Dear BBB, I called the BBB the other day to anonymously report a company I felt was being unethical with their customer service. The information officer I spoke to at your office said that if I wanted to file a complaint against the company that I couldn’t do it anonymously. I thought the role of the BBB was to warn other people about bad businesses?
~Cranky Caller A: Cranky Caller, You are RIGHT, the BBB is here to inform people about differing businesses operating in the region, but I think you are WRONG or maybe just misinformed about how the BBB does this. The BBB provides two main services to the public. You can call us or go online at vi.bbb.org 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and look up one or multiple companies to see what information the BBB has collected on the business' Reliability Report. If the company you are interested in researching doesn’t have a report it could mean that the company isn’t based in our region (You can visit bbb.org then to see if another BBB has the company in their system), or we haven’t collected any information about the company yet to create a Reliability Report. We collect information about companies when numerous people begin to call and inquire about them or when someone lodges a complaint. To lodge a complaint against a company you have to provide us with a written explanation of the situation, the company’s contact information and your contact information. You also have to tell us what you think is a reasonable resolution to the situation. The BBB will try to help you and the company to come to a reasonable resolution. If you just want us to know about a specific situation, but you don’t want a resolution you can submit what we call a “For Information Only Complaint.” But please note that the BBB only reports on complaints that we have tried to assist with a resolution on. And for all complaints we need the name and contact information of the person complaining in case we need to follow up for more information.
Dear BBB, I heard a story about a kid losing his backpack with his library card in it. Supposedly the thief then used the kid’s card to steal some library books and the parents were held liable for the cost of the stolen books. Is it legal for the library to do this?
~Concerned Citizen
A: Concerned Citizen,
RIGHT, the library does have the right to charge the parents for the stolen books, especially if they didn’t report the library card stolen prior to the books being taken out by the thief. When you sign up either yourself or your child for a library card you agree to take responsibility for returning or paying for any books, CD’s or DVD’s that are withdrawn on your card. It is just as important when you have your wallet stolen to report any lost cards to the library or video store, as it is to report lost cards to your bank or credit card company. It is a good idea to write down a list of all the cards you have in your wallet or your child’s wallet, along with the contact information of where to call if the card is lost or stolen. Store this information in a safe place in your home and add to it as necessary. If you lose your wallet, purse or backpack it will be very helpful to have a single resource with all the contacts on it for you to call.