An I-Team/ABC News investigation found bogus companies could buy an A+ while companies with one complaint despite hundreds or thousands of customers got “F”s or “D”s.
The owner of one business that got an “F” is incensed. Ron Wood owns a wedding photography studio in downtown Cincinnati. He says he’s shot more than 600 weddings in the last six years. At some point in the last three years one customer complained about a DVD of photos Wood says was never in the wedding contract.
The customer didn’t just complain to Wood. She also complained to the BBB. Wood says he worked with the customer but not the Bureau, to which he doesn’t belong. He didn’t realize that could cost him the worst rating possible. "I think it really stinks. It's unfair that I should have a failing grade” for one complaint.
Wood says who knows how much business he may have lost because of that grade. It’s the same complaint we heard from businesses across the country.
Terri Hartman manages an antique hardware store in Los Angeles. She says up to 100 customers a day shop there. She says, "Your reputation is really all you have." Yet after one customer in the last three years complained, the BBB rated the store a "C". After Hartman bought a membership, her grade went up to an “A+.”
Carmen Telles got the same result when she bought a membership. She’s a professional clown who wasn’t laughing about her original “C-“, also the result of one complaint she says she didn’t know existed.
Another Cincinnati area business that is unhappy with the BBB's ratings system is Bromwell's fireplace shop on Fourth Street, downtown.
Bromwell’s received an "A-" from the BBB, despite having no complaints in the almost-200 years that they have been in business, according to operations manager Todd Glacken. But Glacken said that several local competitors, who have as many as 16 complaints each, have a stellar "A+" rating from the BBB.
One difference: all of the "A+" fireplace
shops in Cincinnati are BBB members. Bromwell’s is not a member.
Side-by-side grade comparisons
While Better Business Bureaus across the United States and Canada operate as independent businesses, the complaints the I-Team and ABC have heard are eerily similar.
They began in the past few years as Bureaus began rolling out a new grading system. Instead of "satisfactory" or "unsatisfactory", the new ratings use letter grades from “A” to “F”.
Some side-by-side comparisons raise questions.
Credit card company Visa has 56 complaints and merits an "A+". Its competitor Mastercard has 21 complaints but rates an "F". Visa paid to join the BBB. Mastercard did not.
BBB member University of Phoenix, an online college, gets an “A+” with 228 complaints. Nonmember Stanford University gets a “C” for one complaint.
Member Yahoo gets an “A” with 1,228 complaints. Nonmember Google gets a “D” with 423 complaints.
Critics, including a businessman who calls himself Jimmy Rivers, say, "The grading system is broken. There are grades that make no rhyme or reason. There's good companies with bad grades. There's bad companies with good grades."
Rivers hides his identity. He says he fears retaliation from the BBB, which he says has been trying to find out who he is since he started blogging about the grading system discrepancies.
"There are just a lot of discrepancies in how the grades are done. There's a lot of favoritism on membership versus non-membership," said Rivers.
BBB disputes allegations
Jocile Ehrlich, executive director of Cincinnati’s Bureau, says that’s not true.
"Membership has nothing to do with this," Ehrlich said.
She says businesses get lower grades not as a result of the number of complaints but rather how or whether they respond to the BBB. She says the new ratings are not misleading.
"I think that they are clear, they are an accurate description of the BBB's level of confidence in the integrity of the company in question," added Ehrlich.
Ehrlich says Bureau employees use 17 criteria when evaluating businesses who apply for accreditation, spending hours checking the size and longevity of a business, how it advertises, whether its website is accurate and of course how many complaints it has received and how it dealt with them.
She says side-by-side comparisons aren’t fair because no two businesses are the same.
Ehrlich says because the Bureau has more complete information on businesses that apply for accreditation, those businesses can improve their grades.
"Any organization that goes through an accreditation process pays a fee for that. It takes time and staff to evaluate whether or not a company is eligible for accreditation," said Ehrlich.
That may be true in Cincinnati but it isn’t everywhere. In Los Angeles, someone signed up a fake business called Hamas,
same as the terrorist organization, at a fake address. Since there was no real business, there was no background to check. Hamas paid $425 and immediately got an "A-".
Ehrlich says that would never happen in Cincinnati, where workers verify how long a business has been around and many other factors. Workers present that information to the Bureau’s board of directors, which meets once a month to approve new members.
Only members can get an A+
Another complaint nonmembers repeat is that no matter how perfect their record may be, they can’t ever get an A+. The BBB reserves the top grade for its members, not only because it has more information on them but because they have to sign agreements promising to abide by standards and to go through mediation or arbitration should the BBB deem that necessary to settle a dispute.
