Better Business Bureau serves Bigfork from afar

By ALEX STRICKLAND - Bigfork Eagle

Jan Quintrall is technically the president of the Better Business Bureau office that overseas Montana, despite the fact that when she came through Bigfork last week she was more than 200 miles from her office.

Montana is lumped in with Northern Idaho and Eastern Washington in the BBB's jurisdiction for this part of the inland northwest, something Quintrall said doesn't decrease the services available to Montanans.

"Montana had nothing until December of 2003," she said. "We don't need for people to be able to walk into our office, they call us or use the Web site."

Quintrall said the BBB can be effective from afar thanks to three things: local chambers of commerce, media and law enforcement.

"We've built a great network in Montana with law enforcement," she said.

Executive Director of the Bigfork Chamber of Commerce Bruce Solberg said the local interaction with the BBB is minimal, but that when local businesses have received complaints in the past he worked with the group to mediate the problem.

"The Chamber can act as a mediator," Solberg said. "We try to handle it locally."

Solberg said that if someone comes to him with a complaint he'll encourage them to send an e-mail that he can forward to the business. Seeing it in print tends to have more of an effect, he said.

"When the proprietor sees the complaint in writing they know other people are reading it too," he said.

Overall, though, Solberg said the Chamber receives very few complaints outside of a handful from tourists passing through each year.

"We've got such good, wholesome businesses here for the most part," he said.

Quintrall agreed, but said that Bigfork — and all of Western Montana — is prime ground for many scams involving bogus contractors because of the huge demand for construction here.

"There are so many scams from Kalispell to Polson," she said. "We've even had a few arrests."

She encouraged people to check out BBB's Web site before making a big decision, such as purchasing a car or remodeling a home, to get information about the company they're thinking of patronizing.

"I do it for anything where I'm going to spend more than $100," Quintrall said, admitting that her habits are probably too extreme for most consumers.

"People get anxious and want stuff done right away," she said.

The BBB is about to undertake a marketing campaign in Montana, Quintrall said, to let people know that their services are available for anyone wishing to research a company or lodge a complaint.

"This is still a place where people trust each other and a handshake is good enough," she said of Montana. "That's changing, and fast."

For more information on the BBB or to research a company visit their Web site at http://www.bbb.org or call 1-800-356-1007.