Better Business Bureau - "Better Buyer Beware" (Must Read)

UPDATED: ABC'S 20/20 Expose on the Better Business Bureau Scam Exposes the real "ratings" scam behind the highly paid Better Business Bureau and their employees. Even terrorist organizations and racist organization can get A+ ratings!

UPDATED: ABC News investigative reporting and investigations by the Connecticut AG revealed the same serious flaws in the BBB rating system that were reported previously by the Better Ethics Bureau and others.  As a result, Steve Cox, President and CEO, Council of Better Business Bureaus, has finally promised significant BBB reform.

The good work of the editor of www.BBBRoundUp.com and his associates brought national attention to long-standing BBB tactics of intimidation and coercion of businesses across the US.  Again echoing BEB concerns, the CT AG announced some BBB actions may even be criminal.

The full story, along with the BEB's take, is definitely worth checking out at www.BetterEthicsBureau.org.

Also, the Better Ethics Bureau reveals more rating anomalies, this time involving multi-billion dollar wireless telephone companies, one of which is a BBB National Partner.  Also, two more lawsuits have been filed against the BBB, and at least two more failing banks received the highest BBB grade possible. 

If you are a reporter, we ask you to be extremely careful when publishing future BBB press releases.  In the interest of the public you serve, probing questions and deeper investigations of your local BBB's are in order now and more than ever.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Scott Jordan
Founder/Editor
Better Ethics Bureau

Also See Ripoff Reports "Better Buyer Beware" and The Better Business Bureau, It's Not What You Think!!

Update: Company sues over Better Business Bureau rating, cites bias

A company unhappy with its Better Business Bureau rating is suing the BBB of Southern Nevada, charging BBB ratings are easily manipulated and are biased in favor of companies paying BBB accreditation fees.

Incorp Services Inc. of Henderson filed suit in federal court in Las Vegas last week against the Better Business Bureau of Southern Nevada and its director, Sylvia Campbell.

Incorp says it's the largest Nevada-based registered agent service with more than 75,000 active clients around the world and "enjoys a sterling reputation in the registered agent industry for the quality of its services and its responsiveness to customer concerns." Such registered agents typically provide incorporation services and handle other paperwork provided by the state.

"Defendants advertise themselves as an unbiased public-interest organization, designed to provide customers with honest and accurate information about businesses," the lawsuit charges. "Defendants' advertisements are false, as their ratings of businesses are intentionally biased and inconsistent, and in particular, heavily favor businesses that have chosen to pay money to and participate in the defendants' accreditation program."

Update: Also see Better Ethics Bureau (http://betterethicsbureau.org) Many important links, real stories and reasons why the BBB is a organization to be avoided!

We are not members of the Better Business Bureau and have no intentions of becoming another one of their paying chattel. This organization utilizes mafia extortion tactics, leveraging consumer perception over independent businesses.

Here is why:

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) is a private organization that does not carry any authority or any responsibility to consumers. They are a shakedown company (just like the mafia) that requires businesses to pay fees to become one of their members. There are millions of businesses like ours that refuse to be a part of this scam, recognizing it for exactly what it is. The BBB responds by automatically giving these non-paying businesses a negative rating.

From a consumer standpoint, they cannot help you resolve a complaint, despite their claims of "services" that they offer, including their alleged negotiations. Carrying absolutely no authority or legal responsibility, their resolution "service" for customer complaints is woefully pathetic, ineffectual and subject to a businesses "paid membership", which often results in a positive ranking, despite numerous customer complaints!

It has been our personal experience that the Better Business Bureau is really a fraudelent organization comprised of "members" (coerced businesses that must sign up and pay fees) and complete information requests in order to gain positive rankings. Our own ranking is "C" -- not because we have any complaints (we have zero, oops we now have one, see the full details of this bogus complaint), but simply because we will not participate in their program or subject ourselves to their extortion tactics .

We find the BBB unscrupulous and dishonest as a result. This is a reprehensible practice by the BBB which alleges itself to be honest and fair, hiding itself under the guise of "impartial" authority. This authority has NEVER been granted to this organization, there is NO oversight, NO regulation, NO accountability, NO open records and NO responsibility to provide fair and impartial complaint resolution on the part of businesses or consumers. We are an excellent company with thousands of satisfied customers, but refuse to pay extortion fees to anybody for any reason.

We also find it extremely shameful that the "cloak of authority and legitimacy" is used to fool millions of American consumers who do not understand the tactics used by the BBB. Therefore, we stand firmly opposed, publicly decrying their policy and practices for the scam that they are.

