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Telemarkers chase customer beyond the grave

Graveyard. Photo: AP

Even death cannot help you escape telemarketers.

Bruce Abare died in February, 2010. Since then his partner David Musgrove says he has received at least two calls per year from telemarketers asking after his late partner.

The problem is the calls are all coming from the Florida company that owns the cemetery that has held his ashes ever since.

Mr Musgrove told Florida Today he was jarred by the first call he received asking after his deceased partner of 20 years.

"I told them to walk out to the cremation gardens and speak to him," he said.

Mr Musgrove said he did not want money or damages from the business, he just wanted the calls to stop.

"I don't think I'm asking too much, I really don't," Musgrove said.


Despite repeatedly telling several staff from the Fountainhead Memorial Park his partner had long resided in their grounds, the calls continued.

Placing his number on Florida’s Do Not Call register also failed to stop the persistent salespeople.

Fountainhead Memorial Park’s parent company has declined to comment on the specific case, citing privacy concerns, however, a spokeswoman for the company said it was its policy to remove numbers from their call lists upon request.

But sometimes mistakes could happen, she said.

Mr Musgrave told reporters he could not understand how the same mistake seems to keep happening to him. He said be believed the company was trying to offer his late partner upgrade funeral arrangements.

"It brought back really sad memories the first time, and the second. It really does irritate me now,” he said.

"The credit card company stopped calling. Everyone else did. Nobody calls for him, but the place he's buried can't get it.”