The Better Business Bureau (BBB) is a JOKE.
If you think it has any teeth or any authority, you would be wrong. And it's much worse than that. My experience with Weathersby Windows proved that to me.
This is another example of how this ‘Stack of Information’ is not limited to just Corona issues or political issues. I’ll be covering other stuff to inform people.
Many people think that the BBB has some teeth and authority to make businesses do the right thing. I used to be one of them. In reality the BBB has no legal authority whatsoever, and in fact the BBB is worse than Yelp or Amazon reviews. As in pretty much useless to worse than useless if the business receiving the complaints simply responds to the complaints.
I’ll give you an example, which happens to be how I learned just how useless the BBB is. Anout 4 years ago I had most of the windows in my home replaced by a company called Weathersby Windows, which is based in Arizona. The windows were made by Milgard. At the time the windows were installed, like most homeowners I was not well versed in the building code. This is another one of those topics for another day, but let me just suggest that you should always get building permits to protect yourself.
Since I’ve had shoddy work done in the past by contractors, I was at my home watching Weathersby Windows doing the install. I stronly suggest that any time you have any work done by any contractor, you plan on being there or having someone there to watch what is going on and to take pictures and video as necessary. If it’s a long drawn out project, too bad, Someone needs to be there at least frequently and they need to observe and often record what is going on. The sad fact is that the majority of contractors do work that ranges from poor to horrible. They either don’t care, they don’t have the skills needed to do the job, or a combination of those two.
So as I’m watching Weathersby Windows install the Milgard windows, I see right away that there is a problem. They are not putting flashing below the windows, they’re pounding on the windows to force them into place, they’re actually bending the windows at times when their force job doesn’t work and they need to pull the window back out, they’re not putting shims behind the window frames where they put most of the mounting screws, and a host of other stupid and shoddy crap.
When I couldn’t get Weathersby Windows to correct their shoddy work (And I did get well versed in the building code for window installs within a few days after the install.), I turned to the Better Business Bureau to make a complaint. If I’m not mistaken, the BBB has two seperate mechanisms. You can just leave a review, or you can make a complaint where the BBB contacts the business on your behalf.
The problem is that as long as that business responds, the BBB will close your complaint. It doesn’t matter if the business did not actually resolve anything in its response, the BBB will close your complaint anyway so other people will not see it affect the business rating and thus be warned. In my case, Weathersby Windows balatantly violated the building code by not using flashing and in other ways as well. (Weathersby Windows’ head guy even admitted this in a hearing as part of an AZ complaint process.) And in no way has that building code violation been resolved, but the BBB listed my complaint as resolved long ago, and the BBB also made my complaint disappear long ago.
So no one can even see my complaint on the BBB website, and I would bet at least $20 that other serious complaints against Weathersby Windows have also disappeared. No potential customer will be warned about Weathersby Windows’ horrible work.
There is however, an example showing my point as of right now. A customer complained about something far less serious than what happened in my case, Weathersby Windows responded, the customer still was not satisfied, but if you look at the Rating for Weathersby Windows it is A+ just because they have responded to the complaints made in the recent past. The much more minor complaint I’m referring to is here for now:
In the screenshot below from the BBB you can see some warning signs. Read the paragraph in black that tells you how some complaints may not be shown. Also note the “Status: Answered” indicator. Again, if the business answers, regardless of whether the content addresses the issue(s) the customer raised, or the customer responds back to say that the issue(s) is(are) not resolved, that complaint gets closed and the business can still have a bogus “A+” rating that will deceive other potential customers.
So not only does the BBB have no actual legal regulatory authority to compel any business to make things right with any customer for any reason, the BBB’s idiotic complaint handling policies mean that all a business has to do is respond to complaints. Make sure to tell anyone you know that labors under any delusions that the BBB is helpful. The net result of how the BBB handles things is that they contribute to customers getting ripped off in various ways by displaying “A+” ratings that are often completely undeserved.