Comments on: Better Business Bureau – A useless institution ?

By: T Schnowske

T Schnowske — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:37:12 +0000

A big lesson learned. The BBB is a joke. Not even really reading my complaint. Doesn’t matter what my complaint was I get a generic answer. Blah…Blah…Blah…Blah…Blah!!! Integrity and Trust and Honor are a thing of the past in many cases in this world and where you deal with a company on line and they never have to see your face, makes it even easier for them to get away with what ever they want. When a company can send you a product that has been damaged and you are not reimbursed for sending it back…there is a problem. And when they try to bribe you with $20 credit to let it all go..you KNOW you have a problem. Talking to the BBB is like talking to this computer. It gets you NO WHERE!

By: admin

admin — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 21:02:32 +0000

We thank everyone who has participated in the discussion and the thread. We expect that the article has served its purpose in educating people about what is BBB and more importantly – what it is NOT.

By: Sally

Sally — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 18:42:10 +0000

All I’ve read here is about the consumer. What about the busineses that get railroaded into joining this BBB because they are so reputable. I joined right after opening my business, paid the dues and got my shiny new plaque for the wall. I dont even know what they are supposed to do for the small busines. They say we are members because of our high rating. Guess what, If my business is so highly rated….why would I need your so called protection anyway. I have never had any complaints. When the subscription ways over and time to renue…Well NO THANKS! They always call to reel us in again and treat us like we are idiots for not joining. Thanks ,,,but no thanks, doing fine without the extra BILL.

By: betty

betty — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 16:46:13 +0000

I don’t know if the BBB does their job or not, but I do know they are extremely difficult to work with from the business owner’s point of view. My business has an unfavorable rating, because of one unanswered compliant in 30 years. We have no other compliants, the one we have is recent (maybe 6 months old), and I have been working tirelessly on trying to resolve the issue. The problem is that I can’t get any help from my local BBB. I have called, emailed, wrote letters…I want to resolve this but can’t! Any suggestions??

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 03:19:38 +0000

All I can say is that we’ve slam dunked our case against a clear rip off and all the mediator does is send responses back and forth. There’s really no way to get a complaint to stick to a company that simply responds to every response.

These thieves have an A rating and use their BBB accredidation to convert sales. We’re standing up to them and the only thing BBB does is send our emails back and forth. Such a disillusioning process because this company is everything an A rated company would never be!

By: Frank Beckendorf

Frank Beckendorf — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 20:03:06 +0000

The Better Business Bureau of Abilene, TX states that my complaint against the Abilene Teachers Federal Credit Union, “….digressed to a point where personal issues cloud the matter.” This is siding with the business I complained about and reeks of politics in protecting the member institution against the ordinary citizen who has a legitimate problem…

By: joe bloggs

joe bloggs — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 23:04:03 +0000

The whole point of the BBB is to function as a B2B– that is, to iron out differences between businesses that pay for its dispute-resolution services. Businesses are themselves consumers of others’ products and services. When the complainant is a member as well as the entity complained about, of course BBB is a boatload more likely to do anything about it! BBB’s selling point to businesses is, “Wouldn’t you like to avoid having to go to Court? For a ‘nominal fee’ we can help in that regard.” In the B2B context, this sort of thing works better than in the business-to-public context; as between businesses, there’s often a fee-shift arrangement in the contract stipulating that the entity being sued can come up with a “best offer” that,should the party doing the suing receive less than that amount by verdict, then the party doing the suing has to pay the defendant’s legal fees incurred after the offer was made(which can wipe out the verdict). In contrast, such provisions are usually not lawful in the consumer-to-business context, and for that matter, neither are compulsory-arbitration clauses. Neither the business nor the consumer has a figurative gun to their head in the usual BBB complaint case and so nothing gets done. Many businesses look upon BBB accreditation as a cost of doing business to at least appear to be amenable to out-of-court settlement with displeased consumers. This is what the allegedly corrupt selling of BBB accreditation, and BBB’s alleged shakedown of noncompliant companies, is all about: appearance appearance appearance.

By: samuel

samuel — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 16:37:28 +0000

It seems as if anyone who writes good about the BBB is from the BBB. They are nothing more than money hungry scum bags. What i dont understand is, how can a company owner have BBB A+ Rating and be on the board directors. I saw one company that 6 months ago had 26 complaints and still today has 26 complaints. It is impossible for them not to have had 1 complaint in the past 6 months since i was scammed and ripped off by them and reported this to the BBB. The complaint was not added to their page so instead of 27 they still have 26. Nothing more than bullshit. Who can you trust these days……..?

By: George

George — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 00:13:42 +0000

One of my clients, whom I will call “Ms. Deceived,” once told me that she complained to the BBB about a business (which I will refer to as “X Company”) that cheated her out of $75.00. X Company is a large corporation that has offices nationwide. The parent office of X company is listed as a BBB-accredited business that enjoys a top BBB rating, whereas, to my knowledge, none of its branch offices are members of the BBB. Since Ms. Deceived did not live in the same region where the corporate office of the cheating company was located, she complained to the BBB that had jurisdiction over her case. The BBB refused to further assist the complainant, on the grounds that the branch office of X Company was not a BBB-accredited member and that office was uncooperative. When Ms. Deceived asked to have her complaint transferred to the BBB region having jurisdiction over the parent office of X Company, the BBB refused without explanation. Ms. Deceived, quite frustrated and disappointed, told the BBB do stop with its excuses and do its job, to which the BBB replied: “Your telling us what to do is is offensive and, therefore, there will be no further communication between you and our office.” Ms. Deceived was totally flabbergasted by BBB’s door-closing, freakish response. The BBB is all about trust, right? WRONG! A more accurate view of the BBB is “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.”

By: George

George — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 23:34:26 +0000

Do you trust the fox that guards the farmer’s henhouse? There’s your answer about the realibility and trustworthiness of the BBB (very useful in furthering its self-interest, but totally useless otherwise).