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AN INVESTIGATIVE NEWS SERIES ON THE STANDARDS AND PRACTICES OF THE BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU START WITH TRUTH |
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V 1.4 Feb
2010 |
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| HOISTED
BY THEIR OWN PETARD. BBB GETS "F" ON UNANSWERED COMPLAINTS |
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| One of the problematic areas that we've
dissected in earlier articles is the BBB practise of putting an
enormous emphasis on what they term "unanswered complaints."
These are complaints where the Better Business Bureau claims to have
received no response from the business that was complained about.
As we demonstrated in this earlier article,
the BBB often does not receive, or chooses to not acknowledge
receiving, a response from a business. The reality is that two or
more unanswered complaints and the business now has an "F" grade from
the BBB. So we decided to run a little test and use the complaints we've been getting from our readers about various Better Business Bureau offices to turn the tables, so to speak. We strived to be just like the Better Business Bureau. We copied the subject and body text of our email from those the BBB sends to businesses so we could be as close to the BBB complaint notification process as possible. Here's what our email looked like:
The complaints were posted and emails were sent to the impacted BBB offices on January 30th, 2010. As of February 14, 2010, a good two weeks later, not a single Better Business Bureau Office had responded to the complaint. In other words, if we're playing by Better Business Bureau rules, then these 15 regional offices now have unanswered complaints which resulted in the some very bad bbbRoundup Grades (grades computed using the BBB algorithm for scoring). Another case of BBB hypocrisy--do as we say, not as we do.
One note: there are several reports of the BBB manipulating the complaint process for dues-paying member businesses. Manipulation has come in the form of extended deadlines, re-classification of type of complaints, purging of complaints earlier than stated. All in all, this is additional preferential treatment provided dues-paying members of the Better Business Bureau. If the complaints were not part of the BBB Letter Grade Rating this wouldn't be as significant, but since the complaint is a huge component of the BBB grading algorithm, it's another case of Pay to Play grading that is scandalous in an organization that professes to be unbiased. It is far more worrisome than the automatic 4 point bump (half a grade increase) the Better Business Bureau already admits dues-paying members get over non-member businesses. The Better Business Bureau complaint system is riddled with bugs. A single error in recording a complaint can ruin a company's hard earned reputation and it's already been demonstrated that the BBB complaint system makes errors in great quantities. But it begs a more important question: what is the value of that which the Better Business Bureau says it is measuring? They are not evaluating whether the customer's complaint was resolved to the customers satisfaction, that doesn't even enter in the algorithmic equation. What the BBB measures, when it grades a company on their complaints is whether or not the company RESPONDED TO THE BBB. The consumer is completely irrelevent to the equation. Knowing this, why would any consumer in their right mind ask the BBB to help them in a dispute with a company? The BBB's success rate in solving those disputes it chooses to interfere with is about 10% in my experience. The resolution percentage (to my satisfaction) I've experienced when dealing directly with the offending company or institution (or the bank that I made a credit card purchase through) is close to 85%. Keeping track of complaints is not a bad thing. Trying to evaluate them and get in the middle of a consumer/company dispute is not something the Better Business Bureau is any longer equipped to do. This makes it a bad thing. Far better if the BBB were to emulate Yelp and Angie's List and simply keep a running total on the number of complaints and let them speak for themselves. |
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| Editor's note: Neither I or this website have a problem with the Better Business Bureau. Indeed, there is a need for a consumer advocacy group that the public can turn to, and in most cases, the Better Business Bureau fulfills this role adequately. What we do have a problem with is the BBB's "A-F" grading system. It is demonstratively biased, based on hearsay, weighted in favor of dues paying members and offers no recourse when the BBB makes an error. It is obvious the Better Business Bureau does not now, nor ever will have, the resources to fully investigate the four million businesses in their database, much less grade them with any sense of accuracy. It's an impossible job, and to think otherwise is a mistake that the BBB should acknowledge so they can get back to their reason for existence--protecting the consumer. There's an old saying, "who will watch the watchers" and it applies here as the BBB has set themselves up to be above the law. We are simply here to help the Better Business Bureau do a better job so that they may properly serve the consumer, the business community and themselves. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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