Many people find themselves using social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to voice their satisfaction or frustration with local businesses.
The South Plains Better Business Bureau said Thursday, however, that posting online isn’t the best method to guarantee the result you want.
“In order to pursue a complaint or something of that nature, they [the consumer] would have to come in and file a complaint through us, and then it would be something we can follow up on,” BBB Communications Director Madison Luscombe said.
Luscombe also noted that you can save yourself trouble in the first place, simply by doing your research.
“We always recommend working with accredited businesses, because they’ve gone through the process to become accredited, so you know they’re a legitimate business,” Luscombe said, “And you can look on our website to find any reviews filed on local businesses…You can see all different kinds of ratings.”
The best way to make absolutely sure you don’t get taken advantage of, is to obtain a written contract.
“We recommend not putting money up front before the job is finished; most businesses should have some kind of agreement upon whether it’s a third down or half down to start the job and cover the materials, and then you finish your payments once they finish the job,” Luscombe said.
And if the job doesn’t get done at all?
“If they didn’t finish the job and that’s true, we definitely recommend reporting that, because it helps future consumers.”
