Follow-up: The BBB Sends FeeFighters A Nasty Letter

A month ago, I wrote an article decrying the Better Business Bureau as nothing more than a scam. It was a popular post… it raised the eyebrows of the folks at the Today show, who published it on their website.

Around the same time, we received our huge plaque from the BBB telling us that we were approved for membership: “Your company’s commitment to ethical business practices is to be applauded” they said. I don’t know how they could possibly know about our commitment to ethical business practices based on a phone call where we gave them our credit card information (and $1,000), but ok…

So we get this plaque:

Awesome! We’re accredited! We also got a book of paperwork, including a press release and a LOT of junk mail, including an offer to “lower our credit card processing fees!” I called the company referenced and talked to them about a business I own to see how competitive their rates are…. Their rates had double the markup of the FeeFighters bid – not something the BBB should be shilling. We also got a slew of advertisements for other products like insurance, phone services, etc – all from companies I’ve never heard of.

Next:

We get a letter in the mail, from Steve Bernas, the President and CEO of the BBB. His letter says – On June 16th, 2011, you published an article regarding the BBB’s services and business practices…

“The essence of this article conflicts with the following requirements outlined in this code:
8. Embody Integrity.
Approach all business dealings, marketplace transactions, and commitments with integrity.

As a result of the aforementioned, we must ask your organization to resign from Accreditation in the BBB, as your organization does not meet our Accreditation standards. If you fail to resign… we will have no other alternative except to suspend your organization from Accreditation in the BBB.”

I don’t really understand what that means – either we must resign or they will suspend us. In any case, I sent them back a letter, the gist of which was

“What could embody more integrity than telling the truth about an organization that purports to be in the best interests of consumers but is in reality just an old-fashioned protection racket?”

In the letter, I asked for a response to what I had written – if we’d made a mistake I’d be happy to correct it. However, I got no response from the BBB.

They did change our status on the website though:

I’m sure it’s nothing that another thousand bucks couldn’t clear up.

16 Comments

National Business Council llc says:

August 9, 2011 at 11:21 am

I like your stance on the BBB

Sam says:

August 9, 2011 at 11:23 am

Thanks for keeping us updated. I shared your last article with my associates because I have first hand experience of their practices.
I was rated a b- with 21 complaints (we process millions of transactions per year) and my competitor was rated a A+ with 300+ complaints. The rep told me for 650.00 a year I would be accredited and would have a updated status that would bring me to a A-.

If I pay consumers can trust me more?What a joke!

Catherine says:

August 9, 2011 at 11:47 am

You guys are the BEST! You’ve totally shown how the BBB is a scam, and by them trying to dissociate from you and take away your BBB membership simply because you exposed their skeevy tactics is so undemocratic. They should be called the “Better Bullying Bureau”!! GOOD WORK…PLEASE KEEP IT UP FFEEFIGHTERS!!!!!!

Hashim Ali says:

August 9, 2011 at 11:57 am

I really admire you guys for taking a stand against such a big player.

Aurimas Adomavicius says:

August 9, 2011 at 12:27 pm

I’ve published your article in our mailing campaign to all of our customers. Keep up the good work and speak the truth! Kudos.

Phillip Parker says:

August 9, 2011 at 12:53 pm

I recently learned about this issue from another report and it is pretty disconcerting. It makes a lot of sense because I see many companies that have “A+” ratings even though they have hundreds, sometimes thousands, of complaints. I often think to myself, “Really? An ‘A+’ for this company? It has 300 complaints filed in the last 36 months!” It seems to me that “A+” should be reserved for companies that have zero complaints. If a company can simply buy an “A+,” than the BBB has very little credibility in my opinion.

Scott Gurley says:

August 9, 2011 at 2:01 pm

Keep up the great work Fee Fighters. I’ve believed this same thing for years…

Question is: Is Dun and Bradstreet the same thing only with business credit? D&B call me regularly asking me to get in their system so that I can borrow money. Ends up I have to PAY THEM like $450 to be interviewed (or something). Sorry but paying money just to have some invisible ability to borrow more money doesn’t make sense to me. Is D&B next in the crosshairs of Fee Fighters?

KDP says:

August 9, 2011 at 2:17 pm

Thanks for pointing out this scam of an organization. We refuse to play along with their ploy of deception and hand them our hard earned money. Of course, the last I checked we were ranked a “C” even though we have never had a complaint. I guess we have to pay up!

Ask Hansen says:

August 9, 2011 at 3:01 pm

That’s awesome – I love it.

You should tell your bank to do a charge back on the $1000 as you haven’t received the services you bought!

NK says:

August 9, 2011 at 3:25 pm

I’ve dealt with this ‘organization’ in my former multi-million dollar e-commerce business, and they are without a doubt a huge scam. I got into a huge argument with them, and paid the price for it. What a joke!

Dmitriy Zasyatkin says:

August 9, 2011 at 4:13 pm

That was a great article and a balsy reply. You guys are a great inspiration to the rest of us of little guys trying to do the right thing.

darrin says:

August 9, 2011 at 10:20 pm

i heard that each bbb office is indepebdently owned similar to a franchise. they are a for profit organization and make money tricking you into believing customers are calling the bbb to see if you are legit when they simply want you to join. google it and you will see the scam that they are. they do not protect consumers.

Ari says:

August 10, 2011 at 7:29 pm

Awesome! Go Fee Fighters!
Did they refund your $1,000?

Sheel says:

August 10, 2011 at 9:36 pm

Sadly not – we’re not sure what to do about it quite yet. We’ll keep you posted.

Mike says:

August 13, 2011 at 10:23 am

BBB are slime

Amad Ebrahimi says:

August 21, 2011 at 4:50 pm

@Sheel, @Phillip Parker…Does this mean that we have to stop using BBB grades in our reviews/directories?

Sheel, you were right when you said, no weight should be given to the grade itself. The simple fact that you can buy a higher grade is enough to render that data point useless, but the complaint count can still serve as a decent reference.

Consumers should look for patterns instead of relying on one grade.

Sheel, you gave a perfect example in your “BBB is a F*&#ing Scam” with MerchantOne. I gave MerchantOne a bad grade on Merchant Maverick, even though they had an A+ with the BBB. Why? Because relative to their size, their complaint count was obscene. Not to mention they had a large number of complaints all throughout the webosphere. Patterns.

The 20/20 bit, and your article brought the issue to light. Now, it’s only a matter of time before they’re forced to change their policies, or face government regulation.

Lucky for the BBB, the gov is busy with Standard & Poor’s for the time being.