MarketMonitortheNews for Better Business Bureau Accredited Businesses April 2012

INSIDE

Be Skeptical of Online Reputation Services

“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes”

- attributed to Mark Twain

ave you Googled yourself lately? Or your company? Did you see something that you wish you could make disappear? Many services now exist which claim they can do just that and improve your online reputation.

Online reputation management services can vary. Some offer search engine optimization (SEO) techniques coupled with blogs, press releases, social media links, and websites populated with positive and factual content that will display in search results. Over time, this content could outnumber negative reviews and place more positive results in top search results. Others may promise more than they can deliver. Still others may be providing phony positive reviews about your company that can cause more damage if the deception is discovered. BBB even found cases where the service was accused of posting negative comments as a ruse to sell its program.

A quick online search uncovered many negative reviews filed about the very businesses that claim to improve search results. The reviewers cited many examples of unsatisfactory results after paying substantial fees.

Fighting Back Against Text Spammers

hese days, there may be nothing more objectionable than those creepy unsolicited text messages that show up on our phones.

It’s bad enough that some cell phone users are incurring charges for these incoming texts. Adding insult to injury is the fact that many of

these texts are flat out scams attempting to lure you into providing sensitive personal and

financial information.

Sorry to say that the promised $1,000 Walmart gift card won’t ever make its way to your wallet, and you haven’t won that free iPad 3 (or is it 4, 5)?

When you get these dastardly messages, there’s now an easy way to report them to

your cell phone provider. The major North American wireless carriers recently deployed a centralized spam-reporting service which collects information about spam complaints from all participating carriers into a common database. This makes it easier for carriers to identify spammers and, where possible, take action.

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Service to the CommunityReports issued on companies/charities.................. Customer complaints filed............. Lists of BBB Accredited Businesses provided by industry...................www.cleveland.bbb.org visits.....Advertising review cases initiated.......

Top 10 Inquiry-Generating Industries1. Roofing Contractors2. Mortgage Brokers3. Health & Medical (General)4. General Contractors5. Construction & Remodeling6. Auto Dealers - Used Cars7. Landscape Contractors8. Collection Agencies9. Auto Repair & Service10. Auto Dealers - New Cars

Top 10 Complaint-Generating Industries

1. Insurance Companies2. Collection Agencies3. Auto Dealers - Used Cars4. Auto Repair & Service5. Auto Dealers - New Cars6. Mail Order & Catalog Shopping7. Manufacturers & Producers8. Banks9. Television - Cable, CATV, & Satellite10. Magazine Sales

Greater Cleveland BBB Activity Report Janurary - March 2012

235,9692,074

14,170218,067

85

Winners of NARI’s Contractor of the Year Awards

YMG Publications Warning

Meet a New BBB DirectorOn Our Radar

B2B Discounts for You

H

T

BBB Centennial 1912 - 2012

Winners of LocalContractor of the Year

AwardsBBB congratulates the following Accredited Businesses for taking 1st place in this year’s “Contractor of the Year” awards presented by the Northeast Ohio Chapter of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry.

Absolute Roofing & Construction, IncCommercial Exterior Speciality

Light Construction

Artistic Renovations, LLCHistorical Renovation/RestorationResidential Bath Under $15,000

Dover Home Remodelers, Inc.Residential Kitchen $30,000 - $60,000

Hurst Design-Build-RemodelingResidential Addition $175,000 - $250,000

Residential Bath $30,000 - $60,000Residential Kitchen $100,000 - $250,000Residential Kitchen $60,000 - $100,000

Joyce Factory DirectResidential Exterior Under $100,000

Makoski Construction & RemodelingResidential Interior over $250,000

NHD Construction & Design Residential Universal Design

One Man and A Hammer, Inc. Residential Kitchen $15,000 - $30,000

Tamer Construction Inc.Entire House Under $250,000

Beware Bills from YMG

YMG Publications has an “F” rating with BBB for not answering over 200 complaints from businesses. YMG reportedly calls claiming to be your “Yellow Pages Representative.” You are asked to verify that the address and phone number on file are still correct. According to complaints, these calls are followed several weeks later by a $499 invoice for an online directory listing. YMG is located in New York City and is using a familiar ploy – creating the impression they are your regular supplier then sending an invoice for products or services that are not ordered. Teach staff to be leery of callers trying to confirm shipping addresses, brands of office equipment, names of coworkers authorized to order products, etc. If provided, this type of information can be used later as “proof” you placed an order.

