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


  V 1.4  Feb 2010
MORE GOOFY GRADES.
One of our readers' favorite columns is our Goofy Grades feature.  This column got its name from the fact that in our original Goofy Grades report we found that Disneyland (California) had an “F” grade while Disney World (Florida) received a “B” grade from the BBB.  Put that together with my favorite Disney character, Goofy, and Goofy Grades were born.

One of the things we love about Goofy Grades is they tell a complex story at a glance.  The contrast between easily recognized, popular brands, one a BBB member, the other not, clearly demonstrates the absurdity of BBB Grades.

Today's (July 22, 2010) helping of Goofy Grades come courtesy of an outraged businessman in the Denver area.  The following grades are all taken from the Denver BBB website.  Tough to really comprehend what the Denver BBB is grading, but it seems clear they like their adult diversions.


Adult Book Store
 Jewish Bookstore
Adult Book Store Good
 Jewish Book Store Bad
Starbucks Denver
 Umbrella Coffee
Starbucks Bad
 Coffee and BBB Good
denver strip club
 papa johns pizza
Strip Club Good
 Pizza Bad

Today (July 19th, 2010) we have two more Goofy Grades to share with you.

Starbucks Gets An F from BBB
Once again, it’s obvious that it pays to be a member of the BBB. 

EDITORS NOTE  The screen shots in all of the stories filed today represent a true and accurate representation of the BBB reliability reports for STARBUCKS AND VERIZON as they appeared at 12:03AM, TUESDAY, JULY 20th, 2010.  The LIVE TIME VERSIONS of these Reliability Reports may be found here for Verizon and here for Starbucks.  If what you see when you click on one of these links is different from what you see above, then you can rest assured that the BBB has altered their Grade for the company in question.  If that's the case, you should ask yourself what are they covering up? 

If the BBB follows past behavior, these grades or business listings will be be disappeared sometime on July 20th, 2010.  For those of you who question the veracity of the screen shots published in today's stories, rest assured we took the appropriate steps:  we hired a forensic computer, expert witness, firm to verify and archive the contents of the website pages and screen shots used in today''s stories.  We also notified a few of our colleagues in the mainstream media in advance of publishing these stories so that we'll have additional third-party, independent verification of the screen shots published in these stories.


The consumer, the very person the BBB is supposed to look out for, is nowhere in their algorithm calculations--the process that determines a business' BBB Grade.  It's clear that the Better Business Bureau grades serve no purpose.  They don't help the consumer.  They don't help the small business.  And they don't help the very community they're supposed to serve.  No wonder they're Goofy.

This would be comical but for the fact that these Goofy Grades are crippling small businesses.  They also mislead the consumer on which companies are worth doing business with. So before you rely on the Better Business Bureau to evaluate a business, do a little experiment and see how the BBB grades some companies that you know and do business with yourself.  And when you come across a Goofy Grade please notify me at editor@bbbroundup.com as I like to keep track of these things.
Editor's note:  There is a need for a consumer advocacy group that the public can turn to, and it used to be that the Better Business Bureau fulfilled this role adequately.  No longer.  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.  If they refuse to reform, then they must bear the consequences.
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