The BBB is NOT like Consumer Reports whatsoever with people testing the products or investigating the business. In my humble opinion, they are a 100%, A+ moneymaking organization. The BBB charges a fee for businesses to become accredited. However, they say the ratings a business gets do NOT mean that they think the business is good and upstanding, yet the implication is clearly there for the users to infer.
There is often a very good reason a business has an F rating. Nevertheless, the reality is that in many cases, it is obvious that this process is inherently disingenuous and skewed against the businesses. It is this flawed system that ultimately ends up causing the greatest harm to the average consumer with false ratings. If they do not respond to complaints and do not pay the BBB, then their rating will be artificially lower.
What makes me an expert on all of this you ask? Well, one of my companies started out with an F rating. We started responding to comments and increased it to B yet, no matter how hard we tried we could not raise our rating to an A. One day we decided to pay the BBB for accreditation just to see what would happen. Never again cause it just didn’t feel right to pay them and transfer our costs to our customers.
It goes without saying that people get mad at almost all companies periodically. They leave online complaints and often irrationally biased reviews. Now the company has bad reviews online and these guys like the BBB will not remove them. These companies, like the BBB, won’t give you a good rating without paying them money. Lots of money. The government has fined or even arrested unscrupulous individuals that charged people to have bad reviews removed.
The BBB’s fine print:
BBB: If a business has been accredited by BBB, it means BBB has determined that the business meets BBB accreditation standards, which include a commitment to make a good faith effort to resolve any consumer complaints.
Translation: Just respond to all complaints and usually the BBB will dismiss them.
BBB: BBB Accredited Businesses pay a fee for accreditation review/monitoring and for support of BBB services to the public.
Translation: Business need to pay a fee to boost their rating
BBB: BBB accreditation does not mean that the business’ products or services have been evaluated or endorsed by BBB, or that BBB has made a determination as to the business’ product quality or competency in performing services.
Translation: Has nothing whatsoever if it is a good business or not. Nothing to do with if they are stealing from customers or not. Nothing to do with if they offer a good product or not.
BBB: Businesses are under no obligation to seek BBB accreditation, and some businesses are not accredited because they have not sought BBB accreditation.
Translation: Your business must pay a FEE to get BBB accreditation.