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Minus "semi-official", minus "semi-impartial" (well, maybe that depends on the BBB in question), and minus "semi-compliance-mandatory". The BBB in no way is of

Minus "semi-official", minus "semi-impartial" (well, maybe that depends on the BBB in question), and minus "semi-compliance-mandatory". The BBB in no way is official or has the power to do anything (except maybe help you complain to the people who do have the power to make things happen without extortion). That's quite possibly the biggest misconception about the BBB ever. It's a lot simpler to first ask the business, then go to the city/state/federal licensing and consumer affairs departments and directly file a complaint. Maybe the information doesn't become public, but businesses also tend to Start Caring when it's their license(s) or permits at stake, and it's not like the BBB is even close to acceptable in this regard. I seem to be writing a lot about the BBB here (i.e. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=541244 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=541244), but someone has to spread the word.

mynameishere 18y ago
If a company charges you incorrectly, the best way to complain is to call up mastercard/visa and let them do it for you. Never fails.
- silencio 18y ago
  Well, I used to be super trigger happy about filing disputes, but not anymore. Most of the time when there's been a mistake the business has usually been open to fixing it. I deal with inventory for a small business and buy/sell a lot of stuff, and I've only disputed one charge this year - personal, to boot - because the business wouldn't get back to me about the issue. Anyway, if it's about the alarm company, we didn't pay them but they wouldn't stop sending us bills since obviously we stopped paying them after terminating the service on our end per the contract we had signed originally. This soon added up to a lot of money and threatening to send to collections, and I just got really super tired of the BS of not picking up their equipment and sending us those stupid bills. I sued them for what I thought was a logical amount of money in small claims court, then the owner stopped being a dick after I ended up having to get a sheriff to serve the papers to him, and then we had to meet in person in the court and he was AWFUL but the whole process was worth it to get him to finally go away.
- swombat 18y ago
  I'd like to argue against that. Many people jump straight into charge-backs without contacting the business first. That's really uncool, because it doesn't even give the business a chance to correct the situation, but immediately applies the harshest possible punishment to said business. Chargebacks are pretty uncool from a small business point of view. There's pretty much no appeal (there's an appeal procedures but CC companies always side with their customers, unless you're really big), and they result in: 1) deduction of the charge itself 2) an additional $35 fee 3) bumping you up on the chargeback statistics If 1% of your transactions or 1% of the amount of your transactions is chargebacks, merchant banks will often just close your account at short notice. 1% is not all that much, particularly when you're starting out. Hell, at the beginning, you may only have a 100 transactions a month. If 1 or 2 of them do a chargeback rather than talking to you, they can take out your business before it's even had a chance to take off. Because of this, if you threaten a chargeback, most businesses will bend over backwards for you. So, don't actually do a chargeback - give them a chance. Of course, if the business doesn't respond at all, do go for the chargeback... just give them a chance first.
  - silencio 18y ago
    Very much agreed on all points. Also it should be noted that just doing the nice thing by contacting the business and letting them know you have a problem can be a lot faster and nicer than the whole chargeback process. Like I said, I used to go this route but I stopped when I realized how bad it was. Now that I let the business know first (and I appreciate when customers at my businesses do the same), most of them have fixed the problem and usually thrown something extra in too - free shipping, store credit, extra products, and what have you. No need to even threaten a chargeback unless it's been like a week or two since the problem started and nobody's even replied back.

mynameishere 18y ago

If a company charges you incorrectly, the best way to complain is to call up mastercard/visa and let them do it for you. Never fails.

silencio 18y ago
Well, I used to be super trigger happy about filing disputes, but not anymore. Most of the time when there's been a mistake the business has usually been open to fixing it. I deal with inventory for a small business and buy/sell a lot of stuff, and I've only disputed one charge this year - personal, to boot - because the business wouldn't get back to me about the issue. Anyway, if it's about the alarm company, we didn't pay them but they wouldn't stop sending us bills since obviously we stopped paying them after terminating the service on our end per the contract we had signed originally. This soon added up to a lot of money and threatening to send to collections, and I just got really super tired of the BS of not picking up their equipment and sending us those stupid bills. I sued them for what I thought was a logical amount of money in small claims court, then the owner stopped being a dick after I ended up having to get a sheriff to serve the papers to him, and then we had to meet in person in the court and he was AWFUL but the whole process was worth it to get him to finally go away.
swombat 18y ago
I'd like to argue against that. Many people jump straight into charge-backs without contacting the business first. That's really uncool, because it doesn't even give the business a chance to correct the situation, but immediately applies the harshest possible punishment to said business. Chargebacks are pretty uncool from a small business point of view. There's pretty much no appeal (there's an appeal procedures but CC companies always side with their customers, unless you're really big), and they result in: 1) deduction of the charge itself 2) an additional $35 fee 3) bumping you up on the chargeback statistics If 1% of your transactions or 1% of the amount of your transactions is chargebacks, merchant banks will often just close your account at short notice. 1% is not all that much, particularly when you're starting out. Hell, at the beginning, you may only have a 100 transactions a month. If 1 or 2 of them do a chargeback rather than talking to you, they can take out your business before it's even had a chance to take off. Because of this, if you threaten a chargeback, most businesses will bend over backwards for you. So, don't actually do a chargeback - give them a chance. Of course, if the business doesn't respond at all, do go for the chargeback... just give them a chance first.
- silencio 18y ago
  Very much agreed on all points. Also it should be noted that just doing the nice thing by contacting the business and letting them know you have a problem can be a lot faster and nicer than the whole chargeback process. Like I said, I used to go this route but I stopped when I realized how bad it was. Now that I let the business know first (and I appreciate when customers at my businesses do the same), most of them have fixed the problem and usually thrown something extra in too - free shipping, store credit, extra products, and what have you. No need to even threaten a chargeback unless it's been like a week or two since the problem started and nobody's even replied back.