Jon Benson Fitnesssorry, this is long, but you may find it interesting. If I would have been told this story two years ago I never would have believed it. I invite your scrutiny. I urge you to verify the facts. But you need to know the truth about the Better Business Bureau. I thought I was all alone going against these guys, but if you visit bbbroundup. AMERICAN story. Congressman Anthony Weiner from New York was on the Bill OReilly Show in December 2. He made the following comment The L. A. Times reported this of the Better Business Bureau one of the ways you can get an A rating is to pay higher duesMr. OReilly asked, Are you saying the Better Business Bureau can be bribed Ill let you decide the answer to that for yourself. Wolfgang Puck certainly believes this. His class action lawsuit filed against the BBB in November 2. F rating for refusal to pay dues. Well, thats what happened to me. Heres my story My rating with the BBB had always been an A since joining years ago. That changed when my book, The Every Other Day Diet, got picked up by an international affiliate and sales shot through the roof overnight. Our customer service department was equipped to handle about 1. When EODD took off like a rocket, our calls jumped tenfold in a matter of days. Naturally, our CS suffered for a month or so until I could train additional staff to answer the questions. And, consequently, our rating with the BBB fell from an A to a B. Please hear this IF the BBB is the legit company they claim to be more on that in a moment I would agree with this assessment. As painful as that is to admit, its the truth. We dropped the ball because we never saw the pass coming in the first place. So, we were a B company for a few months. However, once we regained our footing and increased CS staff, including building a totally custom software system that drives help. BBB. We earned those good graces. We earned them with our clients. With our peers. Just not with the BBB. For the record, here are the top 3 reasons why clients contact our Customer Service department in order 1. I did not receive my downloads. Our online system at help. Also, many times, the client did not click the final order link, thinking perhaps it was just a page with order details. Without clicking that last button it does say YOU MUST CLICK on the page and button the order cannot be recorded. Despite our best efforts at educating the customer as to how our order process works, and believe me I think we can do even better. THIS SINGLE ISSUE ACCOUNTED FOR OVER 8. OF OUR C. S. CALLS AND EMAILS Not dissatisfaction with the product, but rather the inability to locate the downloads. More About ABC Design Studio At ABC Design Studio, we develop and sell only REAL LIVE, uniquely developed website businesses If you are looking for websites that. Free Primary and Secondary resources covering history, science, English, maths and more. Get the latest science news and technology news, read tech reviews and more at ABC News. You should know this, as the VAST MAJORITY of our BBB complaints were related to this particular problem. In reality, if the user follows the directions, this is rarely if EVER a problem. Still, I understand how it goes when you order online. I do it all the time, and occasionally I rush past a page I should have read. Were only human. Find the latest business news on Wall Street, jobs and the economy, the housing market, personal finance and money investments and much more on ABC News. We have since gone to a redundant email system. TWO emails are sent out from two different sources. That, along with our lookup system, helped decrease these issues significantly. IL46wtzz_02b9HgFOnocg/o.jpg' alt='Abc Software Fitness' title='Abc Software Fitness' />199 Little Heroes. The journey to schools a very special type of life experience shared by millions of children around the world but in different ways. I thought this was a physical book. We clearly state that our clients receive immediate access via our digital downloads Still, especially for clients not accustomed to purchasing e books, MP3 files, Flash video files, and other forms of digital media, the confusion is understandable. For the majority, once these facts are brought to their attention, they either a are totally satisfied, knowing they are getting exactly what they paid for or b request a physical copy be sent at cost plus shipping. We comply to make the client happy. We usually toss in a few extras for their troubles as well. A technical issue involving how to save a file, how to open a file, etc. This accounts for only 5 of our CS calls and emails, as 9. Abc Software Fitness Program' title='Abc Software Fitness Program' />Consider these facts as well Only 4. Thats an INCREDIBLY LOW refund rate, given the fact that a unethical people order and instantly refund, and yes, that does happen and b people who are genuinely dissatisfied have a VERY easy refund process. That should tell you how good our products and services are. Still, when you sell literally thousands of books, products, and services a day, these numbers add up. And, if a reader uses some form of contact that is NOT on the order page, such as posting to a blog, sending an EMAIL never reliable 1. Customer Service, they will not get the answer they seek. This happens to the best companies in the world. Why Because we are ALL comprised of people who make mistakes plain and simple. Download Movies From Youtube. The mark of an excellent company is not to be flawless, but rather to repair their mistakes as quickly and painlessly for the client as humanly possible. Thats all I ask out of any company. Thats all any company can deliver. Rational people understand this. There are very few irrational people on our customer list. Perhaps were lucky in this regard or perhaps its good karma. THAT is an A company in our opinion. So, over 9. 7 of all our customer service emails and phone calls are dealt with promptly and to the total satisfaction of our customers. The BBB They chose to focus on the 3. And subsequently, our rating fell to a B. Remember three things about the BBB 1. Customers who contact the BBB rarely chose to contact our customer support FIRST. Had that done so their issues would have been handled by us personally. Those who did and fell through the cracks during our expansion were right to do so. However, at least SEVEN of these individuals fell through the BBB cracks as well thanks to their email only protocol. Unlike the BBB, we fully acknowledge our mistakes. They have not to this very day, except once on the phone, saying, Our email server was down for a time, so some complaints may not have reached you. Did that matter No. Our score was still lowered. The BBB is NOT A GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATION The BBB is a privately held 5. Each branch is self governing. There is no mechanism in place to complain to the BBB about the BBB. In fact, the BBB isnt even a member of the Better Business Bureau Talk about irony. Again, I can live with that during the months in 2. However, we not only repaired any gaps we had in Customer Service we vastly improved the experience for our users. We actually set some new standards in the online industry Our rating was never returned to normal. I contacted the BBB personally dozens of times to get this matter resolved. A representative would rarely even return my calls, despite paying close to 1,0. When contacted after many attempts, I was told that we needed to resolve outstanding complaints in order to have our rating restored. Outstanding complaints We had ZERO in our inbox. NOTE We begged the BBB to allow us an online ADMIN to log in and check for any complaints. We were originally told that no such admin is available. The day before I resigned my membership, we were told that we could pay a premium fee for this very same admin tool we were told did not exist. Hmm a bit fishySo the BBB is relying on EMAIL to deliver highly sensitive complaints Yes. Yes they are. Heres the kicker After busting our BUTTS for months to satisfy every complaint, every hurdle the BBB asked us to jump, and then some, our rating DECREASED. Something smelled MORE than fishy at this point. I decided to conduct some research into the BBB that very same day. An ABC Special Report story had just broken. Heres an excerpt from the LA Weekly story on the BBB Business owners said The BBB was all about membership money. And ABC set out to prove that by buying 4. Hamas the radical Islamic group. The news organization listed Bill Mitchell the Los Angeles BBB CEO as Hamas leader. Another nonexistent business also gained membership, ABC News claims. It was named Stormfront, for a white supremacist group. I READ THAT LAST PARAGRAPH AND RESIGNED MY MEMBERSHIP THAT DAY.