Comparing ICG to BBB.

Internet Consumer Guard (ICG) came into existence due to our own belief that there needed to be a better and more comprehensive means for monitoring online businesses - and a better tool for resolving complaints.  We had spoken to many online businesses who believed that BBB Online had not served them well.  After hearing their stories, we sought to develop a system that would farily handle consumer's issues in today’s e-commerce, as well as the needs of the website business owner.

Internet Consumer Guard and the Better Business Bureau are both in existence to aid consumers with complaints against a business, and help those businesses resolve consumer complaints in an efficient manner.  The service seeks to serve the consumer by advocating better business practices and ensuring that consumers have some manner of protection against fraudulent businesses.

The Better Business Bureau has been around for some time, and has sought to protect consumers by identifying businesses that may be fraudulent in nature, and provides consumers with a tool for resolving complaints.  The Better Business Bureau also monitors online business through Better Business Bureau Online (BBB Online).  This service monitors businesses that provide products or services to the online community,

How Is Internet Consumer Guard Different?

Internet Consumer Guard, like the Better Business Bureau, aims to monitor the online business community, and provide the consumer with a reliable means of verifying that a specific business is credible.  In addition, Internet Consumer Guard wanted to significantly improve the consumer complaint process - giving the consumer a better chance of actually realizing a resolution to their complaint.

We researched complaints against the Better Business Bureau that were posted online - and then sought to address the specific issues that were raised. ICG sought to make the complaint resolution process easier, fair, and more effective.  Our intent is to help the business owner preserve their good name, and provide the consumer with a more effective means of actually realizing a resolution to their complaint.  It would serve both the business owner, and the online consumer, in a fair and effective manner.

ICG did this by building a technically advanced "consumer complaint engine" which we feel is much better for the resolution of complaints.  One complaint that we noticed about BBB Online is that a business received a complaint by email, which would include a link to a complaint.  The link would go to a blank page.  A few weeks later, the company received an email stating that the compliant was closed, and that their rating could be negativly affected.

ICG offers both parties a simple control panel for processing a complaint.  Our system will continually email both sides as to the status of the complaint, so that neither side will lose a complaint simply because they lost an email.  Our system is devised to make the process easier, and most importantly, devised to bring about an actual and mutually agreeable resolution.

You can be in business for 10 years, and may have served  thousands of customers with excellence, only to have 1 person blog about a negative experience - regardless of whether you were wrong or not - negatively impacting your sales.

How is the pricing different between ICG and BBB?

Just like BBB Online, we have a membership fee for our service.  The difference is the price.  While the Better Business Bureau can charge thousands per year in membership fees, Internet Consumer Guard is just $289 per year, with discounts for multi-year membership purchases.  You can save thousands per year when compatared to BBB Online - and get more services from your ICG membership.

What services do you offer that ARE NOT offered through BBB?

When we developed our seal, we believed that a website owner should get more from a consumer advocate seal.  The Internet Consumer Guard seal will provide you with the following additional features that are not found with the Better Business Bureau: 

• Automatic sizing of the Seal directly from your control panel
• A Corner Seal validating that your site is in good-standing
• Visible status report, which changes dynamically depending on the status of your website
• Custom Reports
• Website down notification – notifying you if your website is down

The choice is simple.  Advanced technology, advanced features, lower cost.