BBB Under Scrutiny

Link: http://www.bbbroundup.com

Editorial

The motto of the Better Business Bureau is "Start with Trust." The motto of bbbRoundUp is "Start with Truth" for we believe you cannot have trust without first having truth. Actions, not words, inspire trust, especially when the words themselves are contradictory.

Expecting trust without earning it is symptomatic of the Better Business Bureau's arrogance towards the very group they seek to attract as members--small businesses. Trust must be a two way street. The BBB appears too focused on establishing and maintaining consumer confidence at the detriment to the trust of the businesses they are attempting to woo as customers.

If I were a businessman and doing my due diligence prepatory to making a decision on whether to join the Better Business Bureau I would have noted the following:

Follow up:

1. Less than 10% of the businesses in the BBB database are Better Business Bureau members. This means that over 90% of the businesses in the BBB database chose NOT to be members. More alarmingly, there are only 4 million businesses in the BBB data base (covering the United States and Canada) out of a total 28 million businesses in the two countries. This means only one out of seven business are even in the BBB database (or to look at it from a glass half-empty perspective, six out of seven business don't even exist as far as the Better Business Buruau is concerned). Bottom line, only 1% of businesses in the United States and Canada are members of the Better Business Bureau.

2. Next, I'd look up some businesses I had dealings with to see if the BBB Grade jives with my own personal experience. I can tell you right now that in some cases the BBB ratings were in perfect sync with my own experiences, but in an alarming number of business searches they were in total disagreement with my assessment. Most of these discrepancies seemed to occur when a business I had an unsatisfactoring encounter with was a member of the Better Business Bureau which gave it a glowing report. I readily admit that this is by no means a scientific look at things, you should try your own experiment and look into companies that delivered above and beyond, and those you feel screwed you and see how the BBB measures up to your own experiences.

3. Finally, I'd do a Google search for the Better Business Bureau of wherever I lived (each region has its own BBB which is essentially an independent franchise) to see if there were any negative news stories or articles about the BBB. Initially, I didn't narrow down my Google search for my regional BBB and was shocked at the volume of complaints from across the United States that questioned the Better Business Bureaus ethics vis a vis pay for play tactics. When I narrowed my search to my region it was apparant that my regional BBB was a major target of these allegations.

After doing the above due diligence, I came to the following conclusion: If I was a small business owner that was dependent on business to consumer relationships to succeed (especially if there was minimal in person contact involved in a transaction--i.e. an online business) I would think very hard about paying the $350 annual fee for membership. Not because I thought the BBB would actually help with sales all that much, but rather to protect my business from getting a bad Better Business Bureau grade. This applies doubly if you live in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Bernadino or Riverside counties in Southern California. It seems a small price to pay upfront, rather than the mammoth effort it appears to take to clear your name if you aren't a member and run afoul of the BBB. You could call it extortion I suppose, but I suggest if you call it insurance, then maybe the smell won't upset you as much.

I also came to the conclusion that I don't see the BBB as doing that much for anybody. Certainly if less than 15% of the business in the United States and Canada aren't even acknowledge as existing by the BBB (much less graded) and if only 1% of the businesses in these two North American countries are even members, I don't see much relevance or usefulness the BBB provides.

It really does come down to a matter of trust, and I find too many disturbing things to blindly give the Better Business Bureau my trust. bbbRoundup was devised to look into these disturbing things in greater depth as well as serve as a clearing house, or central "roundup" point to collect the numerous news stories, reports and articles that discuss problems and concerns and allegations about the Better Busines Bureau and their ethics. The main thought behind this is it appears that the BBB national organization uses the principals of divide and conquer to maintain its distance from any of this negative chaff by refusing to get involved in regional issues. It appears to be a problem of considerable scope and breath and I am disappointed by what appears to be the national organization's blind eye towards all the brouhaha. True, sometimes there isn't fire even though there is smoke. But personally, I've never favored the ostrich approach that seems to be the BBB standard. So, as we say on our masthead, we're going to start with the truth and see where it takes us.