I'm reporting your company to the Best Business Bureau!

[greensinestro]

Part of my job is sorting through the fax database that we have. Mainly, it's for technical support, but I also at times will handle customer service issues if it is simple enough. Today, I read this fax that showed a hot tempered woman, furious that her service was shut off for not paying her bill. Every month this happens, and in the notes, it always turns into her speaking with a supervisor, which in turn all tell her she needs to pay the bill on time or she could have the service interrupted. Today, her letter states that she is going to report this issue to the local TV stations as well as radio, but that she is also contacting the BEST BUSINESS BUREAU! Has anyone heard of this one? I haven't!

Her beef is she can't pay the bill whenever she feels like it, let alone pay what she wants instead of the actual amount due. Not only that, but even though she has been told time and again it can take up to 24 hours to restore her phone once she pays it, she's complaining to the Best Business Bureau stating how unfair that is that we make people like this wait. Any idea what they'll say? Hopefully they'll tell her if she had her shit together and paid the f***ing bill on time, she wouldn't need to spend her valuable time writing stupid letters like this.

[Bacter]

I think as long as you have a payment policy which she has failed to meet, you're solid. People without legitimate complaints just complain anyway, hoping that somehow the system will smite their enemies.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Well, if she's calling you a Best Business, you should thank her!

[Getoutofmylobby]

You know, it's common thing for Sc's to threaten to go to the BBB with their petty complaints. It makes me wonder how many of them actually follow through with it and what the BBB does when it is obviously a sucky person trying to get something they don't deserve.

[Bacter]

"If you have a marketplace dispute, the BBB can offer you several ways to resolve it. Arbitration is one alternative dispute resolution (ADR) option: The BBB provides a professionally trained arbitrator who will listen to both sides, weigh the evidence and make a decision about the dispute. "

Like the usual screaming yobo has the wherewithall to go through with it...

[greensinestro]

You know, it's common thing for Sc's to threaten to go to the BBB with their petty complaints. It makes me wonder how many of them actually follow through with it and what the BBB does when it is obviously a sucky person trying to get something they don't deserve.

It's the same thing when a customer threatens to go to the PSC (Public Service Commission), or the FCC to report their issue. One I fondly remember, back in the early days on Bellsouth offering internet, was the man who filed a PSC complaint because he couldn't have more than eight characters in his e-mail address. Each and every customer had been informed of this before signing up, yet after this guy "accepted" this, he filed a complaint in the hopes that the PSC would override this policy.

Or, the guy who wanted his name to say "Mickey Mouse" when he called someone with caller ID, so he filed a PSC complaint, only to be told that the PSC's ruling on that is the display has to match the listing, and if this is your real name, you would have to produce legal documents proving it. So, there's the proverbial egg on his face! File a PSC complaint, only to have it killed minutes later.

And, need I mention the complaints filed against Bellsouth for having dial up after the Florida hurricanes came through, but not for having DSL back up as quickly? Or when Comcast dealt with customers complaining about not having TV to watch, yet they had their power and phone back beforehand, since again, this is what the PSC's ruling is?

[ominousoat]

Heh, the Better Business Bereau is pretty much the anti-sucky customer. I've received one letter from them after a customer complain, in essence it said "we realize this is probably just a mistake or lack of communication, so we intend to smooth things out, please let us know your side and we'll get back to the customer!"

The sucky customer pretty much views the BBB like the Jews viewed Jesus, they're expecting revolution and the toppling of the Roman imperialism, and instead they get peace...

[Dips]

The BBB is a private organization made up of members who are business owners.

Business owners tend to prefer customers who pay for the services they receive.

I don't think you need to worry about a thing.

[Kara]

As a customer care rep for a wireless phone company, I get threats about the BBB all the time. Yeah, they're going to bring us down of legitimate charges on your bill, right . Most of the time I just tell them to be sure to take a copy of their T&C with them to the BBB/whatever newpaper or TV station/attorney and show them the part where it specifically states whatever stupid thing they're disputing.

I had one guy all fired up one time because he had overage on his bill and because he was a veteran of the Gulf War he shouldn't have to pay for overage. He then said we were discriminating and that 10 years ago some newspaper in San Diego did an article on him and his time in Iraq, and that he was going to call them and make them expose us as the terrible heartless company we were, and report us to the BBB and FCC. This was 3 months after my father had been blown up in a rocket attack in Baghdad, and I clenched my fists and snapped that my dad had just become a vet since his service was now over, and, when he was wounded in Iraq, you better believe mother went over their minutes calling him every hour of every day while he was recovering in Germany and that they paid their bill without any complaint. He only answered (more like mumbled) "Yeah, well, it's still not right," and hung up. I was ready to start screaming at this guy (most customers don't hit so close to home, but I was seriously torqued off at him).

[Spiffy McMoron]

Today, her letter states that she is going to report this issue to the local TV stations as well as radio, but that she is also contacting the BEST BUSINESS BUREAU!

So, does that mean that the Best Business Bureau is a better place to go to than the Better Business Bureau?

[CherryB]

The BBB is a toothless tiger anyway. It's a private org-has no power to make a business do diddly squat. If a business gets a letter from the BBB/pissed off customer and they tell the BBB/pissed off customer to go pee up a rope, all the BBB can do is report that customer dispute was not resolved to the customer's liking. Big whoop.

[powerboy]

Ahhh the BBB, how much I hate them. I tried file ling with them, about how Walmart had treated me. Not muched happened, since, they needed 7 people, that it happened too. Well There was 4 guys, that it happened too, so we could not do anything.

[greensinestro]

The replies are great to this whole thing. I only find it amazing that nobody has stated the obvious: This woman is going to report us to the BEST BUSINESS BUREAU and will admit on public TV and newspapers that she doesn't have her shit together, finding it an unfair business practice that companies like her phone service expect people to pay their bills on time and for the amount due. Won't she be laughed at by everyone? So far, we haven't heard anything further on it, so my feeling is the station WTF? told her to find someone else who doesn't use logic to print or air her story.

[Ringtail Z28]

Threatening to go to the BBB is really no different than threatening to go to another store or yelling that they're never shopping here again. I think that customers must think it's a government organization that can force business into doing what they want.

[protege]

Won't she be laughed at by everyone?

My feeling is, if she *wants* to get pwned on TV, and have everyone know she's a dumbass, I'd be sooooo tempted to tell her to "bring it on"