BBB ADVISORY
Why We Ended Our Affiliation with the Better Business Bureau
When I first decided to start an online business, like most business owners, I looked for ways to establish company credibility from a consumer's standpoint. I quickly discovered that my options were limited. I wanted more than anything to have my clients understand that I was for real, not some scam.
Like a lot of consumers, I was aware that the Better Business Bureau, or BBB, provided some sort of rating system that consumers could use as a measure for considering whether or not to do business with someone. To be honest, I felt like the BBB was my father's or grandfather's way of sizing up a company and, in this day and age of high tech online store fronts, I wasn't sure that the BBB had made the necessary changes to keep up with the times.
That being said, I reluctantly paid my $600.00 annual membership fee (for what?) and joined. I expected some kind of real verification process and I was ready and willing to jump through hoops to prove legitimacy in spite of my virtual existence. The BBB did not do anything. They even gave me "online accreditation", which, according to them, means they visited my location to confirm I was not a scam. Maybe they "Google earthed" me, but they definitely never paid me a visit. All the BBB did was cash my check and send me their logos. I was very disappointed and a seed of skepticism was planted in my mind from that moment. If I was able to receive approval by coming up with the right amount of cash couldn't anyone? How does that help consumers make informed decisions?
I think what bothered me the most was that here I was in the very business of fighting fraud and misrepresentation and the one agency that many consumers think they can trust appeared, in and of itself, to be a scam. I also discovered that the BBB, which I thought was a government supervised, nationally run company, was really a large group of franchises, all independently owned and operated, just like McDonald's. And, just like McDonald's, the level of competent service you receive varies from location to location. Maybe because my local franchise owner was in charge of Santa Barbara County he was used to the good life at the beach while exchanging logos for cash. Not a bad gig! Maybe he had grown accustomed to living off what some might say were the extorted funds pried from the hands of business owners desperate to have a good rating to tell their potential clients about.
Needless to say, I used the "A" rating they start every business out with to post on my website and gave my company some instant credibility. About 1000 customers and almost a year later, we received our first complaint. It was a sad day for me but in business it is inevitable that one day, no matter how hard you try, you will be unable to please everyone. That being said, we provided our documented evidence that we had performed the service according to our contract. Unfortunately, we had run into a customer that had wanted something for nothing. We felt sure that, thanks to the BBB's mediation procedures, we would be allowed to present our case and logic and evidence would prevail.
Well, that was the next rude awakening. In spite of our best efforts, the BBB made no attempt to seek out the truth. They simply passed our complaint response on to the unhappy customer and then passed the unhappy customer's rebuttal back to us; finally, allowing us the last word before closing the case and ruling we had acted according to our contractual obligations. Good news right? Wrong. Our rating dropped. Why? No explanation was ever given. Surf must be up in Santa Barbara?
But wait, it gets better. Fast forward another thousand customers and a few more complaints of the exact same nature with the exact same outcome. Our rating dropped again and again! By now we were absolutely confused by the falling rating and made several attempts to figure out why the BBB's system was, in our opinion, unfairly biased. We had hundreds of happy clients who had benefited from our unique service and yet the few who did not want to pay were causing our rating to plummet, even though the BBB itself agreed we had performed our service as per our contract. After contacting the President of the BBB in Santa Barbara, Rick Copelan, his less than articulate response was as follows:
The algorithm that we use to calculate a reliability rating takes into account a variety of factors including complaint traffic, length of time in business, the BBB's history with the company's industry and so on."
I think my personal favorite part of this statement is, "and so on". Could he be vaguer? Even so, we tried to reason with the BBB, offering all kinds of documentation and evidence of services rendered, and happy client testimonies to which he responded:
When I first decided to start an online business, like most business owners, I looked for ways to establish company credibility from a consumer's standpoint. I quickly discovered that my options were limited. I wanted more than anything to have my clients understand that I was for real, not some scam.
Like a lot of consumers, I was aware that the Better Business Bureau, or BBB, provided some sort of rating system that consumers could use as a measure for considering whether or not to do business with someone. To be honest, I felt like the BBB was my father's or grandfather's way of sizing up a company and, in this day and age of high tech online store fronts, I wasn't sure that the BBB had made the necessary changes to keep up with the times.
That being said, I reluctantly paid my $600.00 annual membership fee (for what?) and joined. I expected some kind of real verification process and I was ready and willing to jump through hoops to prove legitimacy in spite of my virtual existence. The BBB did not do anything. They even gave me "online accreditation", which, according to them, means they visited my location to confirm I was not a scam. Maybe they "Google earthed" me, but they definitely never paid me a visit. All the BBB did was cash my check and send me their logos. I was very disappointed and a seed of skepticism was planted in my mind from that moment. If I was able to receive approval by coming up with the right amount of cash couldn't anyone? How does that help consumers make informed decisions?
I think what bothered me the most was that here I was in the very business of fighting fraud and misrepresentation and the one agency that many consumers think they can trust appeared, in and of itself, to be a scam. I also discovered that the BBB, which I thought was a government supervised, nationally run company, was really a large group of franchises, all independently owned and operated, just like McDonald's. And, just like McDonald's, the level of competent service you receive varies from location to location. Maybe because my local franchise owner was in charge of Santa Barbara County he was used to the good life at the beach while exchanging logos for cash. Not a bad gig! Maybe he had grown accustomed to living off what some might say were the extorted funds pried from the hands of business owners desperate to have a good rating to tell their potential clients about.
Needless to say, I used the "A" rating they start every business out with to post on my website and gave my company some instant credibility. About 1000 customers and almost a year later, we received our first complaint. It was a sad day for me but in business it is inevitable that one day, no matter how hard you try, you will be unable to please everyone. That being said, we provided our documented evidence that we had performed the service according to our contract. Unfortunately, we had run into a customer that had wanted something for nothing. We felt sure that, thanks to the BBB's mediation procedures, we would be allowed to present our case and logic and evidence would prevail.
Well, that was the next rude awakening. In spite of our best efforts, the BBB made no attempt to seek out the truth. They simply passed our complaint response on to the unhappy customer and then passed the unhappy customer's rebuttal back to us; finally, allowing us the last word before closing the case and ruling we had acted according to our contractual obligations. Good news right? Wrong. Our rating dropped. Why? No explanation was ever given. Surf must be up in Santa Barbara?
But wait, it gets better. Fast forward another thousand customers and a few more complaints of the exact same nature with the exact same outcome. Our rating dropped again and again! By now we were absolutely confused by the falling rating and made several attempts to figure out why the BBB's system was, in our opinion, unfairly biased. We had hundreds of happy clients who had benefited from our unique service and yet the few who did not want to pay were causing our rating to plummet, even though the BBB itself agreed we had performed our service as per our contract. After contacting the President of the BBB in Santa Barbara, Rick Copelan, his less than articulate response was as follows:
The algorithm that we use to calculate a reliability rating takes into account a variety of factors including complaint traffic, length of time in business, the BBB's history with the company's industry and so on."
I think my personal favorite part of this statement is, "and so on". Could he be vaguer? Even so, we tried to reason with the BBB, offering all kinds of documentation and evidence of services rendered, and happy client testimonies to which he responded:
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