Golden Gate Better Business Bureau Reviews

UPDATED 4-STAR REVIEW FOR BBB S.F --->12/14/18
I spoke received a voicemail & follow-up email from Tahira Al on 12/12/18 regarding my very real concerns about Yelp! and their unscrupulous business tactics.(SEE PHOTOS BELOW OF YELP! ATTEMPTING TO DEFAME MY PRACTICE BY HIDING MY LONGTIME CLIENTS 5-STAR REVIEWS) She made no guarantees but was respectful, courteous and informative about what they could do which is:

"Our primary function is to serve as an open platform to encourage dialogue amongst consumers & businesses. We do not have enforcement capabilities and cannot guarantee resolution when filing with us." "We are a non-profit reporting agency that reports on complaints for a reporting period of 36 months. We re also a referral agency this means if we re unable to resolve a complaint to your satisfaction we will provide a referral to another agency that may be able to assist you."

Here is the letter I wrote to the BBB regarding my very real & awful issues with Yelp!, a company I trusted for years until I paid them for advertising on 10/10/18 while they took down my legitimate 5-Star reviews & continue to do so:

I will be more than happy to tell you right here and now how Yelp! has SPECIFICALLY targeted my small business for whatever their reasons are REGARDLESS of what excuses they use about their, AI, system. PLEASE STOP THE YELP! MAFIA HOLD ON SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS REPUTATIONS.

I have photographs (SEE ATTACHED DOCUMENTS) to prove that my legitimate 5-star reviews I ve had on my Yelp! page for several years prior to starting an advertising campaign with them, I had 128 legitimate 5-stary reviews prior to advertising with them on 10/10/18. Since 10/10/18, on a daily basis YELP! has been and continues to SYSTEMATICALLY REMOVE EVERY SINGLE DAY my clients 5-Star reviews since I paid them money to advertise. Isn t the purpose of paying Yelp! to help me bring in new clients and bring me more 5-star reviews? NOT to have them remove my legitimate client reviews??? I m confused. Aren t you?

Even after I stopped paying for advertising on 10/29/18, Yelp! CONTINUES TO REMOVE LEGITIMATE CLIENT 5-STAR REVIEWS ON A DAILY BASIS from my Yelp! business page in what I can only guess is an attempt to DEFAME MY SMALL BUSINESS.

If you do not believe me, please, view the photographs I ve taken on my Blackberry cell phone over the past month or so. You will see my reviews continue to be HIDDEN from users looking for my services.

Please see some examples of attached photos if you do not believe me and TAKE TIME TO MONITOR MY YELP! Business page on a daily basis even for just a week. You will see YELP! is doing something strange and possibly illegal in what I suspect is an attempt to DEFAME my practice and my excellent reputation to build my small business for nearly 14 years.

Thank you for re-opening this case and escalating it to the necessary individuals who can help STOP YELP! from BULLYING ME & MY PRACTICE.

ORIGINALLY A 1-Star review
I complained on 10/29/18 to the BBB in Oakland about Yelp! negatively and systematically targeting my small business by actively removing my 5-star reviews on a daily basis AFTER I PAID MONEY TO YELP! TO ADVERTISE WITH THEM. It wasn't until I posted actual photos with date and time stamps on my business page of Yelp! doing this & alerting the Silicon Valley branch of the BBB did the inept individual handling my complaint finally send an automated response on 11/30/18 OVER ONE MONTH LATER. If something like this happens to you, be sure to get the name of the individual at this East Bay BBB location and file a complaint with the BBB Arlington, VA office. Maybe they'll actually put a fire under their rear-end to get them to do their job. ONE STAR REVIEW FOR THIS USELESS ORGANIZATION.

I used the BBB twice in the last two years to recoup money from unscrupulous merchants. I truthfully and thoroughly stated my issues, went back and forth for weeks with responses, provided hard evidence, including bills and letters, and got absolutely nothing for my trouble.

One merchant lied repeatedly, submitted falsified documents, committed libel, threatened me with lawsuits, and won her case because she is a BBB member.

The other merchant lied repeatedly to the BBB, told the credit card company that they gave me a non-existent receipt for returned merchandise, and suggested that she would join the BBB. She also won her case.

The BBB is nothing but a scam because they make no effort to mediate a settlement between the merchant and the customer. Instead, they merely forward the lies, accusations and insults to the customer, and side with the lying merchants, who then display their worthless logo on their websites to look good. That accreditation is meaningless and useless, as well as downright dishonest. It's a sham and a scam.

The customer just gets abused and used, the BBB makes money, and the merchant gets away with screwing you over. Their mission statement of promoting trust and integrity in business practices is a gigantic joke. And that is exactly what the BBB is: a gigantic joke.

