Medical quackery and the promotion of worthless remedies were among the notorious abuses that led to the establishment of what is now known as the Better Business Bureau, a 1965 book about the agency explains.
Although Michele Mason, the new president and CEO of the BBB Serving Southeast Tennessee & Northwest Georgia (BBB Chattanooga for short), has yet to encounter a business that’s peddling a useless medical cure, she’s dealt with more than a little quackery during her 30 years with the organization.
This includes helping to stop a refinancing scam that bilked debt-riddled individuals out of at least $80 million.
While Mason was serving as a senior vice president of the Better Business Bureau of Southeast Florida & the Caribbean (BBB West Palm Beach for short), her office began receiving complaints about a company that was advertising it could lower a person’s credit card interest and help them escape the choking grip of debt.
Mason and her colleagues immediately smelled a rat.
“They would make the consumer believe they were going to pay off their creditors and refinance their debt,” she recalls. “The agreement was about 60 pages long, so people were signing it without reading it. Unfortunately, they were agreeing to hire the company to do debt negotiation, which the company claimed could take several years – if it even worked.”
The operation had buried the leprous heart of its alleged scam deep within its fraudulent agreement: In exchange for the company’s services, the consumer agreed to pay it an amount equal to what they initially owed their creditors.
“People would log on to their account and see that their debt had doubled,” Mason says, shaking her head. “We had a gentleman who owed $80,000 and didn’t realize he had agreed to also pay the company $80,000.”
Mason’s office worked with the Florida attorney general and the Federal Trade Commission to shutter the operation. Among the assets identified during the investigation were several houses, cars and diamond rings, two school buses and a coal mine.
“It was heartbreaking to see people losing that kind of money and to see someone else spending it that way,” Mason says.
Although the Florida case is an extreme example of the deceptive practices in operation today, it serves as a jarring reminder of the importance of self-regulation, which the BBB has been providing business communities since the agency was formed in 1912, Mason says.
“Our mission is to create a marketplace in which there’s trust between businesses and consumers,” she explains. “We’re here as a resource for consumers who are looking for companies that offer a great experience, as well as for businesses who want a third party to verify they meet specific standards.”
These standards include advertising guidelines that echo the FTC’s extensive rules and are designed to steer companies away from practices that give off even a whiff of trickery – let alone the stench the Florida-based operation was sending out.
The BBB’s eligibility requirements also cover customer complaints, ethics violations and more, all of which keep Mason’s staff of nine in Chattanooga and Cleveland busy as they evaluate businesses that are seeking accreditation.
Each year, Mason’s staff must also document that every one of the 1,800 accredited businesses in their 21-county service area is still upholding the standards.
Thankfully, the bad apples have represented only a small percentage of the businesses in the markets where Mason has served, she says.
“They stood out like a sore thumb, but there were always many more great companies that approached business ethically.”
To nurture the public’s trust in its members, Mason says the BBB recently made a small but critical modification: Instead of calling businesses that have earned the agency’s seal of trust “members,” it began calling them “accredited businesses.”
“When we used the term ‘member,’ people thought a business could just write a check and join,” Mason clarifies. “But now that we’re using the word ‘accredited,’ they understand there are criteria to meet. We do deny companies accreditation if they don’t meet our standards and don’t want to commit to doing so.”
Mason follows this with what she says is an important point: Rather than rubberstamping applications that fail to meet the BBB’s standards with a bright red “DENIED,” the agency works with businesses to bring them into compliance.
For those companies that make the effort and succeed, the benefits are tremendous, she claims. For example, during the first five months of 2021, consumers viewed 342,500 reports on BBB Chattanooga’s website, making bbb.org a potential conduit that brings new customers to a business.
Mason is also proud of saying more people turn to the BBB for information than to file a complaint. “During the first five months of 2021, our team worked with 15 companies to address advertising challenges, while our office received more than 6,600 calls seeking pre-purchase information,” she reports.
Mason says she could talk BBB numbers all day. Although she’s been spearheading the agency’s Chattanooga office for less than a month, her tenure with the agency goes back three decades, giving her ample time to not only become intimately familiar with the organization but also develop a passion for its mission.
“It’s rewarding to help people and businesses,” she says. “It’s often hard for companies to speak up for themselves and easier for us to evaluate them and then tell the public we’re giving them our seal of trust.”
Mason says her commitment to BBB accredited businesses doesn’t end when she leaves the office; rather, she personally supports the agency’s members.
“My husband and I try to always support BBB accredited companies. Knowing that we have found these companies to meet our standards and that they are committed to upholding them gives me as a customer a great feeling,” she says. “I know if any issues arise, they’re going to work with me, and I have a place to turn to if there’s any reason they don’t.”
Mason says she even looks for the seal of trust when she enters a restaurant. “I always thank a business when I see the seal, but I don’t tell them who I am.”
Few people in Chattanooga know who Mason is, as she and her husband, Danny Mason, a retired Army veteran, have been living in the Scenic City for only a few weeks.
They transferred from Columbus, Georgia, where Mason was working as a senior vice president of the Better Business Bureau serving East Alabama & West Georgia (Columbus, Georgia BBB for short) when Chattanooga president and CEO Jim Winsett announced his retirement.
Mason had spearheaded the Better Business Bureau of North Alabama for 19 years and was eager to return to that role in a new community.
“I’m looking forward to meeting new businesses,” she says. “I enjoy getting to know people who share the common goal of running a trustworthy company.”
After growing up in Massachusetts and graduating from high school and college in Orlando, Florida, Mason began working in the hotel industry. When her marriage took her to Huntsville – where the tourism industry was less robust than in Florida – she followed a friend in applying for the BBB.
Thirty years later, Mason is occupying an office on North Market Street in Chattanooga and looking forward to experiencing everything the city has to offer.
“Everyone has been very positive about Chattanooga,” she says. “So, I’m excited to start exploring.”
While Mason is out in the community, shopping at retail outlets, eating at restaurants and seeing the sights, she’ll be looking for the seal of trust. And if she finds any “bad apples,” she promises she and her team will do their part to restore the public’s trust in their local businesses.
But, so far, so good. “I’ve not heard one negative thing; everyone here loves their local businesses.”