Buried in a statement by Better Business Bureau Council President is his claim that his organization will immediately launch an investigation into the largest BBB chapter int he U.S. and Canada.
As the last point is BBB Council President Steven Cox’s statement this week following the ABC TV investigation into the BBB, is the following:
“Finally, BBB will launch an immediate investigation into the Los Angeles-area BBB.”
"Jimmie Rivers" shows ABC the Hamas listing on BBB
While the two-year-old F to A+ grading system that Cox forced all the 120 BBB chapters to adopt has been under criticism by many consumer advocates, including myself, the most outrageous examples of how the new system has been misused came from the Los Angeles (Southland) BBB chapter.
It is the Los Angeles BBB chapter that gave A- ratings to three phony businesses that a group anonymous businessmen used as a sting operation to prove that the switch from satisfactory/unsatisfactory ratings to letter grades was a Pay To Play scheme to pressure businesses to become dues paying accredited members.
The most vivid example was “Hamas” the same name as that of a terrorist organization that was given an A- rating on the BBB website as soon as the businessmen paid $425 to have the fake business accredited.
And earlier this month ABC TV filmed the owners of two businesses with average C ratings call the Southland BBB and ask what they could do to raise their ratings.
By paying $425 each, the two businesses were immediately given A+ ratings and the one complaint listed on the BBB website against one of the businesses disappeared.
It was so little noticed that not even the Los Angeles Times, which wrote a story yesterday on Cox’s statement, failed to see it, or if its reporter saw it, she didn’t mention it.
Or, its possible that it was added later. Jimmie Rivers, who has been on the forefront exposing the BBB grading system on his website, bbbround.com, said it was not part of the original BBS statement issued Thursday.
