By Ariana Costakes

The City Department of Consumer Affairs announced yesterday the results of a two-month investigation of city funeral homes showing that many pressured customers to choose the most expensive arrangements and for refusing to disclose a full price list.

Commissioner Jonathan Mintz said 87 of the 579 funeral homes inspected also violated local law by neglecting to display affordable coffins in the same manner as more expensive ones, storing them in dingy closets outside the showroom.

Mintz said that under these circumstances customers often felt pressured to spend beyond their means.

“It is indecent to make people feel uncomfortable or pressured in a time of grief,” said Mintz. “That kind of pressure is shameful and luckily, in New York it’s illegal.”

Mintz said other businesses refused to disclose prices over the phone. City law requires complete disclosure of all fees and pricing from the most expensive to the cheapest.

The Commissioner also emphasized that state law does not require bodies to be embalmed, but that the funeral home may require embalming for certain ceremonies such as open-casket wakes.

The offending funeral homes, mostly in the Bronx and Brooklyn, may have to pay over $230,000 in fines.