BBB Under Scrutiny

Link: http://www.bbbroundup.com

Today was interesting. Traffic up to even higher levels than yesterday. May have to upgrade my server?

Thanks to George from ConnecticutWatchdog.com for tracking down Gary Almond from the BBB. I know a couple of Los Angeles businessmen who are anxiously awaiting their refunds.

Nice job too from Melissa at InvestorsResourceNews.com in telling the complete Goldline story as it stands to date.

But to me, after doing two radio interviews, one yesterday and one today, the amazing thing was to come home and find some awesome emails in my inbox.

There were a number of emails from businesses across the United States telling me they were embarking on registering bogus businesses with the BBB.

There were even a handful of emails offering donations to keep the Bogus Business drive alive.

You have to ask yourself this question: "Why would businessmen offer to pay anywhere from $400 to several thousand dollars when they get nothing in return?"

To me, this is the true judge of the frustration level small business has reached with the Better Business Bureau. We've maintained for a long time that the arrogance of the Better Business Bureau will be their undoing.

We hope the Hamas Lesson will open their eyes, but so far we've seen no change in BBB behavior.

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?