by Net Reputation
February 26, 2025
Brand Reputation Business Reputation Management Online Reviews Reputation Management Blog Review Management Small Businesses
Are you wondering how to remove a BBB complaint to protect your business’s online reputation? We have solutions to improve customer satisfaction and protect your brand’s digital presence.
If your business has a presence on the web, chances are that people are searching for information about you and your company before paying your business a visit or placing an order online. The information they find in search results can have a profound influence on purchasing behaviors.
When negative reviews on the Better Business Bureau (BBB) website threaten to undo all you’ve worked so hard to achieve, you may wonder how to get a BBB complaint removed.
In this guide, we’ll explore what the Better Business Bureau is, how customers perceive a company based on their BBB profile, and how to remove a BBB complaint that is threatening your business prospects.
We offer professional reputation management services for businesses. Get started today with a free consultation with one of our experts. Call us at 844-461-3632 or fill out the contact form below.
Request a Free Consultation
What Is the Better Business Bureau?
The Better Business Bureau (BBB) is a private, nonprofit organization founded in 1912. According to the official BBB website, its vision is to create “an ethical marketplace where buyers and sellers trust each other.”
Today, over 400,000 businesses in North America have BBB accreditation. Accredited businesses pledge to adhere to the organization’s Accredidation Standards. These standards put a premium on ethical, transparent, and customer service-oriented practices. Individuals use the ratings and recommendations of the BBB every day to make informed purchasing decisions. And bad ratings can damage what you’ve worked so hard to achieve in your business operations.
What Tools Does the BBB Offer?
The Better Business Bureau provides business owners and consumers with a wide range of tools, including:
- Business locator
- Scam search feature
- Scam research and studies
- BBB business profiles
- BBB accreditation procedures
- Consumer review tools
- Consumer complaint filing tools
For the purposes of this guide about removing negative BBB reviews, the consumer review and complaint tools stand out. These tools allow consumers to make fair and honest assessments of the companies they do business with. In other words, the goal is to share a truthful account of a customer’s unique experience. Unfortunately, some consumers abuse these tools, potentially putting your brand reputation at risk.
It’s not uncommon for any review site, including the BBB, to receive defamatory, fake, and malicious complaints and reviews. Automated tools sift out these complaints from legitimate ones. However, any misleading complaint that slips through the cracks puts your business at risk.
Your BBB Profile
Business owners can create a business profile on the BBB website by submitting basic information, such as the business’ name, address, and niche. Once the business owner submits this information, they can choose to opt-in to learn more about getting BBB Accreditation.
After completing the form, click Add My Business To the Directory, and the Better Business Bureau will create a profile. This profile is the foundation of your digital presence on the BBB site and serves as a portal for customers to learn about your business.
The BBB’s Rating Criteria
The Better Business Bureau does not rate only accredited businesses; the organization rates every business — even non-accredited businesses — that submits a profile request to the BBB directory.
The BBB rating system assigns businesses a letter-style grade from A+ to F. The grade is based on how the business performs across several categories, including:
- Business type
- Business practice transparency
- Complaint volume
- Unanswered and unresolved complaints
- Delay of complaint resolution
Each of the BBB’s grading elements corresponds to a points system. Companies can earn or lose points depending on the BBB’s analysis of the business in question.
The key takeaway is that the rating system shows how well — or how poorly — a given business interacts with its customers.
BBB Complaints vs. BBB Reviews
In any discussion of the Better Business Bureau, it’s important to make a distinction between business complaints and reviews.
- A BBB complaint is a formal complaint filed against a business by a consumer. Often, they point to a failure to meet expectations or a belief they were treated unfairly.
- A BBB review, by contrast, is a feature that allows customers to share their experiences without having to go through the process of filing a formal complaint.
Typically, a customer cannot file a complaint and also leave a negative review. Unfortunately, people have figured out how to work around this limitation, often to the detriment of business owners.
