They openly allow, and facilitate, vendors bribing you to leave reviews
I’d argue Glassdoor certainly and Yelp to a degree create the illusion
(Disclaimer - I worked for Yelp, but longer ago than id like to think)
How else can private citizens keep businesses honest? Complaining on the internet only works if you have lots of followers.
Yelp reviews, TripAdvisor, Google reviews, yes.
And as honestly never crossed my mind to check with BBB about anything.
But I haven't done any major purchasing like with property, land, or similar.
Don't know how that works. It's Poland, approximately nobody here even used Twitter, nor do they use X - and yet, businesses big and small seem super sensitive to that.
Complete with undeserved reputability and "pay to remove" system to extract $ on the business facing side.
I do think Mindless2112's experience is common with larger businesses, making the BBB potentially more effective in those cases than online review sites like Google or Yelp. Also, do those sites send complaint letters? I don't know.
I know this was a rhetorical question, but in many countries there is some type of Fair Trading Office, meaning a government body with power to adjudicate consumer complaints about businesses and the legal teeth to enforce its judgements.
These would in fact be great thing. The problem being that if this existed and did what it was supposed to do, it would only be a matter of time before Trump appointed someone to either destroy it or weaponize it against perceived enemies.
The bigger question is how can we have a body that can both protect consumers from bad businesses AND can also be itself protected from the purchased political influence of those bad businesses.
I don't have an answer, but one could be found by looking at places that have just that. In the UK we have the Citizens Advice bureau and the Trading Standards organisation which are safely independent.
Though I have a feeling the answer may be; "Don't live in the USA".
So it's a low-cost first step that can trigger mediation or settlement and help resolve your dispute (and contribute to broader consumer protection). It's a quick way to signal to the business to work with you.
Submitting a letter or formal complaint can prompt the AG (sometimes) to contact the business in an attempt to mediate or resolve the issue informally. The AG also often offers informal mediation services though some division. The AG’s office sometimes starts investigations based on complaints from the public.
But then you have companies like Parking Revenue Recovery Services (PRRS), who have already had to settle [1] with the AG once before, and yet the AG refuses to take action on additional complaints, for years.
PRRS sent me a sham parking fee two weeks after their settlement with the AG in 2022.
The AG's response to my complaint
> We have investigated your complaint and based on the information we have received to date, we are taking no further action at this time.
This was three years ago. And Coloradans, faced with an AG that won't do anything for them, have taken to PRRS's non-accredited BBB page to file thousands of complaints [2].
I don't think the BBB would have any effect in this situation either, because PRRS doesn't rely on reputation for its business. They simply rely on having conveniently placed parking lots throughout the city with people needing a place to park.
This was three years ago, and here we are in 2025 and Denver is still dealing with this situation [3] and as far as I know, the AG still hasn't done anything about it.
/vent
[1] https://coag.gov/press-releases/attorney-general-phil-weiser... [2] https://www.bbb.org/us/co/englewood/profile/parking-attendan... [3] https://www.9news.com/article/money/consumer/steve-on-your-s...
I think America was basically a different country before the 90s.
IDP is “International Driving Permit”, which is a booklet that certifies that the person has a driving license in <country> for <class of vehicles>. It includes the photo of the person and the date of birth. It includes translation in various languages so that when you’re in another country and rent a vehicle (or drive one) and the police (or enforcers) need to check if you have a valid license, you can show this (as well as your original license, if asked for). Anecdotally, I’ve heard that the process to get it through AAA seems quicker and easier than from the DMV.
You heard right, but that's because you won't get one at all from the any state DMV. The AAA is the only authorized entity allowed to issue IDPs in the USA. I wish I was making it up, because I'd rather go to my (excellent) DMV office than across town.
"The American Automobile Association (AAA) is the official organization authorized by the U.S. Department of State to issue IDPs" from https://www.usa.gov/international-drivers-license
It's easier than going to an AAA office. Slightly more expensive but worth it. They mail it to you quite quickly.
And it has to be the correct flavor of IDP too, meaning proper 1949 Geneva Convention on proper 1940s cardboard, none of that new-fangled 1969 Vienna Convention nonsense. Oh, your country has signed up to 1969 but not 1949? No car in Japan for you then.
I've been a few places where that's the case, and a couple others where the car rental place actually validated the IDP.
When I got my IDP next year they only stamped the english page and I asked them to stamp all the pages, the AAA people pushed back and said it's not necessary. I shared my story about no, it really is, and they pushed back more. I said I really need to get all my stamps or I need my money back, since the IDP is useless to me without all the stamps (this is after I was no longer a AAA number) and the lady finally rolled her eyes and stamped it.
Today, it’s almost the same everywhere I go
(A blatantly obvious silicon valley TV show reference)
Carving overcharges back is a pleasant thing.
Now a lot more people know that they are basically just the first version of Yelp.
People come to complain more than say good things. So take online complaints in that context.
Were they just smooth talkers?
https://worldsmostethicalcompanies.com/apply-now/
> The application fees for 2026 are:
> For companies operating in 24 or fewer countries the application fee is $3,600
> For companies operating in 25 or more countries the application fee is $4,900
After a flood of bad BBB reviews, CarShield successfully sued and settled with the BBB circa 2020, and the stories are (mostly) buried.
CarShield currently has an A rating by the BBB, in light of this. https://www.bbb.org/us/mo/saint-peters/profile/auto-service-...
https://muddyrivernews.com/top-stories/those-guys-are-shady-... https://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/carshield-must-pay...
They also ran "BBBBias.com" for a while on that front - https://web.archive.org/web/20201218125917/https://bbbbias.c...
vouaobrasil•6mo ago
adamtaylor_13•6mo ago
So I’ve always taken this as a sign of quality. Clearly though, that’s not always the case.