Better Business Bureau

The better business bureau is a sham and should be shut down for deceptive business practices. I wasted a lot of time once contacting them about a local business to complain. In the end the better bastards bureau closed the case deeming the business acted in good faith by just acknowledging the problem and they then told me to piss off. Go to hell BBB.

The BBB is a joke. They are paid by the buisness for their A+ rating. I had proof in writing from three seperate contractors, that our patio cover was installed incorrectly. They still sided with the buisness. Don’t ever take their rating seriously. They will stand behind any unethical buisness that pays them. What a joke and a scam! What a waste of time to even reach out to BBB for help.

I’ve filed atleast two complaints. BBB has not helped resolve either situation. They allow the corporation to provide an unsatisfactory response and then close the case. What’s the point of the organization?

I am a business owner that has been an A+ member of the BBB since 2001. Over 10,000 customers served and no complaints until 2 years ago when our form got into the solar contracting. All complaints resolved then we decided to terminate our relationship with the BBB as they were just letting anyone complain for rediculous reasons and tried to govern our replies and actions to basically give away services not in our contract to just satisfy the customer.
Point is, the customer is all we have, but a bad customer that has this power can drag your name in the ground to get free things and the BBB gives them the power to do it.
When we saw the BBB going thru this change we pulled out. Or decided to not be a part of the organization. What did the BBB do, they targeted us and revoked our membership virtually so that it looked as if we are a bad company & they made the decision to terminate us!!!
I think they are okay bad business practices. Our firm is better than scare tactics from this organization! It does hurt us but we will not give in to their pressure for money, membership and giving in to bad business practice
Small business may work for the BBB but I would not recommend it when you turn into a larger firm

These guys continue to be one big shake down operation. CNN has a great article on them today 9÷30÷2015 titled «Slammed by the Government, A Rated by the Better Business Bureau». My experience was horrible, I went to them with what was obviously a major mistake by a solar panel installer that ruined my roof and the actual solar install at a cost of $ 10,000 for the solar system (now uninstalled), $ 5000 for a new roof, and another $ 2000 to repair the damage to the inside of the home. BBB San Diego’s view was that the company did everything right and that they would not do anything, including lowering their BBB Rating. The San Diego office puts on a nice ‘pretty face’, but are part of the larger national scam on businesses and consumers. Read the CNN/​CNNMoney article today.

After writing my Unilocal review I was contacted by Michael at the BBB, he wanted to see if he could help with my case in any way and change my negative experience. He was very honest about their limitations as a non-​profit third party, but said he would review my complaint and see what he could do. This was a breath of fresh air after my original complaint and trying to plead my side with my original case manager, who hardly responded to me. After no response, I complained to BBB corporate about not feeling my case was handled properly and feeling completely misheard and misunderstood as to the BBB being on the «consumer’s side,» and was then passed to another SD case manager who did not really seem to care.
After being contacted by Michael I felt I finally had the experience I was looking for the whole time. Michael really tried to help! He reviewed my case and agreed with me that the business did not adequately address all of my original complaint. He changed the status of my case and contacted the business again on my behalf. It was really nice to finally feel HEARD! He let me know the next steps, how he would have to categorize the final resolution if they did respond, and was really honest about what he could and could not do going forward.
The business never responded and even though the final outcome was not the refund I had hoped, if I had dealt with Michael the whole time I still would have given the BBB 5 stars. When you are dealing with a company with bad ethics, all you really want from the BBB is an attempt to resolve and to feel like you are being understood, which I was finally able to get after working with Michael. He made me a BBB believer again!
Thanks Michael!

Just knowing that LA Fitness has more than 2,200 complaints with the BBB and yet still has an A+ rating with them, should tell you everything you need to know about both BBB and LA Fitness. LA Fitness is renowned for their horrendous treatment of customers, which includes making it almost impossible to cancel a membership. However, according to the BBB they are just a fantastic company.

I have an accredited business through the BBB. I signed up to be accredited and sure enough it didn’t do much for us so I called to cancel my month to month payment system and they won’t let me. They are holding me to the terms of the contract when their services are doing nothing to help me bring reliable customers. When I was signed up I was told if I couldn’t afford the monthly payments anymore could I stop? i was told yes. I have a new business and we have huge expenses and now this one wont let me out. The customer service agent said in plain words you’re still going to have to pay us.
So people unfortunately I’m still in my contract and BBB refused to let me off. This is non-​profit organization? I feel in my opinion I am being mistreated and I think the public should know what happened. I feel they had the right intention in business to do right but in my case this couldnt be more wrong.
Small business
Barely making it
They are forcing me to pay and pretty much told me to kick rocks.
Thanks BBB for everything! I won’t trust anyone anymore.

