This letter addresses the fact that PublishAmerica has an F rating with the Better Business Bureau. Boy, this company is really trying hard at damage control... and failing. If this rating by the BBB is meaningless, the CEO shouldn't have been bothered by it- instead, Mr. Meiners claims it ain't fair. Clearly, he is. Mr. Meiners claims that the F rating has nothing do do with the operation of their company. We all know that if the BBB gave PublishAmerica an A rating that their tune would be much different. PA would make it front page news on their website.
PublishAmerica claims that the F rating was obtained because they do not have a membership with the BBB. What is omited here is that it was only after their F rating that PA dropped their membership.
I am also sure that Disney, Stsrbucks, the Ritz Carlton, AARP and the LA times would be very interested in knowing that Mr, Meiners has publically made claims that their companies have earned an F rating.
The Bogus Barrister contacted the BBB to verify these claims and they are completly false.
The following is a list of F ratings as claimed by Meiners in his letter.
Company Rating
Starbucks F
Disneyland F
AARP F
Ritz Carlton Hotel F
LA Times F
PA F
The truth: (Note, these reviews are linked to the BBB website where you can verify these ratings for yourself.
Starbucks B
Disneyland A+
AARP A
Ritz Carlton Hotel A
LA Times A+
Publishamerica F
Yep. None of the companies that Meiners mentioned in his public address really have a rating of F...PA is the only one with an F. Poor Meiners. Sour grapes for him. But clearly an open invitation to be sued by these companies for these false statements which are published in this email sent out to thousands of PublishAmerica authors as well as being published on the Publishamerica website.
Letter from PublishAmerica's CEO: A not so happy birthday
The Better Business Bureau is 100 years old this year. It shows. In fact, they're bad news. You know who they are, right? They rate companies from A to F, for the benefit of, they say, consumers.
ABC's show did a report on the BBB a while back. It wasn't a very pretty picture. It painted an organization that's much more interested in a company's money than in reflecting that company's true service record. 20/20 showed examples of companies who had a low BBB rating, who then paid what the BBB asked, and voila: top ratings!
TV's venerable 20/20was not the only well-respected media to take a look at the BBB. That other eminence grise Readers Digest, did something similar. That was not good news for the 100-year-old better birthday boy whose motto is Start With Trust.
More after this book review, A South-Pacific Love Story by Trude Adriaan (http://us.mc1223.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=adrisnyman@yahoo.com):
Sunny places, shady people
Saturday, May 19, 2012
After a day filled with emails, phone calls, and family duties, readers will be whisked away to the tropical islands of the South Pacific in Trude Adriaan's tale. Syisha is finally granted a divorce from her loveless husband, granting her the freedom to pursue her relationship with Rashad. On the island of Bora-Bora, they open an inn and restaurant, and it becomes quite successful. As time passes, though, little snippets of mystery are unraveled and the fate of a culinary help's parents is discovered.
Suddenly, things take a turn for the worse and Syisha's life is in danger. A deeper cover-up is exposed, and the characters are forced to adapt to the changes in their lives. Along with the mystery, crime, and suspense are little romantic vignettes tastefully dispersed throughout A South-Pacific Love Story. Trude Adriaan paints a beautiful picture of the French Polynesian islands and they will be irresistible to anyone who reads these pages.
Find A South-Pacific Love Story here: http://www.publishamerica.net/product21318.html.
The official reason for being awarded an F by the prosecution-jury-judge of the Better Business Bureau is that a company does not react to consumer complaints to the BBB's satisfaction. However, once their satisfaction is met, the grade goes up, way up.
A few Los Angeles businessmen, disgusted with what they saw, devised a sting operation. They contacted the BBB, said they had started an organization by the name of Hamas, and filed for membership. The BBB took their credit card information, charged the $425 membership fee, and sure enough, satisfaction was met! Within twelve hours the BBB awarded Hamas an A- rating. Hamas is the name of a pro-Palestinian organization in the Middle East that is on the US government's terror group list. The BBB saw no red flag anywhere. When a skinhead, neo-Nazi organization paid the $425, they too got an A- rating within hours.
Taking a company's membership fee: that's what appears to be a key to rating success. If a company resists those practices, they may find themselves in F-land pretty soon. But if they pay up, their chances to be promoted improve dramatically. 20/20 caught on camera that the BBB told two companies with a C rating that for $395 their classification would go up to A. Popular protest helps, too. Once bloggers discovered how the BBB was treating Disneyland, a mass protest followed, and Disneyland was rapidly promoted from F to A+.
PublishAmerica is not a member. We consider ratings systems by bureaus who demand money first the equivalent of intimidation, and that's a kinder word than what I really think. Especially when they employ staff that must meet new-membership quota in return for a 40 pct commission (as former BBB employees reportedly allege: the more companies they persuade to pay membership fees, the higher their own salary). We refuse to play that game. F is our punishment.
We sleep well at night, though. How well? Like spending the night in a five-star Ritz Carlton hotel.
The BBB gave them an F too.
I invite you to talk back to me. I don't guarantee a response, but I do guarantee that we listen. You can reach me by email at ceoletter@publishamerica.com">http://us.mc1223.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=ceoletter@publishamerica.com. In the subject line write Attn. Willem.
Have a wonderful day!
--Willem Meiners
If you want to rent space on Willem's future Letters-from-the-CEO, go to www.publishamerica.net/ service/Willem.html. Have your book reviewed for tens of thousands of people to see, or talk into the open mic!
You can read this letter also online here: www.publishamerica.net/ ceo051812.html. All previous letters are here: www.publishamerica.net/ ceoarchives
You can read this letter also online here: www.publishamerica.net/ ceo051812.html. All previous letters are here: www.publishamerica.net/ ceoarchives
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment
thank you for taking the time to share yome.ur thoughts on the Bogus Barrister crime blog. Please note hyperlinks are not permitted so comment spammers are wasting their time. Spam comments will not be published.