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The Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) has filed a lawsuit against R.G. Ortiz Funeral Homes Inc.– which operates eight NYC locations including one at 235 West 72nd Street – accusing the company of exploiting grieving families and committing numerous violations of the City’s Consumer Protection Law.
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The DCWP accuses R.G. Ortiz of “refusing to provide information regarding the whereabouts of their [customer’s] loved ones remains, misrepresenting or concealing the prices of services offered, failing to provide services that were paid for – in part because they routinely presented remains in unacceptable conditions – among many other violations of the City’s Consumer Protection Law.”
The lawsuit comes after DCWP’s investigation – which was partly undercover and involved in-person investigations and customer interviews. (There have been 48 consumer complaints since 2019.)
Some of the more disturbing allegations outlined in the lawsuit include “allowing remains to significantly decompose, putting decedents’ clothes on backwards, or forcing families to do makeup for their deceased loved ones before services.” The company is also being accused of “forcing consumers to sift through the remains of cremated individuals in storage rooms in order to locate their loved one’s ashes.”
An undercover investigator called the 72nd Street location in December 2023 and asked an employee about the costs of various funeral services. Instead of providing a range of prices, “The R.G. Ortiz employee simply stated that the transportation of the body, embalming, preparation, open casket viewing, death certificate, flowers, and casket would total $6,407,” according to the suit.
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Consumers who were deceived or exploited by R.G. Ortiz Funeral Homes are encouraged to visit nyc.gov/DCWP or call 311 and say “R.G. Ortiz” to file a complaint.
Read Marie C.‘s review of Ortiz R G Funeral Home on Yelp
It must still be a popular venue, I heard people are dying to get in.
I remember a funeral service some years back where the decomposition smell hitherto never, ever an issue, at any other indoor funeral service was nearly impossible to sit through. To this day I don’t know if embalming procedures were not properly or decently adhered to but Ortiz was identified as the funeral home handling the preparation of the deceased for church service and burial. A number of us were shocked at how pervasive the odor was in the church during the service. I’ve told people to avoid that place for years.