone, if you need a damn good consultant who will clearly go the extra mile you could do a lot worse than hiring Simon Irons. Terrier like doesn’t begin to cover it. I think you can find this video on Carl Marlow’s own website, minus the tags about undercover anything. Filmed openly.