Credentials, Memberships - Are They Worth It?

[pricescope]

In the vendors'' list I had "Credentials" column, which probably was misleading.

I''m grateful to one of the trade members who brought this to my attention.

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Not one of the organizations you list under credentials offer credentials for any firm. The use of the term is misleading. A firm can be a member but membership is not a credential. The criteria for joining a BBB, for example is that you are a business and you pay dues. There is no credential about that! My firm is a member of AGS, BBB, GAC, JA and numerous other organizations. These are memberships not credentials. They do not make my business more creditable.

I would suggest you drop the whole credential idea from the website. Some of the worst crooks in the business are members of *******...
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If a company on their website wished to name those organizations that is fine but on your informational site I would advise deleting all mention of those organizations and memberships.
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I also have got an impression lately that some of these organizations are interested rather in collecting membership fees than consumer protection

I''m interested in consumers'' and professionals'' opinions on this matter. How important for consumers to see a company to be a member of different trade or other organizations like BizRate, BBB, etc.

What else can be used to show credibility of businesses?

 

[strmrdr]

Having done work with/for the bbb they have 0 credibility with me.
I can’t go into details without risking getting sued.
The whole org is rotten from the core out as well as being totally out of date.
The sad thing is that a lot of insiders know it and are trying to change it but they arent having much luck.

 

[Hest88]

Okay, as a consumer I acknowledge that all of these "memberships" are pretty bogus. However, they help many consumers make decisions about vendors and give them a certain sense of security that the vendor isn't just a fly-by-night who's going to take their money and run. I think if vendors want to list their memberships they should and eliminating them levels the playing field in a way that's not really helpful to a consumer.

 

[pqcollectibles]

While BB doesn't do a thing for me, GG, JVC, JBT, and such are good to know. GG indicates a level or professional training. JVC, JBT, and other jewlers' affiliations are relevant because members must remain in good standing to maintain those affiliations. Bona fide consumer complaints can cause those affiliations to be revoked.

IMHO, I see no difference in those types of listings and a person citing professional "Affiliations" on a resume. Maybe its a matter of semantics and a simple word change is all that's needed.

 

[icelady]

Leonid,

My perspective is as a consumer, and I thank you for the opportunity to share it with you. Knowing that vendors and professionals belong to certain organizations is helpful, however should not be the sole basis for making a decision to do business with them. There is a difference, in my mind, between credentials such as GG, and so called watchdog membership organizations like JVC, BBB etc.

When I was searching for my stone, I spoke directly to several of the membership organizations you mentioned regarding vendors. Sadly, I felt as though I was not getting the whole picture from any of them. Perhaps because people are so litigious today, these organizations are afraid to freely give out details.

In any case, there was one of the mentioned organizations that I spoke with that impressed me with their candor. Unfortunately, I found that this organization (from another thread on this forum), while being adament about their rules, had vendors proudly displaying the organization's logo, who were in fact not following the guidelines they needed to in order to be a member in good standing. The excuse for this was lack of "funding" and manpower. What ever the reason, the result is that they are not doing the job they said they would.

There are very few places one can go to find out about a vendor's reputation with any certainty. I find this forum very helpful in part because you have memberships and credentials (they should be described separately though) listed on professionals, but mostly because the forum is a place for people to tell of their experiences with any vendors. These experiences both good and bad, and the ensuing remedies for the bad experiences provide valuable insight for the consumer!

 

[dimonbob]

Having a title in an organization like AGS does give you credentials. The title of CG or CGA gives that person credentials. Those with that title have to take a test every year, and pass it, to keep that title. They also have eye tests that have to be passed.

The title of Master Gemologist Appraiser in the ASA also gives that person credentials.

There is much study that must be completed with any of these titles.

A person without any titles or memberships does not make them any less capable but I would be more inclined to take my business to someone that I thought might know what he is doing.

 

[Rand_alThor]

Leonid,


The greatest credibility any B2C (business to consumer; I just made that up

) can have is feedback. My suggestion, going to be hard to implement, is to build a centralised feedback/credit rating system.




So as an example if there are 50 online + B& M stores which are currently associated with PS, they can voluntarily opt in into this free feedback rating system. So if store XYZ just joins this feedback system, they would get an initial score based on their store policy, trade up, returns, etc.




Next, every time a sale is made at each of these stores, the store owners can request feedback from the consumer into this feedback system. Each transaction then either adds or subtracts to the score. An easy way to prevent flooding of this system by stores using virtual sales to inflate their scores is to use the GIA identifier as a unique transaction number. This "may" also have the added benefit of becoming a diamond tracker (assuming the GIA report is not run again to create a new GIA number)




This way a consumer has a quick way of looking up a company and assessing their risk and whether or not they should do business with them.