The BBB, Better Business Bureau had been previously accused by members and non-members for their questionable sales practices. The sales teams used by their franchisees or licensees to sign up customers were reading from a sales script one, which was at best a little misleading. As it would be prudent not to comment on this matter most business owners are not willing to say anything, although many do consider the sales tactics used in the past to be problematic. Personally I have not followed up to see if in fact the BBB has changed their sales tactics, although do recommend one does do some investigative reporting. You must understand of course that having a BBB plastic sign in your business, tends to give confidence to consumers to buy from you, so that is a plus for them. Good brand name building. A true pragmatic small business owner might over look such things as misrepresentations in their sales pitch to get that sign and prominently display it in their establishment. Theoretically one could argue that point. Personally I would not choose to mention anything negative about the BBB, but I did put it in a letter to the FTC, which is public record, not sure if the Federal Trade Commission bothered following up on it, in fact the BBB is in the news today working with the FTC? http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/10-03-2005/0004157777&EDATE= http://www.motorage.com/motorage/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=184916 The BBB serves a purpose in the market, but as we know absolute power often corrupts absolutely. Indeed, the BBB acts above the law and with the FTC, while not always following the law or rather the expectations of ethics one would assume, that is to say someone like me. No further comment. It would not serve our company to have interviews on this matter as many in the society take BBB as gospel. How little they know? Think on this. |
