The Better Business Bureau is a private non-profit organization that aims to foster trust between consumers and businesses. It also offers consumer education and dispute resolution services.
A business can get accredited by the BBB if it agrees to adhere to its high standards of ethical conduct. It can also improve its rating by responding to complaints in a satisfactory manner.
The BBB is a non-profit organization
The Better Business Bureau, or BBB, is a non-profit organization that aims to enhance marketplace trust by rating businesses and handling consumer complaints. Founded in 1912, the organization comprises 106 independently incorporated offices that serve communities across North America.
The BBB uses a rating system that assigns letter grades to companies from A+ to F based on specific criteria. It also offers guidance to businesses on proper practices and helps them become accredited by paying annual fees.
It also evaluates charities to help prospective donors find ones that offer good value for their money and foster public confidence in philanthropic organizations. The organization’s standards for charity accountability include governance, spending practices, honesty in representation, and willingness to disclose basic information.
The organization also provides consumer complaint and dispute resolution support. This helps consumers avoid misunderstandings with businesses and encourages both parties to reach a fair agreement.
It collects information about businesses
The BBB, or Better Business Bureau, is a nonprofit organization with chapters throughout North America that promotes the best way to do business. Its main activities include rating businesses based on their reliability and performance, and handling consumer disputes.
The organization’s website features an online searchable database of millions of individual business (both members and nonmembers) in a variety of industries including banking, real estate, health care, electronics, home furnishings and appliances, retail, construction and more. Using the information it gathers, it creates a plethora of useful tools for consumers to use in their quest to make informed purchasing decisions.
The best part of the BBB is that it does not charge a fee to access the information it provides. In fact, it is one of the few nonprofit organizations with an online presence that does not require membership to view information. Its business reviews are free to consumers, as well. The site is also a great resource for determining the best place to go to get your next car fixed, home repair or insurance quote.
It publishes reports on businesses
The BBB offers a range of services, including consumer education, service quality assessments and resolutions of consumer disputes. The organization also publishes a number of reputable consumer guides.
The best part is that these are free and readily available online. The company’s website is a treasure trove of information about businesses large and small, with the ability to search by industry and product category.
The Better Business Bureau has a proud history and an impressive track record of providing consumers with useful and unbiased information about local businesses, products and services. Its mission is to promote and foster the highest ethical relationship between the public and businesses through consumer and business education, service excellence and voluntary self-regulation. It has an enviable record of customer satisfaction and consumer protection, a reputation that owes much to its savvy and well-meaning staff members. Despite this, it is not without its share of controversy. Some of the complaints have centered around the BBB’s use of taxpayer dollars, or its lack of transparency in the way it funds its operations.
It offers mediation and arbitration
In addition to promoting trust between businesses and consumers, the BBB also offers mediation and arbitration to settle consumer disputes. These services are free and often faster than court proceedings.
Conciliation and mediation involve an impartial third party – called the mediator – who clarifies and reframes problems and helps the two parties work out their own solutions. Mediation is less formal than arbitration, although the parties may appear at hearings, present evidence or call witnesses to defend their positions.
Arbitration involves a professionally trained arbitrator who listens to both sides and weighs the evidence presented. The arbitrator then makes a decision on how to resolve the dispute that is binding on both parties.
The Central Ohio Bureau of the BBB holds about 130 to 150 arbitration hearings each year, largely at its offices. Among recent cases, the arbitration panel awarded $42,000 to a buyer of a new home for a problem with the furnace; and awarded a lemon-law car buyer a $55,000 check in seven days after the buyback.