Let me start off this rant by saying I am being careful on how I word this post, because Dun & Bradstreet is a very respected company that has been in business since 1841. That being said, I feel as if one of their practices is a downright scam – yes, I said it, a SCAM.
D&B is probably most well known for their D-U-N-S numbers. Wikipedia has a nice explanation of the DUNS number, but basically it is a number assigned to business entities. It was introduced by D&B in 1963 to support D&B’s credit reporting practice, instead of using a business’s tax ID number, since some businesses file under social security numbers, i.e. sole proprietorships.
When I formed my business, I eventually registered myself with D&B and received a DUNS number. On very limited occasions, I am asked by vendors and clients for my DUNS number. It is so limited that I always have to go to the D&B web site and look it up, and I am the type of person that remembers numbers 835634465 after looking at them once.
Yesterday, I received a phone call from one of the over 5,000 or so people who work at D&B. They told me that recently two different companies asked for a credit report on my company. They asked me if I was aware. I told them, I do know two companies recently asked me to provide my DUNS number to them.
She then said, are you aware your credit rating with us [D&B] was lowered from our highest score of a 1 to a 2. I said, no, I wasn’t aware of that.
The way she was talking was very ‘salesly’ at this point. So I stopped her and said, “what do I have to buy from you?”
She said that they offer a product named “DNBi SelfMonitor” for $449.00. If I pay that, my credit score would go back to 1.
I got angry. I said, my company has never in the 10+ years in business, ever paid a bill late. She said, I am aware of that, your billing history, according to our records, is perfect. She said the reason the credit score has dropped was because we [D&B] have outdated records on your company.
I stopped her again and asked, so you want me to pay you for you to have more updated records? She said, yes. She said they spent millions of dollars trying to keep these records up to date. I said, good – because you sell those records to those looking for credit reports. But why do I have to pay you for that? It is your business to sell up-dated records to your clients.
Think about it… You are in the business of selling data, if your data is bad – then it is worth nothing. Why is it my obligation to pay you to give you data that is mine. In fact, you should pay me to get my data. You should definitely not charge me to give you my data.
She didn’t agree with me. So we parted ways.
You can see, D&B charges a $180 per report, with add ons, to companies requesting them:
Now I am in a situation where I know D&B reduced my credit score because I won’t pay them $500 for me to give them my data. Does that seem scammy or am I nuts?
I am not the only one who believes this, just check ripoffreport.com, creditboards.com and scam.com.
Am I wrong?
Update: I wanted to include some comments I received on Twitter and Google Buzz, in addition to the comments below. In all honesty, I was hoping some one would say I am nuts, because I kind of want to pay for the $500 to improve my D&B rating, but so far, no luck.
@rustybrick you’re not wrong. There was a time when D&B was useful. Helpful, even. Now it’s only about marketing. We don’t give them info.
netmeg
netmeg
@rustybrick you’re spot on with that, I completely agree with you
Jonathan Dingman
Dingman
@rustybrick That’s absolutely insane! Isn’t there some kind of a governmental agency you can complain to?
Talia Klein
taltalk
@rustybrick D&B totally sucks, avoid them, I don’t tell them squat. My bank gives me all the credit I need, they can blow it out their ass
IncrediBILL
IncrediBILL
Dun & Bradstreet Seems Scammy, Here Is Why http://bit.ly/ayeole BY @rustybrick / Oh, that’s not good. Bad D&B, Bad!
Edward Lewis
pageoneresults
D&B: Extortionist tactics? Times are tough, no doubt, but this is some real BS people. #shame http://bit.ly/c7rOlN (via @rustybrick)
Anthony Verre
TonyVerre
@rustybrick Wow that’s not the first time I’ve heard this complaint – just recently from a colleague as a warning to me. Thanks for this.
Carol Lynn Rivera
CarolLynnRivera
Dun & Bradstreet Seems Scammy, Here Is Why http://bit.ly/cNIkhS Barry Schwartz
SEO Aware
SEOAware
Update: A very nice VP at D&B called me on June 24th, with a customer service rep. She basically explained that the sales rep who called me did not tell me everything they should have and they will educate the sales reps better in the future.
In short, you can update your information for free at eupdate or by calling them at 866-584-0283.
I am glad they called and they did admit the sales person who called me was not telling me everything I should have known.
Wow. Just wow. You’re totally not wrong.
On a different note though, I have an offer. Make your comment links do-follow. This will help me rank higher. Then, pay me to post comments on your blog for you. This will help you by…ummm…helping me make more money.
Thanks Josh. Too funny.
You’re absolutely right.
I’ve never given D&B one lick of information.
When they call and start asking questions I tell them it’s a privately held company meaning the information is PRIVATE aka none of their business and hang up.
It’s weird, I am looking for someone to tell me I am wrong. $500 isn’t much, but it just seems wrong to pay anything for this. Hm…
Sounds just like Yelp’s “business model.” Look for a class-action lawyer and take down D&B.
If it sounds like a scam and your gut thinks it’s a scam, it probably is…
It sounds ILLEGAL, surely it is.
