Compensation

Keep_pedalling

Malthusian said:

I cannot see how the funeral company should get away with anything less than a full refund.

The family / estate paid for a memorial service with the family present. That didn't happen. The service wasn't delivered. Full refund.

Throwing the ashes away isn't doing part of the job, it's chucking away one of the raw materials for the job.

The only possible alternative for the funeral company is to arrange a memorial service at their own expense, but the family would seem fully entitled to refuse, take their refund and go elsewhere.

Robin9 said:

It's the Crematorium that has made the error so you need to exclude the Funeral Directors costs.

Even if the crematorium had made the error, that's irrelevant if the OP paid the funeral director for the service. The funeral director would be liable for a full refund. Pursuing the crematorium would be their problem.

I don’t think the family missed out on attending the funeral, just the scattering of ashes which would have been on a separate occasion.

p00hsticks

Malthusian said:

I cannot see how the funeral company should get away with anything less than a full refund.

The family / estate paid for a memorial service with the family present. That didn't happen. The service wasn't delivered. Full refund.

Part of the service wasn't delivered.

From the way I read it the majority of the service was delivered as requested - there presumably was a casket, a funeral service with family present (as much as possible within potential covid restrictions at the time), a cremation and a later scattering of the ashes in a garden of remembrance. The only error was that the family wished to be present at the scattering of the ashes and mistakenly this didn't happen. I agree that it's very unfortunate but I personally feel that expecting a complete refund of the funeral cost is disproportionate.

Malthusian

The OP's post didn't mention a funeral service prior to the cremation, but I can see why other posters have assumed that one took place. As the OP only mentioned a cremation and scattering of the ashes I assumed it was a simple ceremony and that was all that was meant to happen.

If a funeral service was held with the family present and it was the only the bit at the end that went wrong I agree a full refund should probably not be expected - compensation for distress and inconvenience would seem in order.

In lieu of scattering the ashes the OP's family could go to where they would have scattered them and light a candle or something similar. They don't have to miss out on celebrating their mum's life in the way they wanted over a handful of dust.

swingaloo2

A similar thing happened to us when my mother was cremated. We were going to scatter the ashes where we had scattered dad's and waited longer than we expected for the phone call to tell us tthey were ready for collection.
When we rang the crematorium to find out what was going on we were told they had been scattered in the crematorium garden as they had not been advise we wished to have them.

Candie

Thank you to all who posted an opinion - it has been helpful to see other's points of view.  Yes, the service went well during the cremation but we were expecting to carry out another small service when the ashes were scattered as a final moment but this was not possible due to error.  

I am not expecting to claim any large sum of money but I feel there should be some small recompense and thanks to the answers I've received on this post I can see that others feel the same and I have received a balanced view of what might be expected.