You can take control of your online reputation and your company’s digital presence. Call us at 844-461-3632 for more information.
How are BBB Complaints Putting My Business at Risk?
In today’s highly connected digital environment, one of the first places people turn for information about businesses in their area is the web. A simple Google search can turn up pages of information about local businesses, including online reviews, BBB ratings, and BBB complaints.
Because the Better Business Bureau’s website is such a trusted resource, complaints and ratings tend to rank highly in online search results. In other words, if your business has received a BBB complaint, chances are that the complaint is at or near the top position on Google search results pages. Since those top results are the ones customers click on, negative ratings or complaints by customers are far more likely to be spotted by someone searching for business information online.
As customers research your business, they may be confronted by these negative reviews and ratings. Any negative sentiment can erode trust between you and a potential customer, often leading to that customer frequenting your competitor. Can you afford to lose out on business because of negative feedback, including an unfair BBB complaint, a bad review, or a negative rating?
At NetReputation, we work with businesses to help them build and take control of their online reputation. Give us a call at 844-461-3632 to learn more.
Customer Complaints on the BBB
When a customer files a complaint on the BBB website, that complaint goes through a multi-step process before it affects your current rating on the platform. Here’s an overview of the complaint process:
- First, the BBB complaint is filed by the customer. Within two business days of filing, the BBB forwards the complaint to the business owner, usually by sending the complaint to the email address listed in the business profile.
- Next, business owners have 14 days from the date filed to respond. If no business response has been made in that timeframe, a follow-up letter will be sent to the business’s physical address and email address.
- After a representative of the business responds to the BBB complaint, the customer filing the original complaint will be notified and asked to provide a response.
- The complaint process typically ends after 30 days, which is when the complaint is closed. However, the BBB may keep complaints open if there is an exchange of responses between the business owner and the person filing the complaint. In this case, the complaint process will end once the situation is resolved.
It is important to point out that not all complaints on the Better Business Bureau platform are legitimate. Business owners in every industry have experienced negative BBB reviews and ratings based on misunderstandings or misleading information posted by competitors or others who wish to harm the company.
Still, these customer complaints represent a very real risk to your business’s success and your positive online reputation. Having negative reviews removed is a critical step toward protecting what you’ve worked so hard to achieve.
What To Do if You Receive a Better Business Bureau Complaint
The Better Business Bureau prides itself on the quality and transparency of the customer-to-business interaction. The BBB takes complaints seriously, and the organization works hard to facilitate a resolution between those filing a complaint and the business owners targeted in the complaint.
There are several types of complaints the BBB will not act on, including:
- Complaints centered on specific business policies
- Product or service pricing complaints
- Complaints regarding professional procedures
- Disputes between an employer and employee
It is important to understand that non-accredited businesses are under no obligation to respond to complaints. The Better Business Bureau requires only BBB-accredited companies to respond to a complaint filed by a customer.
Resolving a Customer Dispute
The first step for any business owner facing a BBB complaint is to resolve the dispute with the customer. After all, the Better Business Bureau’s goal is to facilitate an interaction to resolve each dispute. This also gives the business a chance to increase customer satisfaction.
Businesses have two options: reach out to customers directly or use the BBB’s tools to have a conversation with the customer.
Proposing a Resolution
The Better Business Bureau handles correspondence between businesses and customers who file a complaint. The owner can submit a proposal to resolve the dispute, leaving it up to the customer to decide if the proposal solves the problem or not.
What if you feel as though the complaint is unfair or if the customer is not satisfied with your attempts to resolve the issue? You may wish to take the next step, which is Better Business Bureau arbitration.
Arbitration and Mediation With the BBB
When you choose mediation, the BBB employs a professional mediator to work with both parties to resolve any potential issue that led to the complaints. The mediator or arbitrator reviews all evidence supporting each side of the conflict to create a possible resolution that satisfies both parties.
