| I am a business owner in Dallas, Ft. Worth. I don't pretend to do everything right, and I do not pretend to make every customer happy. We try. We resolve issues if we can. The problem with a business where you are in a persons home, or backyard, for any amount of time is that it can get very frustrating if things do not go according to plan. The biggest problem when plans do not go according to expectations is when home owners begin to get emotional, and then let things get personal. We as contractors live by a contract. And home owners love to use that contract against builders, but get real upset, when the contract is used to defend the builder. So long story short, its a tough business, and a rough process to construct something in a residence you live in and see daily. Fair warning. Having said that, our complaint today is against a non profit business that is made up of business owners who have hidden interests and connections to business's they rate and protect and have vested interests in destroying others, the competition. That business is your local BBB. Here is what I have seen first hand, and I hope someone challenges me via lawsuit for liable or defamation, so I can go under oath to substantiate it. Being self employed my entire life, over 30 years in the field, after the collapse of 2007-2008 I found myself without work for the first time in 25 years of contracting. We were hurting. In 2009 I was hired by Metro Wholesale lumber, a company in Garland Texas. I was hired as a General manager to create a general Contracting business within a business, they were lumber wholesalers, who wanted to take advantage of the down turn for contractors as a whole, and with their 20 million dollar deep pockets interject themselves into the market. As we put together a small firm, called DALLAS CEDAR, on Miller park in Garland , Texas, the General manager of Metro Lumber Wholesale, called the BBB rep, he knew, and told him to come out and advise on the newly created General Contracting company, when that rep came out, he said he could not give a rating to a new business, the business needed to have operated for 12 months, preferably 2 years. But things changed quickly when Lou Mills of Metro Lumber said he could pay whatever was needed for a A+ rating for the new business. The BBB Dallas then proceeded to take thousands in payment to connect the new business rating, by claiming it had operated under the older existing business Metro Wholesale Lumber. And presto, a Brand New Business, with no customers, no sub contractors, no projects was giver a A+ rating with the BBB Dallas, for nothing more than a pile of cash. Now after working for this company for several months, using this rating to sell for them, working my tail off the build an office, inner office personal, tactics, writing a valid contract, building an advertising plan, all that worked. Once it was all in place, and they owed me for 250,000 in sales, I was fired. And if firing me after I built the firms operation, giving it a plan to follow, and selling its first 300k in projects was not evil and unfair enough, they then, through LOU MILLS contested my underemployment payments. After a 1 year battle through the Texas employment commission, obvious mis statements and contradictions by Lou Mills, all on tape, where ignored by TEC, my unemployment was stopped and the money paid during the process was demanded back. I also filed a wage claim for the sales I had made but not been paid the commissions, this claim I won. But empty victory, the Texas Employment Commission found I HAD made the sales, Down payments were received on cash deals, 50% was collected on financed deals, but the TEC claimed the only money they had to pay me, was what I collected while employed. So instead of 10k, they approved $150.00. Dallas Cedar went ahead and constructed all those projects, collected all that money from the sales, but fired me before those occurrences, so the TEC says they dont have to pay the commissions. I mean the logic is, if a car salesman sells a car, he does not earn his commissions until the car note is paid off, how, absolutely ridiculous. The reason for telling this story in a complaint for the BBB Dallas, is this. For money they empowered these wrong doers, they gave them legitimate power with consumers, on a lie and payment. And whet did consumers get, when I was fired, they eventually went out of business, they handled all the customers, but after all is said and done, there is no warranty, no one to call for redress is something fails, one of the projects I sold was a swimming pool, and that requires someone to uphold a lifetime warranty on the pool shell. What happens to them if there is a problem? Dallas Cedar is now a cedar sales company, not a construction company. And this was possible due to BBB Dallas taking a bribe and fudging the facts surrounding Dallas Cedar Company. Now, I am in business, and have refused to pay BBB Dallas their extortion fees, and they start my companies rating at a C. I have 8 complaints in 2 years, I get an F. The BBB sent info about complaints to changed fax lines, because its not our standard practice to notify BBB Dallas when we change a fax number, and they don't go to the trouble to find out a proper contact, so in a time sensitive process, they send info to old numbers, and if you miss them too bad for you. This is an unfair system, created by individuals with conflicts of interest , out these taking the higgest bid to give ratings that are hollow and a fraud. Consumers beware, the business with an A+ rating could have begum yesterday, and the business with a F may have an experienced well meaning owner who is doing their best to serve. I recommend referrals from homeowners who have done business as the best way to decide who should do your next project. |