Their ranking system has nothing whatsoever to do with real customer satisfaction, business performance or integrity, or customer complaint resolution, since this information is self-reported by the business in their "accredited" process, and can be very easily manipulated by a business later on. In other words, any business can claim or report anything that it wants to the BBB, and there is no validation, no performance criteria, no verification, nothing at all used to determine that the business is telling you the truth, or that customers are really not getting ripped off, even if there are multiple complaints!

Our own "complaint" goes utterly unreported, unrecognized and unresolved to this day, despite our numerious efforts to help this problem customer (who refused to provide a simple inventory of his shipment, leaving us virtually in the dark on what was incorrect).

This means using the BBB to rate a business is worse then useless, since it permits fraud and even legitimizes fraudalent answers by business and alleges itself to be a fair and honest ranking system. This is disengenious at best, but hides behind an assumed authority it has never been granted.

There are numerous reports (thousands) by people who have attempted to avail themselves of the BBB "service" when dealing with customer complaints. Both businesses and consumers have found the BBB to be absolutely useless by the thousands, and like us, refuse to participate in a well-oiled "operation" that does nothing at all to protect you or the business.

Businesses that refuse to be a part of this mafia-styled organization are poorly ranked by default. The BBB simply assigns a negative rating without having any information or even any complaints about the business. It's an automatic "downgrade". Poorly ranked business are not "guilty" of anything in many cases, they are simply businesses that refuse to participate in this scheme.

The BBB can do nothing to help consumer accurately and honestly rate a business for honesty, integrity, customer satisfaction or problem complaints. We have attempted to use the BBB ourselves with miserable results over the years. From this personal experience alone, we will have absolutely nothing to do with the BBB as a business or even as consumers ourselves, finding them worse then useless. Morever, their coercive tactics to force business to join and self-rate and then become paying "members" to "support them" is nothing less then coercion (extortion), demonstrated by their arbitrary rating system for "non-response", their refusal to downgrade business with legitimate complaints, their hiding of complaints and their unenforcable arbitration methods.

It is unethical and even illegal for the BBB to coerce participation -- yet they do this anyway, every day. Many businesses have obtained lawyers to represent them to go after the BBB for such activities, which is why you won't find many of these businesses even listed by the BBB, as they have been forced to have those records removed because they are dishonest and not the least representative of how that business actually operates.

We refuse to participate in this scheme of theirs which is not accurate and not honest. If you haven't already done so, see Ripoff Reports and The Better Business Bureau, It's Not What You Think!!

Be sure to read the comments on the Ripoff Reports too, there are quite a few, such as these:

As a former BBB employee, I agree with many of the comments that I've read above...one in particular is that a company may have had many complaints and they still have a satisfactory report with the bureau...most of what I've read appears to be true, as far as I can see.....

I hope the BBB and CBBB are reading this, people now know, and I have proof, that your organization is just there to take money as bribes nothing less.

Great news on the information I've provided above. The AG of MD and the AG of VA are investigating this company and the BBB. I have also been in contact with the American Chamber of Commerce. They are going to launch a full investigation not only to the company I've tried to report but the BBB's and CBBB. I have also notified this situation to the Justice Depts Consumer division, The US Chamber of Commerce, and the FTC. Hopefully now someone is listening.

I filled in the BBB's complaint form and named the BBB as the entity I wished to complain about. I stated that the BBB has un-ethical practices and basically blackmails businesses into joining, hides real reports and cover up others etc etc. They responded by blocking my IP address from accessing their sites company research section, complaint section and complaint form section. Now there's an honest business!

Then, the closer: "Would you like to become a member of the BBB and advertise in our directory?" I think he wanted a $120.00 for the membership, then the standard display rates were quoted, yada-yada-yada. I declined at the time, and didn't give it any more thought. Until a month later when I got another call from yet another "John Smith" type with the same sales lines that I now recognized as being read from a prompt list. It all dawned on me that the BBB was a shake down company. They couldn't supply me with the names of the "several inquiries to my business," of course...I wasn't a member, you understand. And I would loose out on the new level of respect commanded by a company with membership in the BBB, unless I coughed up my fair share. BBB. They are a Business, but they are not a Bureau (whatever that attempts to convey) and they are certainly not Better. BBB. Baloney, Baloney, Baloney.

