Following on from my last article about DIY Funerals, I wanted to talk to you about some subterranean practices in place within the UK's funeral sector.

You may recall that I commented, some of the larger corporate funeral firms initiate credit checks and positively frown on poor rating. Then I thought, why leave it there, when corporate control 60% of funeral volume this could be just the tip of the iceberg of what some would consider immorality widespread across the trade, whether as a 'family' or 'independent'.

On one hand, from a business perspective funeral firms were up until a few years ago trading unwisely:

'Have a funeral worth £2500 then pay us afterwards; we give you credit in good faith'.

It worked against them - bad debt in the trade was hitting blood-boiling heights. So, conscientious pre-funeral checks are understandable in a way but then spare a thought for families that have actually been turned away from funeral homes for having a low credit rating and the balance starts tipping the other way - the wrong way - becoming a little more mercenary than at first glimpse.

There are also the considerable, consumable, unmentionable mark-ups. For instance, around two years ago a basic coffin was being sold by some at over £400; consider the buy-in cost at around £80 and the thumb-screw tightens, with most low to middle range coffins all generating around 400% profit.

What about embalming? Whether you like it or not it is something that slows the natural processes occurring after death but in my experience and in many cases the technique is redundant due to the fact that many deceased people remain in a good condition for a week to 10 days. However, some companies are not happy about this and positively strived to reach a theoretical point where 100% of cadavers were embalmed. To this end front-line staff were given edicts to ensure this. Yet, even when directly advised to 'push' embalming I found many families reluctant to permit the semi-invasive operation.

There are more than a handful of the tricks of the misguided firm - a particular firm on recently merging with a local company dumped most local suppliers for their own integrated network of businesses, without warning, without question. Leaving some local affiliates standing at the platform wondering how they could have missed the train. And they had been waiting the longest!

Look, there are good firms and bad. The former are excellent, the latter are off-centre on what their trade really means to society. The practices of some go against their trading principles but we can always hope that in time the true nature of their business is apparent to the budget chasers and fat controllers.