Unethical Behavior: The Better Business Bureau

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was created in 1914 primarily as a way for the government to “trust bust” or apply regulations ensuring a free marketplace for U.S. consumers and business enterprises. In this regard, the FTC enforces antitrust viola- tions that could hamper consumer interests, as well as federal consumer protection laws against fraud, deception, and unfair business practices. The commission’s primary enforcement mechanism is the Bureau of Consumer Protection, which is divided into seven divisions: (1) enforcement, (2) advertising practices, (3) financial practices, (4) marketing practices, (5) planning and information, (6) consumer and business educa- tion programs, and (7) privacy and identity protection.21 As the federal

In the article, "Better Business Bureau Warns: Scammers Exploiting Affordable Care Act Confusion," Better Business Bureau informs the public about Con Artists and how to avoid the distraught they bring into helpless families. They speak from an educated view against Scams and Con men and how to “ignore these pitches and use the following precautions when dealing with this type of scam” (Better Business Bureau Warns: Scammers Exploiting Affordable Care Act Confusion). Better Business Bureau, or BBB teaches how to fight back computer, cell phone, and text message scammers with strategy. BBB explains that "Scammers' favorite tools are confusion and fear" and how “Con artists are taking advantage of people's confusion” (Better Business Bureau

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) is a well known self-regulatory trade association in the United States. Companies that adhere to self regulation standards meaning the business will exhibit best practices and social responsibility. The BBB creates self regulatory programs for its members and uses the internet, newspaper, and media to inform the public of businesses who have violated self regulatory rules. The BBB's membership dues are around $425. The BBB's purpose is to establish a place of trust between business and consumers, as well as, dispute and complaint resolution services, reliability reports, and arbitration.

Consumers filed complaints regarding the disputes and complaint procedures (Ferrell, Fraedrich & Ferrell, 2015). BBB were charging high rates for its disputes and resolution services. This discredited the consumers as most could not respond due to high rates (Ferrell, Fraedrich & Ferrell, 2015). Furthermore, lack of responses led to the case being closed and marked as

Although no laws have been passed, in 2011 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau(CFPB) was passed. The CFPB regulates the financial services Americans depend on daily to ensure those services work fairly to the advantage of the American people. Its purpose is to also ensure that the federal consumer financial laws are enforced so that consumers may access markets for financial products and so that the markets are fair and competitive. CFPB aims to make markets safe, very accessible and help customers avoid people who abuse their powers(The

Are businesses in corporate America making it harder for the American public to trust them with all the recent scandals going on? Corruptions are everywhere and especially in businesses, but are these legal or are they ethical problems corporate America has? Bruce Frohnen, Leo Clarke, and Jeffrey L. Seglin believe it may just be a little bit of both. Frohnen and Clarke represent their belief that the scandals in corporate America are ethical problems. On the other hand, Jeffrey L. Seglin argues that the problems in American businesses are a combination of ethical and legal problems. The ideas of ethical problems in corporate America are illustrated differently in both Frohnen and Clarke’s essay and Seglin’s essay.

The impact the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act had on society was pleasant since it restored buyer confidence in the United States and restored the integrity of the United States market by implementing honesty in transactions. Yet it imposed too many disadvantages for the economy and corporations. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act focuses on large fraudulent payments made by a business, therefore anyone involved in the financial, accounting, and executive department are impacted the most. Other major stakeholders affected include the board of directors, shareholders, employees, government officials involved, and foreign officials or foreign companies involved. Everyone is affected because the codes of conduct, and the companies’ values needed

The first stated values, states that Wells Fargo’s value open, honest and two communication, which did open a hotline dealing after the scandal and handle the customer service. Though, I would not consider that company honest, but maybe openness after the fact. The second state values is based on accountable and proud of their conduct and decision dealing with Wells Fargo’s. Though, Wells Fargo is unethical in it business practices still used well known business practices and process to motivate salespeople open multiple accounts without the customer permission. Such as training employee in techniques into frauding customers and a system of rewarding for such behavior. Which shows a totally disregard for the customer financial well being

For many years I had very high standards and respect for the Better Business Bureau. When many people used the words Better Business Bureau it was a safe guard for many consumer interest and helped resolve their grievances against erring companies. When the adult reader looks at Better Business Bureau logo it states “ Start With Trust”. And it is the word trust that stays in many consumers mind. I really think that Better Business Bureau sometimes caters to the paying customers only. For example, if I have a company X I pay a membership fee to the BBB to be on their list and keep up my rating. Which means if someone like yourself goes to the BBB website and see how I handle my complaints and keep up my rating; it tells the customer

Why does society need protection? That is the first question we must ask before we look at the protections that have been afforded through the various legislative acts that have been passed to provide these protections.

Businesses of today, are under no obligation or commitment to seek BBB accreditation, and some businesses are not accredited because they have not sought BBB accreditation, which may cause problems for the business in the future. To be accepted or accredited by the Better Business Bureau, a business must take the time to apply for accreditation and it is at this point that business meets accreditation standards. This will include a commitment to make a good faith effort to resolve many of the customer’s complaints. Better Business Bureau must pay a fee for accreditation review/ monitoring and also for the support of BBB services to the general public. The Ratings that Better Business Bureau provides is a key element to protect business

Fraud is an issue that causes major scandals, although it is a very ancient scheme. Recent fraud events gave light to gaps that facilitated its events. Its extent was drastic by affecting financial markets that eventually trickled into global markets. Major organizations and countries worked cohesively and continue to address the gaps and, in effect, implemented strict compliance regulations to diminish and refrain fraudulent activities. Strict compliance regulations are examples of a fraud response plan the small family business could have implemented to refrain the perpetrators from fraudulent incidents, protect organizational assets and the organization’s going concern.

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) has many stakeholders that are interested in the success of the organization. Essentially, the two main stakeholders are the business and the consumer. I will assume the role of the consumer and describe the steps the BBB could take to ensure protection and ethical misconduct is prevented from recurrence. According to Garrett and Toumanoff (2010), “the Better Business Bureau is the third-party complaint agency most commonly used by dissatisfied consumers who are unable to obtain redress from companies” (p. 3).

A system or a framework of systems needs to be created that punishes those companies found to be acting fraudulently or unethically and punishes them significantly. In my ethics class I took we discussed several companies that had an ethical breakdown which lead to massive fines. However, only one company folded because of these scandals while the rest of the companies are still inexistence today. It is in these times that major companies and individuals in these companies acting poorly need a system of punishments that will deter them from acting poorly in the first

The first ethical issue I discovered while researching the Bounce Corporation scenario is the company’s willingness to prey on individuals that are fascinated by certain video games. One primary focus of a business is to make profits off the sales of their products. But when businesses single out consumers that exhibit symptoms similar to compulsive gamblers that organization displays unethical practices. The Bounce Corporation uses unfair business transactions to solicit individuals that possess uncontrolled desires to play social networking games and will play money to satisfy their obsession. Stakeholders should enforce standards that ensure supervisors conduct business dealings that uphold good ethical standards (Ferrell, Fraedrich,