Always check vendors with BBB.

To cite a few:

I have a complaint posted by one of my competitors that try (sic) to ruin my business. They said that if I pay them $5000 for two months they will push that complaint into the 5th page. I paid them the first month and nothing happened. When I called them, they said that it will take some more time and I should pay for the second month. I did this too and now I still don’t see anything; the complaint is still there, even higher now. PositiveInternetSearches.com won’t answer the phone and won’t return my money. I want to warn people not to trust these guys as they are scammers. This is their third business name.

I hired onlinereputationedge.com to remove a negative link made by an ex employee that showed up in Google a couple of months ago. Onlinereputationedge charged me over $3,000 and never did anything they promised and after one month, they called again and said that they need more time and another $3,000. I paid again hoping they will do what they promised. They are no longer returning my phone calls and will not return my money. I have been scammed.

There are some steps you can do yourself to enhance your own image online without breaking your budget. First of all, seek to adequately resolve consumer complaints. Fix the problem before there’s a problem and before the consumer posts online. If you see an online negative review, remember, one negative review out of many positive ones may not affect many people’s perceptions of your business. There’s still time to convert that unhappy customer into a happy one and you can still address their concerns online – in a very cordial, professional tone. Make sure the proper people at your company can be easily reached via e-mail, fax, phone, or online form submissions.

If you do choose to use an online reputation service, keep in mind that negative search results will NOT be deleted. They will merely be pushed back a few pages. Most importantly, always research the management itself first before conducting business.

To Buy or Not To Buy? As with any service, you need to thoroughly investigate the company. BBB offers these tips:

• Find out how long the company has been operating and ask for customer references.• Ask for a written explanation of exactly what the service will do to counteract negative search results.• Are there guaranteed results? How are they defined and will you get a refund if not satisfied?• Google the service’s name – are others complaining about them? Check the service’s rating with BBB.• Be cautious if a company contacts you regarding a negative review they found about you online.• Never do business with a company whose model is based on posting fake positive reviews to make your own company look better.

Be Skeptical of Online Reputation Services (Cont. from Front)

April 2012

Change Your Accounts Payable AddressThe BBB’s new address for receiving payments has changed. Please update your records. The new address is:

Better Business Bureau PO Box 91039Cleveland, OH 44101 - 9003

B2B Discounts for BBB Accredited Businesses

Credit Card ProcessingTSYS Merchant Solutions offers rates as low as 1.52% on retail transactions and 2.09% for mail and phone orders (plus a nominal fee per transaction). Small monthly fee. Call(888) 562-6737 for details.

Document ShreddingAll Ohio Secure Shred will shred documents on site for $22/month for one container. Also, one-time bulk purge for 10 cents/lb. $50 minimum.Call (216) 332-9850 or (888) 747-3394.

Phone ServiceEaston Telecom - Rates ranging from 2.5¢ - 3.5¢/minute for long distance calls, toll-free lines as low as 1.79¢/minute. 5% discount off most retail services. Contact Jim Butler at (800) 222-8122.

Pre-Employment Background ReportsInstant online Criminal Checks for under $10 each. Other reports also discounted. Monthly fee waived (save $120 a year!), $100 enrollment fee waived. Call IntelliCorp at (888) 946-8355.

Payroll ServiceHeartland Payroll Co. - Savings of as much as 50% on payroll fees. Call Brian Nelson at (440) 371-5245.

Your BBB Business Review Have You...

- Encouraged your customers to post reviews?

- Uploaded photos of your work, staff, logos, etc?

- Added coupons for customers?