For mediation, the Better Business Bureau chooses a meeting place and time for each party in the complaint to resolve the dispute. Typically, meetings take place at a local BBB office that’s convenient to both parties.
Removing a BBB Complaint
What if the above steps to resolve a Better Business Bureau complaint fail? Business owners face a significant hurdle: getting the BBB complaint removed. This requires action on the part of the company owner as well as the person filing the complaint.
How a business responds can have a powerful impact on the complaint-removal process. The business owner should approach any communication with transparency and concern. This helps establish some measure of trust with the person making the complaint.
In order to have a complaint removed from the BBB, the customer must submit an exact copy of the original complaint to a local BBB office, usually by fax or email. Additionally, this should have a request to remove the complaint from the business profile. The BBB offers a handy tool for locating your nearest BBB office and its fax number on its website.
Here are some tips for getting a customer to agree to remove a complaint:
- Offer to resolve any issue that led to the complaint. Attempting to make things right can restore trust.
- Respond politely. Take ownership of any problem the customer may have experienced. The key here is to demonstrate that you take your business seriously and strive to resolve complaints.
- Be prepared to work with the customer. Contact them directly or through the Better Business Bureau complaint resolution system. Once satisfied with your proposal, ask that they take the complaint down.
Remember, if a business fails to respond to a complaint, there’s a strong chance that it will remain visible for all your potential customers to see. Getting it removed can be time-consuming and frustrating. However, the process to do so can help you preserve your valuable brand reputation.
Removing BBB Reviews
The process to remove negative reviews from the Better Business Bureau is similar to the process needed to resolve a dispute. It is important to point out that the BBB itself will not remove a customer complaint. Businesses can only request that the BBB not publish how they respond to the customer.
Start by asking the customer to retract or remove the negative review. If they agree, they must use the same email address they used to post the review in the first place. Again, work with the customer to resolve any dispute and to restore a trustworthy relationship. If done correctly, having negative BBB reviews removed from your profile will help you protect your reputation and brand identity.
How your business responds is critical. In every piece of communication between your business and its consumers, you must take ownership of any problems, issues or business fails that led to bad reviews.
Offering to correct the problem can help consumers regain the trust they had in your company. This alone may encourage them to honor your review removal request.
What You Should Know About Review Management
The Better Business Bureau is a popular platform where customers can share their experiences with local businesses. But for company owners, the BBB is not the only place to worry about negative sentiments, bad reviews, or other unflattering information.
Third-party review sites like Trustpilot, Yellow Pages, and Google Reviews all feature prominently in search results. Every time a bad review gets posted to one of these platforms, your business’s online reputation is at risk. This can potentially shut you out of new business opportunities.
The solution is review management. As part of a more comprehensive online reputation management campaign, managing reviews across web platforms allows you to take charge of the online narrative. With review management at your side, you can establish brand awareness, preserve the strength of your digital footprint, and rebuild the trust lost to unflattering reviews.
Getting Help With BBB Complaints
If your local BBB office has been unable to help you resolve customer complaints, there’s another solution. Leading online reputation management (ORM) service providers work tirelessly with the Better Business Bureau and third-party review platforms to help business owners recover from the reputational damage caused by bad BBB reviews or negative ratings.
NetReputation’s team of expert content removal professionals can show you how to remove a BBB complaint. You’ll also learn how to protect your online reputation from the damage caused by consumer complaints. Take a look at our reviews on Trustpilot and Clutch to see what others have said about the quality and effectiveness of our online reputation management services.
Call Us Today for Online Reputation Management Services
Don’t let BBB consumer complaints and negative reviews stand in the way of your success. At NetReputation, our team of review management experts can help you take down business complaints to protect or restore your online reputation. Since 2014, we have helped thousands of clients with proven strategies that deliver the results you deserve.
Contact NetReputation today at 844-461-3632 or complete the online form below to get started with a free consultation.
Request a Free Consultation
by Net Reputation