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Paul Burri: You, Me and the BBB
I recently went to the Better Business Bureau Web site. I found it not too user-friendly.
I went to the Contact Us page and filled out the form. One box asked me to specify the nature of my inquiry with a drop-down menu. I selected the category “home-based business.” In the inquiry box I wrote a note saying, “I am interested in obtaining a BBB franchise that I can run as a home-based business. Please send me information about what I need to do.”
I received a prompt e-mail answer that read, “The Better Business Bureau does not know of any legitimate home-based business offers and does not recommend any. If you have been cheated by one of these companies, report it immediately to your local BBB office.”
A strange answer, don’t you think? (Or should I say, strange nonanswer?) First of all, I asked for information specifically about getting into business as a BBB franchisee. (Yes, I know there is some confusion as to whether the BBB is a franchise.) Regardless, couldn’t they have referred me to the BBB national office? After all, they had to take some steps to open their office, didn’t they?
Second, are there no legitimate home-based business opportunities available? Not one of them is legitimate? I know there are a lot of companies offering to sell the template for a home-based business that would bring in thousands of dollars a month — some as soon as the first month. Most of the promises aren’t worth too much, but I can’t believe there aren’t a few offers that are legitimate.
Now I have to tell you about a strange confrontation I had with the Better Business Bureau shortly after I started my business in Goleta in 1995. I can’t remember the exact details, but it involved my calling them about a negative report caused by a customer complaint. I explained in great detail how we had tried to satisfy the customer and how the customer was one of those you can never satisfy, no matter what you do. Regardless of how much detail I gave to the BBB, they seemed unwilling to listen. At the end of a rather long, very difficult telephone conversation, I hung up feeling very angry and frustrated.
Then I had an interesting thought: Who do you call if you have a problem with the Better Business Bureau?
— Paul Burri is an entrepreneur, inventor, columnist, engineer and iconoclast. He is not in the advertising business, but he is a small-business counselor with the Santa Barbara chapter of Counselors to America’s Small Business-SCORE. He can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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» on 07.20.09 @ 11:23 AM
Hello Mr.Burri I know the ceo and vice president personally. I am super sorry you have experienced such a hard time with them I have worked for them in the past and I do not speak to them any more and it has been years to be exact. I know that there is a board that you can make any official complaints too. I do understand that it is a non profit organization and there is a lot of fraud and smuggling in the company. I am not 100% positive of how to prove these things but it has been a long time in the running that I wanted to make this a known fact. I do know that they are not always available for the simple fact I have seen it first hand. I am sure that the BBB is not always on top of the things they should be. Good luck with your futher investigations.
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» on 07.21.09 @ 03:53 PM
Paul—-Sorry you experienced these problems with utilizing BBB as a resource. Maybe I can help this frustration along somewhat. You would file a complaint against a BBB with the Council of BBBs for resolve, and you can obtain that info by merely clicking on the CONTACT US button on the main web site at: http://www.bbb.org Click USA site first…and then click Contact Us at our main portal site…
We gladly accept input and advice on how to better our web site, so feel free to get a hold of Council of BBBs to give that input.
As for legitimate “home-based businesses,” of course, there are legitimate businesses that people can conduct out of their home. The clarification I’d like to make on behalf of the BBB you conferred with is this: From experience, BBBs have come to find that over 98% of work at home opportunities that exist are not legitimate, and can’t substatiate the claims they have attached to their offers. There was confusion over “home-based business” and “work at home opportunities”—which can be, and usually are very different from each other.
Also—your local BBB office, where you are located, would know about setting up franchises, and if you were to have contacted them directly, they would have been able to give you further info. They still can! Just because you got mad at BBB years ago doesn’t mean you can’t address them decently now. Think about it.
As for Agreeing Client and your comment stating that BBB has “a lot of fraud and smuggling in the company”...Stating that while you can’t prove this statement, yet in the same breath say, “I’m not 100% positive of how to prove these things…” but want to make people aware of this “known fact”—-I’d suggest that you prove what can be said before posting supposed “known facts” that you can’t yet prove. Seems like a haphazard way to address serious allegations. Just some blogging advice from BBB!
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