BBB is a TOTAL FRAUD everyone knows it. BBB Needs To Come Clean And Regain Public's Trust. Watchdog | George Gombossy March 15 The national Better Business Bureau's claim that its new A to F rating system was instituted to help consumers will be tested by a skeptical Connecticut attorney general who is annoyed that he agreed to speak at a bureau event last November honoring a business now under investigation by his office.
Last week, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal "requested" that the Better Business Bureau turn over all documents relating to the selection of Custom Basements of Glastonbury for the bureau's Torch Award at a time when the business was allegedly defrauding customers and subcontractors.
The Torch Award, given annually for "marketplace ethics, " was presented Nov. 14 to Custom Basements, a now defunct remodeling firm.
Blumenthal said Thursday that if the BBB does not provide adequate answers he will subpoena the information. He gave the organization a deadline of March 28. He said he considers the BBB to be part of his investigation into the company.
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In his letter to Paulette H. Scarpetti, president of BBB Connecticut, Blumenthal also said he wanted answers about the new national rating system, which grants letter grades ranging from F to A instead of the historic satisfactory or unsatisfactory ratings.
He questioned what impact being a dues-paying, accredited member of the BBB has on grades awarded, including whether those businesses receive special treatment. Most of the bureau's funding comes from annual dues that can be thousands of dollars.
Scarpetti said she will cooperate with the investigation and noted that Custom Basements' license was renewed Dec. 1 by the state Department of Consumer Protection.
She declined to comment on the rating system, saying any response should come from the national office. Public relations officials from the national office did not respond to e-mailed questions sent Thursday and Friday.
Blumenthal said Thursday that some of the ratings his office has looked at give the appearance that being a dues-paying, accredited member of the bureau results in ratings that are much better than those for businesses with similar consumer records that are not BBB members.
My spot checks back up his assertion and create serious doubt about whether there is consistency in the rating system, whether it's fair, accurate or even has a basis in logic.
For instance, Blumenthal noted that Wal-Mart's national headquarters in Arkansas, which is a dues-paying, accredited BBB member, has an A rating even though over the past three years it had 203 customer complaints, all resolved.
Individual Wal-Mart stores in Connecticut are not dues-paying members, and 35 of them received C - ratings. The stores were not rated individually, but as a group, and each was treated the same.
The explanation on the BBB posting was that the below-average grade was due to the number of complaints and lack of information about those stores. However, the 35 stores in total had only 12 complaints, which means that at least 23 stores had no complaints in the past three years. Plus, the stores responded to every complaint.
Adding to the mystery of how the BBB decides to rate businesses, the Putnam Wal-Mart store was listed separately from the other 35 stores and given an A rating. It is not a BBB member, nor did it have any complaints.
Walmart.com, not a BBB member, received a C - rating. It had responded to all complaints against it.
Wal-Mart Vision Centers in Connecticut received an F grade because the BBB said it failed to respond to the one complaint it received in the past three years.
However, the Wal-Mart store in Cerritos, Calif., also failed to respond to one complaint but was given a B - grade by a California BBB office.
Target has a corporate membership, and its headquarters is given an A rating despite having had 1,436 complaints because local complaints are handled by headquarters instead of individual stores.
Target.com, not a BBB member, was given a C-rating, and the BBB lists no Target stores in Connecticut. Other states list Target stores and either give no ratings or have a blank page when you click on the store's listing.
Putting aside the question of whether the BBB instituted its new rating system to pressure more companies to sign up as accredited members, there seems to be little rhyme or reason to the rating system.
How can Wal-Mart and Target nationally have A ratings when some of their individual businesses are rated as below-average or failing?
When the BBB announced its rating system Jan. 6, it said all its branches would use the same 16 variables in its proprietary algorithm and give the same weight to each variable. And it wasn't something the BBB said it just rolled out as a work in progress. The bureau said it tested it for four years in various locations.
The more I dig into the rating system, the more I'm convinced it needs to be scrapped and that the bureau needs to go back to its simple up or down ratings. If it can't even assure us that its Torch winner isn't bouncing checks and taking money for work not performed, how can it claim to be able to give nuanced grades to millions of businesses in the U.S. And Canada?
Its time for the BBB to stop spinning and be straight with the public and public officials. Millions of us have been depending on it for what we believed was data we could stake our money on.
HOW TO REACH ME: If you have an issue that you would like me to look into, please e-mail me at [email protected]. You can also send mail to me at Watchdog, Hartford Courant, 285 Broad St., Hartford, CT 06115 (please include your telephone number and town). I will respond to as many complaints as time permits. You can read my daily blog at courant.com/ctwatchdog.
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