Better Business Bureau of the Southland Resigns From the BBB System, Announces Creation of Business Consumer Alliance, Inc.

LOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwire - Mar 12, 2013) - The Business Consumer Alliance, Inc. (www.businessconsumeralliance.org), formerly the Better Business Bureau of the Southland, announced today that after 77 years it is no longer affiliated with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and will move forward as an independent organization offering new services to a national audience.

While operating as the BBB of the Southland, the organization became the most successful Bureau within the system, with 17,000 members, handled over 90,000 complaints and gave out over 14 million reports, which represents roughly 10% of the entire volume of transactions for the entire BBB system. Its leaders invested vast amounts of time, money and resources to identify and create new products and services to improve the current BBB systems and make them more competitive in an evolving marketplace. The BBB itself adopted many of these innovations on a national level.

In recent years, however, the Council of Better Business Bureaus, the governing body for all the Bureaus in the BBB system, challenged the BBB of the Southland on several of its improvements, deeming them to violate the BBB's policies. The Council requested several changes, including the immediate sale of a well-received member service called TrustLink, or risk expulsion from the BBB. Despite complying with each of the Council's requests, the BBB inexplicably voted to end its relationship with its largest Bureau.

"As a BBB, we had a long track record of developing unique products and services to the benefit of our member businesses and the public," said Kiry Peng, President and CEO of Business Consumer Alliance. "Despite the fact that many of the technologies and services offered by the BBB were created by us, our innovative ideas came under scrutiny. Their focus on policy compliance as opposed to the development of more relevant products and services for the public hampered our ability to better serve our constituents. Our desire to continue to be progressive created the foundation for the Business Consumer Alliance."

"The goal of the Business Consumer Alliance is to continue to meet the evolving needs of the consuming public and the business community," said Peng.

Some of the Business Consumer Alliance's new services and policies will include:

• Updated and sophisticated business rating system.
• Enhanced portal for consumer resources and education, including a blog identifying known scams.
• Online platform to allow customer reviews about member businesses.
• Improved process for mediating consumer complaints and a fair method for businesses to respond to criticisms and complaints.
• Online referral service and lead generation tools.
• Search engine-optimized content for maximum exposure to potential customers.