BBB Commends Savvy Consumers

By Paula Fleming

 Consumer savvy, smart shopping and common sense all had a great year, according to Better Business Bureau. Consumers asked BBB for help more than 103 million times in 2011, up from 87 million in 2010 and the highest rate in the organization’s 100-year history. Conversely, filings of formal complaints against businesses were down across the U.S. and Canada; 927,000 in 2011 compared to just over one million in 2010.

“That is terrific news, that’s what we want to see,” said Carrie A. Hurt, CEO of the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB), the umbrella organization for the 116 BBBs across North America. “When consumers come to us first for information about businesses, they are much less likely to need our dispute resolution services later.”

BBB maintains Business Reviews on more than 4 million businesses and grades them based on complaint histories, responsiveness to customers, licensing, legal and government action, and other factors. 400,000 are Accredited Businesses that meet the BBB Code of Business Practices and are permitted to display the BBB logo in their advertising and place of business.

These numbers were not surprising. “These are mostly big-ticket items,” noted Hurt. “People tend to do more research when they are spending a lot of money, such as on homes and cars. We get most of our inquiries on our website, bbb.org, which gets more than six million visitors a month.”

Complaints are formal procedures that consumers file against a particular business when they have a problem they cannot resolve on their own. Every complaint is examined by an investigator at the local BBB where the business is located, and the company is given 30 days to respond. About 95 percent of complaints to BBBs are resolved at this level; the rest go to mediation or arbitration. BBB has trained mediators and arbitrators in every state and province in North America.