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BBB System Tops 100 Million Instances of ServiceAustin, Texas, April 17, 2007 The 129 Better Business Bureaus (BBBs) serving communities across the United States and Canada helped consumers and businesses with more than 105 million instances of service in 2006 - a record-breaking number for the BBB System, and the first time the System has topped the 100 million mark for instances of service in its 95-year history. The BBB System has increased its annual instances of service by more than 150 percent in the past five years, from 41.5 million in 2002. The 2006 figures are a 17 percent increase over the 90 million instances of service provided in 2005, and mark the fifth straight year of double-digit percentage increases. BBB service offerings span a wide spectrum of consumer and business interests including business reliability reports, charity review, truth-in-advertising assessment, consumer education, on and offline security and privacy programs, and dispute resolution services including mediation and arbitration. "BBBs are helping many consumers from all walks of life find the unbiased information they need to make the right decisions, the first time, every time," said Steve Cole, president and CEO of the Council of Better Business Bureaus. "Reputable businesses also benefit from our BBB's efforts to ensure fairness and trust in the marketplace because consumers are increasingly checking on the reliability of companies and insisting that they demonstrate trustworthiness up-front." Pre-purchase information requests across the U.S. and Canada increased to nearly 102 million in 2006, an 18 percent jump from 86 million in 2005. Demand included 49.1 million requests for BBB reliability reports on businesses, 35.8 million requests for consumer education information, and 17 million instances of consumers checking that online merchants participated in BBBOnLine Reliability and Privacy programs. The following chart details the business categories that BBBs in the U.S. and Canada received the most reliability report requests for in 2006: 2006 Top 10 BBB Reliability Report Requests and Number of BBB Reliability Reports Requested - U.S. and Canada
"With so many choices for consumers across North America, the issue of trust in the marketplace is as important today as ever. For nearly a century, BBBs have set and upheld high standards for fair and honest business behavior," said Cole. "Consumers and businesses have come to rely on our millions of easy-to-access reports to find organizations they can trust here and in Canada." Reliability reports on millions of businesses are available free-of-charge at www.bbb.org, and consumers can find more information about online businesses at www.bbbonline.org. Also, the BBB Wise Giving Alliance (www.give.org) delivers charity review reports, which were viewed two million times in 2006. BBBs also processed more than 1.2 million complaints spanning 3,900 business categories in 2006. The following chart notes business categories that BBBs in the U.S. and Canada addressed the most complaints for in 2006: 2006 Top 10 BBB Complaint Categories and Number of Complaints Processed - U.S. and Canada
A complete set
of the BBB System's 2006 Annual Inquiry and Complaint Summaries are available
for download and printing at: http://www.bbb.org/about/stats.asp About Better
Business Bureau This Better Business Bureau is currently supported by approximately 6,900 member businesses and serves more than 3,000,000 consumers in its 52-county service area in Texas. These counties include: Atascosa, Bandera, Bastrop, Bell, Bexar, Blanco, Bosque, Burnet, Caldwell, Calhoun, Comal, Comanche, Coryell, Dewitt, Dimmit, Edwards, Falls, Fayette, Freestone, Frio, Goliad, Gonzales, Guadalupe, Hamilton, Hays, Hill, Jackson, Karnes, Kendall, Kerr, Kinney, Lampasas, LaSalle, Lavaca, Limestone, Llano, Maverick, McLennan, McMullen, Medina, Mills, Navarro, Real, San Saba, Travis, Uvalde, Val Verde, Victoria, Webb, Williamson, Wilson, and Zavala.
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