What is the practical use of a warranty on a casket used for burial? Do people go out and dig it up to see if they need to get a new one or refunded on the original?
A friend of mine buried her grandmother a few years back and the coffin had a limited 7 year warranty. Felt that was kind of crazy. Were they supposed to dig her up every so often see if the integrity of the coffin was good? Trade out if it went south? Is there an “extended warranty” available for coffins? In what way can a casket fail that would be known?
I think people buy them ahead of the actual event and store them somewhere. I believe my ex MIL’s entire funeral is designed and paid for. Maybe its a guarantee on the hinges or something.
It’s so much simpler to just go the oven route. I don’t have these worries!
I mean, corpses don’t complain, do they? I actually once heard about a guy who sued an undertaker-he complained that his embalmed mother had rotted away (inside of a hermetically sealed casket). Don’t know what kind of damages were awarded.
When my dad died we purchased a casket and burial vault with integrity and waterproof warranties with the thought that we may move him to a military cemetery in the future. The warranty was useful as moving a disintegrated burial site could be more costly than an intact one. Never moved dear ol dad though.
Hermetic sealing by itself would do nothing to prevent decomposition. A hermetic seal is merely airtight; the putrifaction process would continue, whether the casket is sealed or not.
My ex’s wife went for the cheapest casket she could get when he died. She chose one with no handles. I highly recommend cutting corners elsewhere. We dropped him.
I don’t have a cite but some years ago there was a lawsuit in Detroit. It seems that the casket was so cheap that while it was being carried the bottom broke out and the body dropped. The padding in the casket was just crumpled up newspapers and magazine.
The casket manufacturer was sued for emotional distress, etc. Can’t remember how it was resolved.
Maybe that incident has some connection to the OP.
Sometimes around headstones you may notice that the earth seems to have fallen away. It looks like there is a hole that is near the front of the headstone (which looks like it might tip over). I have been told that that is a sign that the casket has collapsed under the weight of the dirt.
When my Yiddishe Mamme goes (Og willing not for a long time yet), she’s getting a cardboard coffin (yes they sell such things for actual burial) decorated with crayons by neighborhood children and mourners (Mom is an optimist who dearly loves all children).
Re Judaism
Jewish law also states that the body should ‘return to the earth’ as quickly as possibe. So a Jewish casket maker would have a guarantee opposite that of the op. “We guarantee your relative will be bioslurry in in a busted box in no time!”
A slightly related anecdote: A while back, there was a series of mysterious grave disturbances in the Dallas area. The local news media, never letting facts get in the way of a good story, proposed several theories as to the motive. Some sort of satanic ritual, maybe? Some sort of weird sexual fetish, perhaps?
We had just buried my Dad, and my first thought was: Caskets are expensive. What’s to keep someone from digging up a fresh grave, emptying the casket, covering the body back up, stopping of at the car wash, and re-selling that casket? It would $2K-$3K for a night’s work. If you brought some extra dirt with you to fill the hole, who would ever know?
