A new trend that is becoming very popular among funeral homes in central Ohio is to offer packaged funerals/cremation services that include your choice of several caskets, vaults and/or cremation urns. This is problematic for two reasons, as follows. First, it assumes that the merchandise that you select costs exactly the same amount, and in many cases this is not true. For instance you can select this package which includes a 18 gauge steel sealer casket, or a solid oak casket. In many cases the steel casket will cost the funeral home much less than the oak casket, so in essence you are paying more for the steel casket when you select it as part of the package. Always select whatever burial merchandise that you wish to purchase seperately as individual items, not as part of a package. Secondly, beware of costly add-ons that you did not necessarily wish to purchase, but cannot decline as they are part of the package. Always get a comparative quote for merchandise from an independent source, which could include a competitor funeral home or third party independent source such as www.everest.com. Honest, caring funeral directors are not interested in having you buy things. They are interested in helping you at a difficult time. If it seems that the emphasis is on buying "stuff", perhaps you need to select a different funeral home. Trust me, we are not all the same!! If you require any assistance, please contact our funeral home at www.hoskinsonfuneral.com, or call us  at 740-927-6900. We are located just twenty miles east of downtown Columbus in Central Ohio. ...read more