I had my ID stolen in Sept 2016. Because my ID monitoring service caught it quickly, there was little damage done. But the bad guys were able to lease cell phones with SmartPay and my credit monitoring service was completely unable to get SmartPay to understand that the account that was opened in my name was fraudulent. We must have spent 50 hrs on the phone with SmartPay and sending them the documents they wanted over and over again, but they would never close the fraudulent account. This went on for 6 months and was terribly frustrating. Finally it was suggested that we contact the BBB. This was my first time dealing with the BBB and I was not optimistic. However, I can tell you that this BBB office does outstanding work. In particular, Avis M. in the BBB office took exceptional care of me. No matter how frustrated I was by SmartPay's inaction, she was steady, helpful and considerate. And she managed to get SmartPay to relent and acknowledge that the account was opened fraudulently. The calls and emails about "collections" have stopped. She is my hero!

I will never use there service again. I will not let any of my family members or friends use them.

They are always ready for whatever the claim maybe, they take action too!

Golden Gate BBB helped resolve an issue with a company that had shut down and refused to answer any emails/phone calls after we had paid them a lot of money. We got our money back within a few days of filing a complaint. Very grateful!!!

The website hours lie. They are open until 4, not 5. Everywhere on every website it says 5. I don't think you can really trust a rating service that doesn't get their own information correct. BIG ZERO. DONT TRUST

Great place for help. However Wish.com does not respond.

Completely useless for consumers. When a company gives a standard run-a-round email reply, without answering a single concern, question, comment or remark, the case is closed according to BBB. And the company gets to keep it's accreditation, even after willingly helpen scammers.

The representative was not very helpful when trying to resolve and issue and file a complaint against a company. Was just instuctrs to file complaint online.

Hired Hands - "caregivers" in Novato.
Sister has days to live and they are supposed to come in 11pm to 7am to releive me. Nobody called, nobody showed up so I called the "emergency number" at 11:30pm and got a voicemail which promised a quick callback as they were "on the phone". Sure they were. I've been up 30 hours and no call yet. Would not use for a pet rock, get a day laborer in front of Home Depot, you'll have better luck. If they had negative stars I'd post that

Lisa Baldonado has been absolutely outstanding to work with! She's responsive and knowledgable; gracious and communicative. An absolute asset to the BBB!

The Golden Gate Better Business Bureau has always been efficient and precise in answering my questions. I appreciate their positive attitude and willingness to investigate my concerns.

I recently ordered a sweatshirt from Swagnation under the false pretenses that it would be a Vanson sweatshirt. The picture in the advertisement is a Vanson but this company doesn't sell Vanson. Once I figured this out from researching and discovering that this company was not only not selling what they advertised. But they also were not getting the merchandise out to any of their customers in the timeframe they promised (3-5 weeks). I immediately within two days of ordering tried to contact them to cancel the order and receive a refund. First of all. The e-mail addresses they provided were not valid, so I contacted them through Facebook Messenger and finally got a response. But instead of refunding my money as I requested they tried to tell me the sweatshirt had already shipped. I checked the tracking number only to find out that it didn't exist. I again asked for a refund through PayPal who I made the purchase through and have also notified of the false advertisement and refusal to refund. Instead of refunding my money they completely ignored the fact that I was asking for a refund. They continued to claim that the sweatshirt had already shipped. The so called support person or persons seemed to made up of children as they continued to ignore my request for the refund. They answered in broken incomplete sentences adding emoji icons to further make the situation frustrating. We are going on the fifth week now and there is no tracking or package and they still refuse to give me a refund. I don't want the knock-off non Vanson sweatshirt and got a hold of them long before they even could have sent it out for shipping. I have since learned that there are many other people who have not received a refund or even the knock off sweatshirt they are selling. They are simply taking people's money and refusing to acknowledge that they are using false advertising to steal people's money. It's a scam and they don't have an address so it makes it hard to even file a complaint. I am hoping th BBB will help me to get a refund and to warn others about this scam. I would give them zero stars but it won't let me.

Too bad, it's absolutely and completely useless! Not Recommendable!

BBB is a scam. Don't buy into this outfit. They are not at all trustworthy reporters of the facts.

I HIERD J & T WOW WASH ON WHEELS AROUND SEPTEMBER 2014 TO REPAIR AND STAIN MY 2 DECKS. 1 DECK 20X23 THE OTHER 15X10 WITH CASE OF 20 STEPS. I ASKED HIM TO UES THE SAME STAIN I HAVE ON MY FENCE, BUT HE INSISTED ON USING HIS OWN STAIN, IT LOOKED GOOD FOR ABOUT 1 MONTH, THEN THE DECKS AND STEPS STARED LOSING ITS COLOR TURNING YELLOW . THE SOPPORTS HOLDING THE STAIR UP, ONE IS NOT EVEN ON ORE IN THE GROUND JUST BOLTED TO THE SIDE TO LOOK LIKE IT IS HOLDING UP THE STARES. I HAVE CALLED ABOUT 6 TO 8 TIMES IN GOOD FATH, WITH NO RESULTS. NOT EVEN A CALL BACK. THE DECK NOW LOOKS LIKE IT DID BEFORE J&T DID ANY WORK.I PAID HIM VERY GOOD MONEY. I WOULD NOT RECOMEND J&T FOR ANY TYP OF WORK. I HAVE HERD NOTHING FROM THE BBB ETHER.. THIS WAS A WAST OF TIME AND MONEY.

