BBB Will Now Give You An "F" Just Like Your Algebra Teacher Used To
Gone are the days of "unsatisfactory" ratings by the BBB — they've switched over to a letter grading system designed to provide consumers with "more detailed insight into a business’s track record."
BBB says:
“Consumers want more than marketing spin or a few comments about a business posted on the Internet, and rightly so, because given tough economic conditions, they literally can’t afford to make bad buying decisions,” said Steve Cox, BBB spokesperson. “BBB’s improved reports provide detailed insight into a business’s track record and are based on our time-tested standards, in-depth research and the millions of consumer complaints filed with BBB.”
The BBB's rating system takes 16 factors into account — considering a variety of information from the type of business to deceptive advertising issues and, of course, the speed at which the company resolves complaints.
Here are the factors for those of you who are curious:
The type of business and its business model
How long the business has been operating
Whether the business has appropriate competency licensing
Total volume of complaints filed against the business
The number of unanswered complaints
The number of unresolved complaints
The number of serious complaints
An overall complaint analysis
The number of complaints with delayed resolution
Government actions against the business
Any advertising issues found by BBB
The extent of background information available to BBB for evaluation
The extent to which BBB is able to develop a clear understanding of the business
Whether the business has honored any mediation/arbitration commitments
Whether the business has attained BBB Accredited Business status
Whether the business has had its BBB Accreditation revoked
BBB Changes Its Business Ratings to A+ Through F Letter-Grade Scale [BBB]
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Comments:
But does the BBB actually do anything other than rate? Aren't they just becoming a glorified Angie's List?
The question to me is, do you actually get a letter grade without any comments or complaints? If so, I'd like an A+ for all the classes I could have attended but didn't.
Not saying I don't appreciate them, in fact I found out my HVAC installer was an F on there long after I'd hired him, I didn't even think to look him up first. Duh. At least then, I was able to threaten him with another complaint to the BBB which led to him finally toeing the line.
Why are they giving me an F?? I've done nothing wrong, I swear!
That's
My opinion of the BBB is that the usefulness of its ratings is dubious at best. All you have to do to be a member is to pay.
The first few letters of my company's name is the same as the first few letters of the name of a large consumer electronics company. The similarity ends there - my company does not manufacture products and is not involved in consumer electronics. People make complaints against that company and my company occasionally gets tagged as the company being complained about. If we ignored these complaints, which we have every right to do because they have nothing to do with us, we would get dinged for it even though we aren't the right company.
Typically people don't pay attention to the BBB until its too late and you need someone to listen to you complain... unfortunately.
@Canino: If you'd like to shoot me an email at apreszler(at)council(dot)bbb(dot)org I can help straighten out the confusion with your local BBB on the complaints you're receiving.
@ScottRose: Yeah, really. Conumerist has always used "you" in its headlines indiscriminately, but this is probably the worst example I've seen -- the "you" here isn't even in reference to the consumers...
@Jackasimov: Aside from ratings, we provide consumer and small business advice including consumer alerts on scams (ie, acai berry, grandma scam, puppy scam) and tips on managing personal finances. People can also file complaints with us against businesses and we'll try to get the company to come to the table (they usually do).
Will it be a non-threatening purple F?
[Insert typical rant about how the BBB is great as an "early warning system" for consumer research on a company, but little else outside of that]
@rinse: Not even the BBB can save consumers from Monster Cable...who by the way, has an 'unsatisfactory' rating (shocker, I know).
@MercuryPDX: Of the roughly 820,000 complaints BBB received in 2007 from customers against a business, we were able to resolve more than 600,000. About 200,000 complaints went unsettled (meaning the company didn't respond or the customer remained dissatisfied) and with the remaining 20,000 BBB couldn't track down the company (ie, scammers or companies that went out of biz). So, while BBB can't MAKE every business step up and resolve an issue with a customer, we are able to help people out the majority of the time.
And if a company does NOT subscribed to the BBB then you are out of luck...
So is the BBB a national non profit? A franchise? Because we don't even have an office in our state. The office if you tell them your in SD is in Omaha NE and has a website that looks like it was written by a 3rd grader in 1994. The last time anyone I knew tried to get them to do anything they were lucky to even get a response let alone get them to do anything.
The BBB telemarkets small businesses, pushing their pay-to-play "Accredited by BBB" logo... but when I call them on it, they deny that they are telemarketers.
Typical conversation:
"I don't do business with telemarketers. Please stop calling me."
