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Internet Memorial Dealer Begins Campaign to Stop Abuses by Cemeteries...

On behalf of consumers across America who are victims of abusive sales practices by cemeteries and funeral homes, Prestige Memorials announces a new "get tough" policy.

"We hear horror stories every month about cemeteries and funeral homes that try to fool customers into paying far more than necessary for headstones and other memorial products. A lot of times these illegal attempts actually succeed, and our company ends up losing a sale. Nobody but the bad guys win when that happens. So we're now going to get tough on the bad guys," said Ralf Heckenbach, owner of Prestige Memorials (http://www.prestigememorials.com/).

The company, which sells headstones (www.prestigememorials.com) and other memorial products across the United States via the Internet, will document and report all instances in which its customers indicate a cemetery or funeral home may be in violation of federal anti-trust laws. Previously, the company had simply encouraged customers to report violations themselves.

"We found that most customers who have been treated unfairly by a cemetery or funeral home will follow up and pursue those violators with authorities; that's very understandable. In our industry, most customers are drained emotionally just by the circumstances leading to their purchase. Customers need help battling anti-trust issues."

So Prestige Memorials will now take up the fights itself and help customer to their rights.

When Prestige Memorials hears about an illegal practice at an funeral home (http://www.prestigememorials.com/), letters will go out quickly to the Federal Trade Commission's Competition Bureau, and the U.S. Justice Department's Anti-Trust Division. To help assure that the FTC and Justice Department take the cases seriously, the company will also send copies to appropriate members of congress and to the cemetery's local newspaper.

"In a handful of cases we have helped customers pursue the violators and gave them the right address's to file complaints against those funeral homes or cemeteries. Official Offices have not been too helped - much of it is getting it out into the press. A similarity would be if the local police would refuse to investigate when a house has been burglarized. That doesn't make sense, so we're going to ask congressmen and the media to help convince regulators to take our complaints seriously."

Prestige Memorials began this new "get tough" campaign by filing complaints against cemeteries which will not let customers purchase outside grave markers (www.prestigememorials.com) from other companies.

Prestige Memorials is aware of many cases in which funeral homes and cemeteries have misquoted laws, charged excessive installation fees, refused to accept markers and other products purchased from "outside" vendors, and even falsely maligned these outside vendors. All of these illegal tactics were clearly aimed at discouraging sales to outside vendors and requiring customers to pay dramatically higher prices to the cemetery or funeral home.

"Unfortunately, most of the responses we've received from regulators and Congress people are along the lines of 'your complaints may be valid, but we just can't make them a priority at the moment.' (Info about your rights at Grave Markers (http://www.gravemarkers.info/).) It's still early. Our campaign will eventually get people to take this issue seriously. We are counting on the media and consumers to help with that," Heckenbach said.

Contact:

Ralf Heckenbach, Owner

361-949-1200

ralf @ prestigememorials.com

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