Reviews of Fawcett-Junker Funeral Home and Cremation Service (Mortuary)

Pat Dennis

Wonderful service. Treated very well by staff. Large facility to handle larger crowd. Beautifully done every time.

Charlie Brown

Large enough to handle big crowd

Chad H

Get cremated at Fawcett-Juncker and you’ll get burned twice….. My mom passed away on January 14th after a long battle with cancer and her wishes were to be cremated with no viewing or service(s) – a.k.a. a direct cremation. Sadly, amidst our grief, we knew arrangements needed to be made and her husband decided to meet with Fawcett-Junker Funeral Home to discuss our wishes. When he returned home and handed me the folder with the pricing, I nearly died myself. Below is a breakdown of the charges: • Basic Services of Funeral Director and Staff: $3,175 • Transfer of remains to funeral home (1 mile away): $515 • Transfer of remains to their crematory (within a few miles): $515 • Preparation of the body (put clothes on her): $515 • Cremation Cost: $795 • Alternative container for cremation: $145 • Death certificates: $67 • Medical examiner fee: $35 • Obituary listings (2): $372.05 The grand total for my mom’s direct cremation: $6,134.05 In order to frame this out appropriately, please keep in mind that according to the Cremation Association of North America (CANA), the largest trade organization for cremation practitioners, the national average cost of a direct cremation is $1,650. I was so shocked by the pricing that I called them to see if there was anything that could be done because it was much more than we anticipated. Over the phone I was told we could pull the obituaries but that was all that could be done to lower the cost. Again, my family and I were riddled with grief so I just let everything digest for a bit before reaching back out via email to 1) understand the over-inflated charges and 2) see if anything could be done due to affordability; I was told that “our prices are our prices”. I responded once again, highlighting that their fees for a direct cremation (relative to the National average) were exorbitant and if I were at the funeral home with my mom’s husband at the time, I never would have agreed to use their services. In return I received a response, in part which read, “Fawcett Junker is one of three funeral home in town. We are not the cheapest nor are we the most expensive. Your family chose us. If [your mom’s husband] had asked for a disposal type cremation service which means the cheapest cremation possible, I would have gave him a name and number of a place that offers that, meaning no service, no nothing except the removal and cremation. You do everything over the phone and pay upfront. Those services are truly nothing. We are a full service funeral home. We do not offer disposal type services”. This made absolutely no sense to me because that is what we asked for and that is exactly what they provided; nothing special or “full-service” was done (no embalming, no makeup, no service, no viewing, no nothing) so I couldn’t understand 1) why they would accept this job since they’re only a “full-service” funeral home and 2) why they didn’t refer my mom’s husband somewhere else (as they mentioned they would do above) since it wasn’t a “full-service” job. WAIT…..I know, because why not get 6K for a job that is only worth a max of 2K! Nonetheless, my family and I are figuring out how to come up with the money to pay Fawcett-Junker; however, I wanted to warn other families out there who may find themselves in a similar situation to pay very close attention to funeral home pricing and to shop around. The unfortunate reality is “death” is a business and those grieving become prey to the funeral home(s), who take advantage of the ignorant/vulnerable state of grieving families.