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Uphill battle for emerging undertakers

Home National Uphill battle for emerging undertakers

Windhoek

The owner of a community-based funeral parlour has accused established undertakers of not playing fair in the funeral service business.

Nadia Pogiso, 39, the owner of Community Funeral Services in Okahandja recently told New Era the playing field is not level for established and non-established funeral service providers, hence making it difficult for new or small-scale undertakers to thrive in this competitive environment.

“The big funeral services, such as Avbob and Jarman, give us small undertakers a tough time,” Pogiso said, alleging that sometimes customers at the more established funeral homes are discouraged by these parlours from using the services of the smaller undertakers.

“For example, when a customer is paying for a death policy they tell the customer not to go to the small undertakers for services, because the established funeral services are the ones contracted to do funerals for those who have policies – although this is not always the case,” she explained, saying “What Avbob or Jarman can do when they see a customer from Okahandja coming to them, is to refer them to their local community funeral undertakers.”

Contacted for comment on the matter, a staff member at Jarman – who did not want to be named – said the allegations do not hold water: “We help (the small undertakers) where we can.” In addition, they said Namibia has a free market economy and clients can seek the services of their preferred service providers.

“My experience is that people go for quotations and afterwards make a choice on which services they can use,” they said. However, there are customers who have their preferred service providers. “These customers do not look at the prices, but come directly to us.

That makes it difficult for us to make referrals,” said the source at Jarman, adding that insurers that provide funeral policies do not limit people to any institution.

“There is no way we force people to come here. It’s about satisfaction. The client must be satisfied or happy where he or she goes. We are all competitors and perhaps the small undertakers must find ways to succeed in this competitive industry. It’s really competitive nowadays, because there are a lot of funeral companies.”