A big scam

Some people think the Better Business Bureau is a regulatory agency with some sort of power to force businesses to let consumers push them around. It is nothing of the sort. It is a club. The more you pay them, the more they will promote your business and recommend you to people who call to inquire.  It's like a chamber of commerce--on steroids.

Over the last 12 years, a few people have threatened to "report" us to the Better Business Bureau (these are people who have dental work done and then feel like they should not have to pay for it even though they signed a form saying they were financially responsible), and we tell them to go ahead.  The BBB is all a big racket.    I never knew exactly how big of a racket it was.  Until yesterday.

Anyway, a woman called me yesterday from the BBB.   She was telling me about how our business was eligible to be accredited by the BBB because of our blemish-free business history with them.  I asked her if this was a sales call and she assured me it was not--simply that our business record was brought to their attention as a business that deserved their utmost seal of approval and she just needed some information.  She started asking me a bunch of questions about Mark, the office, how long we have been in business, etc. Pretty harmless, right?

After about 15 minutes of this I finally asked her flat out how much money this was going to cost me.  She started on a spiel about how the BBB is a not-for-profit organization funded entirely by the dues of its members.  I asked again, "How much?"  "Well, our fees are based on the number of full-time employees a business has, and so in your case that annual dues would only be $975."

I laughed.  I laughed hard.  Really, how insane is that?  Pay a meaningless organization $975 per year so that I can use their logo on my website?  Do you know how many google clicks I can buy with $975?

And then I was mad.  She had promised me up front that it was not a sales call--and it was.  And then she tried selling me on all the benefits our company would reap if we would only join....which was a whole lot of nothing.  I told her she had better move on to her next sales lead, because not a chance I was biting.

So perhaps this was a meaningless post to you.  But just in case somebody out there thought that the BBB actually meant something, I just wanted to tell the world that it does not.