I have been in the computer training business for almost 7 years. I worked for one school called Career Blazers (now Javelin Tech). There are no Instructors at this school, just computer tutorials. Victims are led to believe that they are purchasing "real classes"; only after they enroll do the victims discover that they have just spent thousands of dollars to sit and listen to computer tutorials. The complaints at this school were so high, I was forced to quit as I was concerned about my personal reputation. After going to work for another school, I was still hearing of complaints about Career Blazers (Javelin Tech). Then, I went to the BBB's website and discovered that the BBB indicates that this school has had no complaints in 3 years. Hogwash! I know for a fact this isn't true and can name names of people who filed complaints against this school with the BBB. Why is the BBB stifling complaints? Is there a payoff system behind the scenes? I have been telling everyone that I know about this website. Keep up the good work!

My first experience with the BBB was as a business owner. A BBB rep contacted me to let me know that an consumer "inquiry" had been made regarding my firm, but that since I was not a "member" they could not provide any information to the consumer. Whether or not an actual inquiry was ever made, I don't know, but this was used as a "foot in the door" tactic in order to sell me a membership to the BBB. I say "sell" because all the rep was interested in was signing my firm up, and collecting the membership fee. The BBB was pitched to me as nothing more than a way to keep consumer complaints from going public, and as a way to discourage law suits. Moreover, if I didn't "join" then they couldn't provide a favorable report when future consumer inquires were received. No questions or inquiry regarding my business practices were ever made. Whether or not I might have been a saint or a crook couldn't have concerned them less. I was both very dissapointed by the experience as, like most consumers (I assume) I had always thought the BBB actually existed to help consumers. I declined the invitation to "join" and would never even consider contacting the BBB as a consumer for any reason whatsoever. As I only learned the truth about the BBB as a business owner they had approached, I simply want consumers to hear how the system really works.

I have used the BBB for a contractor issue.  The contractor was a member of the BBB.  We went to arbitration and I won my case.  The contractor refused the decision even though it has been upheld by the arbitrator on 3 occassions now.  Keep in mind, this was a binding arbitration and the BBB still says they are in a fact finding mode and not making him responsible for paying even though the deadline for him doing so by the arbitrator has passed.  This is the better business bureau in Houston.  The contractor in question still has a A rating with NO COMPLAINTS!  What a SHAM!!!  I own several businesses and will NEVER join this group.  You basically buy your membership and ability to get away with anything.  Save yourself time take your complaints to the court system!!

We have been contacted on numerous occassions by the BBB with the same story - customers want to know about our business, there have been many inquiries, yada, yada, yada. One clown filed a complaint with the BBB -- a proven liar -- so we've posted his entire story verbatim and let the real facts speak for themselves. But we will not submit ourselves to the BBB under any circumstances for reasons posted above. Sure, this will cost us some business by those who remained duped by the BBB, but we choose the path of ethics and responsibility instead, publically posting our absolute disgust about the BBB and their coercive practices.

We've been often told that that there are no complaints (see our quality care program and you'll understand why), but that we "need" to respond to the BBB. Hah! No we don't, no we won't, we simply refuse to allow the Better Business Bureau to use their coercive tactics on us or pay their extortion fees. Any private organization that resorts to extortion tactics should be categorically rejected -- and put out of business!

There are a millions of perfectly honest businesses that have figured this BBB scam out already. Don't be misled, the BBB is not what you think. Gaining their ranking simply means you've bowed to their extortion and tactics and self-reported whatever you wanted. As a consumer, they cannot help you validate the intergrity or honesty of a business or even get satisfactory resolution to your complaint.

If you want to check out a business, do a online search with Google or some other search engine. There you will find the actual complaints of any business you may be looking for, and they won't be whitewashed or suppressed by "paid members". You do owe it to yourself to be careful, and we strongly suggest that you do.

If you want to know how we feel about thieves such as this, read our report on Discover cards -- we cannot stand thieves, especially those that hide behind their corporate logo and "branding". American Express is yet another company that screws over merchants, we cancelled this account too years ago. We categorically reject all such attempts (by anyone, irregardless of their size or corporate presences) to foster dishonesty and corruption.

We've been in business for over fifteen years now and are one of, if not still the largest food supplier company in the industry. Our quality care program, ordering policies are clearly published for all to see. We will not rip you off, lie to you, cheat you, steal from you or coerce you. We keep your information private, and we do not share this with anyone beyond the cannery. Your name and address will never be sold, shared or used in any other way.

We will not even try to sell you anything, as we believe you need to make up your own mind. We are the best in the business and we got that way by old-fashioned hard work and integrity. We do not need the BBB to tell us that and you can find that out for yourself by searching us out online.