Meaninglessness...

I have a rant today - the Better Business Bureau called me today and left a message. It said, "I am calling for the owner of ScrapBiz. Please call me back, I have some information I need to discuss with you." Yes, I bet you do... I am not a member of the BBB because, well, they are pretty meaningless in my opinion. When I was in college, I worked at a shoe store in the local mall. It was run by the biggest jerk in all of Utah County. His attitude was that once those shoes left his store, they belonged to you for the rest of your life - no matter what. If they fell apart in the box on the way home - too bad for you. He wouldn't take ANYTHING back for ANY reason.

Needless to say, the BBB sent him letters on a weekly basis... He had wads of complaint letters but didn't care. I can't imagine how he stayed in business and I can't imagine why I stayed for three months - I must have really needed the job.

Every time a BBB letter came with a complaint, he threw it on his desk for about a week and then "filed" it in the outbox known as the trash. The letters had no "teeth" in them at all. The BBB has no power over anyone. That's especially true in today's world where customers can easily file their complaint on the nearest message board. If a scrapbook store treats you poorly, you can post it a hundred different places and pretty much destroy their reputation. You don't need the BBB to take care of it for you.

Anyway, every time someone calls the BBB to get the "scoop" on ScrapBiz, I get an extortion call from the BBB. It starts out like this, "We've had SEVERAL inquiries about your business in the last few months (I don't believe it). It's a shame you aren't a member of the BBB (for like $600 a year), because we really can't tell the callers anything about you except that you have no complaints on file. If you were a member, we could give them more information.(golly, I better fork over my $$ ASAP)" Honestly, I hardly believe that they have had ANY calls. They get my name and number from state business license records. Does ANYONE except my Grandma even KNOW (or care) about the Better Business Bureau anymore???

Last time they did this to me, I was terse with the woman who called and told her that I had no use for the BBB. She was plain rude (how ironic...) to me and said it was really sad and pathetic that an online business - a category with the HIGHEST number of complaints - didn't think it was worth $600 a year to protect their reputation and have an avenue to resolve disputes. I told her that if someone has a complaint with me - I will happily resolve it myself. Then I told her to remove me from their call list. And, here they are harrassing me again.

Maybe I'll file a complaint...