Crematorium Letter

[Dinglebert]

Originally Posted by tspill

I suggest you simply call them and politely ask them the question.
What's done is done.

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I have emailed them as they are not open at weekends. This is not a single crematorium, its a company that run a number of them.

What's done is done is incorrect. With the information I have at present this company are routinely breaching the Data Protecton Act. They have put in place a system of contacting the relatives of deceased persons to offer them things to purchase without having gained the permission of the relatives to do so.

This is not a small matter and the potential penalties for doing so both financially but also reputationaly is large. All I want from them is an explanation as to why they contacted me without my express permission to do so.

[Dinglebert]

Originally Posted by Some Banana

When my papa died in hospital. The nurses came in straight away and left a leaflet at the end of the bed for a funeral parlour. I thought that was well out of order when he had literally been minutes dead and was still lying there.

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It is routine for staff to give out at an appropriate time an information leaflet about what to do after a death. There is a specific Scottish edition where I live. It was available in the ward but also at the regsitrars and was useful.

However what that nurse did was completely inappropriate and a disciplinary matter. As a nurse we are not allowed to advertise full stop. If there was any consideration that they were getting some sort of commission for leaving the leaflet it would be their job and their registration.

[megaflyer]

I got similar after my Father died .

I had no contact or direct contract with the (private) crematorium all had been through an excellent family undertakers where we had discussed what we were doing with the ashes . The crematorium letter even suggested returning the ashes to them (at a fee) - I was really upset and cross shredded their letter and leaflets/brochures together with the “reminder” I got some weeks later from them . It was a tactless money making opportunity from an American owned crematorium which the council sold to them a couple of years back ...

[mickchick]

Am I the only one who thinks Chair 1519 is over-reacting? The crematorium is perfectly entitled to send out a letter offering further services. It is absurd to say that what they have done is illegal and to invoke the Data Protection Act is to suggest a basic misunderstanding of the Act itself. Of course everyone will sympathise with the OP's loss and can understand how grief can over-sensitise even the strongest. But at the end of the day the crematorium is guilty only of sending out a letter offering services which it thought would be useful. There was no breach of the Data Protection Act because this was a communication between the service operator and a customer on its own records.

[Some Banana]

Originally Posted by Chair1519

It is routine for staff to give out at an appropriate time an information leaflet about what to do after a death. There is a specific Scottish edition where I live. It was available in the ward but also at the regsitrars and was useful.

However what that nurse did was completely inappropriate and a disciplinary matter. As a nurse we are not allowed to advertise full stop. If there was any consideration that they were getting some sort of commission for leaving the leaflet it would be their job and their registration.

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Yeah I think with it being a generalised leaflet on what to do next (and maybe a little later) would have been ok but this was just a leaflet for one particular business which I though was odd. We are in scotland too.

[RachaelC]

Originally Posted by mickchick

Am I the only one who thinks Chair 1519 is over-reacting? The crematorium is perfectly entitled to send out a letter offering further services. It is absurd to say that what they have done is illegal and to invoke the Data Protection Act is to suggest a basic misunderstanding of the Act itself. Of course everyone will sympathise with the OP's loss and can understand how grief can over-sensitise even the strongest. But at the end of the day the crematorium is guilty only of sending out a letter offering services which it thought would be useful. There was no breach of the Data Protection Act because this was a communication between the service operator and a customer on its own records.

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Further services = marketing. Without capturing the appropriate consents then they are in breach of the law.

If they’ve done nothing wrong then they will have nothing to worry about with a referral of the issue to the ICO, and if they have they will rectify the situation and in all likelihood won’t get in any more trouble than that. I think the OP has done the right thing.

[Ds4ljs]

I received something similar. I found it devastating. It appeared out of the blue 6 weeks after I lost my Dad in January. I too was angry. I agree, it’s wrong. I just needed time. Not marketing or questionnaires.

[tspill]

Originally Posted by mickchick

Am I the only one who thinks Chair 1519 is over-reacting? The crematorium is perfectly entitled to send out a letter offering further services. It is absurd to say that what they have done is illegal and to invoke the Data Protection Act is to suggest a basic misunderstanding of the Act itself. Of course everyone will sympathise with the OP's loss and can understand how grief can over-sensitise even the strongest. But at the end of the day the crematorium is guilty only of sending out a letter offering services which it thought would be useful. There was no breach of the Data Protection Act because this was a communication between the service operator and a customer on its own records.

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I agree - massive overreaction.

As I have already suggested, a polite phone call to understand how this has happened and whether it is a breach or not. This is all it would take. The OP is obviously frustrated, but no one on here can answer the questions as we don't know the details. There may be a GDPR issue, or there may not - but no one here can answer as we don't know what was signed up to or not. Only the company can help with this.

[Dinglebert]

Originally Posted by tspill

I agree - massive overreaction.

As I have already suggested, a polite phone call to understand how this has happened and whether it is a breach or not. This is all it would take. The OP is obviously frustrated, but no one on here can answer the questions as we don't know the details. There may be a GDPR issue, or there may not - but no one here can answer as we don't know what was signed up to or not. Only the company can help with this.

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I have already responded to you. I have emailed the company. I didn't in my post ask anyones opinion at any point if this was a data protection issue or not. I did'nt ask any questions in my post.

You are entitled to your opinion. I tend to always disagree with them anyway.

[tspill]

Originally Posted by Chair1519

I have already responded to you. I have emailed the company. I didn't in my post ask anyones opinion at any point if this was a data protection issue or not. I did'nt ask any questions in my post.

You are entitled to your opinion. I tend to always disagree with them anyway.

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It's. public forum. A number of people have mentioned GDPR and DP so it has been part of the ongoing discussion so not sure why you took exception to me mentioning something that was already part of the discussion?

A phone call will give a much better result than email. Just my opinion.