The BBB rules also say a business can’t join unless it has at least a “B” grade. Again, not all Bureaus handle this rule the same way. Hartman’s hardware store and Telles’ clown business were rated a "C" and "C-" respectively. In one phone call to their Los Angeles BBB, both cleared up their one complaint apiece, paid their membership dues, and received an “A+” within days.
That’s not how the Cincinnati Bureau responded when Wood tried to join. An employee sent him an e-mail to clear up the one complaint that had gotten him an “F” but would not allow him to join until after he responded. Once he did, his grade went up to a "B-".
He could join and possibly get a better grade. He says he doesn’t want to spend the minimum $415 annually that would cost. "I'm not going to join them just to have a good grade."
Ehrlich disputes that notion. "This is not the pay to play” situation, she says. “We are very rigorous in evaluating the companies that apply for accreditation" and that takes time and money the Bureau can’t afford to give away. It’s a business too.
The Cincinnati Better Business Bureau has had an ongoing relationship with the I-Team in a series of reports called “The BBB Files,” which warn consumers of potential consumer problems in the region.
Copyright 2010 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Most recent Comments from listeners:
The BBB's board of directors is comprised of business CEO's. It's a TOTAL farce. This really is a 'fox in the hen house' operation. One would like to believe it's run by people without conflict of interest but that is not the case. It should be obvious the HUGE conflict of interest at play here. I hope a new trustworthy organization rises from grassroots and overtakes the BBB.
The BBB is a joke. I was cheated by an auto Repair shop in Westchester. I reported the situation to the BBB. Not only did they fail to help me they did not record my complaint. While I won in small claims, the Westchester Cinday Rd scammer went bankrupt and cheated many people along with some of their employees. Hint- they may be up and running again under a differt name.
Cincinnati Bell has an A+ even though they've had over 600 complaints in 3 years. BBB is not the end all be all, it is just a piece of the puzzle. Use Angie's List, use Consumer Reports, use Google Reviews... heck most shops have Amazon store places now with ratings/reviews. If you have what you feel is legit problem with a way a company is doing business I would suggest instead of contacting the BBB you see what your state's AG office has to say. You're paying their salaries, if they don't take action they will at least give you your options.
Ehrlich the executive director made it very clear. Membership has nothing to do with grades. You just have to be a member to get a good grade. ?????? Sounds like double talk.
I believe Angies list is run in the same manner, please correct me if I'm wrong but I believe a business owner told me that you have to buy into this organization also, to get good ratings for the consumer.
Our business has a C grade on BBB website. This is because another business claimed we advertised something that wasn't the whole truth. BBB contacted us to ask about the claim, we responded via phone and e-mail. According to the BBB website, it says we never responded and rating was due to an advertising issue. Needless to say, we are not members. However, the other business that filed the claim is. Go figure. When we first opened BBB contacted us frequently trying to get us to join. $400 for what??
BBB lied about whether you go through them to fix complaints as well. I know for a fact a "non-member" company can go through BBB to clear up complaints and still obtain an "F" grade on their business. Matter of fact ALL complaints have been handled through BBB! So where's that A? LOL, it's all just a way for the BBB to make money. Like the gal said...it's a business and people will pay to use it.
I used to think that the BBB was a government operation to help the consumer. In the last 10 years, I learned it is a company of its own. How is a company that requires "paid membership" going to be fair when rating a business? It will never happen. I wish more people knew about this bogus rating system.
Well this is depressing, but should not be surprising. I check alot of things through the BBB before I engage in business with them, even dentists. Now, who knows? And the BBB did call us and ask us if we wanted to join, but I didn't have the $400+ to do so. I guess we have a poor grade, although I'm pretty sure none of our customers would ever have complained, we bent over backwards to take care of them. However, when someone told me about Angie's List, I went and looked up our type of business on there and found someone that we KNOW is a total rip off, has no idea what he's doing, and he's on Angie's List in good standing, so that's when I didn't put too much store in what it said either.
The BBB's board of directors is comprised of business CEO's. It's a TOTAL farce. This really is a 'fox in the hen house' operation. One would like to believe it's run by people without conflict of interest but that is not the case. It should be obvious the HUGE conflict of interest at play here. I hope a new trustworthy organization rises from grassroots and overtakes the BBB.
You're just now figuring that out??
I discovered THAT about ten years ago. Before I contracted with a company
for a new roof, I contacted the BBB about them and was told they were "a
company in good standing." They put on a new roof for me, A few weeks later
when we got a storm, the roof leaked EVERYWHERE! I tried to contact the
company and left a message. After that, the number was disconnected. I
cotnacted the BBB and reported it (and also reported it IN WRITING). BBB
said they would investigate and they came back and told me the company
was "no longer in business." I had to pay for a whole new roof. About 6-9
mos. later I called the BBB about the SAME roofing company. Guess what??!!
They told me it was a company "in good standing."