Is the Better Business Bureau (BBB) A One-Sided Story?

When you consider how the Better Business Bureau (BBB) ranks its companies, it’s easy to believe that their system tells a one-sided story. After all, complaints come into the BBB, but there’s never any positive reviews. A company could have, say, 150,000 orders during the course of a year and have 30 complaints during that same year with the BBB. That’s a .0002 ratio, which is great! But, according to the BBB, that is bad and the company will get a C+ rating, which will definitely deter customers away from the company when it shouldn’t.

That’s why it has been said that the BBB tells only a one-sided story. It is jaded and needs improvement and change in order to be an accurate system. Here are some suggestions:

– Include both negative and positive reviews on each company’s profile.
– Change the ranking system to include the ratio of orders to complaints.
– Change the grading system based on the ratio of orders to complaints.
– Use the BBB to determine if a company is a fraud.

It is probable that many highly reputable company’s have suffered from the BBB’s ranking system. This is unfortunate.

If the BBB were to be used to determine if a company is purely a fraud, then their ranking system would work well. After all, all of the bad reviews would say that the company was a fraud and would describe their fraudulent activities. People would know right off hand what the company was about and there would be no positive reviews. This, in fact, would be a good use for the BBB.

Unfortunately, at this time, there really is no good use for the BBB. As their ranking system stands, it is flawed. It only tells a one-sided story. And to top it off, company’s have to pay the BBB to be a member of it. The BBB is not a non-profit organization. It is a privately held company. The company is in the business to make money.

So, the next time you are researching a company, consider not using the BBB. Try reading both negative and positive reviews. Weigh the differences. Look into how many sales the company makes in the course of year. Figure out the ratio. If it’s something like .0002 like the example above, you’ve got a great company!

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