It should be clarified for the general readership that the BBB is a private enterprise; basically, the pre-internet Yelp. Since they call themselves a "bureau",

It should be clarified for the general readership that the BBB is a private enterprise; basically, the pre-internet Yelp. Since they call themselves a "bureau", many people think they're a governmental agency, but they're not. BBB doesn't benefit by alienating businesses or making it "difficult" to resolve complaints, and they have no obligation to actually help the consumer. There are a lot of shady companies with really good BBB ratings. BBB is on its way out I think, superseded by crowdsourced review sites. People don't check BBB ratings very often anymore.