Better Business Bureaus

[imoldernu]

Open for your experiences.

Personal criticism. Has to do with healthcare providers. Without going in to great detail, after some very bad experiences with one of the nations' largest healthcare /pharmacy providers, I looked for on-line ratings. In each and every one of six sites I visited, my company was rated 1 or 2 stars... one site with over 1400 comments... 95% negative (1 or 2 stars).

Not to make too much of this, I looked at the U.S. Better Business Bureau and found that the corporation has an A+ rating in all states where it has a presence.

 

[Rianne]

IMHO, BBB is a scam.

 

[VanWinkle]

If you are a large corporation in the business of healthcare, you are a target in today's climate. 1400 negative is likely .025% of the public served. I agree that the BBB is not the place to make decisions on the quality of a business's services.

 

[COcheesehead]

IMHO, BBB is a scam.

Not really, but their ratings are based on reportings to them. Who takes the time to do that? Not many.

Here is a better summary of how they create the rating.

https://www.bbb.org/overview-of-bbb-ratings

 

[samclem]

I think BBB is useful, within the limits of what they do. If I go there and see that a local roof contractor has a bunch of unresolved complaints, that serves as a red flag. It doesn't give me enough info to decide for/against that company, but if BBB shows other businesses of similar size (they give #s of employees) have far fewer complaints, or the company has addressed the complaints, then that is important info.


There's still >no< online resource I'm aware of that provides reliable information on local doctors, car service spots, etc. Yelp, BBB, Angies List, etc all have significant problems.

 

[GrayHare]

BBB, nice idea, poor execution. Since consumers won't fund them they seek money from business, hence the distorted BBB ratings.

 

[misshathaway]

I just had a complaint settled by BBB regarding an online contact lens company, lens.com, that offered a big rebate on contact lenses and then did not send the rebate. If I had taken the trouble to look up what their local BBB was, based on their corporate address, I would have seen similar customer complaints and not bought from them in the first place.

Within days of filing the complaint I got the rebate card in the mail AND they refunded my credit card for the amount of the rebate. I agree that the ratings are bogus. This company has a B rating because they quick settle all the complaints. They are probably still making out b/c how many people actually remember to follow up with the rebate and then file with the BBB if they did not get it? (oh the things we have time for in early retirement) The text of the customer complaints is a much better gauge.

 

[Rianne]

There are plenty of online review sites. When we bought our couches I researched every furniture outlet. From Lazy Boy to cheap outlet in town and all in between. You can tell verified purchases, many people post pictures, give dates, talk about salesperson (customer service), even give 1-2 year updates on how furniture is holding up. Almost every business I can think of has online reviews. Just because a business has a B or A rating, does not mean it's a good company that stands behind it's product. If there are 10 good comments, 2 or 3 bad comments and a couple of average comments, it's important to understand why. And customer reviewers are not shy about posting the exact issue of the problem.

If it's the saleslady was rude or it took an extra week for shipping, that is very different than the workmanship of the produce, the stuffing fell out or the recliner broke. Then, how did they resolve the issue? Did they ignore you, did they replace immediately? I'm glad I have the time as FIRE to investigate this stuff.

 

[Potstickers]

If a business has a bad rating on BBB, I can assume that it is a business I don't want to use.

If it has a good rating, I really don't know anything about the business and need to look elsewhere.

The way BBB closes complaints means that a good rating really doesn't provide useful info.

 

[Boho]

The BBB has worked for me. I wish they would take action against businesses who put bogus BBB ratings on their website. In one case they just had a warning about a website doing that but I don't know of them taking any effective action to stop it.

Even the government refers people to the BBB.

 

[Lewis Clark]

Online reviews can be useful but I always view them skeptically.

As a teacher, I receive anonymous reviews from students every year. I regularly see comments that have no basis in fact. For example, I get a few comments every year claiming that my tests cover information not covered in class or in the textbook, which is not true. Comments like these are written by students who don't study very much.

The point is, even reviews from verified purchasers may not be factually accurate or tell the entire story, no matter how much detail they seem to include. If we see a number of reviews that make similar complaints there may be a real issue there of concern, but there may not be. And at best we are only getting one side of the story.

I've seen news articles indicating that 30% - 40% or more of all online reviews are fake, written by the company itself trying to help itself look good, or by competitors trying to make a business look bad.

Never a good idea to automatically assume that everything we read in a review is factually correct.