ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, July 19, 1996 TAG: 9607190023
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
The Better Business Bureau system has voted to allow the bureaus nationwide to charge for their services for the first time in 84 years.
But consumers in the Roanoke and New River valleys won't have to worry about paying the Better Business Bureau of Western Virginia for business reports or dispute resolutions, promised the head of the Roanoke-based bureau.
During more than a month of mail-in balloting that ended Monday, the bureau system voted in favor of a proposal to allow the bureaus to charge for their services. The proposal, the result of years of debate, was narrowly rejected by the bureaus themselves by a vote of 290-323. - THESE NUMBERS MAKE NO SENSE TO ME (Belcher)
Fran Stephanz, executive director of the BBB of Western Virginia, said Thursday that she and the local board of directors are opposed to levying any fees for their services.
"We will not do it here," she said. "We are not happy about it. We believe we give a very valuable service, but that's what our members' money is for."
But the proposal was overwhelmingly supported by the system's national members - including some of the nation's largest corporations - and by its own board of directors.
By the end of the year, the national Council of Better Business Bureaus, in Arlington, must adopt specific rules governing how and when the fees can be imposed.
Proponents of the fee-for-service idea say it will provide much-needed revenue for the nonprofit bureaus. They say that just knowing that people are paying for the services makes bureau staff much more professional.
"I think the important thing is to have the resources to provide quality service to whoever is calling you," said Barbara Berger Opotowsky, president of the New York City bureau.
In 1991, Opotowsky's bureau became the first of 12 bureaus to begin testing the concept.
Callers to its 900 telephone number are charged either 95 cents a minute for an average four-minute call or a flat $3.80 billed to a credit card. The fees generate about $300,000 annually, roughly 10 percent of the bureau's annual budget.
Nationally, bureaus participating in the test have collected $3.5 million in fees, according to the Council of Better Business Bureaus.
Because each of the nation's local bureaus will be able to decide whether to charge for its services - within national guidelines - consumers in Southwest Virginia still may have to pay for BBB reports if they seek information from bureaus in other cities.
Opponents, including Stephanz in Roanoke, say that charging fees will discourage the public from calling the bureaus, especially poor and elderly people, who are the ones most often victimized by unscrupulous businesses.
Under the proposal adopted, bureaus will be allowed to impose a fee only if they provide ``value-added'' service. Exactly what that means still needs to be determined by the council. One possible example, the council said, would be a bureau that tells the public not only whether a business has generated complaints, but also the number of complaints and how they were resolved. Some bureaus already provide such information.
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