"But, sir, we are not telemarketers: this is the Better Business Bureau!"
"You are calling me to sell a service, right?"
"Um, yes, but..."
"That makes you a telemarketer. Stop calling me."
"Well, sir, if you insist on calling me a telemarket, I'm just going to have to hang up."
Farging iceholes.
Actually, my high school gave unsatisfactory grades instead of "F"s.
@bbb_alison: A few years back, I went to an Angel's game and got suckered into some vendor guy's promise of ~$300 in Best Buy certificates if I listened to some 30-minute presentation. I went the next day with my wife and it turned out to be some semi-Disney-affiliated timeshare/vacation membership club thing. It seemed a little pricey, but something we might be interested in, based on the rosy picture painted by the our cute saleswoman with the New Zealand accent.
About halfway into her pitch (we were there for almost 2 hours!), I excused myself to go to the restroom, where I used my internet-connected phone and googled the company name. The most helpful link I found was a BBB page that indicated that this company was a borderline scam, at which point I was determined not to fall for any more of her spiel. She soon realized that I wasn't won over by her accent anymore, so she brought in the Closers. Ech! My wife would've bought into it, though, if I wasn't there, and might've convinced me, if I hadn't done that quick research.
So, thanks BBB! The Best Buy gift cards were almost worth it.
@bohemian: There are 111 local BBBs in the US that cover every square inch of the country. The local BBBs are each individual non-profits. The BBB websites have recently undergone an overhaul so hopefully they look better than a 3rd grader's handiwork now. If your friends are dissatisfied with the service of their local BBB, please let me know at contact(at)bbb(dot)org. That might be more than you wanted to know!
@oldgraygeek: If you'd like, please shoot me an email at apreszler(at)council(dot)bbb(dot)org and I can contact your local BBB to get your company off any lists they might have.
In my experience the BBB is TOTALLY USELESS! File a complaint and you too will learn that the BBB is no better than the Chamber of Commerce or any governmental agency.
I think their system is pretty simple:
Paying BBB member companies get an A
Non-paying companies get an F
That's about all the criteria you need to know.
Wow, that's pretty awesome that we have a BBB representative right here responding to posts. I think that, like many others, the BBB is not very useful after the fact, but it can be beforehand if you remember to check it out. I've gotten screwed a few times and the BBB wasn't able to do anything other than tell me I was SOL. But anyway, thanks for sticking around and trying to help bbb_alison
@Jackasimov: I think Angieslist is a thousand times better than BBB. With Angie, you can read the actual problems the consumer had with the company,or the good stuff too. With BBB, they will not publish your complaint report! I have treied and they don't do it. All they do is use thier "opinion" based on whatever info you supply them and then give a really VAGUE rating thing. I submitted a 3 paragraph complaint to Angie and it was published, also have submitted good points on compnies also, and they were also published. BBB don't do that
@shaken_bake: All companies can get an A, regardless of whether they choose to support their BBB financially or not. The largest thing impacting a company's grade is the volume of complaints and if they respond to them.
@blazenbu: While we can't force a company to resolve complaints with consumers, the complaint does go on their Reliability Report (and it's noted that they didn't resolve the problem) which can serve as a warning to other consumers. Also, if we get a large volume of complaints about a company we'll warn consumers by enlisting the help of reporters and blogs like Consumerist to get the word out.
@trujunglist: Thanks! Even if BBB wasn't able to resolve the issue for you, your complaint still gets logged publicly on their Reliability Report and can serve as a warning for other people.
Only Businesses who subscribe to the BBB's accreditation service are given a grade. My company does not, and we still read as "Satisfactory"
And BTW not all paying members get an "A", for instance, Amazon.com is ranked a "B-", and they have been paying since 1996
I'm just posting this to see if bbb_alison will respond to my post. :)
@dorianh49: Glad we could help! Many people have been taken by vacation clubs. Here's a press release we did on them earlier this year: [tinyurl.com]
@pippenz: BBBs are making the transition to the letter-grade system over the course of the next few months. Many are already providing letter grades. Once every BBB has made the transition all company Reliability Reports will include a grade, not just companies that are BBB accredited.
Paypal is rated A-
[sanjose.bbb.org]
(there are many, this was the top and indicated it was the headquarters)
Paypal has more horror stories about fairly large sums of anything I can think of that is not an explicit scam (timeshares, property ladders, etc.).
