Don’t be fooled by that A-rating from the Better Business Bureau, a consumer watchdog group warned on Tuesday.
Fifteen companies that carried an A-rating from the BBB in 2016 had settled federal regulatory charges over deceptive advertising, the group, Truth in Advertising, said in a report.
The high rating did not change even though some of these companies were facing thousands of consumer complaints against them, an investigation by the group, known as TINA, claimed.
One company, NutraClick, which sells supplements online, was slapped with a $350,000 fine by the Federal Trade Commission last fall for luring consumers with “free” samples — only to charge them a membership fee of $29.99 to $79.99 for ordering the freebies.
At least 70,000 consumers had complained about the charges, the FTC’s complaint noted. Still, NutraClick’s BBB rating was A after the FTC complaint and was an A as of Feb. 7.
“The message we want to get across is that the BBB is not a consumer protection agency or a government agency,” said TINA spokeswoman Shana Mueller. “Ratings are not always what you think they mean.”
The BBB concedes on its Web site that consumers might not know that it is “not a consumer watchdog.”
A spokeswoman for the BBB disputed TINA’s findings, but did not immediately provide a statement to The Post.
In a response to TINA, the BBB said, “We cannot address the specifics of the issues raised in this [report] because TINA did not supply [us] with a list of the companies in question” or give it enough time to evaluate the findings before publishing its report.
Among other possible BBB ratings that need changing is that of DeVry University, which has an A- grade from BBB.
The for-profit school, however, paid a $100 million settlement for misrepresenting post-degree job placement rates and student earnings.
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