I tried to use the BBB web site to file a complaint, so many steps, the categories did fit my complaint, so I called the BBB talked with a nice person when I told her the problem she said she would send me a form in the mail. Such a lot of work to get the BBB a complaint, Just gave up. Very sad about my experience. I will just Unilocal the problem to let other people know my experience with a problem business. update I got an email right way from the BBB regarding my experience. (good on them) talked with Rachel Newman, I suggested they make there site more user friendly. She told me the site does have a review page I told her I could not find it and the person I talked from the BBB with didn’t tell me about it. So good on the BBB for reaching out to me.

The BBB helps no one!
I want to challenge the claim that the BBB is 100% for the business, and not for the consumer. The BBB helps no one.
I manage the customer service department for a company. I always try to go above and beyond to help my customers even if that means making exceptions to my own policies. As long as the customer has given earnest effort to use the product, though just doesn’t feel our products are right for them, I will do whatever I can. Full no questions asked refunds, free products, extended guarantees/​warranties, you name it. My goal is to create solutions, and if I can’t do that, you can have your money back, of course!
Still, there are malicious consumers who use the BBB just to get more than they paid for. It becomes my «duty» to bend over backwards for people who don’t want a solution, but rather a bigger piece of the pie. We pay our yearly dues, and there is no protection against people who want to file arbitrary complaints. Even if I give the customer all they want and more, the complaint still stands, posted there for all to read and judge. On the flip-​side, if I want to defend my company, and stick to policy, and save my company money, our BBB rating goes down. It’s lose-​lose all the way around.
A business should build real relationships with it’s customers, not rely on a grader, working in their own interest, to mediate a problem. Then leaving no tangible working conclusion. The BBB is a scam that only loses money for companies. And if there is a truly fraudulent company out there, as long as they pay their dues, the consumer is left to suffer. No one wins, and people need to wake up to this reality.

100% for the business, not for the consumer. They closed my complaint and didn’t do anything to help me solve anything. It was a complete waste of time! I read online reviews on both the BBB and the company a day late and a dollar short. A lot of dollars short! Read all online reviews before doing business with any company! Save the heartache, hassle and stress. BBB is a joke!

BBB is Pay-​To-​Play, and always has been.
On
, I found my personally identifiable information (Name, Address, Phone number, exc). That website makes you sign up to remove your content. The trouble with this is signing up means agreeing to their terms of service, those terms give them permission to then do what they want with your information, it’s a catch 22. I opened a case with BBB and explained this. The business offered to take my information down (squeaky wheel gets the grease), but not alter this catch 22 policy for everyone. After a back a forth with this ‘appeal’, the BBB closed the case and sent me this email:
«BBB feels the business has addressed the issues in your complaint and made a good faith effort to resolve the dispute»
Did any human at the BBB actually read the complaint? Would any rational human, think this was ‘reasonable’? There’s no consumer advocacy going on at the BBB anymore.
The BBB logo never meant much to me, and now means nothing.

Misleading and completely useless for consumers. The BBB is here to protect their dues paying members ONLY! I filed a complaint against one of their «A+» members, giving detailed examples and BBB closed the complaint because their dues paying member said they couldn’t talk about it. When I called BBB to ask why they closed it they said their «Legal Counsel» told them too. So the BBB hides behind «Legal» when they need to protect one of their members. They refused to look at the documentation and pictures I had. BBB wouldn’t even post that a complaint was even filed on their website. It is obvious that BBB collects dues from businesses and will do anything to protect them. After this I feel only dishonest and crooked businesses go to BBB because they need protection.

