The Better Business Bureau of Southern Alberta and East Kootenay received a lot of complaints and a lot more inquiries in 2018 and now they're out with their list of which industries got the most.  

Shawna-Kay Thomas, External Communications Specialist with the BBB says when it comes to complaints by industry, retail florist led the way for 2018 and she tells us why.

"The main reasons include non-delivery of orders, delivery of dead flowers or leaving the order on a step so the flowers become frozen and are no longer beautiful to look at as you can imagine.  As well as orders not showing up or not showing up on time."

The BBB received 147 complaints about retail florists, most of them coming during "peak flower times" following Valentines Day and Mothers Day.  Thomas says, "We get a flood of complaints by emails or call-ins from persons wanting refunds or wanting some kind of redress.  Often times when it comes to refund, there's not much that can be done because, in the policies of many of these companies, they don't often do refunds.  We advise consumers to read the policies carefully before you engage companies."

The airline industry came in at number two, which is actually an improvement over 2017, according to Thomas.

"Airlines, interestingly, last year were at the top of our list of complaints and this year it's moved to our number two position.  The main issues around that would be customer service, refund, damage and lost luggage.  Of course, luggage is always a big one."

The airlines were complained about 135 times to the BBB.  The other industries in the top ten were:

  • New Car Dealers - 84 complaints 
  • Cable TV - 73 complaints 
  • Roofing Contractors - 67 complaints 
  • Home Improvement - 67 complaints 
  • General Contractors - 57 complaints 
  • Plumbers - 49 complaints 
  • Utility Contractors - 40 complaints 
  • Moving Companies - 38 complaints 

The Bureau is also there to answer inquiries from callers about all kinds of industries.  In 2018 they got the most inquiries about companies that mostly do renovations, and Thomas knows why.

"Most of these inquiries are in a particular group: home improvement, roofing, general contractors, plumbing, home builders, those are the top ones we're seeing.  The economy's kind of tough as we know, and I believe that most persons are seeking to renovate and do some kind of refurbishing instead of move to a new place or buy a new house.  They're calling in to make sure that when they're spending their money, which is very scarce these days, they're spending with reputable companies."

Here's to top ten list of Inquiries by Industry and the number of inquiries received for each one:

  • Home Improvements - 46,754
  • Roofing Contractors - 44,831
  • General Contractors - 42,188 
  • Plumbers - 40,977
  • Home Builders - 34,292
  • Moving Companies - 30,318
  • New Car Dealers - 22,715
  • Used Car Dealers - 20,495 
  • Landscape Contractors - 20,036
  • Electricians - 19,742

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