How to Respond to a BBB Complaint (With an Example)

To respond to a BBB complaint, reply through the Better Business Bureau’s business portal before the deadline in the notice, stick to the facts of the transaction, and propose a specific resolution such as a refund, repair or replacement. Write it knowing the complaint and your answer may be published on your BBB profile once it closes.

A good response doesn’t need to win the argument. It needs to show BBB, the customer and anyone reading later that you made a good-faith effort to fix the problem.

How the BBB complaint process works

A BBB complaint is a request for help with a specific transaction, not a review. The customer wants something: money back, a repair, a canceled contract. The process runs roughly like this, though details vary between local BBBs:

1. The customer files. BBB checks the complaint is the kind it handles, then forwards it to the business before anything is published.
2. You’re asked to respond. The notice sets a deadline, commonly somewhere around 10 to 14 days depending on your local BBB. If you don’t answer, BBB typically sends a second request.
3. The customer replies. BBB passes your response to the customer, who can accept it, reject it or add information. You may get a chance to respond again.
4. BBB closes the complaint. Most complaints close within about 30 days. BBB then assigns a closing status and may publish the complaint text and the exchange on your profile.

BBB doesn’t accept every complaint. Many local BBBs, for example, don’t handle employment disputes, discrimination claims, cases already in litigation, or simple dissatisfaction with a price the customer agreed to. If a complaint looks outside BBB’s scope, you can say so politely in your response, but still answer it.

What the closing statuses mean

Status	What it means
Resolved	The customer confirmed the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.
Answered	The business addressed the complaint, but the customer didn’t accept the response or didn’t tell BBB whether they were satisfied.
Unresolved	The business responded but BBB found it didn’t make a good-faith effort to resolve the dispute.
Unanswered	The business didn’t respond at all.

“Answered” is not a failure. If you made a fair offer and the customer turned it down or went quiet, the complaint can close as answered, and readers can see your offer for themselves. The statuses that hurt are unresolved and unanswered, because they tell BBB and the public you didn’t engage.

What happens if you ignore a BBB complaint

Ignoring a complaint doesn’t make it go away. It usually closes as unanswered and can appear on your profile, and BBB says failing to respond has a significant negative effect on your letter rating. Complaints stay reportable on your profile for 36 months, according to BBB, so one ignored complaint can weigh on your rating for years.

This is true whether or not you’re BBB accredited. BBB publishes profiles and ratings for non-accredited businesses too, so you may have complaints waiting in a portal you’ve never logged into. Claim your profile and check.

Complaints vs customer reviews on BBB

BBB profiles carry two different kinds of customer feedback, and they work differently.

	Complaint	Customer review
Purpose	Resolve a specific dispute	Share an opinion of the experience
Affects the letter rating	Yes, including how you respond	No, according to BBB
Your response	Formal response through BBB’s process	A public reply, like any review site
Outcome	Closed with a status	Published as a star rating and text

Replies to BBB customer reviews follow the same approach as anywhere else, which our guide on responding to negative reviews covers. Complaints need more care because they feed into the rating and BBB judges your good faith.

How to write a factual BBB complaint response

1. Pull the records first. Find the invoice, contract, emails and call notes before you write a word. Your response should match what the documents say.
2. Thank the customer and restate the issue. One sentence showing you understand what they are asking for.
3. Set out the facts in order. Dates, what was agreed, what happened. Keep it neutral. “The order shipped on March 3” is better than “the customer is wrong about the date”.
4. Own what went wrong. If you made a mistake, say so. A plain admission often does more for your standing than a long defense.
5. Offer a specific resolution. A refund of a stated item, a repair visit, a replacement, cancellation without a fee. Say how and when it will happen.
6. Give a direct contact. A named person and a phone number or email for the customer to use.

Leave out anything the public doesn’t need: account numbers, the customer’s address, their payment history, or details of unrelated disputes. Assume every sentence may be published.

Worked example: a disputed deposit

This is an illustrative scenario, not a real client.

