I suppose Organized Crime is the closest one can describe D&B's methods to gain subscription services. I have a small (25 employee) professional services business, which has never had a need for financing, and whose expenses fundamentally are payroll. The business carries a debt to equity ratio of less than 15% and has adequate cash reserves to cover more than 50% of its annual revenues. My guess is that this company is better than 99% of the best managed companies in the country. Yet D&B reports the company as in the highly finacial stressed category, with a good chance of filing for bankruptcy. Now, they call and claim all of that can be cleared if we pay $700 and update our records online. The company's financial condition has not changed in 7 years, since Hurricane Katrina left a hiccup, which was overcome soon.
Government agencies depend on D&B. Thus, the government jobs we have bid may be in jeopardy. We may already have lost some jobs because of erroneous reporting by D&B. On principal alone it is tempting to not renew the subscription, because the damage is already done, and find out if indeed this affected job awards to us, to file litigation for damages. Someone has to start to wake up this greedy giant, who plays with the future of small business and livelihood of their employees
As I read the internet and various blogs I see many similar stories. Wonder why the US attorney's office has not looked into this, or why a class action suit has not been filed
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