For more information on enhancing and updating your Business Review, contact Laura at (216) 623-8964 x107 or at mybbb@cleveland.bbb.org.

Here’s all you need to do. When you receive a spam text message on your phone, forward that text to the “shortcode” number 7726 (which spells “SPAM”). You’ll receive an automated message from your wireless carrier, asking you to enter the phone number from which the spam text was sent.

Here’s another neat feature of the service. It will determine if the spam was sent from a “shortcode” or from a regular phone number. Those from shortcodes are highly regulated by the federal government, with violators subject to large fines. Accordingly, the service will advise you to reply “stop” to these messages, which are annoying, but likely not scammy. If the spam comes from a phone number, which is far more likely to be a scam, you’ll be asked to report it and advised how to block calls from that number in the future. (Of course, the scammers probably switch numbers frequently). You won’t want to text “stop” because that will alert the scammers that yours is an active cell phone number, which will generate more messages.

You won’t know if your input will put anyone behind bars, but you’ll at least have the cathartic pleasure of knowing you’re fighting back.

Fighting Against Text Spammers (Cont. from Front)

April 2012

Meet a New BBB DirectorName: Mitch Zlotnik

Company: Medic Batteries, Audimute Soundproofing, and RetrofitLEDlights.com

Position: President

Fun Facts: Was the co-creator of Scuba for Diabetes to benefit The Diabetes Association of Greater Cleveland and chairman from 1996-2005. He also enjoys sport kite flying and scuba diving among other activities such as playing drums, piano, guitar, singing, squash, soccer, and Frisbee.

On Our Radar

Automeds – This online seller of auto parts, located in Cleveland, has a long list of unanswered complaints from consumers who ordered products that were never shipped. Those who did get their orders claim the products are of poor quality. BBB has advised the Ohio Attorney General about this “F” rated business.

Cuyahoga Construction Co. – Owned by Bill Burke, this Cleveland business has several complaints from homeowners who made down payments on jobs that were not started. Others report poor workmanship. All complaints remain unanswered and the business has an “F” rating. BBB issued an alert to local media and notified the Ohio Attorney General.

Full Circle Fund – Flyers distributed in Cleveland by this group listed several types of available assistance from food vouchers, rent funds, child day care and employment training. When hopeful recipients contacted the organization, they were required to provide Social Security Numbers to apply. BBB could find no record of a local organization by this name. Flyers were almost identical to those distributed in 2008 and 2010 by Ohio Advantage Fund which was operated by Darnell Nash. Nash pleaded guilty to Attempted Identity Theft and Petty Theft in 2008 for using information he obtained from applicants for assistance.

The Market MonitorBetter Business Bureau2800 Euclid Ave., 4th Fl.Cleveland, OH 44115-2408

The Market Monitor (ISSN 1085-5122). April 2012. Volume 7 No.2. Published bimonthly in February, April, June, August, October and December by the Better Business Bureau, Inc. 2800 Euclid Ave., 4th Floor, Cleveland, OH 44115-2408, Periodicals postage paid at Cleveland, OH. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Market Monitor, 2800 Euclid Ave., 4th Fl, Cleveland, OH 44115-2408.

Periodicals Postage Paid

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And remember, there are now more ways than ever to stay informed of the latest BBB news, events, and scams. We are now on Google+ and Pinterest! If you haven’t connected with us lately, you may have missed interesting stories and shares such as how to identify and remove adware from your facebook page and infographics about the top scams of 2011. Don’t miss out, connect with us now!

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More Ways to Connect with Us

You can be proud of your status as a BBB Accredited Business. It reflects what you stand for and what you have achieved and you can also display it on your company’s fleet vehicles along side your logo. It draws attention and tells consumers you are committed to the standards of fair, honest, and ethical business practices that you agreed to live up to when you became BBB Accredited.

To purchase a 6.5” x 10” vehicle magnet (@ $12) call Jan Stagneth at (216) 623-8964 x206 or e-mail jan@cleveland.bbb.org.

Show Off Your Accreditation!