Better Business Bureau no longer a legitimate source

25 February 2018Security0 Comments

CategoriesGeneral Security

Trusted sources sometimes change, depending on some external factor. I’ve mentioned Snopes was historically accurate, but now is hit and miss. The BBB has also followed suit. This underlines my recommendation to have more than one source for determining the legitimacy and customer experience of a business.

I have promoted the Better Business Bureau (BBB) for many years. Historically, they were an accurate source of information. This is no longer the case. They have a new rating system that is misleading. Please study any rating for a business by the BBB. The letter grade is not an indication of the company’s customer satisfaction or complaint resolution. It is an opinion based on responses only, rather than resolving the complaint.

For example, Carnival Cruise Lines has this:

 [2] Positive Reviews
 [25] Negative Reviews
[878] Total Customer Complaints
Yet they have a BBB rating of “B”. Taking just the reviews, 2 are positive out of 27. 2 divided by 27 gives you 7%. I’ve never heard of 7% being even a passing grade. Additionally, the 878 complaints do not count, since active complaints are precluded from filing reviews for some reason.
When you use BBB for a business review, disregard the “letter grade” and focus more on the unresolved complaints and reviews. See the rating system explanation at BBB.org for more details and confirmation that the rating system is not based on merit.