Saturday, September 15, 2007

Better Business Bureau Dispute Resolution

If you have a complaint with a product and the company is not responding satisfactorily, the Better Business Bureau may be able to help. BBB Arbitration is one dispute resolution process without lawyers that is fair for both the consumer and the company.

In the 80's I trained to be an Arbitrator, then later to be a Senior Arbitrator, and I heard cases for several years. This is a volunteering experience I highly recommend. It is interesting, fun, and the process gives unhappy consumers an opportunity to correct problems.

Both the company and the consumer present a case for the arbitrator to make a decision. Sometimes it was clear the consumer had a valid point the company just did not address. Other times, however, the company had tried everything to correct the problem, but the customer could not be satisfied.

Satisfaction was sometimes as easy as just knowing someone was listening.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I worked for an attorney who was an arbitrator; he worked mainly with employer/employee disputes. It was interesting; I learned a plethora of ways to get canned from a job! Did you know you could get fired for eating corn chips that were past their expiration date, well you can, the employer had a “no grazing” clause written in their employment agreement. I guess one of their truck drivers threw the empty bag somewhere in the truck and they (supervisor/maintenance) found it and brought him up on charges, he took it to arbitration, but in the end he lost his job because of the “no grazing” clause in contract he signed. Who knew!

Vicki said...

AZ, Interesting. The moral of this story is "read the contract."

I heard some interesting cases. It really is amazing what some people think is reason enough for a company to replace a car. It is equally amazing how much grief some people went through.

Boring it was not.

Jack Payne said...

Great concept. Better than Small Claims Court. Hope this works out as described.