AN investigation by consumer watchdog CHOICE has found that funeral giant InvoCare, which owns White Lady Funerals, Simplicity Funerals and numerous other brands, is taking advantage of grieving, vulnerable families with a hidden fee and misleading invoices.
The investigation analysed funeral bills and found InvoCare had been applying an unnecessary late fee of $352 ($320+GST) by default to all funeral bills. The invoices clearly show InvoCare funeral homes incorporating the late fee into the total figure of all invoices
If families pay before or on the due date, the fee is supposed to be deducted. Except it isn’t.
To make things even more misleading, this late payment fee appears on the bill as an “administration fee”.
You would see the administration fee and not realise that it’s actually a late payment fee.
With the scale of InvoCare’s business and the reach of its brands across the country, thousands of families could be impacted.
InvoCare operates more than forty different brands across the country.
