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Comment by phpisthebest | Hacker News Reader

BBB == Better Business Bureau a private organization in the US that "rates" business based on certain factors and customer complaints. It is often confused with having some kind of governmental authority, approval, or validity when in reality they just a non-profit trade organization.

Very similar to charity navigator but rating for-profit businesses

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And it can become a bit of a scam where if you’re a “paying member” of the BBB you can “respond” to complaints and they disappear.

After fighting with Ford over a recall issue for over a year, I opened a claim with the BBB. Two months later they closed it with a note that Ford explained that my car had been determined to be outside the claim (even though it experienced the recall related failure). Four months later, Ford issued be a check for the full cost of the repair, with an apology note. Even though at that point, I had given up.

I have to believe that the BBB claim had some effect on that. The BBB may have accepted Ford's word, and closed the claim, but it resulted in some messaging up the consumer complaint chain.

Yeah it can work sometimes, especially if you get into the “marketing” budget of someone big - they often have some leeway.

That is one of things people do not understand why "Twitter" Customer service is different than regular customer service

Twitter "Customer Service" is marketing budget

Ford and most corps have a deny-deny-deny culpability policy until the complaint hits someone who can make a decision on the matter (they actually have queues/emails). There is a hard money limit for the peons to be able to admit that it's the company's fault, above that amount it is a blanket deny and delay policy. We had a recent President who also lived by the same policies; lawyers have ingrained into the DNA of business.

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