We are general contractors who have been in business at the same corner, with the same phone # for 28 yrs.in the 70's we were members and found it to be a rip off & never joined again until last year when several of our employees really pushed for it. We completed the application and were excepted (that day, I believe) and charged $470.00. When I called a few days later to see what they had to say about our company I got a recording which said "According to the information supplied by this company, they have been in business since 1973" then "The BBB opened their files in 1995." This sounded like they were even questioning our longevity and we had been members in the 70's! THEY HAD NOT CHECKED ANYTHING!!!
We are a legitimate company but what about those that are not? They do not verify to see how long you have been in business, or that you are financially credible or anything!!! They just take your check and send you a plastic plaque. When I realized this I told them that I believed that anyone with $470 could become a member and I demanded that our membership be cancelled and our money returned. They would not return our money but no longer list us as members.
Within a few weeks, they sent a couple of complaints they had received on us and I responded immediately. (Please note that we do $10,000, 000 a year in business and I will be the first to tell you that not everyone of our customers is 100% happy but we have been here for 28 yrs.) Neither one of these was legitimate and one was not even from a customer. It was from someone who was mad because we told them we couldn't take on their work at that time. I responded to the two complaints and never heard anymore so I thought everything was all right. This week I found out that they are giving us an unsatisfactory report for not responding to one of these ("unanswered complaint"). Both responses were sent to them at the same time in the same envelope and also via fax. I refaxed it and requested that our record be changed to "satisfactory" since we had indeed responded. I received a call from Dan Parsons who is the person that I had dealt with when I cancelled our membership. He was VERY COCKY and REMINDED ME THAT I HAD CANCELLED OUR MEMBERSHIP, and that he was going to leave our rating as "unsatisfactory" but the reason would be changed to "unresolved complaints" until we can go to arbitration. I believe that I have created a MONSTER and that I now have the rath of the BBB on me and it is SCARY!!!
We do $10,000, 000 in business and have 2 complaints and that makes us "unsatisfactory"and yet there are businesses that I know of that are in major financial trouble and yet they give them a good report. So far every file I have pulled up on member business it reflects that even though they may have unresolved complaints that the "company has done everything the can to resolve it". I haven't found this notation on any nonmember files.
It is amazing they the media holds them up as some kind of saint out there to protect the consumer when, in fact, I truly believe that it is about money.
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