Top Ten Inquiries and Complaints for May 2002 from the CCBBB

Canadian Council of Better Business Bureaus - the governing body of the 14 Better Business Bureaus (BBB) across Canada

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Canadian Council of Better Business Bureaus: Top Ten Inquiries and Complaints for May 2002

PRESS RELEASE

Canadian Council of Better Business Bureaus

Ottawa (July 4) - Canadian consumers planned to spend their money close to home during May with roofing, general contractors, and home renovation topping the list of national consumer inquiries, according to the Canadian Council of Better Business Bureaus. At the same, time consumers showed an increased caution before spending or donating money.

During May, five of the top 10 consumer inquiries to Better Business Bureau offices included work-at-home opportunities, sweepstakes/lotteries, advance fee loans, multi-level selling, and charities, says the Council President and CEO.

Consumers complained most about new and used auto dealers, moving and storage companies, and computer sales and service.

A positive sign during May is the increase in consumer calls before spending money on "opportunities" such as work-at-home projects, multi-level selling, and sweepstakes. Whitelaw says there are six key words to help consumers spend their money wisely. The first three are inquire, inquire, inquire. In other words, do your homework. And the second set of three words is complain, complain, complain.

Competition laws dealing with sweepstakes and lotteries were strengthened in Canada on June 21. Canadian law, says Whitelaw, now prohibits sending a notice that gives the recipient an impression a prize has been won and the recipient is asked or given an option to pay money or incur a cost to obtain the prize. The law applies to notices sent by any means including regular or electronic mail.

The role of the Better Business Bureau is to provide information to reduce risk when a consumer, business, or organization plans to spend or donate money. Eight of the Canadian Better Business Bureaus provide 24 hour online access to reliability reports.

The monthly monitoring and reporting on the inquiries provides a timely indicator of consumer spending interests through the requests for business information, educational material and reliability reports provided by Better Business Bureaus, says Whitelaw.

This is the third month that the Council has released the list of consumer inquiries and complaints. Encouraging responses to the usefulness and value of the information continued to be received by the Canadian Council office. The inquiries provide a useful measurement about spending plans while the complaints signal areas for improved customer service.

The monthly report reflects the patterns consumer inquiry and complaint information compiled by the 14 Canadian Better Business Bureaus located in Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Winnipeg, Windsor, London, Kitchener, Hamilton, Ottawa, Montreal, Halifax, and St. John's.

During May the Bureaus answered 125,000 consumer inquiries, provided 79,000 reliability reports about specific businesses and services, and opened 1,922 written complaint files.

Top 10 Consumer Inquiries May 2002

Top 10 List of Complaints May 2002

The Better Business Bureau promotes and encourages the highest ethical relationship between businesses and the public through voluntary self-regulation, consumer and business education, and service excellence. Consumer information is available at the Council’s website ccbbb.ca.