BBB Under Scrutiny

Link: http://www.bbbroundup.com

According to William G. Mitchell, CEO of Better Business Bureau of the Southland, Inc. his office of the BBB handles 10,000 complaints per month. I accept this number and concede that Mr. Mitchell is in a better position than I to know the current figure.

However, my problems with the BBB complaint process are only increased by this revelation. Here's my take.

First is the margin of error that exists in the Complaint Handling process used by the LA BBB. To be handled correctly, an average complaint should require at least a half-hour of attention from a BBB employee.

(Just think of how much time you spent the last time you tried to resolve a complaint on your own then multiply by two. That's because the BBB inserts itself into the middle of the complaint process and therefore must communicate with both the consumer and the business before it can reach any decision.)

That's 5000 BBB employee hours spent handling the 10,000 complaints each month. That's approximately 30 full time employees dedicated to handling complaints. Rather than hire the necessary personnel, the LA BBB uses automated software throughout the process. There's too few people, too much pigeonholing and too much room for error.

Additionally, nowhere on the LA BBB website are there any definitions for the various complaint descriptions. What's the difference between an "unanswered" and "unassigned" complaint? Between "refusing to make an adjustment" and "refusing to adjust, relying on terms of the contract"? Do you know? Apparently the BBB doesn't know either, otherwise you'd think they'd tell us.

Second is that the algorithm places a heavy emphasis on the results of the complaint process.

(Almost 40% of the 16 criteria used in the algorithm have to do with complaints. The penalties for complaints not properly handled as deemed by the BBB are among the most severe in the entire algorithm.)

As we've just discussed, there is room for error in the complaint process, and any error becomes magnified by the algorithm. The clearest proof of this is the goofy grades.

Finally, there is a built in bias on the consumer side. This manifests itself especially when the LA BBB uses these complaints as sales leads, rather than try to impress the business with their ethics.

I want to thank Mr. Mitchell for bringing this matter to our attention.