Better Business Bureau Serving the Atlantic Provinces - Halifax, Nova Scotia

Tanisha M.

My father paid $230 for a phone call for help immigrating. The lawyer was Carley Parish. We scheduled the phone call and she told me to google it. When I asked her if she could email me the forms and tell me where to send the forms, she got upset and rude and emailed me a link and basically told me to figure it out. $230 to be told to google it.

Frank B.

These people have contacted our company twice demanding a reply in 10 days. This time the letter was dated 31 March, that would put their reply demand on 10 April. As evidenced by the picture, it wasn't post marked until 09 April leaving 24 hours to draft a response and reply. Both contacts with these people followed the same template. The first time I thought it was a simple mistake. Twice is a pattern. The BBB has become a joke.

Dady A.

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) is a well-known organization that aims to promote trust between businesses and consumers. However, there is clear concerns about its effectiveness and impartiality.

Conflict of Interest: The BBB’s funding model relies heavily on fees from accredited businesses, which creates a perceived conflict of interest. This has led some to question the objectivity of ratings and complaint handling.

Handling of Negative Reviews and Complaints: There are claims that negative reviews and complaints are sometimes downplayed or removed for paying members, potentially affecting the accuracy of ratings.

Transparency Issues: The rating system can seem inconsistent or unclear, and the criteria for accreditation are not always transparent.

Cat L.

How do employees get paid when they don’t even have to interact with a human being they let their phone do the work for them. The worst customer service I ever experienced from a so-called professional institution. You want The caller to be respectable when you put us in a phone AI unsympathetic system and then Tell the customer after they’ve listened to all your options you’re not available. Am I being treated as a Canadian citizen a customer what am I because I sure don’t feel like much when I call your institution. You shut down the complaint before the person even gets to talk to a human being.

Sean M.

I paid them to be a member for over 6 years. I always wondered why none of my competitors were members. When I finally had a dispute I was shown why. Even after the customer had asked to change their poor review because it was exaggerated in the heat of the moment, the BBB says their policy is that they do not allow anyone to change things submitted. In other words, if someone is understandably emotionally charged and goes too far, they are not permitted to edit or correct.
After I cancelled my membership I had a different customer tell me they left me a good review on BBB. It’s been months now and the review never showed up. I’m assuming because I no longer pay BBB. This is not an honest business practice.
Businesses in the customer service industry rely on honesty as much as the end customer does. BBB is supposed to stand up for both sides and assist in finding a solution. If we don’t have an organization that can be fair and just, there really is no point to the organization existing. We have plenty of review platforms that are free.

Jim C.

Ground Control Lawn and Maintenance

We contracted with this company to build our deck because of their adequate performance in doing lower level work for us in cleaning our yard in the spring of leaves and twigs. Our deck had become unsafe and it became imperative to build a new one. Our first choice - a highly skilled and trustworthy contractor - was unavailable, so we chose this company because they informed us that they had expertise in building decks.

Contracting with this company became a virtual nightmare beginning with Fred Schofield's request that we get the money to pay him by going to several banks, getting sums of money and giving the money to his mother to give to him. He didn't want a paper trail and wanted cash, obviously wanting to avoid paying income tax. I refused to give him cash and instead provided him with a bank draft so that I could have a paper trail to prove that he had been paid.

On the day that Fred arrived at our home, he engaged in very strange, unexpected behaviour. He had to adjust his jeans several times because they kept dropping and exposing his bare butt. I was shocked at his behaviour and unimpressed. I thought that his guy was ill-prepared for the high level work of executing structural repairs. Nevertheless, I decided to take a chance with him. Unhappily, after completing the work, neighbours and other contractors commented on the sloppy job that had been done.

There were many flaws on our deck. The small step in front of our door was placed without a support beam. We had to bring this to the attention of the contractor and that problem was later corrected. The steps going onto the deck were too far apart and made it difficult to step up so that had to be changed. The step was uneven, it tilted forward and was supported by a hinge attached to the side of the deck. The "master carpenter" Colton stuck 4 small pieces of wood under one end of the step to hold it up. We complained about that, so he returned and stuck a cement block to replace the pieces of wood which was inadequate. One end of the step was on the block and the other touched the ground. They didn't cover the area under the step so pieces of concrete were visible under the step.

We explicitly stated that we didn't want a deck railing. Fred was told that we wanted, instead, 2 hand rails installed at both ends of the deck. Despite the contractors having been told what we wanted, the workers showed up and started installing a deck railing. When they were told immediately that we didn't want the railing, they stopped the installation. The other contractor, Scott Akar, accused us of lying and stated that we had wanted the deck railing when in fact both he and his partner had clearly been told what we wanted.

We had one hand rail installed, and the other rail was to be installed but the worker, unfortunately, ended up in emergency for treatment of an eye injury. He was supposed to install the other hand rail, later that same day, but never showed up. Scott informed us that he had hired another contractor who would be coming over to install the second rail at 5 pm. the next day, but he never showed up.

The deck rail, which we did not want was returned and we were entitled to a refund. The cost of the smaller hand rails was deducted from the cost of the more expensive deck rail and the balance was to be returned to us. We are still waiting for our refund.

We have hired another contractor to remedy the flaws. We have so far given this company $9000. It will cost us $2000 for the repair work.

My recommendation: Never, never, never pay until the work has been done to your satisfaction, should you choose this company despite my comments. The contractors are not to be trusted - Buyer beware!!!

John P. D.

I am very pleased with this service. I encountered difficulties with two separate independent businesses on a DIY construction project budgeted to cost me 50k and ended up costing me 70K. The extra cost is due to inflation but without the assistance of the BBB I would have nothing to show for my expenses because I would not have been able to complete my project in time and likely be fighting in court instead to no ones advantage even if I should win . Negotiating with an impartial arbitrator free of charge is priceless. The public isn't aware of consumer complaints when you win in court however if you put the complaint out for everyone to see the business seems quick to respond fairly as was in my case. Thank You BBB and shame to unscrupulous business practices'.

Dean C.

My business was given a bad review by a customer that wanted something for free. This customer caused me a lot of trouble. In their efforts to pressure me to provide the requested product for free (I did offer a refund but not the item for free) This customer contacted the BBB who published their version and gave me a bad grade. They never contacted me, they claim they sent something in the mail but I never got it. Then they refused to do anything about the grade once I saw it. I had that online for 3 years. The BBB ratings are reviews are useless if they are one sided opinions. If no one actively looks into the comments made about the business then it's no better then a youtube comment.