The NH office of the Better Business Bureau is located in Concord at the following website: http://concord.bbb.org/
The BBB allows consumers the opportunity to examine the track record of local businesses in a wide variety of industries, lawn care included. Within the BBB, a business can apply for accreditation http://concord.bbb.org/Business-Accreditation/, once approved a given business has agreed to live within the BBB code of Business Practices. There are eight principles that summarize an accredited business http://concord.bbb.org/bbb-accreditation-standards/. This type of pledge clearly illustrates the committment to the consumer. Becoming accredited is a pledge from a given business to the consumer relating to how serious they take their particular line of work and how willing they are to be transparent and resolve issues or complaints if they arise.
There are many businesses who are accredited within the state of NH and many that are not. In the case of Chippers, we are an accredited business with the BBB, meaning we have applied and been accepted under the guidelines listed on the BBB website. The largest provider of lawn services is not an accredited company. Lets move onto the BBB rating and determine what it means to the average consumer.
The BBB rating is like a credit rating, it is a score determined by the BBB resulting from not only volume of complaints, but tracks if they are resolved and how quickly they are resolved. Every business makes mistakes, what sets a great business apart from a poor or deficient one would be billing practices, customer service response, and the ability to resolve the mistake. Lets look closer at this BBB rating. Like a credit score, it sums up the likelihood or predicts how you, as a consumer are likely to be treated as a client. The BBB score is also an indicator of general business practices that would be of interest to you such as customer service and billing. In other words, a BBB rating can be summarized as how likely- statistically- you are likely to encounter a problem within a given business.
For example, Chippers has an (A+) rating, the highest rating possible. On the other hand, a large firm doing business out of Londonderry NH has an (F) rating from the Concord BBB- the lowest possible. The following report has been taken directly from the NH BBB and outlines the deficiencies within the nations largest lawn care company operating in NH:
“This company has received a pattern of complaints. Complaints allege that after the company does work for the consumer they automatically return the next year to care for the consumer’s lawn even after the consumer has canceled the service. Consumers state that they cancel the company’s return visit, but they company still comes out and then bills the consumer for the work done. The company has responded to most complaints by issuing refunds, but they have failed to remove the cause of the complaints.
Before you renew or accept your new lawn services with the nation’s largest provider of lawn care, consider this information and perhaps there are alternative lawn companies that could provide better billing, customer service, and results.