Better Business Bureau of Southeast Florida BBB of Southeast Florida BBB of SE FL Can't Be Trusted ... to Do Much of Anything West Palm Beach, Florida

Your report on John Zajac is simply untrue ---Your goal is to discredit the BBB because your company is a company that the BBB warns people about.  It happens over and over---a business owner is angry that the BBB "gave" him an F rating.  You gave yourself a F-rating.  So the ticked business owner runs to the internet to cry to the public that his poor company has an F rating.   I see it over and over-- every F-rated company thinks their rating is unfair---in fact, I never ran into one business owner who admitted his bad rating was justified.   There are thousands upon thousands of Aplus rated companies out there----run from the F's and call the A's.  Oh and stay away from this loser.  

John Zajac of the West Florida BBB is refusing to help businesses resolve their claims unless you pay him $1,000 to update your profile.  We refuse to pay this corrupt individual just so we can receive a good review with the West Florida BBB.

 John Zajac of the West Floirda BBB has refused to help businesses repair their BBB business profile and refuses to meet with businesses makig efforts to repair their online reputation. 

John Zajac of the West Florida BBB has shut down numerous businesses in the St. Petersburg- Clearwater-Tampa area because of the harsh ratings they label businesses if they do not pay his bribe. He then refuses to accept business responses to complaints and remove false complaints from competitors. 

Many businesses have included the following reasons why John Zajac should be reported: 

• Refuses to help improve BBB business rating unless a fee of $1,000 is paid in full to John Zajac of the West Florida BBB.

* Large businesses that have tens of thousands of clients but only have a few complaints on their BBB Business Page have F ratings. 

* Gives an F rating to businesses with as low as 10 complaints unless your accept his bribe.

• Gives A+ ratings to businesses dispute their corrupt business practices and reviews. (Businesses that have paid off John Zajac)

* Refuses to meet with business owners in person once they have received bad reviews on the West Florida BBB and have rejected his (John Zajac) bribe.

* The West Florida BBB will also issue fake alerts in an attempt to shut down/ extort your business.

The BBB is a SCAM.  Anybody can buy a BBB phoney "accreditation".  The BBB phoney "arbitration" process is the consumer against one of the BBB customers who bought a phoney BBB "accreditation" with the "mediator" a BBB employee.  Does that sound like a level playing field?  The BBB tries to DECEIVE the public into thinking they are a part of government by refering to themselves as "the bureau" just like the FBI does and issuing news releases about scams as if they were some enforcement body.  They are the SCAM.  Go to you tube and search "BBB Scam" and watch how the sleazy BBB guy quickly ends the interview with an ABC reporter because the reporter is drilling in on the BBB scam.  Imagine being in the same room with the SMELL of that pond scum!

As far as Maaco is concerned, the auto body shop owner I went to for a second opinion said he had worked for Maaco --- 30 years ago.  He expressed surprise that corporate would not do more, but also said Maaco gives their franchisees leeway in their choice of materials and possible profit margin. Obviously each individual franchisee is different.  I picked the wrong franchisee who chose the wrong paint. The cost of that bad paint job means more to me as an older single parent with a child who has a costly chronic health condition.  I simply do not trust that franchisee anymore, and want a refund to go elsewhere.

As to questionable businesses in Florida, as a native of the area, I would say South Florida in particular has always been a "challenge". This area attracts all kinds of people, some of whom are unethical. It is very diverse, with a lot of transplants from the Northeast (NJ and NY), the Caribbean, and South America. A lot of people come here for a fresh start and/or to re-invent themselves. Business practices may be different "back home" in terms of what is allowed or customary. Law enforcement and regulatory agencies here are overwhelmed and tend to focus on "large" cases. Offenders know this. South Florida consumers must therefore be more diligent and then active in fixing a problem with unsatisfactory service or a defective product.

Also take into consideration the recession, our high relatively high unemployment rate and foreclosures.  It's not always fun-in-the-sun in South Florida. I spent 4 years in Minneapolis at the University of Minnesota, and a lot of people seemed to think everyone in South Florida was rich. I told them and others from elsewhere over the years that there is a lot of money here, but most of us get paid, in part, in sunshine.  But sunshine doesn't pay the bills for me. Bad business practices just add to the cost of living.

 I posted once before that the BBB is a rating service. They can't do anything to the company being complained about. The woman whose husband that had worked for the BBB should have known this.
I had a transmission shop several years ago and got one complaint out of hundreds of jobs. The letter from the BBB didn't say who filed the complaint(good move) nor really what the complaint was for. Along with my company name were quite a few others, some with more than one complaint.

On another note, after reading here for quite sometime, I wonder if all companies in Florida are crooked, followed in second place by California or Arizona.