We own a local business that has been A+ rated with the BBB for many years. In addition to paying $ 400 per year for «accreditation» we spend also $ 3,000+ per year to be in the BBB directory, ad $ 200 per month to be part of their pay per click campaign. We are constantly called to advertise in different ways. One monthly charge to show up on their website, even though we already pay for accreditation. I have never seen any organization try to slice and dice their website so many different ways to extract more money from a business. As many here found, they do not have any teeth as far as helping consumers. They make their money from advertising and fees from businesses.
We recently got a letter from the BBB with a screen shot of one of our pay per click ads demanding that we take down the ad because it has #1 in it. They said it violates their advertising terms. The exact same ad is used by numerous other businesses. This But guess what! On the same page is the BBB’s own pay per click ad for our trade. With pay per click advertising you bid competitively for the position on the webpage. We were competing against them for positioning. Hmmm how suspicious is that? We responded to their demands in writing with screen shots of almost identical ads from other BBB accredited businesses in the state and US. The company who handles our PPC advertising runs this identical ad in every city in the US for numerous other «accredited» businesses. This is the first time the BBB has made an issue of this ad. The ad does not violate GOOGLES Weeks after responding the first time, we got a letter saying they had not received any response from us. So we responded again. A few weeks later we got a certified letter from the BBB saying that our accreditation was being revoked for violating their advertising policy. The letter said that our profile would now say that our accreditation was revoked and if we resign from the BBB it would say that we resigned during revocation proceedings. They don’t do anything to protect consumers from bad companies, but instead spend all their efforts policing accredited companies websites, printed materials and advertisements. Any company that is bonded is not allowed to say they are bonded. They pay several people just to make sure that no member uses the word «bonded» in their website or marketing materials. Who cares if a business writes «licensed, bonded and insured» That is what people want to know. But since bonding is required we can’t print it on anything. Really, who cares!
We work very hard to survive and to maintain our excellent reputation. We’ve been in business for 25 years and have a great reputations and reviews all over the internet but the San Diego BBB is threatening to post (made up) derogatory information about our business because they don’t like one of our pay per click ads– which just coincidentally competes with them. What a crooked scam organization they are.

My business is not ‘accredditted’ but I have now made A+. I was temporarily down to an F because I didn’t respond to a letter (old address) from them about accidentally using the BBB A rating logo on my website. At the time I was unaware of the strict copyright laws regarding such logos.
I contacted them and a very helpful and informative employee named Sim got my new address saw that I had removed the logo and I was back to my long-​earned A+ :)

This public entity is a nuisance when you start your buisness they will call and harass you at least twice a week demanding that you pay them a ridiculous monthly fee so they can keep you safe from bad reviews when I told them to stop harassing me,
Lady agent said we are the police of buisnesses we monitor you for everything… that was a threat we had no complaints at all and she clearly was upset I asked her not call us anymore due to this continued calling every other week for 2 years…
They are out to harm companies that don’t pay them for example Unilocal

Our company purchased phones from Cricket in October 2012, have had issues with the account since and no amount of calls to that company worked with the incompentent customer service reps they have, they were neither willing and /​or able to assist. I was even directed to go to a local store to get the issues resolved and when I went, I was told by a very unhappy employee that she couldn’t help me and to either call customer service or try another location.
I finally filed a complaint with BBB and within a couple of weeks the same issues that we were told couldn’t be fixed were resolved. BBBs online complaint system is easy to follow, user friendly. Their response time is quick and all correspondence is through email.
I’m very happy with the outcome and I’m thankful that a company exist to assist consumers against companies who abuse their position and take advantage of paying customers… the same customers that keep them in business.
Thank you BBB!!!

As I consumer, I don’t know how the BBB doesn’t have 5 stars, I’ve contacted them several times when companies try and pull a fast one, and every time the BBB has made companies culpable for their actions. I am super grateful for the BBB.

I work for a company that is a licensed online traffic school in CA, NJ, NV, TX and AZ. Our AZ school received a complaint but it was filed by the BBB under our CA school.
The CA traffic school system is in a transition between being run by the courts to being run by the DMV at the end of the year. However I sent them the correct information to check certification, the business license, and DMV certification. I also sent them the information to check our AZ licenses. Which they then completely ignored.
The San Diego BBB is a franchise and not BBB accredited. They survive on charging businesses fees to correct the incorrect ratings which if you search for ’60 Minutes BBB’ you will find a long documentary on.
This business is a blight on San Diego and has seen its day being replaced by Unilocal and other review sites. As they struggle to stay in business, watch out for more incorrect information.
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Edit to reflect response from BBB:
We have between 3,500 to 5,000 traffic school students monthly and the BBB says we might not understand the licensing required. That they will explain it to us? I love that.
The switch to the DMV is happening and everyone has to be approved by the DMV but while that is pending traffic schools can still operate under their court approvals, CCS, NTSA, and HACOLA.
So to post that we are not approved to operate a traffic school and giving an F rating based upon this is a not correct. But it is fixable by paying $$$ to the BBB. I sent an email with scans of the various approvals months ago to the info address to the San DIego BBB for it to be ignored.
Essentially, with an F rating what the BBB is saying so far this year we have scammed 36,000 traffic school students. But reality says all of those students had their tickets cleared. I have a feeling the BBB is better at figuring out simple licensing like Construction or Realty.

Too bad there aren’t negative stars. Same story as everyone else. This company
useless scoring system extremely poor and far from reality .only one worry of BBB how to
still more money from businesses. no clue why anybody paying them for
membership or to be clear for using all negative data to harm your Business.