Recently I changed banks because I moved and moved my business banking account. D&B called me, from one of their India call centers, relentlessly for days including once at 4:45am to get me to update my information with them because the bank verified my information there.
(they left a lot of messages and I figured it was a scam)
Finally I answered and they went into the exact same sales pitch. I asked them if this was going to impact me opening an account, when they told me no I promptly hung up.
As you said this just looks like a way to extract money out of small businesses.
I worked very closely with D&B for many years. Their data for small companies is poor, but it is the best you can get for large companies (particularly the linkages). It is a rip-off; but perfectly legal. I was able to negotiate pricing for the data I needed after I threatened to go to the competition. Caveat emptor!
You shouldn’t have to pay for nothing, if you say that you have never missed a bill and always paid on time your credit rating should not have dropped, its unfair that companies like D&B try to take money from you because they know that your a reliable company.
We used Dun and Bradstreet in Canada- not anymore.
Don’t get mad just get SEO! (Even). Like BP oil. Scum like material tends to malign the pristine beaches.
Stuff like this will eventually get noticed, when it affects D&B’s bottom line. I remember when Seth Godin tried to pull the same stunt BrandJacking with Social Media pages. For a healthy fee.
http://outspokenmedia.com/reputation-management/seth-godin-brandjacking/
He admitted his error and moved on.
When they realize this is bad for business they’ll drop this service like a 50 ton weight Alla Monty Python.
Searchengineman
well that explains it, the name “schwartz says it all!” $500, really, for a full year of monitoring when you have active file? $449 really according to the site, quit using economy as excuse, your iphone could cover that cost for a year. Prioritize son.
Joshin’ I think you’re an idiot! Why pay the very people who are trying to scam you? I doubt the price is really the reason to not use their service. I don’t care if it was $10. I would not support a business that approached me in that manner either.And, really, whats with the “name schwartz says it all” comment, are you really that juvenile? As a entrepreneur starting a business I appreciate the advice against this company.
curious – were you able to successfully provide your data to them (through the phone number provided above) without paying?
did that work?
Yea, I was able to provide data.
It’s funny how many business owners think they understand the credit world. I worked in the banking industry for many years before I decided to work for myself, and I can tell you that when you *THINK* your banker is your friend, your dead wrong. You are nothing more to them than a dollar sign. No business on the planet that wants to ensure that they are going to get paid will loan you money or bill you for services without managing their risk in one way, shape or form. If they can’t do it through your business, they’ll do it via asking for a personal guarantee via your social security number. Bankers are the best at that. If they “give you” all the credit you need and they say they are using your Tax Id number, then guess what. Your social is also being used in there somewhere, because the only thing the TAX ID does (or EIN) is identify your business to good ‘ol uncle Sam. And with the bankruptcy laws being revamped in 2006, any personal guarantee that is given is back to mixing your personal assets with the business, and you are NOT protected by any sort of legal separation any longer. So your homes, cars, savings accounts, all of that CAN and will be seized to pay off debts. Don’t believe it? Check out California and the rate of debt foreclosures that are happing there. Small business owners gave PG’s, and BAM, business goes bankrupt, home gets taken to pay off 20, 30, and 40K debts.
Ask any competent bankruptcy lawyer about what the PG’s mean, and they’ll tell you. The reality is.. if you don’t want to give PG’s, you have to have good Business credit reported via a legitimate credit agency, of which D&B is both the oldest and largest one out there, and is the most used one as well.
Play the game or not, it’s each business owners choice. But it’s like driving a car without insurance. Sooner or later, that WILL come back to bite you in the end.
I just got the call.. D&B cold-called me.
I was told 4 companies inquired about me. I said great, so… So, my credit score is bad (4 or of 5), the guy said… I asked why, the guy said he did not know but I can buy their monitering service to find out why???
That’s when I lost it and used a few #### words and told him to make a perfrect 5 then stick it where the sun don’t shine… What a scam…
I have a strong feeling that someone is going to get jail time for this scam… especially in today’s economy when everyone is hurting to survive and these guys are using deception and scare tactics to take small business for $500 or $1000.
by the way, the Caller ID displayed on my phone from this guy was “1000”, which is illegal as all tele-marketers calling US consumers are expected to display a valid Telephone number, not “1000”.
I can almost smell the class-action in the air!!!
Oh boy. I can go you one better. I paid them the $500. And with no changes, no late payments and a squeaky clean record in my business I’m still at a 2!!!
Shame on them.
Well, shame on me too. I feel for it.
Got a suspicious message from unknown company, returned call and was treated rudely by person who answered phone. Got another call today, a sales call couched in the offer of a service I just had to have. Sounded like a scam, not surprised to see the identical experience listed here. What a crock.
The sales call you’re reporting may well have been from my office.
I work for an outfit that contacts only smb market place customers and offers products like the one that was offered on that call.
However I feel the need to point out a few details you’ve not mentioned. It’s not that I thnk you’re wrong for viewing the DnB system in this way, and I understand your resentment, but you’re lacking some key info.
The DnB rating system relies on business owners to supply information on payments trends with current vendors, as well as quarterly financial statements in order to dtermine those ratings of which you speak.
