summary: mostly tallies of complaints
by category and whether they were
resolved or merely “administratively
closed.” This opaque approach makes
the grades the BBB displays all the
more prominent—and since its point
system rewards member businesses
with a half-grade boost (such as from a
B+ to an A–), it has opened the organi-
zation to charges of pressuring busi-
nesses to “pay to play.”
The BBB’s Southwick defends
giving higher grades to accredited
businesses. “We believe that when
businesses make the effort and meet
our standards, that that should be
worth something,” she says. Compa-
nies in Connecticut, Missouri, and
Nevada, however, have started court
actions to halt what they describe as
biased evaluations, and Connecticut
attorney general Richard Blumenthal
has been leaning on the local BBB to
Despite his disappointment with the BBB’s grading system, consumer
advocate George Gombossy of CTWatchdog.com tells everyone who
complains to him about a business to contact the BBB ( bbb.org, or check
local phone listings), “because if there’s a pattern in the complaints, it’ll
show up.” The Federal Trade Commission (877-382-4357; ftc.gov) and
your state attorney general’s office are also useful venues for venting,
and there are plenty more squawk boxes online, including
WHERE TO COMPLAIN
Angie’s List
angieslist.com
ConsumerAffairs.com
consumeraffairs.com
Consumers’
Checkbook
checkbook.org
Pissed Consumer
pissedconsumer.com
PlanetFeedback
planetfeedback.com
Ripoff Report
ripoffreport.com
Yelp
yelp.com
change its scoring policy, suggesting
that any company should get points
for committing to BBB standards,
whether or not it joins a chapter.
“Any suggestion or appearance of
‘pay-to-play,’” Blumenthal said in a
September statement, “threatens to
undermine the accuracy and cred-
ibility of the BBB’s ratings, potentially
misleading consumers and unfairly
tainting nonmember businesses.”
Weeks earlier these dangers were
exposed when a California BBB fell
for a prank pulled by a BBB gadfly. A
“counseling business” calling itself
Hamas, just like the terrorist organi-
