Hacker News Reader

Comment by fifteen1506 | Hacker News Reader

This is simple without getting the state to meddle in the business of private individuals. Just set FairBusiness, LLC. Businesses who want clients have to be certified by FairBusiness in how they don't screw up customers. Customers who want to find the nearest non-screwing business have to pay a listing annual fee to FairBusiness, LLC. And thus the market polices itself. No need for noisy governmental agency.

View on HN

You've just described the Better Business Bureau.

But guess what? There are plenty of underhanded businesses that could care less about a bad rating from the BBB, because the type of customer they're fleecing is not particularly savvy. Think elderly folks who are a little too trusting, or immigrants with a bit of a language barrier who aren't familiar with the BBB.

Also, BBB is basically just pre-Internet Yelp. Their business model is to extort businesses for better ratings, not to actually provide useful ratings to end-users.

The BBB is an extortion racket and I cringe anytime they’re brought up as some trustworthy source.

Then people shouldn't buy there without having proper knowledge.

This type of "buyer beware" position describes the exact problem US auto dealerships already take advantage of, and advocating for more uses of this methodology doesn't address any of the actual problems, and makes the problems the industry are currently facing actively worse.

I agree with you in principle. However, I've had occasion to deal pretty often with elderly friends and family lately, and there's a clear problem there. Many of us lose a lot of our ability to think critically or recognize the latest scam flavor when we get into our 80s (or thereabouts). I've seen it repeatedly. People I know who are smart, who had careers as engineers, accountants, etc.

I just want to see the world burn.

This kind of stuff will break down trust in each other and we will all be cultivating cabbage to feed our own.

We're discussing this in the context of the government trying to make large companies share that proper knowledge.

Whoops! Someone who happens to be very good friends - no official association - with the C-suite of (WLOG) Stellantis NA has sent FairBusiness, LLC's CEO a bottle of Château Lafite Rothschild. He'd just like to invite you to dinner. In Las Vegas. He'll fly you out, no, really, it's no trouble.

Maybe you balk and refuse. Sure, we've got EquiConsumer, LLC ready to go and backed by a $30M grant and an ad campaign by WPP. And we'll wait and try again with the guy who replaces you as CEO. Or you can play ball and take the flight and the steak and the four tickets to the Sphere.

And then this business just sells out in less than 5 years, hell even the big four screw up constantly for their primary focus.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com