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Mary E. Power
President & CEO
Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc.
Dear BBB Arbitrators,
I want to take this opportunity, at the beginning of 2016, to express how very grateful we are to have such wonderful volunteers in the BBB AUTO LINE Program.
Volunteering is a proud tradition and we understand what an incredibly valuable service you are providing to your community. We recognize the commitment you undertake as a volunteer decision-maker for BBB. You bring your time, energy, and wisdom to the arbitration hearing and carefully review the facts in order to issue a fair decision in each and every case you handle.
In 2015, we held 2,286 arbitration hearings around the country and take pride in being the largest automotive warranty dispute program in America.
We could not have accomplished that without your help and participation.
While the vehicle warranty issues have changed profoundly over the years from carburetors to blue tooth
navigation systems, your commitment has remained steady --- and we truly appreciate your efforts.
The entire BBB system is proud of your accomplishments and we look forward to working with such a talented pool of arbitrators in 2016!
All the best,
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A special thanks to all of our California arbitrators for your help complying with our annual mandatory refresher training requirement for 2015. We will soon be submitting our attendance report to the California regulators, so we are very pleased so many of you were able to attend one of our three webinar events. Refresher training for the rest of the country will be conducted sometime in the late summer, so please stay tuned for more information on that. If you have any ideas for topics to cover or an interesting case study, please be in touch with Jen Rowley at jrowley@council.bbb.org. She'd love your input.
We continue to have a need in multiple areas of the country for additional new arbitrators and are actively recruiting in Louisiana, Texas, Kansas and Massachusetts. If you have a friend or colleague who is interested in volunteering (and they have a law degree or some arbitration experience), feel free to pass along the link to the online application
Last year we conducted new training in Florida, Georgia, Wisconsin and Texas.
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Scenario Answers
Answer to Scenario 1:
While BBB AUTO LINE will always process a technical expert request made by an arbitrator please keep in mind that the technical expert will only be able to spend a limited amount of time with the vehicle, normally around 30 minutes and covering a distance of approximately 10-15 miles-assuming the problem requires a test drive for possible occurrence. Given these limitations please consider carefully the use of the technical inspector. In this situation, it may be best to render a decision based upon all of the information you have gathered up to that point.
Answer to Scenario 2:
If the information can be viewed and discussed by the other party at the hearing then the hearing can proceed. BBB AUTO LINE rules (both National and CA) do allow for either party to request additional time to respond to new evidence (written or audio/visual) presented by the other party at the arbitration hearing. While the decision to allow a party extra time to respond ultimately lies with you as the arbitrator. Allowing this addtional time may result in additional information to aide you in your decision making process. In order for this to happen, you will need to submit an additional information request form (one of the administrative forms on the decision website) indicating how long you are allowing the party to respond to this new information. Once that response is received by BBB AUTO LINE it will be forwarded to you prior to making a decision in the case.
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New Year/New Auditor
After a long run with our most recent auditor, Morrison and Company, we have decided that it is a best practice to switch auditors. We were lucky enough to hire Marc Winerman. Mr. Winerman had a career that spanned more than 30 years with the Federal Trade Commission. He also received his B.A., History, Cum Laude from Princeton University, his M.A., History of Science from Yale University, and his J.D., Cum Laude from Harvard Law School. Mr. Winerman was also a Victor H. Kramer Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School. He has received many awards and recognitions, participates in a number of professional activities, and has authored a number of publications. We are looking forward to working with him on the 2015 audit which is provided to the FTC each July.
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Better Business 2016 Conference
The Council of Better Business Bureau will be hosting its "Better Business 2016 Conference" on April 21-22, 2016 in Washington, DC. During this annual two-day event, leading experts from a variety of fields and industries across the private and public sectors will gather to share ideas and discuss solutions to some of the most pressing global and domestic issues facing U.S. businesses today.
The lineup of confirmed speakers for the conference includes industry-leading experts from well-known companies and organizations like ADT Security, the Federal Trade Commission, General Mills, Georgetown University, Pinterest, Southwest Airlines, Yelp and Uber, with new speakers added every week.
One of the areas of focus will be on new products and technologies from the high-tech industry which are reshaping virtually every industry and sector in the global economy-including the technology industry itself. Learn more about key challenges on the horizon for technology companies, such as the privacy and security risks associated with connected machines and all the personal data they capture and analyze.
Joining the conference as participants relating to this area will be:
Jonathan R. Weinberger,
VP of Innovation and Technology, Auto Alliance
Chris Poulin, Research Strategist,
X-force Connected Car IBM Security Systems
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Arbitrator Scenario Quiz
Check and see if your answers to the following scenarios match those of our experts.
The answers can be found later in this newsletter.
Scenario 1:
The problem the consumer is alleging has never been duplicated by the dealer. Additionally I was unable to duplicate the problem during the arbitration hearing test drive. Should I request a technical expert to see if he can duplicate the problem?
Scenario 2:
One of the parties submits new information at the hearing-what should I do?
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Arbitrator Website System Tips
- Please remember to update all contact information...email, phone, fax, USPS address.
- Be mindful that link A will show all current cases assigned to you (not including reconvened cases) and you will find the reconvened cases under link B.
- As each manufacturer's program summary differs and may or may not include the lemon law, please take advantage of the BBB AUTO LINE Program Summaries and Lemon Law Information link.
- The current Program Rules - How BBB AUTO LINE Works is also available on this page.
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Inquiring Arbitrators Want to Know
Q: What if I haven't been called to hear a case in a long time?
A: Contact the local BBB and let them know you'd like to be assigned a case.
Q: What if I have questions regarding case eligibility to the program summary and/or lemon law?
A: Contact the CBBB MAT line at 800-334-2406 option 2
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BBB Scam Tracker Launched
Better Business Bureau launched BBB Scam Tracker in November of 2015 to provide consumers across North America with a place to report scams and fraud, and to warn others of malicious or suspicious activities. All 112 BBBs operating in Canada and the United States are now collecting information from consumers and processing data, which is shared with law enforcement agencies for use in identifying and prosecuting scammers. While this has received much press, here is the link to the article in Consumer Reports published in December.
"BBB helps consumers connect with businesses they trust, and warns them about dishonest practices," said Mary E. Power, President and CEO of the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB). "BBB has always been able to track specific information about businesses as part of the complaint process, and that procedure continues to evolve and grow, with nearly five million BBB Business Reviews. Scammers are different - they hone their tec
hniques as they leave a trail of victims. As a crowdsourced tool with a human touch, BBB Scam Tracker exposes their fraudulent activity in real time."
The free interactive online tool - found at
bbb.org/scamtracker - offers a heat map showing where scams are being reported. Users can search using a variety of filters to see what scams are happening in their area, or track a particular type of scam, or even see how much money has been lost. Users can also report scams that they hear about, whether or not they have fallen victim.
BBB processes nearly a million complaints a year against legitimate businesses, but perpetrators of scams are not interested in resolving matters... even if they could be located. The data collection process for BBB Scam Tracker was designed to generate information that can be useful to law enforcement. Scam reports are being sent to the National Cyber-Forensics and Training Alliance (NCFTA) for analysis and collaboration with law enforcement to help stop the most flagrant scammers through prosecution and other legal means. BBBs also routinely share information on scams with federal, state and provincial agencies, and local law enforcement, and will make the data available to agencies in other countries to help shut down scammers based overseas.
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