So, are the BBB ratings trustworthy? Business owners are accusing the Better Business Bureau of running a “pay for play” scheme in which A+ ratings are awarded to those who pay membership fees, and F ratings are assigned to those who do not.
Los Angeles business owners paid $425 to the Better Business Bureau to get an A-minus grade for a non-existent company called Hamas, named after the Middle Eastern terror group.
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said, in an interview with ABC News, that this rating system is unworthy of consumer trust or confidence.
Blumenthal wrote to the Better Business Bureau’s national headquarters Thursday, asking it to stop using its grading system, which he said was “potentially harmful and misleading.”
In an interview with ABC News, BBB national president and CEO Steve Cox said the BBB rating system is not about making money. “Plain and simple, we made a mistake,” Cox said.
An anonymous blogger reported that the BBB also awarded an A minus rating to a non-existent sushi restaurant in Santa Ana, California, and an A plus to a skinhead, neo-Nazi website called Stormfront.
The cost of each listing was $425.
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