Did The BBB Give Goldline an Easy A?

<a href="http://www.la.bbb.org/Business-Report/Goldline-International-Inc-35002328">Los Angeles BBB</a>

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


When Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) released a report yesterday accusing Glenn Beck’s favorite gold company and sponsor of ripping off consumers, the company sent out a press release disputing the charges. Among the defenses it raised was Goldline’s “A+ rating” from the Better Business Bureau. Beck, too, has highlighted the BBB endorsement in his defense of Goldline. But does that rating really mean anything?

After all, a Mother Jones investigation found that more than 40 people have filed complaints against Goldline with that very same BBB, and seven of those people reported back that Goldline refused to make them whole. Goldline also engages in a few practices that don’t seem like they quite fit in with the BBB’s stated ideas about good consumer practices. For instance, Goldline requires people to sign a nondisclosure form promising never to complain publicly about the company as a condition of getting a refund. It also aggressively uses caller ID to identify incoming callers so it can call them back and pitch them more stuff just like any telemarketer. And it presses people into making “investments” in European gold coins that lose a third of their value the minute they are purchased. Does that sound like an A+ kind of business?

Well, as it turns out, it doesn’t take much more than a big fat check to the BBB to get the erstwhile consumer agency to grant a company its highest ranking. According to the Los Angeles Times, most of the bureau’s funding comes from selling “accreditations” to businesses. In a story last year, the Times found:

a random search of the organization’s database of about 4 million North American companies seems to show that the roughly 400,000 accredited businesses, even those that get numerous complaints, very often receive higher grades than unaccredited companies with spotless complaint records.

Some outraged business owners have put up their own site to complain about the LA BBB allegedly trying to squeeze money out of them to improve their ratings. So it’s no surprise, really, that Goldline has such a glowing recommendation. The company has aggressively worked to defend its public image. After dozens of people wrote up scathing complaints about the company on the Ripoff Report, Goldline joined the site’s “Corporate Advocacy” program and—voila!—the complaints are now buried under a pile of verbiage suggesting that after a thorough investigation, Ripoff Report now believes:

Goldline International commits to total customer satisfaction, pledges to address complaints & inquiries. Goldline.com commitment to Rip-off Report Corporate Advocacy Business Remediation & Customer Satisfaction Program. Goldline employees will go above and beyond the client’s expectation in the pursuit of excellence in every aspect of the business – Goldline has been helping consumers buy gold and other precious metals since 1960. They provide extensive free information to help people make informed choices when buying precious metals. – feel confident & secure when doing business with Goldline International.

And just in case that didn’t do the job, Goldline has set up its own review site filled with nothing but kind words from happy customers. Given the company’s track record in image-scrubbing, if Beck wants to shoot down Weiner’s report, he’s going to have to find better ammo than a rented endorsement from the BBB.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate