Burglar alarm firms again top Utah BBB complaints list

Service » Overall, number of beefs drop as consumers access reviews more often.

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The Better Business Bureau of Utah has released its Top 10 list of the industries that generated the most complaints last year, with burglar alarm companies once again topping the chart.

The BBB said it received a total of 16,144 complaints in 2012 — down 5 percent from 2011 — and resolved nearly 77 percent of the cases, while the number of consumers accessing its reviews of businesses was up nearly 15 percent.

"We hope the increase in consumers accessing BBB business reviews indicates that [they] are checking first, before they do business with any company," said Jane Driggs president and CEO of the state BBB. "In fact, the number of people checking out companies has doubled within the past four years."

This year, reviews were accessed more than 1.9 million times. The overviews on more than 69,000 firms list when a company started business, the principal officer, basic contact information, complaint information, government actions if applicable and advertising review issues. In addition, reviews offer a grade fro A+ to F, based on 16 factors.

In 2012, for the third year in a row, burglar alarm companies drew the most complaints, with 1,825. Although the resolution rate for alarm companies improved, the number of complaints rose by more than 61 percent. Nearly 97 percent of the complaints were resolved.

Complaints against alarm companies usually involve sales issues, billing and contract renewal.

The second-highest number of complaints, 380, were logged against loan mortgage audits, or companies that promise to examine payments to make sure the amount is applied correctly.

Other industries that made the BBB’s list, in order of the number of complaints, were:

• Health and medical products, primarily those making promises about weight loss, with trial offers and hidden monthly fees

• Training program companies, such as firms offering instructions on how to start a business or make money on the Internet

• Billing services, primarily gym-related

• Exercise equipment and machine sales

• Computers, hardware, software and services

• Credit repair services

• Emergency disaster preparedness equipment and sales

• Automobile dealers, new vehicles.

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