If you have a marketplace dispute, BBB can offer you several ways to resolve it.
®We can work with you and the business to reach a solution to your problem using various dispute resolution (DR) processes. These processes are an alternative to going to court; they are informal and user-friendly and help to resolve thousands of complaints each year.
How Dispute Resolution (DR) Works
Most BBB locations offer several DR methods to help you resolve your dispute.
In conciliation, BBB staff collect factual information from both parties to a dispute and work to encourage open communication between them. BBB staff may promote discussion and the exchange of offers but will not discuss the merits of either side's position.
In mediation, BBB will provide a professionally trained mediator to talk with the parties and guide them in working out their own mutually agreeable solutions.
In informal dispute resolution (IDS), BBB will provide a professionally trained hearing officer who will listen to both sides and make a non-binding decision on how to resolve the dispute.
In conditionally-binding arbitration, BBB will provide a professionally trained arbitrator who will listen to both sides and make a decision on how to resolve the dispute that is binding on the parties only if the customer accepts the decision.
In binding arbitration, BBB will provide a professionally- trained arbitrator who will listen to both sides, weigh the evidence presented and make a decision on how to resolve the dispute that is binding on all parties.
Advantages of Dispute Resolution
Lower Cost: DR services generally cost less than more formal options. The customer usually pays nothing or a small fee for dispute resolution services.
Speedy: Conciliation can usually settle a problem in a couple of weeks - sometimes in a day or two. If the complaint requires more assistance, the mediation, informal dispute settlement and arbitration processes generally take less than 40 days from start to finish.
Informal: DR allows for informality. You are free to have a lawyer assist you, but most people do not use one in DR proceedings. Hearings are held in a relaxed setting and courtroom rules of evidence do not apply.
Empowering: DR offers you a chance to state your own case. In conciliation and mediation, you create your own agreements.
Convenient: BBBs will try to schedule mediation sessions and arbitration hearings at the parties' convenience.
Your Options
Filing a complaint with BBB
If you have a complaint, get in touch with your local BBB and briefly outline the problem or use the online complaint system. Your BBB contact will tell you what you need to do next.
If you have not contacted the business directly, your local BBB will encourage you to call the business first to discuss the problem, but it is not required that you work with the business before filing your complaint. Your local BBB may have the name and number of a person at the business for you to contact.
Note: If your complaint is with a vehicle manufacturer, contact BBB AUTO LINE® and click “FOR CONSUMERS."
Conciliation
In conciliation, BBB staff will work with the business and customer to encourage communication and assist in settling the problem. BBB staff can present the customer's views to the business and offer the business's viewpoint to the customer in an impartial way. Conciliation frequently settles the matter simply and quickly.
Mediation
If conciliation does not solve the problem, mediation may be the next step. In mediation, an impartial third party - the mediator - clarifies and reframes problems and helps the two sides talk with each other and discuss solutions. The mediator does not decide the merits of either party's claim. The mediator's goal is to identify the interests of each party and work with them to arrive at a win-win solution.
If both sides agree to mediate their dispute, BBB gives them an explanation of the basic rules of mediation and asks each party to sign an Agreement to Mediate.
This agreement states that each party is entering mediation voluntarily and will make a sincere effort to resolve the dispute. It identifies the role the mediator will play and the obligations of the disputing parties.
BBB will schedule a confidential mediation session and will let you know how to prepare for that session.
The mediator will be a trained professional, either a BBB staff person or a volunteer from the community.
The mediator will not decide who is right or wrong. Instead, he or she will create an environment that will help both you and the other party clarify the issues, understand each other's underlying interests and help you discover possible options to settle the dispute.
If you do reach a solution, the mediator will assist you in writing an agreement that explains what the solution is - typically some action to be performed.
Arbitration (Conditionally Binding, Binding Pre-Dispute or Binding Post-Dispute under a contract’s arbitration clause, Binding Moving and Storage)
If conciliation and/or mediation efforts are not successful, arbitration may be the next step. The parties state their views at an arbitration hearing, offer evidence and let an impartial arbitrator make a decision that will end the dispute.
If you have a contract that requires the parties to use BBB arbitration to resolve any disputes, you can initiate arbitration by submitting a Demand for Arbitration to BBB. If you are not contractually bound to BBB arbitration but wish to arbitrate an existing dispute, BBB will ask both parties to sign an Agreement to Arbitrate that briefly describes the specific issues involved and the scope of the arbitrator's authority in your case. This agreement sets the groundwork for the arbitration hearing.
BBB staff will arrange for an arbitrator to hear your case at an arbitration hearing.
In arbitration, the arbitrator is asked to consider all relevant factors and to make what the arbitrator considers a fair decision. While the parties in dispute are free to argue legal principles, the arbitrator does not have to follow them strictly in making a decision.
The Arbitration Hearing
An arbitration hearing usually takes two to three hours and is less formal than a courtroom session.
Most arbitrations take place in a conference room at BBB or virtually. Some hearings may occur at the site of the dispute - for instance, at the customer's home if the dispute is about home contracting work.
If necessary, BBB can also arrange for a hearing to be conducted over the telephone or in writing.
At a hearing you have the opportunity to state your case, ask and answer questions and at the end to summarize your position.
The arbitrator will listen to both sides and weigh the evidence presented at the hearing. Then the arbitrator will make a decision about the dispute after the hearing is over. BBB will then send the decision to you and to the other party.
Your legal options
If you participate in conciliation or mediation with BBB, you are free to take your dispute to court if you are unable to resolve your problem.
If you participate in conditionally-binding arbitration, a customer is free to go to court if he or she does not like the decision, but the business must abide by the decision if the customer accepts it.
If you participate in binding arbitration, the arbitrator's decision cannot be reviewed by a court except under very limited circumstances.
Your BBB contact will let you know what type of arbitration is applicable to your particular case.
Glossary of DR Terms
· Arbitration is a process in which two or more persons agree to let an impartial person or panel make a decision to resolve their dispute.
· Arbitrator is the individual or panel selected to conduct an arbitration and make a decision.
· Conciliation is a process in which an impartial person acts as an intermediary to open communication between parties to resolve their dispute.
· Decision is the written document in an arbitration that is signed by the arbitrator and mailed to the parties.
· Mediation is a process in which an impartial third party assists parties in working out a mutually acceptable solution to their disagreement.
· Mediator is the individual selected to conduct a mediation conference.
RULES OF ARBITRATION: Pre-dispute
RULES OF ARBITRATION: Post-dispute
Rules of conditionally binding arbitration
Rules for informal dispute settlement
Dispute resolution mediation rules and guide
Moving and storage rules of binding arbitration
For further information on dispute resolution opportunities and programs, contact your BBB.