Better Business Bureaus reviews

I can only speak to the Marlboro, MA location. Management has a lack of respect for employees, and even picks on and bullies employees in front of everyone. A manager told one staff member she needs 8 more sales in a day or she will be fired. Never once saying the same thing to other employees who had less sales and the same quota. It's always the same people that are picked on. When everyone has the same goals. When mgmt is asked a question and they don't respond and if you go to another manager, your manager reprimands you for going to another manager. If you have a computer issue and send an email to your manager you will get no response. They do not even have an IT dept who can help. If you are out sick and send an email you get no response even 48 hours later. There is a complete conflict of interest. The HR manager is also the sales manager. The lack of system knowledge on how to use the proprietary software and therefore you are read from a manual during training. You get No hands on training. You are then sent to a desk to figure it out for yourself. This is by far the most disorganized company I have ever worked for. I’m embarrassed to list BBB on my resume and I will not be listing it on my resume or on my LinkedIn. In training they push all the Free items, then, when you get on the phones they change their tune. Saying you’re not supposed to mention the free items. So which is it? Well it depends on the employee. They will say on the floor to one employee you are not to say that and another employee they praise for doing the same thing. They do not treat people the same. There is a severe lack of communication. They expectation of making 100 calls per day but find your own leads, as we were told is ludicrous. We were advised the BBB is not responsible to us supply leads. There was never any information on how to find leads though. So to try and find 100 leads to call in a day and make 100 calls is not possible! The leads the BBB uses are outdated and inaccurate. But they keep deleting leads and buying the same ones loading them in and wasting money instead of archiving leads that have information on them stating Out of Business or Do Not Solicit. Even 2 months later after marking a file to Do Not Solicit the file is still out there. Even though a notification is sent to the ops dept. Nothing is done. The lack of customer service for the current Accredited Businesses makes getting and keeping a sale even harder when people are calling several times to have their profiles updated and no one is calling them back for days or weeks. I had 1 gentleman call me 4 times over a 2 week period saying he still hadn’t gotten a call back after I spoke with a management twice. They said they would personally call him and never did. It’s hard enough to get sales on a horrible product, but if you have an extreme lack of customer service there is no way to retain the current clients. Management has no idea how to keep morale up or what morale is. Coming over to sales at 8:30am yelling what are your phones broken or getting nasty emails from the Communications dept. about “I’m going to come over and Olivia Pope you”. That doesn’t boost morale just makes people irritated. It doesn’t get people wanting to do anything for management or the company. Bullying should not be happening in the work place. They also brought in a seasoned sales person from who was supposedly a motivational speaker...I left thinking WOW, she is so depressing and nothing about what she said was motivating. All she did was bash us, and trash talk, if you don't want to be here don't, if you don't like it here leave...Some people had been with the company for a few days, myself only a couple weeks. We were all still learning the ropes and this is what we are listening to. We were expecting to hear all the good things and tips and tricks. That was far from what we were told. The management makes the atmosphere so miserable. You ask for assistance and all you get is attitude. You can’t have an HR manager also be a sales manager. There is a total conflict of interest. When you have a problem with your manager you have no one to go to and when you do you get reprimanded for going to someone else in management for support. The BBB is supposed to be looking for Ethical Businesses. All you need is a credit card and no gov't actions. Looking at businesses that have A+ ratings, it would seem that the Better Business Bureau is supporting either directly or indirectly Puppy Mills and associated businesses like Pet Stores and Kennels selling these Puppy Mill dogs from all over the U.S. The BBB doesn't go onsite and verify ANY information they just take what the client says and publishes it. Why are there not more questions asked of all businesses and then verified? Were any of these businesses asked to show proof of purchase of a puppy from an actual reputable breeder? Has anyone verified the information they are giving their clients is accurate? No, the BBB states it doesn't guarantee accuracy. It doesn't matter what's accurate info upon your statement to consumers. " As a matter of policy, BBB does not endorse any product, service or business. BBB Business Reviews are provided solely to assist you in exercising your own best judgment. Information in this BBB Business Review is believed reliable but not guaranteed as to accuracy" Our script to a client is the BBB is looking for Ethical businesses consumers can trust. So BBB Accreditation has no merit or value. What are we selling if you're saying an Accreditation is just information published but there is no real accuracy. Why should anyone pay the BBB money to publish a business review that a consumer can't consider accurate information or a business you stand behind, and they should make their own decision not based on anything published by the BBB? If you are telling the business owner you're looking for businesses a consumer can trust when you don't even trust the business you're giving a rating to based upon your statement to consumers. How can anyone to take the rating of the BBB as meaning anything? If a client replies to the complaint they are free and clear even if they commit murder, as long as they respond to the complaint and do what they are supposed to they are clear and their rating goes right back up. I would never recommend anyone I know to get accredited the only valid info on their site is reviews and if a complaint has been filed.