Somewhere, I read that if they "respond" to every complaint, even though they do absolutely nothing else about it they will get a high rating.
The BBB is worse than useless. They actually aid bad companies by having whatever rating system they have.
It seems like a forum on the BBB website would be useful as well. The thing I actually like about Yelp and Angie's List is hearing the details of people's individual experiences.
One thing I have noticed about people who threaten to report my company to the BBB is that they all have one thing in common. The problem lies on their end, and not on ours, usually they made the mistake, and they either don't want to admit it, or they are too dumb to realize it.
I suppose it is also because they are too dumb to realize that the BBB really can't do all that much.
@tz: To clarify one thing, it seems that even if there are many real horror stories (large amounts of cash, no response, no resolution) they can still get this, or as they say:
A- : An excellent rating. A company with this rating may not rate higher because of a greater number of rate-lowering factors, but we do not consider them to be factors that would likely adversely affect consumer transactions.
If you don't happen to have several thousand dollars frozen or taken from your checking account at random over several months, it might not be "adverse". If you happen to be the victim of one of the horror stories, this rating sounds at best hollow and at worst fraudulent.
I handle all the BBB complaints filed against our global corporation, and that adds up to over 1200 cases since January 2006. We are not BBB members, but our ratings from the various offices range from D+ to A-, to "not rated" and "unsatisfactory". Just this week we communicated with the Silicon Valley chapter and negotiated our rating from an F up to an A-, due to problems THEY were having with their newly launched website and notification system.
That F rating apparently stemmed from a total of 6 complaints erroneously closed as “unresolved” -- out of nearly 90 resolved for October thru December – so that grading curve is WAY worse than anyone’s algebra teacher.
We are now in the process of making sure ALL the individual offices have the correct contact info for our company, so complaints may now each us in a timely fashion. These few complaints falling thru the cracks seem to be why our ratings are all over the map.
Up until December 2007, complaints came to me thru a dedicated mailbox, but the BBB has altered their notification system. The emails still arrive, but they often do not include ALL the current complaints.
In researching open cases, I found 12 cases on the new website that were never forwarded to me, right alongside the 7 cases they had sent thru. Fortunately I spotted these well within the 10-day reply window and was able to handle/assign them appropriately.
In addition, on the new web portal, cases showing as requiring my company’s response sometimes have that dialogue box grey’d out, forcing me to manually send an email to the BBB, containing the outcome I’d like published. Of course I realize any new web venture can be fraught with problems, but these issues led to our undeserved “F”.
I’m just glad we were able to resolve this quickly, lest we have to file a BBB complaint. HAHAHAHAHA
We’ll just have to see…..
@SonyCEO_SirGitEmSteveDave: My algebra teacher used to throw bottles at me when the vodka ran out.
No, wait. That was Mom. Never mind.
@oldgraygeek: Once a year I start getting calls from BBB and they want a few hundred dollars for me to join and get access to my file ...
It is sad but true that the BBB is worse than useless. I had a horrific experience with a mover once (and who among us has not?) They did everything up to and including actually stealing some of my things. Damage galore, things missing, two weeks late delivery, driver asking my 16 year old daughter to "go for a ride", etc, etc..
I wasted a lot of time detailing all of this in a missive to the BBB. I was not naive enough to think it was going to help me, but it might have steered future victims away.
Apparently, the response "uh...no we didn't" was more than good enough for the BBB. These asshats are still rated as satisfactory
The BBB is a bit like Good Housekeeping in that members pay to be on the BBB list. I've found it better to search for a company and do a 'forum' or 'blog' tag line. There I can read real complaints (mostly) or accolades (sometimes). Yea, there's the ranters but on the whole you can spot patterns with a company and make a better informed decision.
I'm not impressed with the BBB. Filed a complaint with the office responsible for businesses located in North Carolina before Christmas and have heard nothing back from them yet...
@bbb_alison: Thanks, but I prefer to follow through on what I told them last time: I spoke to the woman's supervisor, wrote down her name, and informed her that another phone call from the BBB would constitute criminal harassment... and that I will file criminal charges against her personally if that call ever comes in.
It's not an idle threat. My wife is a lawyer, my best friend is a state prosecutor, and I will file those charges... you don't want to be involved in that mess, unless you like handcuffs.
Does the BBB still require consumers to register complaints via a 900 number? Do they still use outbound telemarketing to try to hook businesses in to their services?
Those two facts led me to distrust the BBB entirely.
It wasn't just my Algebra teacher....