Better Business Bureau, is this legal?

The BBB is a joke and a bad one at that.
When I had a 'brick and mortar' business they had some 'mercenary' calling me day in day out to become a member and get their seal of approval.
When I went down to their office to complain, which is in a major city, mind you .The big glass doors were locked in the middle of a business day...when the receptionist, who could see me, buzzed me in, I had to ask several times why the doors were kept locked on a business day.

Finally got it out of her, that they had so many consumers coming down to complain and getting irate, they had to lock the doors.

Consumers who had been ripped off by companies they had put their 'seal of approval' on.

They are just one of several companies that try and appear to be gov legit when you do business.

They are for profit and nothing more....unfortunately they have plenty of Joe consumer who still believe their crap.

It's about time they were put out of business.

I've never dealt with them, but I've heard a lot of claims that they do that to get money out of companies.

However, with that being said - if you go to the page that has your rating it should give a list of the complaints that have been received against your company for them to assign the rating. Maybe you've had people filing complaints against you and didn't realize it?

The BBB is a for-profit business that tries to extort money from both large companies and small business owners alike. Anytime someone quotes the BBB and their results it tells me how ignorant they are of the facts. I've simply learned to train our sales force and customer service reps on how to address any BBB issues that might come up.

I've found that once you educate people in a professional way on what the BBB is and how they are a for-profit business and not a government agency, people tend to see things your way. We took a survey last year and we received over 1,500 responses. Over 42% of the respondents thought that the BBB was a government agency or related to the government somehow.

This just goes to show you that most people don't really know much about the BBB. They are a joke and no serious business person lends them any credence. Unfortunately, there's a lot of ignorance out there.

RoD

Using leverage for money... I can't say that is unheard of, unethical as it may be. I think that they do good things, but I would never be part of their organization. Just an affirmation for customers wanting to know that you are legit. They get paid a lot of money from it though.

I know a lot of people who think of the BBB as some sort of official organization, and I don't doubt that they enjoy that reputation. It seems to me a lot of that kind of business goes bad. It's too easy to start taking money to remove negative reports.

BBB is out of line in many ways but many people count on their ratings to make buying decisions, especially online.

If I was going to hire a debt collection agency I would much prefer to hire one with an F rating over an A rating. The F rating would tell me they go after collections much harder.

Re's
Rob Whisonant

UPDATE:

We received a call back from the BBB and really gave it to them over the phone. We eventually got the F rating taken down after threatening to pursue this matter legally. We found out we had ONE complaint which was the reason for the F rating. We all know the BBB is a joke, but if a potential client goes to the BBB website and sees a F rating, they might not do business with us at all which was our biggest concern.

After demanding the complaint be faxed over to us, I read it and all it was is a typical complaint from a debtor complaining about "harassment" (which we don't do). Not to mention, a few misspelled words including our company name was included.

One complaint in one year seems pretty good, can't believe that was the only reason for the F rating though. We were considering becoming accredited so we can put their logo on the site, even though I heard conversion rates don't really increase. I guess the driving force behind the idea was that a lot of our competitors are accredited and I'm sure some people look for the BBB logo. Correct me if I'm wrong?

Anyways, the F rating is taken down and our conversions and sales are doubling without it every month. Maybe it's just a big waste.

Looks like you just buy an "A" rating. Check out the 20/20 video in this thread:

http://www.warriorforum.com/off-topi...s-exposed.html

Such a scam. As a consumer I always thought the BBB was on the level and legit in their efforts to protect consumers.

This has been going on for many, many years, and it's about time people know the BBB cannot be trusted.

They are just having their own ratings but for me I don't care too much about them as long as I don't any laws violated.

I love that video.... Priceless

From experience... Update your contact info and respond as soon as a complaint is filed. Your BBB rating (not accredited) will be directly connected to if you respond.

The BBB can kiss my AAA-rated rear. That's what I always say. Or at least I would do, if ever the opportunity were to arise.

You have solved your own problem. No sense in blasting the BBB (deserved or not)--anyone who is running a collection agency and another business under the same name, address, etc. is asking for trouble. I would have thought this was obvious, but maybe not.

The "strictest legal guidelines" for a collection agency are stupid and down right ILLEGAL! Heck, one company started calling me because a gym I never even went to anymore couldn't take money from my bank account because I closed it after THE BANK tried to steal money from me. Actually, they DID steal money, and I closed the account after they gave me the money BACK after I made it clear that I could make things tough for them.
Anyway, the company gave me threats that were bad, and NO way to answer them! NO phone number or address.

The gym NEVER asked for the money!

BTW the bank went bankrupt a couple years later, and that payment was the last that that gym EVER got from me!

HOPEFULLY, YOU are better but, if not, I wouldn't weep for you. The BBB is more responsive than some collection agencies could EVER be, so you have a FAR better chance with them.

Steve

BTW the BBB makes bad companies look good. THAT is enough to make me not care about them. I am certainly NOT a member any more.

Steve

I only read the op's first post, nothing else - but will give my opinion on the matter. I actually do debt consolidation / debt settlement. If you check out the wikipedia on the BBB and debt settlement, you will see that the BBB was under fire because they were automatically giving people D's and F's (nothing better then a D) if in the debt/credit business.

What I tell my customers, or applicants. is "The better business bureau is nothing more than a domestic raiting company. Unfortunately,. simply because they have the name bureau, it gives consumers the false sense of government authority - which in its self, unethical and wrong. Furthermore, in order to obtain a good rating in this industry, you have to pay them".

....I then send them the wiki link proving my statement.

IMO - those *******s should be taken outside and shot.