When picking a roofing contractor, I doubt most homeowners know that the BBB makes all of their profits from the businesses that pay them for listings within their service. This in itself is counterintuitive to their stance as a consumer protection service.
That being said, as a roofing contractor in Sioux Falls, I’ve been a part of them at different times in my Roofing career. Not because I believe in what they do, but because the bulk of the public still does…..time will tell how long that will last.
Truth be told, most listing services online produce about the same effect as a BBB listing……in that if a roofing contractor does bad work, then customers will leave negative feedback on their listings. The new way that the web is allowing interaction between consumers and businesses is allowing for the same thing that the BBB did before all of the new web 2.o social media became the norm online.
Anymore the BBB is simply an overpriced listing….. kind of like advertising in the good old fashioned Yellow Pages big book/door stop…… not many people see it, but as a roofing contractor or any business…. you have to pay out the nose in order to still be a part of it.
Anymore if a potential client asks if I’m a roofing contractor with the BBB I simply tell them it cost me over $500 per year and never brought in a single project, so after a few years of wasting money on them I canceled, but if the customer would like I could make one call and get my A+ roofing contractor rating right back…..(I also mention that paying clients get negative remarks and situations taken off quickly, if they ever even become public).
Regardless of the BBB stance as a consumer protection company… the sad truth is that they are a business that makes millions off of other businesses, and reality would dictate that their loyalties go to where their money comes from.
In a strange way, the BBB is like the old gangsters offering protection to local roofing contractor businesses, and then increasing the cost of protection…..to the point where it no longer is protection, but extortion.
Because of the common phrase “check them with the BBB”…when searching for a roofing contractor…the BBB has risen to the point that it kind of strong arms businesses to pay their unreasonable listing fee just because consumers expect it.
In my experience as a roofing contractor, the listing with the BBB was a waste of marketing money, and only a few people ever checked out my roofing contractor profile with the BBB …. and none of them ever became a client.
They (the BBB) also sent me regular emails to events ranging in price from $100 -$500, and I’m sure this is simply part of their profit producing strategy.(I believe each office is a locally owned franchise, so listing fees vary depending on the area located, but I could be wrong on that…so don’t quote me… I’ll have to do a little more research and then update this post at that time:)
Now I have no problem with any business making a profit, but when a certain amount of deception is the driving force of a businesses profits….. well…..I don’t find that very acceptable at all.
Needless to say my feelings of “needing” to be a roofing contractor listed with the BBB faded thereafter.
So in closing….
To all consumers who believe that any roofing contractor or reputable business will be listed with the BBB…. all you are doing is feeding a lie that needs to be stopped. Because the truth of the matter is that anyone who pays the BBB money gets an A+ rating and complaints seem to disappear like magic. (Why would the BBB bite the hands that feed them?)
(There is a dispute resolution department, which is pretty much a way of saying… “Hey paying business….this consumer is upset…show that you’ve at least tried to make it right …..and everything will be good”)
I’m not saying my roofing company will never be a part of them again, but I’d like it to be known that the BBB is nothing more than a more expensive listing service… with a complaint line……. not a true gage of whether a company is actually a “better business” than another.
Like I said earlier, almost every listing service online has a place for consumers to leave reviews or complaints… so the BBB isn’t all that special anymore…… they’re just another place for a roofing contractor or any other business to market themselves. (as long as they don’t mind the up-sell promotions while being listed with them:)
If you truly want to know if someone is an honest and quality Roofing Contractor or any type of business, learn a little about the product/industry, and then ask questions to see if the roofing contractor or salesman is knowledgeable, or just kind of “winging it” with their answers.
This way when a sales guy is saying something that doesn’t make much sense, you’ll know he’s full of crap.
It’s hard to pull a fast one on a consumer that has done his/her research on how to pick a quality roofing contractor.