There are three main points to remember when discussing the BBB: - It is Non-Profit - Individual BBB offices throughout the country are independent; governed by the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) - It is standards-based; with these standards promulgated by CBBB, crafted to be congruent with local, state, and federal statutes for advertising, retail, usury, etc. Why I reference these tidbits of info will become more evident below. In starting off, though, I should say there are many great BBBs and BBB professionals throughout N. America, but the same can't be said for the Chicago BBB. I worked at the Chicago BBB in varying capacities for almost 5 years. Shortly after I was hired, the entire BBB system came under scrutiny for allegedly selling A+ ratings to companies with dismal BBB records (that is, if they had a BBB file at all.) The LA BBB bore the brunt, as it was the focus of a well-known 20/20 story about the BBB's perceived improprieties. Chicago reviewed some of the allegations, which the Chicago BBB's CEO claimed "made [him] weep." You think that such a strong reaction to so severe an issue would have acted as a catalyst for BBBs around the country to up their game. People come to the BBB and buy from BBB-Accredited Businesses because the organization is supposed to embody TRUST. While you or I might have tried to focus on our core competencies and started community outreach initiatives to repair the BBBs image while educating businesses on best practices and consumers on how to avoid the scammers, the Chicago BBB has, since 2010, focused on increasing it's bottom line. To wit, in less than 3 years the Chicago BBB has effectively had 3 different professionals manage its sales department. When one director was no longer viewed as capable of heading this area (i.e. sales were flat), he was put on notice. The organization then tried to increase revenue by hiring more sales staff. When this didn't work, the relationship with the director was terminated. Wash, rinse repeat with his successor. Someone else is now in that role, making the same mistakes. But I can almost ignore the fact that the Chicago BBB keeps trying to increase its sales staff so it could potentially get more sales given the bigger issue - THE BBB IS A NON-PROFIT ENTITY! Why the heck are you trying to make a profit?! I can understand that you need resources to grow. But you could always vacate expensive high-rise offices downtown or cut executive level pay (rumored to be at or near 6 figures per exec annually). The organization keeps increasing the number of sales staff, not realizing that businesses in a given BBB's service area are a finite resource. Getting more reps just means everyone shares smaller slivers of the "pie" of businesses in Northern IL. As you can imagine, there has not been a mass uptick in the number of accreditation sold despite these efforts. How has management at the Chicago BBB addressed this? BY UNDERMINING THE STANDARDS ITS ACCREDITATION IS SUPPOSED TO UPHOLD! I worked entirely in Operations during my tenure at the Chicago BBB, and I cannot tell you how often the following situation (or similar) came to me: "Why can't we accredit this payday loan company? It already sent us a check!" Never mind the fact that the answer was given before - CBBB prohibits BBBs from accrediting businesses in this industry because of the potential harm they pose to consumers. I've seen reps get angry because Ops didn't want to approve accreditation for an escort service. The CEO used to say that BBB accredited businesses were places your grandma should feel comfortable shopping. Not anymore. Instead of focusing on how to identify viable prospects, the Chicago BBB has attempted to find ways around CBBB's standards (by proxy, these are also standards used in the jurisdictions each BBB operates. That payday loan company? "Just say they offer 'financial services'." The escort service? "What if we didn't list its website?" These are the answers management has provided. Though the rift was already forming when I started working there, by the time I left they had solidified to a point that upper management began to remove staff members that stood in the way of accrediting problematic businesses and pocketing the filthy lucre. Some of us received lateral promotions that took away our roles as decision makers. For my part, I left before things got worse. Speaking of which, the Chicago BBB has become quite nepotistic in its hiring practices. One Chicago company, itself dying a slow death, is being used to poach replacements for some director-level positions. Qualifications did not seem to be considered - just that so-and-so worked with so-and-so "over there." so they must be the best fit. And while these people are getting golden tickets from one near-defunct corporation to another, the average BBB worker continues to suffer. There is very little infrastructure in place to help foster a productive work environment. Examples of this include a patch-work computer network cobbled together from outdated tech and only one IT professional for 75-85 employees. We had old-timey desks for so long - desk that were not meant to be used for typing - that one employee had to leave; her hands permanently gnarled and twisted by carpal tunnel. There is no call center, and all Operations staff members are required to answer phones (even though they are also trying to handle business-consumer complaints, or advertising review, or investigations.) By the way, the starting pay for most BBB employees, at least during my tenure, was under $25k. The hires that accepted these roles either had little alternative during the recession or are the lower-end of the work force. It always makes you feel good to be part of an organization where even the managers can't write a coherent email or speak in proper English. Don't get me wrong, the Chicago BBB isn't dead yet, and you might be able to land a decent enough job and politically rise through the ranks, but odds are the position you want most will be given to someone's inept buddy. If you're lucky and actually get something lucrative, please MAKE SURE YOU GET YOUR LEVEL OF COMPENSATION IN WRITING BEFORE ACCEPTING. The CEO will look you in the eye and say "we will give you X pay effective on Y date" but when Y comes along he says he still needs more time. It's a non-profit, he tries to remind you. Three months after Y, he offers you different pay effective on a different date "Just as I promised," barely stifling a smug giggle. Oh, and you will totally be working 9 hour days if you care about your job. There's just that much work to do with so little help