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      AN INVESTIGATIVE NEWS SERIES
    ON THE STANDARDS AND PRACTICES   
    OF THE BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU
       
         START WITH TRUTH


  V 1.3  May 2009
CATCHING UP WITH BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU NEWS: IT'S GOOD TO BE BACK
In its month and a half absence, bbbRoundup observed the following events.

As reported May 29th, the Chicago Better Business Bureau switched positions and has now implemented the nationally dictated Letter Grade system for evaluating businesses.  That reduces the gang of five, threatened with expulsion at October’s national BBB meeting of members to a quartet.

In a not unexpected, but irony filled decision, the Los Angeles Superior Court ruled in favor of the Los Angeles Better Business Bureau’s anti-Slapp motion, effectively blocking Entertainment Career Connection’s complaint from being heard in open court before a jury.  The ruling was not unexpected because of precedence.  The Los Angeles Better Business Bureau has been using the anti-Slapp to sidestep its day in court for a decade without losing once.  Irony filled because the Slapp motion was originally designed to protect the whistleblower, the little guy, from being sued by the corporations they worked for in retaliation—and the Los Angeles Better Business Bureau is the much bigger of the corporations in this case, and Entertainment Career Connection is in effect, the whistleblower.   Piling on the defeat, from Entertainment Career Connection’s point of view is the fact that the judge had originally ruled in their favor on the first part of the LA BBB’s anti-Slapp motion before reversing himself.  A spokesperson for Entertainment Career Connection stated the company is seriously contemplating an appeal on the ruling.

In the bigger picture, the court’s ruling means that civil proceedings against the Los Angeles Better Business Bureau in particular, and other regional members of the BBB by similarity of legal argument, are a waste of time.  Morally right or wrong, the court has been consistent in its rulings: the Better Business Bureau cannot be successfully sued for the ratings it gives to companies in civil court.  The BBB has proven to have a bullet proof defense against suits alleging slander or liable. 

This leaves criminal court as the only means of correcting what’s wrong with the Better Business Bureau.   To this end, the district attorney or attorney general with jurisdiction over the regional Better Business Bureau offices must become involved.  Recently, District Attorneys or Attorney Generals in Connecticut, California, Arizona and Texas have been sniffing around their respective Better Business Bureaus. 
Allegations, unproven at this time, center on dispensing legal advice to the public in both verbal and published form (illegal for someone not a lawyer to do so); conflict of interest concerns within the arbitration process;  deceptive and misleading promotion and statements on Better Business Bureau websites; and the use of not-for-profit organizations for personal gain. 

In the last two months, bbbRoundup has received these and other allegations but none has yet reached the standard of proof necessary for presenting to the District Attorney or Attorney General with oversight.  We are actively pursuing several leads and hope to have further clarification on these allegations.  In a few days we will have a form for you to submit information about criminal complaints committed by the Better Business Bureau, which in turn we will pass on to the appropriate authorities.  This allows bbbRoundup to perform its mission, which is to be a clearinghouse for all things wrong with  the Better Business Bureau, and provides you with a means of anonymity if you so desire.
Editor’s Comment:  bbbRoundup was originally conceived to be a ten part investigative series on the Los Angeles Better Business Bureau and month’s of research went into this project prior to its launch in early March 2009.

While we believe we have accomplished our original goal of providing an in-depth look into the standards and practices of the Better Business Bureau in general, and the Los Angeles version of same in particular, and while we’ve even acquired gold-standard status along the way as the go-to reference for the truth about the Better Business Bureau operation (Wikipedia now sources bbbroundup.com); we can’t shake the feeling that saying “Mission Accomplished” at this point would echo the Bush statement on Iraq.  Therefore, we continue.
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.
© 2009 bbbroundup.com.  all rights reserved.
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