Better Business Bureau: ABC News Investigations of the Year

Dec. 31, 2010 — -- This week, the Blotter has been reprising 10 different Ross Unit investigations that made a difference in 2010. Today: Charges of "pay for play" at the Better Business Bureau, and justice for a federal agent accused of murder.

Better Business Bureau Changes Its Grading System After ABC News Investigation

An ABC News investigation of the Better Business Bureau detailed allegations that the BBB is running a "pay to play" scheme in which A plus ratings are given exclusively to businesses that pay for a BBB membership while businesses that don't want to become members are often saddled with lower grades.

A 20/20 report that aired on November 11 showed how a group of Los Angeles business owners, determined to prove the BBB accreditation system was a sham, paid $425 apiece to buy BBB memberships for a number of fictitious firms, including one for a non-existent company called Hamas, named after the Middle East terror group. The L.A. BBB awarded a membership and an A minus rating to a non-existent sushi restaurant and an A plus to a bogus firm named after Stormfront, a white supremacist group.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE 20/20 REPORT

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ORIGINAL BLOTTER STORY

The ABC News investigation also showed how two small Los Angeles businesses, with an ABC News producer and camera present, were told by BBB telemarketers that their C grades could be raised to an A plus if they paid to join the BBB. After Terri Hartman, the manager of Liz's Antique Hardware, paid the $565 membership fee her C grade was replaced with an A plus and the one complaint was wiped off the record.

In another case, Carmen Tellez, the owner of a company that provides clowns for parties, says she was also told she had to pay to raise her C minus grade, based on a two-year old complaint that she said had already been resolved. The C minus became an A plus the very next day after she provided her credit card for the $395 membership charge.