The IndependentThe Better Business Bureau Utah has released their 2014 statistics. Below is the 2014 year in review for complaints and inquiries. Burglar Alarm Companies continue to be ranked #1 for complaints (since 2010 they have been ranked #1). However, multi-level marketing edged out Burglar Alarm Companies for inquiries (consumers reviewing BBB Business Reviews on specific businesses) for the first time. Burglar Alarm Companies have been #1 in inquiries for six years. As a reminder, all complaints are on the BBB website, bbb.org, and available to be read along with the businesses response to the complaint, if received.
BBB Utah receives more than 35,000 phone calls annually. But that isn’t how most our services are accessed by the public. Our website, bbb.org, handles the majority of the traffic, with our BBB business reviews being the main way the public uses these free BBB services.
Complaints to BBB continue to pour in with more than 16,000 grievances lodged in 2014. While 77 percent of the complaints were resolved, BBB is still concerned that nearly one-quarter of the time the business did not resolve the complaint with the consumer. More than 2,200 complaints were not even answered, which results in businesses having their BBB rating lowered.
The following chart indicates which industries had the most complaints lodged against them:
Ranked by number of complaints:
1. Burglar Alarm Companies
2. Health & Diet Products
3. Training Program Companies
4. Event Planners
5. Exercise Equipment and Machines – Sales
6. Credit Repair Services (no advance fee)
7. Craft Supplies
8. e-cigarettes
9. Billing Service
10. Genealogists
1. Rank is out of 3,947 industries categories.
2. Average resolution rate across all industries for 2014 was 77 percent.
BBB business reviews contain general information about a business, complaint history (including the text of complaints along with the business’s response), customer reviews (new in 2014) and other information such as advertising challenges made by the BBB or actions taken by governmental agencies. BBB business reviews on Utah companies were accessed more than 3.1 million times in 2014 — a 40 percent increase over 2013.
Below are the top ten industries for which consumers are searching business reviews.
By rank from most inquiries to the least:
1. Multi-Level Selling Companies
2. Burglar Alarm Companies
3. Credit Repair Services (no advance fee)
4. Training Program Companies
5. Health food/Nutritional Supplement Stores
6. Computers – Service and Repair
7. Solar Energy Products – Retail
8. Payday Loans
9. Attorneys and Lawyers
10. Work-At-Home Companies
1. Rank is out of 3,947 industries categories.
