My father recently passed away and we decided to use the Funeral Directors closest to us which seemed more convenient at the time.

From the beginning I became weary of the Funeral Directors as their approach was not appropriate in some of their interaction with us, given the circumstances.

We had a number of things go wrong which added further to the stress as it was going to be another 8 more days before the actual funeral.

After the funeral I received the final invoice and couldn't believe my eyes. The total cost came to approximately $10,500, for a 2 night stay in the morgue, the coffin and burial plot. We had arranged for everything else.

After further enquiries about their charges etc. we found they charged a Professional Services Fee and separately charged an embalming fee, transfer fees, hearse hire.

Currently we are in dispute over this as I feel there have been some breaches of the Fair Trading Act as well as the Funeral Directors Association of NZ's Code of Ethics. I have advised them that a complaint would be made with FDANZ and we will perhaps have to go to the Disputes Tribunal as well.

I just find it hard and very upsetting to have to go through all of this after you've suffered a loss. Like I've said to the Funeral Director, their whole purpose is to make these types of events easier for people to cope with! The expectation is that they are an expert in these matters and are very capable to deal to these matters in an appropriate manner. The type of response and interaction I've had with the Funeral Directors has not been very productive and I've advised them that given their responses do not indicate any likelihood of resolution then the appropriate steps would need to be taken to progress the matter further.

The one thing I've learnt with this whole ordeal is that it is better to have these things planned before your time comes.