How Can the BBB Help You With Your Move?

By VanLines.com Staff

Formed in 1912, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) operates through the parent corporation known as the Council of Better Business Bureau. The purpose of the BBB is to support consumer rights and establish a source of authentic ratings in order for customers to decide whether they will use a business or not. Business have to register themselves as members with the BBB and seek accreditation in order to be rated.

As a source for consumers, the BBB can also help you with your move. The success of a moving company depends heavily on customer satisfaction. Every moving company will publicize itself as a 'customer friendly service,' which makes it hard to compare two or more moving services against one another. Thus ratings from an external evaluator are important for comparison purposes, which is why registering with the BBB should be a part of your research when deciding on what moving company to use.

How it works is simple. The BBB employs an A-F grade rating system and rates a company based on 16 factors such as a companies time in business, the complaint volume, the number of unanswered, unresolved and serious complaints and whether or not any moving licenses were revoked. The grade a company receives will give you an idea of how professional a moving company is in keeping their customers satisfied as well as how they attend to complaints. We all know that there are always a few problems during the moving process, which is why a company that works to resolve issues efficiently is sought after by people.

BBB officials calculate the ratings using information provided by the moving company. In order to receive a higher grade, movers need to support the provided information with proof. Companies that hold back information that they consider to be private are often given a low rate. This is one of the reasons why BBB ratings may be misleading.

There are many companies that would not give out proper supporting information of their statistics due to policy or customer privacy. The latter fact does reduce the extent to which BBB ratings can be relied on. However, if a company is accredited by the BBB it shows how serious a moving company as is as well as how they care about consumers.

A transparent company can be trusted and relied on as opposed to businesses that draw curtains on their customer service operations. But you should know that companies accredited by the BBB are due-paying members. This means that these moving companies pay a fee in exchange for their business to be evaluated, rated and published. Of course no business would pay the BBB if the ratings would paint a negative picture, and so BBB ratings cannot be fully trusted.

In conclusion, the BBB is simply a “bonus point” for a moving business and should not be the only factor that you look at when searching for a moving company. Rather, looking up a company via the BBB should be a part of your extensive research process, along with obtaining an in-house moving estimate and evaluating consumer feedback.