A kitchen remodeling company receives a BBB complaint. The customer says they canceled a project and the company refused to return a deposit. The records show the customer signed a contract with a cancellation clause, canceled after cabinets had been custom-ordered, and the company kept the deposit to cover the order. The records also show nobody called the customer back after two messages, which the owner didn’t know about.

The company’s response:

Thank you for raising this, and I’m sorry you had to come to BBB to get an answer. You’re right that we didn’t return your two calls in April, and that’s our failure. Here are the facts as our records show them: your contract was signed on March 12, cabinets were ordered to your measurements on March 20, and the cancellation was received on April 2. The cancellation terms in section 6 of the contract allow us to keep the cost of materials already ordered. We have not been able to return the cabinets to the supplier. To resolve this, we can either refund the part of the deposit that exceeds the cabinet cost, with an itemized statement, or deliver the cabinets to you at no extra charge. I’d like to talk this through with you directly. Please call me on my direct line listed on our BBB profile. Karen, Owner

Notice what the response does. It admits the part that was the company’s fault, sets out the facts with dates, points to the contract term without being combative, offers two concrete options and gives a named contact. If the customer rejects both options, the complaint can still close as answered, and anyone reading it can see a reasonable offer was made.

Offering a resolution that counts

BBB is looking for a good-faith effort, which usually means a real offer, not just an explanation. A few principles help:

• Match the offer to the request. If the customer wants a refund and you offer a discount on a future purchase, that often reads as no offer at all.
• Offer what you’d defend in public. If you’d be embarrassed for a prospective customer to read your offer, improve it.
• Be specific about next steps. “We’ll issue the refund within five business days of your confirmation” is better than “we’ll look into a refund”.
• Don’t attach conditions to the outcome. Don’t make a refund depend on the customer marking the complaint resolved or removing reviews elsewhere. Resolve the problem and let them respond to BBB honestly.

If an apology is part of the right answer, keep it genuine and specific. Our guide to writing a public apology covers what makes one land.

Mistakes that turn a complaint into a lower rating

• Missing the deadline. Put BBB notices into the same inbox your team watches daily, and assign an owner.
• Replying with a template. A generic “we take all complaints seriously” with no facts or offer can close as unresolved.
• Attacking the customer. Calling them dishonest, or listing their past complaints, makes the business look worse, not the customer.
• Threatening legal action. Threats aimed at getting a complaint or honest review withdrawn tend to backfire and can conflict with the FTC’s 2024 rule on review suppression.
• Arguing about BBB itself. Whether or not you value BBB, prospective customers read the profile. Treat it as a customer-facing page.
• Fixing complaints one at a time forever. If the same issue appears in several complaints, fix the process behind it: clearer contracts, a faster callback routine, better delivery estimates.

When to get help

Most businesses can handle an occasional BBB complaint themselves using the steps above. It’s worth getting support when complaints are frequent, when an old backlog is dragging your rating down, or when the same issues appear across BBB, Google and other review sites. Our BBB reputation management service drafts responses and sets up a routine so nothing is missed, and our work on small business reputation management covers the wider picture.

Frequently asked questions

How long do I have to respond to a BBB complaint?

The deadline is in the notice BBB sends you and varies between local BBBs, commonly around 10 to 14 days. If you miss it, BBB usually sends a second request, but respond as early as you can. Most complaints close within about 30 days.

Can I get a BBB complaint removed?

Generally no. A legitimate complaint stays reportable on your profile for 36 months, according to BBB. If a complaint falls outside what BBB handles, or isn’t from a real customer, explain that in your response and BBB decides how to handle it.

Does ignoring a BBB complaint affect my rating?

Yes. BBB says failing to respond has a significant negative effect on a business’s letter rating, whether or not the business is accredited. An unanswered complaint does more damage than a disputed one with a fair offer.

What if the customer rejects my offer?

If your response was factual and your offer was reasonable, the complaint can close as answered rather than unresolved. Readers can see what you offered. You don’t have to accept every demand to show good faith.

Is a BBB complaint the same as a BBB review?

No. A complaint asks BBB to help resolve a dispute and counts toward your letter rating. A customer review is an opinion of the experience, and BBB says reviews don’t affect the rating, though readers still see them.