The Better Business Bureau (BBB) ranks businesses of all kinds on a tradition letter-grade scale, with A+ standing as the highest achievable mark and F representing the lowest. When assigning a letter grade to a business, the BBB takes several pieces of information into account. First and foremost, it looks into a company’s complaint history and evaluates the number and severity of complaints, with particular attention to how the company addresses and subsequently resolves issues.
The BBB will also consider the length of time a company has been in business. To this end, the BBB expects companies to provide the bureau with an accurate summary of their history. A false report of the company’s history will result in a lower grade, as will any critical information withheld from the bureau. Additional areas taken into consideration when determining a BBB ranking include the company’s willingness to comply with the bureau, any involvement the company has had with the local or federal government, and instances of false advertising.