The Better Business Bureau is the worst investment a small business can make and the biggest mistake a consumer can make with regards to trusting the reports they post on a business. For starters they have sales people that are ON COMMISSION presenting themselves as BBB reps soliciting new and small business's trying to sell them BBB memberships, advertising and the promise of integrity and peace of mind which is virtually non existant!
The BBB salespeople scare you into thinking that you need to be a member and pay the money to them for membership dues so that they can protect you against false consumer complaints and information filed against your business. They also present a list of services which they will provide to you as a member which is completely deceiving because once they get your money the services they promised are never received.
They do not abide by their own set of guidelines and procedures and when we approached them on these issues they continued to fail in following their own guidelines so we hired an attorney to question them in person. They of course did not like this at all and things became worse for us as a member.
We were also upset about the fact that the BBB sold us over $5000 in radio & TV advertising spots that tagged their commercials and we never got accurate spot times so we could listen or see THE ADVERTISING WE PAID FOR! After several inquires as to this problem and excuses for why they did not provide us with this information which we as a member prepaid for, things started to get ugly. It was only after the entire 30 days of advertising compaigne was over that we got a tape showing one of the examples of ads we paid 5k for! We were never able to confirm that the advertising spots ever ran!
It was at this point we found out from an x BBB employee that their sales people receive huge commissions for selling these so called advertising packages to members to promote public awareness! The BBB makes you think that they are a government organization when they are not!
When we signed up for membership we were never told that the reports they generate for the general public would not be guaranteed to be accurate by the BBB. At the end of all company reports that they list for the public to view they put in small letters the following statement, "INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS REPORT IS BELIEVED RELIABLE BUT NOT GUARANTEED AS TO ACCURACY. REPORTS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE AT ANY TIME."
If we had previously known about this we would have never signed up to be members because if they can't guarantee information, WHAT IS THE POINT! The BBB here has an extremely small staff to answer and respond to complaints therefore that clause is put in at the bottom of a companies report is to cover their mistakes.
They had only 11 staff members at this time which explains why they lost our companies correspondence on several occassions and did anything possible to get our company to just refund the consumers money instead of performing the services per our membership that they told us about when they signed us up as a member.
When we started to get the full picture of what was actually going on with the Better Business bureau, it was clear that they don't make any money unless they continually sell memberships and advertising and that once they got you signed up as a member they could care less about you because it was not financially fruitful for them to waste time on members they had already sucked money out of!
Mediation is a joke and is costly for business members as it can drag on for months and if the consumer who filed the complaint on your business does not show up for the mediation, the BBB does not dismiss the complaint about your company even though they lie and say if you follow all the guidelines you will not have to worry about it.instead they give the consumer another chance to waste your companies time by setting up another mediation and we, (the BBB Member gets screwed!
Also consumers do not know that a member of the BBB just has to go to mediation and even if the business is found guilty by their mediator for fraud or ordered to pay the consumer, this is never reported for the consumer to see. What this means is if a business is fraudulent and has 1000 complaints, as long as you refund the consumers money or attend mediation the BBB will not put this negative information on the BBB Members company report!
IF CONSUMERS KNEW THIS INSIDE INFORMATION THEY WOULD NEVER WASTE THEIR TIME FILING COMPLAINTS OR WASTING THEIR TIME GOING THRU MEDIATION! I am appauled with the misleading information they give to the genral public and potential business's in order to get their trust!
We finally got sick of their misleading business practices and sent them a fax cancelling our membership with them and they tried to blackmail us and falsified documents trying to show we had violated our membership agreement!
Because of a serious health disability we had in the past been granted extensions so that our company director would be able to attend mediations or answer complaints accurately. When we tried to cancel our membership with them, they not only refused to give our company an extension ignoring our co. Representatives health disability but ignored all medical documentation provided on this. It is against the law to discriminate against anyone with a disability for any reason!
Because our company told the BBB we would be filing a formal complaint against them with the Attorney Generals office they went into swift damage control to cover their tracks by forging a document dated the day before we cancelled our membership with them saying that they were suspending our company membership due to bogus and unsubstatiated logo violations!
The BBB also tried to get us to pay another membership fee for a dba name we added to our company which is illegal! When we told the BBB that our dba name did not have an ein# and that we were not selling services or collecting money of any kind they still insisted on telling us we had to pay another membership fee due. The dba name was only done in order to seperate the paperwork our company was doing by catagory only and we wanted this listed in our report under the parent company we had the membership under with the BBB.
In short, the Better Business Bureau really is a scam presenting themselves to be the watch dogs of bad business when they are the ones asking everyone for money. Yes, you are asked to give them money in return for being a member way before they ever approve you to be a member. Basically approval depends on if the check you wrote to them for membership clears the bank or not!
The contract they make small business's sign to obtain membership is so illegal it is unbeieveable and when you question them on this all they do is lie about it! They refuse to provide documentation to a business when they suspend them and ignor all state and federal guidelines when it comes to disability, legal and binding contract guidelines and anything else they think they can get away with because (they are a non-profit organization?)
We have taped phone conversations that prove that the BBB lie's not limited to and including documentation from their own office admitting to their own mistakes in writting! I WOULD LOVE TO OWN A SO CALLED NON PROFIT ORGANIZATION OF 10-12 employees and pay them huge commissions all at the expense of a general public and small business's money!!! And get away with it because as a non profit organization no body can question your business practices or they will black mail you!
Guess what Better Business Bureau, your game is up! We are going to post our contractual information which you use to steal money from small business's up on our website for the entire public to see that you are a scam! Too bad if you do not like it because we will use the same loop holes you do by putting the statement "INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS REPORT IS BELIEVED RELIABLE BUT NOT GUARANTEED AS TO ACCURACY. REPORTS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE!".
It is ridiculous to think your staff of 10 to 12 employees can service complaints or members for a state as large as ARIZONA in the first place!!! It is my hope that a real government agency will expose you for the deceptive liars and cheats your really are!
Many consumers and small business's get ripped off every year due to your fraudulent business practices!!! Maybe everyone else is afraid of you but we aren't and will do what ever it takes to expose your completely dishonest non profit organization for what it is!!! Anyone out there who has had the same experience please contact me because we are taking what ever legal action necessary to get justice regarding this illegal non profit organization who pretends to be something that they are not!!!
Ann
phoenix, Arizona
U.S.A.
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