This class discusses unethical conduct in business. The Better Business Bureau or BBB is a nonprofit organization that is focused on protecting consumers from deceptive and fraudulent dealings in the marketplace and earning buyers trust (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2018). Prior to the BBB, Coca Cola had a law suite filed against then claiming false advertisement. One of Coca Cola’s managers, Samuel Dobbs, made it his mission to create truthful standards for all advertising claims, and the BBB was founded. In recent years, the BBB has faced some ethical issues within the company. Claims include: members receiving higher rating or preferential treatment, fraud protection at customers expense, false advertising, selling information to third …show more content…
It relies on membership dues from local companies to stay in business, and it is an independent organization not influenced by other businesses (Garrett, 2006). Members in the BBB must abide by eight ethical principle that promote trust. The BBB’s responsibility is to report customer complaints and how long it took the company to handle the complaint, if it was handled. The types of complaints the BBB investigates includes: advertising, repair/service, sales practices, product quality, contract issues, customers services, guarantee/warranty, credit/billing, delivery, refund/exchange, and dispute resolutions (Garrett, 2006). Those companies that provide positive products and customer service, receive high ratings, and those who have poor products and poor customer service receive low ratings. One issue, of ethics the BBB has faced, deals with showing preferential treatment to members. Various businesses and organizations supply the BBB with membership dues. These membership dues fund the daily operations of the BBB. The study discussed several well-known businesses that had good products with excellent customer service, but were not members of the BBB, and received F’s in their ratings. It also discussed organizations with poor products and customers service who did pay the $425 for membership and received good ratings. It also discussed how the BBB decides if the complaint is legitimate or worth investigation, …show more content…
The BBB received negative attention when they advertise fraud protection but made disgruntle consumers pay for it. Many unhappy customers do not pursue a resolution due to time and money. The BBB will then mark the claim as resolved when, it is far from resolved. The BBB is supposed to investigate and report any fraudulent activities that would negatively affect consumers. Why are they making consumers pay for something they should be providing in the first place? Some other types of fraud in the BBB was the salary for an employee at a nonprofit organization was $400,000, and BBB sales representatives sold first time memberships to business owners and made 45% commission. This is a nonprofit organization that is supposed to be self-regulating. Their primary goal is to encourage responsible and ethical practices among its member companies (Garrett, 2006). The BBB is not adhering to their own standards and code of
In response to the Dental Board’s teeth whitening action, the FTC filed a lawsuit against the Dental Board. The FTC alleged that the Dental Board violated antitrust law. The FTC felt that the Dental Board’s actions represented dentists attempting to shut down market competitors. They based this belief partially on the fact that the Dental Board was controlled by dentists, and that the dentists had a financial interest in shutting down the teeth whitening industry.
Ferrell, O. C., Fraedrich, J., & Ferrell, L. (2011). Business ethics: Ethical decision making and cases: 2011 custom edition (8th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.
Altering, falsifying, destroying, concealing, or removing records needed to assess claim validity or establish the nature of goods and services for which reimbursement is requested;
The role of the BBB is to help resolve customer’s complaints. Customers must attempt to resolve their situation independently before they involve the BBB. Once the BBB is involved, they use a 3 step communication technique. The first is conciliation; The better business Bureau sends out a copy of the complaint to the company for review and a reply. After a 3 week deadline, the BBB awaits reply to see if the situation has been resolved. The second step is Mediation; This step offers help and guidance in resolving a mutual resolution for both the customer and the business. The third is Arbitration; This is an informal process where both parties must agree to a binding decision. The arbitrator will allow each party to present their respective sides and introduce relevant evidence. The BBB has a 70% success rate for solving customer complaints.
Fighting abuse is not an easy prospect. Elected officials, executives, managers, staff, and the public must be vigilant and thorough. In this project we will review some specific cases of FWA. We will also explore why enacting laws and regulations isn’t enough to stop people from committing fraud. Educating people about what FWA is and why they should not commit these crimes should be an integral part of any FWA program. The Department...
Trevino, L., & Nelson, K. (2011). Managing business ethics - straight talk about how to
We are committed to the highest standards of ethical conduct in all that we do. We believe that honesty and integrity engender trust, which is the cornerstone of our business. We abide by the laws of the United States and other countries in which we do business, we strive to be good citizens and we take responsibility for our actions.
For this paper Washington Mutual has been selected to show how the ethical decision making process can be achieve. When it comes to business ethics in the workplace Washington Mutual has designed what can be considered a well balanced workplace with behaviors that are aligned with their moral values and business ethics. Business ethics are sometimes depicted as resolving conflicts where one option can appear to be the correct choice. There are many different ethical dilemmas that are faced by managers and leaders everyday that are highly complex and have no clear choice or guidelines to assist in making the choices for resolution. There are times when an employee has to decide whether or not to cheat, lie, steal, or break their contract. These ethical decisions are real-life situations where they are forced to make on a daily basis. This is why it is ultimately important that all employee know the six steps to ethical decision making that the company uses.
Ferrell, O. C., Fraedrich, J., & Ferrell, L. (2013). Business ethics: Ethical decision making and cases: 2011 custom edition (9th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.
The movie “Glengarry Glen Ross” presented a series of ethical dilemmas that surround a group of salesmen working for a real estate company. The value of business ethics was clearly undermined and ignored in the movie as the salesmen find alternatives to keep their jobs. The movie is very effective in illustrating how unethical business practices can easily exist in the business world. Most of the time, unethical business practices remain strong in the business world because of the culture that exists within companies. In this film, the sudden demands from management forced employees to become irrational and commit unethical business practices. In fear of losing their jobs, employees were pressured to increase sales despite possible ethical ramifications. From the film, it is right to conclude that a business transaction should only be executed after all legal and ethical ramifications have been considered; and also if it will be determined legal and ethical to society.
In conclusion ethics governs everything we do, and every aspect we operate in. When ethics are violated in business the effects continue to run downhill and are absorbed by the consumer. The ways in which these are absorbed differ case by case, whether they affect us financially or physically. Memberships into organizations can be beneficial in showing credibility. Acting in regards to the organization or associations code of ethics seems to be a small price to pay for this kind of benefit.
In order to generate sales, marketers often promote aggressively and uniquely, unfortunately, not all marketing advertisements are done ethically. Companies around the globe spend billions of dollars to promote new products and services and advertising is one of the key tools to communicate with consumers. Conversely, some methods that marketers use to produce advertisements and to generate sales is deceptive and unethical. Ethical issues concern in marketing has always been noted in marketing practice. According to Prothero (2008), ethics itself has a profound, varied and rich past. It emphasizes on questions of right and wrong or good and bad.
Recently, three individuals were awarded $170 million for helping investigators gather a record $16.65 billion penalty against Bank of America. Based on their action of inflating the value of mortgage properties and selling defective loans to investors. By influencing the market falsely is unethical and wrong. That is also why their punishment was so harsh. Firms today warn their managers and employees that failing to report unethical behavior and violations by others, could get them fired.
Shaw, W. H., & Barry, V. (2011). Moral Issues in Business (Eleventh ed., pp. 230-244).
For those who do not know what fraud is, it’s basically deception by showing people what they want to see. In business it’s the same concept, but in a larger scale by means of manipulating figures that will be shown to shareholders and investors. Before Sarbanes Oxley Act there was “Enron Corporation”, a fortune 500 company that managed to falsify their statements claiming revenues over 101 billion in a span of 15 years. In order for us to understand how this corporation managed to deceive the public for so long, the documentary or movie “Smartest Guys in the Room” goes into depth by providing viewers with first-hand information from people that worked close with or for “Enron”.