Who do I complain to if I have problems with the Better Business Bureau Aye?

They did not help ONE iota! It's clear they are paid off by businesses to give an A+ rating when the consumer complaints are >95% DISSATISFIED! That's absurd.

this BBB rates businesses with lowest consumer ratings the highest mark, it rigs ratings to the extent it won't take complaints against airbnb
not independent, I filed to the CBBB

They suck. They just side with their paying members and close your complaints. Bbb is a scam.

Adan was amazingly helpful during this process; kind, professional, and thorough. Thanks for your expertise!

This office does NOT provide assistance. Although I forwarded several screenshots and emails, my rep Tahira did not forward anything to the business that I complained about. I will never use this BBB office again.

Huh. We've never had these experiences with the BBB. We've been members for a long time, then we let our membership lapse, then we got back on board... but at no time during any of this were we pestered or coerced. I feel bad that this has happened to some people. It must be frustrating. Yelp, on the other hand, is a horrendous reviewing venue for most small businesses (other than restaurant s). Since they make it very difficult for known business owners to also write reviews about any other business, I deduce that most reviews one reads are written by people who have never built a business for themselves. Readers must use their common sense when reading reviews on sites that spend more effort to quality the businesses than they do the reviewers. As Mehrdad said, just because a review is good doesn t mean the business is run that well. Conversely, one should never take a bad review at face value either. Most people are more motivated to leave a review when they are angry than when they are happy. So a disproportionate number of negative reviews will tend to be emotional rather than thoughtful or even fair minded.

REGISTRY MANAGEMENT IN WESTLAKE, BAY AREA
VERY SLACK, SERVICE SUPPOSEDLY HELPING PEOPLE GT APPROVED FOR VENDORS...lazy employees doing nothing!!

BBB has helped me collect my money from various businesses. It is great that someone can hold the business owners, large and small, accountable.

I parked my car at Priority parking on Broadway and Davis in San Francisco. I came back five hours later and my car was destroyed. No cameras. I have $5500.00 in damage. .The police don't Care.

Your web site is most unfriendly. I could not check a business and its rating. Anybody watching? Your phone is busy or loaded with recorded messages. TOTALLY USELESS

This company or this branch of the BBB is slanderous and at the very least irresponsible regarding their comments on our business. The next step is to contact a lawyer and sue!

We consider the BBB an advertising vehicle. We must pay for our "BBB accreditation" and in turn we make our decision to continue an ad based on ROI. We track the source of all our jobs so we do not waste money (small margins). We joined BBB as an "ad experiment", but did not received any leads, or interest, let alone a job from this source. Obviously, we terminated our accreditation after this one year experiment.

This is when this branch rates us an "F" after we have gone a paid year at an "A-" rating. Major coincidence?!?

Apparently they found some inconsistent rhetoric on our website regarding our guarantee. If this was such a problem an analysis of our site should have taken place immediately after our payment so we could address this! They do not do this, IRRESPONSIBLE!

Our company is Advanced Cleaning Systems in Fremont, CA. Fortunately our guarantee is not a problem with our customers. We have no reports with the BBB, except theirs. We have only 5 STAR reviews on Google or Yelp! . We try to build positive relationships with all our customers and that goes for our 100% guarantee.

I/we are just tired of lousy companies like this trying to survive with some BS platform that supposedly help consumers. Maybe this directory was valid years ago before the internet. Today Google and Yelp! do so much more for consumers and company ROI.

Like the BBB, every review site have their problems, but at least Google or Yelp! do not lower themselves to one sided slanderous actions that misinforms consumers.

My Complaint is with HOTWIRE that cheats and lies to get your business and then fails miserably upon delivery. They use call centers in India and possibly the Philippines thinking they are saving money. In fact by not providing adequate services to their customers they are losing so many every day. I really, truly hope they end up bankrupt. I will do my level best to spread the word of how awful HOTWIRE is. They are a disgrace to corporate America.

Absolutely pathetic. The rep closed my complaint against Twitter even though it was not clearly resolved. She said it s because I kept going back and forth. I saw other complaints on the site that went back and forth far beyond mine and nothing was closed in their cases. This BBB branch is a joke.

I was very pleased with the excellent support with shredding documents and also the helpful security information supplied by the friendly and professional BBB staff!