BBB Under Scrutiny

Link: http://www.bbbroundup.com

I was out of town doing my investigating all day. Got home late evening and was blown away when I checked my traffic logs. The visitor count was through the roof, and the site is a big hit with the Better Business Bureaus!

I counted visits, often multiple visits, from the BBB offices in Colorado Springs, Austin, Denver, Woodland Park, Dublin, Toledo, Miami, New York, San Diego, Longview, San Antonio, Pleasant Grove, Maumelle, Wilmington, Brooklyn, Knoxville, Ridgeland, Port Neches, Milwaukee, Honolulu, Nashville, Charlotte, Placentia, and my personal favorite, Bat Cave, North Carolina. We also enjoyed multiple visits from the CBBB (National BBB Office) in Arlington, VA.

Based on the number of times the About Us and Contact Us pages where accessed by BBB Offices, there is a huge interest in who I am and how to get hold of me--though as I write this I have received not one email or phone call from any BBB office or representative. (There was one blocked ID phone call but they didn't leave a message.) An optimist might think that all this means that the BBB is in a state of internal discussion over the pay for grade issue, or perhaps tweaking some of the grading disparities I've brought to light, but the realist in me says they are trying to figure out a way to make me go away.

Follow up:

The main BBB site itself states that the Better Business Bureau aggressively goes after anyone who 'misuses the BBB name or logo'....yet, the BBB handed out numerous press releases touting their new grading system in January and weren't upset in the slightest when many publications used the BBB logo and regurgitated sections of the press release verbatim. I maintain you can't have it both ways...if the BBB condones the positive reporting and their use of the BBB logo, then they have to put up with the negative reporting. And if you'll notice, BBBroundup's logo is a satirical rendition of the BBB torch logo, in our case the torch is cracked and the flame is out. Also, I've done my due diligence; it's not going to be that easy to make me go away.

The likely scenario is that the BBB will first employ a bevy of lawyers, armed with injunctions and subpoenas and the like. Next up will probably be their crack team of computer forensic experts. (I suggest rather than worry about me; the BBB should take a look at the Miami BBB site which has been down for several weeks now, and the national site which is not cross browser compatible.) In any event, both of these actions have been predicted and prepared for. Bottom line, this site is not going away any time soon.

So, rather than wasting a lot of time and effort trying to shut the site down and make me go away, I think the BBB needs to take a good, long, serious look at their business model. There is an inherent sense of favoritism or conflict of interest implied when you assign grades to both member/paying and non-member/non-paying businesses. I don't even have a problem with the Better Business Bureau keeping a log of complaints for businesses--both member and non-member, as long as the business has a means to include their point of view. But the A-F grades have got to go, at least as they are currently used. Perhaps a better way would be to give grades to member businesses and no grade for non-members, with appropriately neutral language indicating that this business has chosen not to be a member of the Better Business Bureau.

The BBB works hard to project an image of objectivity. Their grading system is the opposite of objective. The BBB insists that they have done their due diligence on the businesses, member and non-member, that they grade. This is demonstratively false. There are approximately 4 million businesses (member and non-member) in the BBB data base. Over 3-1/2 million of them are not members. If we accept that the BBB due diligence team is exceptional, it would still take at least 4 hours to do the due diligence on a business. At that rate, one employee could do the due diligence on 10 businesses/week or 500 businesses/year. This would require a full time team of 7000 employees distributed among the 180 BBB regional offices, or almost 40 employees per office to complete the due diligence part of their business. And then they would need to repeat it every year to make sure all records were current and accurate. I will guarantee you that very few regional BBB offices even have 40 employees, much less 40 employees dedicated to due diligence. Therefore, it follows, like night follows day, that the grades the BBB employs are not based on anything resembling facts.