I just got back from taking a vacation to fly my balloon in the Albuquerque Balloon Festival. And when I returned to the office, the inbox was brimming. I appreciated the size of the stack of applications of those companies wanting to become accredited. But I didn’t appreciate those four letters on the top, awaiting my signature, that warned four of our accredited businesses that they would be going before the board of directors at our next meeting to have their accreditation revoked.

Yep, we are threatening to kick them out of the BBB. Why? Two of them have lost their license, one is not answering a complaint that a consumer has filed (c’mon, buddy, just tell us your side of the story in writing, will ya?) and the last is due to improper business conduct, well, actually, operating illegally. So we are going to give them all ample notice and time to fix the problem or explain their side of the story to the board of directors. At our next board meeting, the staff will present these businesses for revocation and the board will vote. If revoked, the business can appeal to the full board, and that appeal will be heard in person.

So today I got the icing on the cake. My VP of Operations told me that one of our long-standing A+ accredited businesses has had his license expired for more than a month. His staff had assured us that they were taking care of it, but in the end, they didn’t. I believe the owner was surprised to get our call (we will always try to reach you by phone before sending you a nasty gram.) I think he was also surprised that someone had dropped the ball on his license. So it got me thinking, how many of my businesses trust someone in the office to handle their licensing? Do you know when yours is due? You might want to check. Don’t make me call you.