Better Business Bureau accused of running 'pay for play' scheme ($400 gets you an A rating)

[somone]

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/business-bureau-best-ratings-money-buy/story?id=12123843

Nov. 12, 2010
Terror Group Gets 'A' Rating From Better Business Bureau?
Consumer Watchdog Accused of Running 'Pay for Play' Scheme With Grading System
By JOSEPH RHEE and BRIAN ROSS

The Better Business Bureau, one of the country's best known consumer watchdog groups, is being accused by business owners of running a "pay for play" scheme in which A plus ratings are awarded to those who pay membership fees, and F ratings used to punish those who don't. To prove the point, a group of Los Angeles business owners paid $425 to the Better Business Bureau and were able to obtain an A minus grade for a non-existent company called Hamas, named after the Middle Eastern terror group. "Right now, this rating system is really unworthy of consumer trust or confidence," said Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal in an interview...

Errors seem to abound at the Better Business Bureau. As reported by an anonymous blogger the BBB also awarded an A minus rating to a non-existent sushi restaurant in Santa Ana, California and an A plus to a skinhead, neo-Nazi web site called Stormfront. Each listing cost $425. "They ran the credit card and within 12 hours they were an approved, accredited member," said the anonymous blogger, who runs a site called bbbroundup.com. "They're more interested in the money than their credibility," he said...

As part of the ABC News investigation, an ABC News producer with a camera was present as two small business owners in Los Angeles were told by Better Business Bureau tele-marketers that their grades of C could be raised to A plus if they paid $395 membership fees. Terri Hartman, the manager of a Los Angeles antique fixtures store, Liz's Antique Hardware, was told only a payment could change her grade, based on one old complaint that had already been resolved. "So, if I don't pay, even though the complaint has been resolved, I still have a C rating?" Hartman then read off her credit card number and the next business day the C grade was replaced with an A plus, and the one complaint was wiped off the record.

In a second case, Carmen Tellez, the owner of a company that provides clowns for parties was also told she had to pay to fix her C- grade, based on a two-year old complaint that she says had already been resolved. The C minus became an A plus the very next day after she provided her credit card number for the $395 charge. "If I'm paying for a grade, then how are the customers supposed to really trust the Better Business Bureau?" she asked...

[Celebration]

1. sounds like the mob

white collar, non-violent mob, but mob nonetheless.

[Curmudgeoness]

2. And you are surprised by this? Capitalism abounds.

Just don't expose Consumer Report or I will have no place to go where I can find trusted information.

[Better Today]

3. I entirely agree that it's a scam from my own experience.

About a year ago, I was approached by a company that said it would shop an SBA loan around to find a lender if I met certain criteria, which I did at that time, and if I paid them a fee up front. I didn't give an answer and got on-line to check the company out. I found some accusations of fraud/scam, some who swore by the company, so I decided to check the BBB. Well first this company was a "member" company. They had a A+ rating even though they had 36 unresolved issues in the past year.

So I got on-line and looked up other similar companies. Found some that worked on a percentage after the loans were found and approved, some 50-50, and some sites saying that anyone asking for money to shop around a bank to accept an SBA loan was in and of itself illegal essentially. The one that was seemingly the most reasonable, the one that only got paid if they succeeded, which was quite literally a few blocks away from the one I had been approached by, had a D rating even though they had no, that's right none, uresolved issues. But guess what, they weren't BBB "members".

I've never trusted the BBB since. Oh, and I decided that the economy was still too sucky to risk an SBA loan that I see now I probably couldn't pay back since the economy is still entirely sucky.

[BeFree]

4. Is nothing sacred?

The BBB has been run by scam artists for how long now?

The BBB has now become Bush's Best Buddies?

[robinlynne]

5. shit. I trusted those ratings.

[somone]

6. Glenn Beck: Goldline has A+ rating from BBB and thus cannot be involved in anything shady

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201011120046

Goldline is a major sponsor of Glenn Beck's radio and TV shows for which he has personally recorded testimonials. Recently, the precious metal company has been probed by Rep. Anthony Weiner, and the firm is under investigation by district attorneys in Los Angeles and Santa Monica for allegedly deceptive business practices.

One of Beck's stock defenses of Goldline is that they have an "A+" rating from the Better Business Bureau (BBB), and thus cannot be involved in anything shady.

[Curmudgeoness]

7. First, if I were in business, this would be worth the money.

Second, as a consumer, I will never trust them again.

Third, this makes it a better idea to do your consumer research on the internet, taking some complaints with a grain of salt. But if a company pisses enough people off, it will show up in angry posts all over the internet.

[cbdo2007]

8. Here is my BBB complaint story....

I bought some magazines online through one of the discount companies and at the end of the purchase another window they asked me if I would be interested in some other offer for $29.95 and I clicked on "No". Sure enough, my credit card was charged $29.95 by this company for some fake travel service or something, so I wrote a complaint to the BBB about the company.

The BBB wrote back and said they talked to the company and the company agreed to have a meeting to discuss their marketing techniques, so BBB considered the complaint resolved to their satisfaction.

Um....wha wha WHAT?!?!? They clearly had a fraudulent marketing strategy and the BBB considered the complaint resolved just because the company acknowledges that and will discuss this with themselves?!?!?

So I wrote a letter to my state Secretary of State and they said there was nothing they could do. I did get my credit card company to refund the money, but this is an obvious scam that the BBB literaly did nothing about. I've never filed a complaint since just because I figure the BBB is more corrupt than any company I'm probably complaining about so it's not worth my time.

[Trekologer]

9. This isn't new

The BBB has always been like this. If a business pays up, the rating magically goes to an A or A+. The BBB isn't there for you, the consumer, it is there for its member businesses.

[alp227]

10. Scam artists protecting scam artists.

Think about Vector Marketing, other MLM scammers.