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Comment by bigmattystyles | Hacker News Reader

Is the Canadian Better Business Bureau more legit than the entity in the US named Better Business Bureau? I kinda rolled my eyes when I got to where the article mentioned BBB, but maybe the Canadian one is more legitimate. And if I'm wrong about the US BBB, let me know, but from what I've read it's closer to pay for praise than a true consumer advocate.

(edit) Apparently they're now effectively the same entity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Business_Bureau Kind of odd to quote the BBB in the article then -

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I'm canadian and I've always assumed they are a scam. Anything "BBB accredited" is a red flag to me, but it's more just folk knowledge, I don't have any first hand experience.

Anything "BBB accredited" is a red flag to me

There’s a signalling theory basis to this [1]. The BBB is a cheap signal, not a costly one, so it comes across as “trust me! I’m trustworthy! Look, I gave a bit of money to the trustworthy business people!” That is, it’s not a genuine signal of trustworthiness, so any effort expended on this signal may actually backfire: people might question why the business needs to send this signal in the first place.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signalling_(economics)

On the topic of cheap signalling, a very long time ago, I was out to dinner with a friend. She was excited to try the place out, but as it turned out, the restaurant was pretty disappointing. "But it says 'Zagat rated' in the window!", she said.

I pointed out that they didn't have the actual score in the window & just because they rated it doesn't mean they rated it well...

My understanding is that BBB is basically a glorified Yelp. They don't have any actual powers.

You have it in reverse.

Yelp is a glorified BBB. Including the way they shake down businesses.

BBB has been around for over 100 years.

I think the point is people often think BBB is a government agency because of its name

Just like the Chamber of Commerce, another scam org.

Yelp is a lot more useful.

Yelp has a lot of actual power...

I have no experience with the BBB's accreditation process. I have read the same stories you have and it sounds like a textbook protection racket.

I can say that every business that's tried to cheat me has prominently displayed an A+ rating. I've tried to report malfeasance to the BBB, with police reports, and been completely blown off.

Search term: bbb hamas rating

Use whatever search engine you like.

While I’m sure they do shake down businesses, they may actually do a better than nothing job of mediating disputes

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