BBB Under Scrutiny

Link: http://www.bbbroundup.com

I was talking to my colleague, Scott Jordan, of the BetterEthicsBureau.org last night. At about the midpoint in our conversation we both agreed that when we started our investigation of the Better Business Bureau, we knew they were bad. What we didn't know until we started looking into things was just how bad the BBB is.

By bad I mean unethical, without morals or principals. The BBB offices are hypocrites, greedy and arrogant beyond belief. They mislead the public, they run rampant over small business, and they do nobody any good. You could argue that they actually make things worse when they interject themselves into a customer dispute situation. They rarely help the consumer, they slow down and make lots of extra work for the business which gets in the way of resolving things with the customer.

In the coming weeks, we will produce compelling evidence that shows the BBB, as presently operated, needs to clean up their act immediately or be shut down permanently. Bold statements, all true. Wait and see.

Link: http://www.bbbroundup.com/bbbsucks.html

After years of criticism, numerous court cases, and anti-BBB websites, the CBBB (Council of Better Business Bureaus) finally admits what we've known all along. They SUCK.

Finally, the BBB is starting with truth.

Link: http://www.bbbroundup.com

Interesting story about the BBB Defense as used by Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly to justify their support of Goldline International, Inc.

EDITORIAL
A Real Slapp In The Face Of Justice (And Common Sense)

Consider the basic thought behind the anti-SLAPP motion. It was designed to protect the little guy, like a whistle blower against having to carry the burden of prohibitive legal fees in their quest for justice.

For over a decade, the Better Business Bureau of Los Angeles has used the anti-SLAPP defense to ward off lawsuits by small businesses claiming they have been libeled by unjustified bad grades from the LA BBB.

This interpretation of the anti-SLAPP laws means that for the small business, trying to inform the public of the lack of merits inherent in the BBB Letter Grading System (in this scenario, it's the small business who is the whistle blower), they need to have around $1,000,000 in the bank to fund the legal fees...$500,000 for their lawyer, plus $500,000 for the Better Business Bureau (upon inevitably losing to the BBB on the anti-SLAPP motion, the plaintiff, or small business, is required to pay legal fees for the defendant, or the BBB ) in order to get to the appeal stage of fighting the anti-SLAPP. Up to this point, the small business has yet to even get their day in court.

But what choice does a small business have when faced with the fact that a disparaging grade from the LA BBB is costing them $400,000 in revenues annually? Both the Los Angeles BBB and the CBBB (the national organization) flat out refuse to even enter into a dialogue on the grading issue.

Currently, the courts have ruled that small business has no legal right to challenge a disparaging grade from the BBB, at least in Los Angeles. This must change, as no one entity, such as the LA BBB, should be above the law, a status that ironically the courts have empowered them with. The BBB grades themselves have been shown to be full of error, with numerous documented corrections, especially when called out by the media.

This means the anti-SLAPP, designed to protect the little guy (small business) from punitive legal fees, as currently viewed by the Los Angeles Courts, does exactly the opposite.

Where's the justice in that?

Link: http://www.bbbroundup.com

bbbRoundup turns one year old today. We thought we'd take some time to reflect on the past year.

In January of 2009 the Better Business Bureau rolled out their new Letter Grading System on a national scale. The media outcry was predictable. Short lived criticism before moving on to the next story. This reporter thought the story had legs, and that's when bbbRoundup was born.

Originally, this website was designed to house a ten part investigative report on the Los Angeles Better Business Bureau. Quickly, the story grew to include the Better Business Bureau (CBBB and all the member BBB offices )itself. Recently, the story has grown to include the Canadian BBB. Here is some of what we uncovered in the past year.

- The Letter Grade System was conceived and tested by William Mitchell of the Los Angeles BBB before being adopted by the National BBB.

- The Los Angeles BBB has patent rights on their letter grade algorithm.

- The Los Angeles BBB generates more revenues than any other local office, and by a large margin.

- The Letter Grade System of the BBB has been shown to be completely ridiculous on multiple occasions.

- The BBB makes judgments on businesses they know nothing about.

- The BBB is not a member of the Better Business Bureau

- If you are in certain businesses, you can do no better than an "F" grade.

- Graded by their own system, the BBB earns an "F" grade.

- The next William Mitchell project is TrustLink, now being tested by the Los Angeles BBB and five other regional BBB offices. It is setup as a for profit corporation and owned by the Los Angeles BBB (William Mitchell) and the other five participating regional BBB offices. There is a lot of prime space on the Los Angeles BBB website, a not-for-profit corporation, given to TrustLink. This comes real close to conflict of interest.

- The type of business the Better Business Bureau operates as is a boiler room telemarketing company that sells memberships and grades. (Yes, you do get a better grade if you pay to join the BBB ). They have made clear by their actions that they have no interest in protecting the consumer or playing the role of a consumer advocacy organization. It makes one wonder if they really qualify for their not-for-profit tax status.

- The complaint system which is the "prime feature" of the BBB Letter Grade System is seriously flawed. There are too many reports of favoritism shown members in the complaint process. Non-members have reported multiple cases of their responses to complaints getting mislaid by the BBB. The BBB does not factor in the size of business, or number of transactions, when assigning a business' complaint score.

- Multiple websites have sprung up decrying the tactics used by the BBB to allegedly extort membership dues from businesses.

- This reporter remains mystified as to why the Better Business Bureau chooses to employ the Tiger Woods' PR strategy when faced with these news stories. Is the BBB so arrogant they think we will all go away?

- Law suits are appearing with more frequency with cases in the last year in Los Angeles (on appeal of anti-SLAPP); North Carolina (ruled against BBB in out of court settlement); Minnesota (just going to court). There are also increased rumblings of multiple class action suits against the BBB.

We look forward to providing continued coverage of the "Investigation of the Better Business Bureau," both our own stories and those that represent the best of my colleagues across North America.

Link: http://www.bbbroundup.com

With the regular season winding down we thought we'd take a look at the Better Business Bureau's scouting reports for the top contending teams in the Eastern and Western Conferences of the NBA. As usual, there's not a lot of consistency between the various BBB Franchises. It appears, from this sample at any rate, that paying the BBB to join guarantees an A+, while the best you can do if you don't elect to pay the toll is a grade of a B. And pity the poor team who fails to respond to the BBB about a single complaint. That's good enough for a D-.

So let's size up the competition and show you the BBB scouting reports in the Eastern Conference, a race dominated by Cleveland, Orlando, Atlanta and Boston.

Now let's check out the Western Conference where only two teams really have a chance, the Denver Nuggets and the Los Angeles Lakers.