Earlier this week the Minnesota and North Dakota Better Business Bureau (BBB) released their lists of the Top Ten industries for consumer complaints and inquiries, according to their final statistics for 2017. These numbers represent complaints and inquiries from consumers in Minnesota and North Dakota regarding businesses headquartered in our region. The local BBB provided more than 4.12 million free BBB Business Profiles to the public last year.

BBB of Minnesota and North Dakota also processed about 16,650 complaints in 2017, which was actually down from 2016. However, the BBB also processed nearly 10,600 customer reviews, which was a large increase from 2016. Per BBB rules, consumers cannot file a complaint and a customer review regarding the same marketplace experience. Of those reviews that were filed in 2017, 68% were classified as positive.

BBB’s final complaint statistics for 2017 are as follows:

Top Ten industries by volume of complaints

  1. Auto Dealers – New
  2. Newspapers
  3. Auto Dealers – Used
  4. Property Management
  5. Construction & Remodeling Services
  6. Banks
  7. Contractors – General
  8. Restaurants
  9. Auto Repair and Service
  10. Roofing Contractors

If you have a dispute, you are asked to file a complaint with the BBB, in an attempt to resolve the issue. In 2017 the City of Faribault had 13 scam complaints located inside the city limits.

As for the inquiry side of things, they are counted as the number of times BBB Business Profiles for a given industry were accessed – online – or requested by the public via BBB’s consumer phone lines.

Listen to James Rabe in the mornings from 6a to 10a on Y105 FM.

Top Ten industries by consumer inquiries:

  1. Pillows
  2. Contractors – General
  3.  Mail Order and Catalog Shopping
  4. Construction and Remodeling Services
  5. Roofing Contractors
  6. Financial Consultants
  7. Collection Agencies
  8. Property Management
  9. Checks – Printing
  10. Plumbers

For the latest consumer news, fraud alerts and free BBB Business Profiles, visit bbb.org.

----------

More From Y-105FM