Recently, some media reported that the flower arrangement in the farewell hall of a funeral parlor in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province has been reused, and the price is more than three times that of the market. The head of the funeral home responded that the reuse of flowers in the farewell hall was to conserve resources.
Is it true that second-hand flowers, 3 times the fee, are they just to save? In addition to hurting people's feelings, is this practice suspected of consumer fraud?
Second-hand flowers, 3 times charged
A few days ago, some relatives of the deceased reported that when they built a mourning hall for their deceased relatives in the Xi'an funeral home at the beginning of this year, they found that the funeral home staff used the flowers and decorations from the farewell ceremony of the previous deceased, and the farewell hall only replaced the coffin and the photos on the electronic screen, and the other arrangements were exactly the same as the previous deceased. However, on the settlement statement, there is a charge for "floral flower arrangement".
△ Xi'an Funeral Home
The relatives of the deceased said that he was engaged in the flower business, and when he paid the fee, he took a special look at the corresponding "floral flower arrangement" project composition, and found that the price of flowers in it was more than three times the normal price in the market. Therefore, he believes that the funeral home is intentionally or unintentionally "deceiving" the family of the deceased.
△ Xi'an funeral parlor price list
In this regard, the reporter called the Xi'an Civil Affairs Bureau, and the staff of the unit said that the charging price of the funeral home is divided into three types: government pricing, government guidance price and market adjustment price, and the regular layout project of the farewell hall involved in the report belongs to the market adjustment price. "It belongs to the service category, the implementation of market adjustment price, reflecting the cost of people may be the cost price of buying flowers in Xi'an Vermilion Bird Flower Market, he uses the Xianning Hall with an area of four or five hundred square meters, not to say that the flowers are bought back on the end, there are labor, wear and tear and other costs. ”
The staff said that the "Xianning Hall" is one of the farewell halls of the Xi'an funeral home, and its "floral flower arrangement" project charges 12,800 yuan; and the Vermilion Bird Flower Market is the largest and most complete flower market in Xi'an.
△ Xianning Hall of Xi'an Funeral Home
Already suspected of consumer fraud
In response to the problem of reuse of flowers in the "floral flower arrangement" project of the farewell hall, the staff said that the funeral home related work and services currently implement the first question responsibility system and a one-time notification system, under normal circumstances, the staff will inform the family that the flower arrangement service of the farewell hall is an extended service, and after the memorial service, the family can dispose of it by themselves, or entrust the funeral home to dispose of it on their behalf, but there are problems in the specific implementation process. "There is indeed a problem with the reuse of flowers, and in response to the things reflected on the Internet, the funeral home has implemented a written notice and strengthened the education of employees. ”
The staff member said that the funeral home will adopt the form of both rental and sales in the future to avoid the recurrence of such problems.
△ Flowers for memorial (data map)
Second-hand flowers, 3 times the charge. Han Wei, an associate professor at the Department of Law of the School of Public Policy and Management of Northwestern Polytechnical University, believes that the relevant practices of Xi'an funeral parlors are contrary to the requirements of the spirit of the rule of law and the spirit of integrity, and are suspected of infringing on consumers' right to know and the right to choose. "The funeral industry has its particularities, and there are indeed cases of reusing flowers in actual work, and the key to the problem is to let consumers know and choose independently. ”
Funerals make money from extortion
The deceased has passed, and the funeral home provides flowers to set off the atmosphere, so that relatives can express their grief, which is a normal service, and it is not indispensable to charge according to the regulations. But these flowers on the schedule are not precious varieties, so why do they double their value as soon as they enter the funeral home? Such a low cost, normal arrangement, and repeated use, but charging a high fee, is simply taking the consumer as a big wrong.
To add insult to injury, a staff member explained that the flowers in the farewell hall were reused to avoid waste. The money is saved, but the money of relatives is not saved. Deceived relatives under the banner of environmental protection, and earned a few families with a single flower, and the abacus was really fine. Repeating high fees on funeral bouquet arrangements is obviously calculating family members, although it is "clearly marked with price", it is tantamount to making black money.
Funeral services have the attributes of public welfare, and the marketization should be moderate, and the commercialization should be orderly. According to reports, the person in charge of the funeral home said: "The price of flowers is implemented by the market adjustment price, and there is the approval of the price department." The market supervision department should indeed come out and make a statement: Under such high profits, the merchants "repeatedly" use the scenery and replace the old with the new without authorization, is it considered a chaos in the funeral market, is it suspected of infringing on consumers' right to know and choose, and should it be dealt with? The service is not standardized, the fees are not regular, and the relatives of the deceased are in grief to hide from the world, which not only increases the economic burden of the family, but also tramples on public order and good customs.
Faced with the pain of the death of their loved ones, the relatives of the deceased are unable to distinguish between many items, and most of them do not bargain or check them one by one; in the face of all kinds of so-called "rules", they are constrained by filial piety and customs, and often have no choice but to let arrangements and pay money to buy peace of mind. It is necessary to conduct an investigation and rectification of the local funeral home to see whether such "saving" behavior is an isolated phenomenon or a common routine. Funeral services are the needs of people's livelihood, and practitioners should bring care and warmth, rather than taking the opportunity to take a handful and take another handful.
Source: CCTV WeChat public account