A 2 is not a bad rating. however, you’re in an elite club for having had a 1. less than 20 percent of businesses ever recieve the higest rating.
DnB uses a financial model that requires data to be supplied. I share you cencerns about the fee for maintaining your rating in high standings, but there are other ways you can protect your file.
First off validate it. Because these files are essentially created automatically, many times without business owners knowledge – many files remain in what’s called DS status.
Our process is such that we can’t maintain a good rating for a company we haven’t verified even exists. Many of my DS clients are on their way out of business as we speak unfortunately.
Validation is a fee of 229 once for the life of the business, and essentially after you’ve claimed you file, and completed the validation interview and filled in forms re corp structure type of building, managing partners, history of co etc, you can then suppliment the file with quarterly financials(free to submitt) to keep credit scores high, assuming you’re higher in the profit margin. You will also have access to a service called eupdate that will allow you to update key info on your file through the DnB website. That is also free for the life of the business, once the file is validated.
If you’ve had a solid past history of paying your bills on time then your paydex should be an 80. It should stay that way if you deal with the same vendors for a long period of time. However if you cease to do business with vendors who are registered with DnB, this score may drop. The system just needs solid raw data to be entered month to month to maintain a score. It should not be determined as an arbitrary decision on DnB’s part to lower your rating.
Many who maintain the monitoring program also maintain their high credit rating, due to the fact that they maintain full access year to year of their file.
Those sales calls you dont like? Informing you of credit checks being done? won’t necessarily happen if had a monitoring product. YOull get an email within a few hrs of the check being done-therefor no reason for us to call you about it.
Most of my clients don’t participate in the montioring program each year, but more like every 3-5 to note corp structure or vendors relationships changing etc.
DnB like all Credit Bureaus are FTC regulated and required to notify you if activity occurs on your file-when you do NOT have direct access to the file to know for yourself.
Those regulations are made to protect you the consumer. As your credit file is public, is cannot be kept from you, nor does DnB have the right to restrict your ability to remedy the situation if the scores are not in your favour.
You will keep getting those calls because we have to make them. Of course if wicsh to not be alerted of credit checks, or scores dropping, then you can ask to be taken off the calling list. However I’d suggest in that case, before going to approach new lenders, just call the customer service line and get your free copy of the report.
FTC requires all credit bureaus to release a free snapshot of an entitys file once per 12mo.
Even as an agent I feel the fee is incredibly high, but bare in mind the expense of hiring agents, maintaining our data collection process and well as the cost of technology.
I’m sure you already know the benefits of having a good credit rating(visa vi lower insurance rates etc).
So I don’t want to get to “salesie”- but make sure you get all the info from the snapshot the agent is looking at so that you are getting the best out of the call. We are required to tell you all your scores, of which there are 4: commerical credit rating, financial strees score, SER rating and the paydex. informe you of any suits liens or judgments etc.
Sounds like the agent jumped into the salespitch two quickly without giving you the full amount of information, or consulting you on your business needs and concerns.
That’s what I do everyday in a nut shell.
Whether people like it or not, business deicision are made everyday based on these reports, so maintaining them in the ways I previously described is always in your best interests.
Remember two things: one, the fee, as any business service should be, is a tax deductable and two-that do not call list!
Kindly educate yourselves. Dun and Bradstreet is NOT a scam.
However I’d like to point out that if you ever receive an email claiming to be DnB but asking for your SnB number than promptly report it.
DnB has outsourced contact centres, some being in India. With India, clearly theres huge margin for error given the extrmem language barrier.
I however work in an office in Canada that calls client only in the US, and I certainly understand the concern. We can’tguarantee all agents are as proficient as hey should be, but believe you me, I have seen many walked out for not doing their job properly.
Like I mentioned in the previous comment, when someone calls you from DnB it is your chance to get the info for free.
and remember it’s a business calling you bussiness. Show some dignitiy and repsect for the person on the other end. We’re just doing our jobs.
rachelle, see my update above. This was DNB and they verified it and apologized. I guess you didn’t read the full post.
Simple reports are free. But if you want a salesman to send you a free report you’re going to have to use better manners. All business owners think they know it all. But in reality, their own arrogance hurts their business. Your D&B report is merely a tool to help other businesses decide to business with you on better terms.
D&B is simply a database wear house providing information that other companies care about. Other companies only care about the negative aspects of risk. Ironically, businesses generally report items that are negative. All businesses using Quickbooks may upload their AP to D&B to be installed on those other business reports. Even so, your business partners generally have no interest in improving your risk factor. However, adding positive trade will help your scores. The only company who cares how good your business credit is is YOU. Therefore, if you want to remain competitive and get the best unpublished terms and conditions then you might want to consider fortifying your report with positive references/trade.
Your scores are not altered because you don’t buy. Nobody at D&B cares. If anything they’ll improve what’s on your report if it can be verified; and that’s free. They get points for good customer service!
If your report is empty that’s fine. It’s not like consumer credit. An empty business report will not affect you negatively. Even so, if your competitors have more positive trade lines but have been in business less time they may get better terms from the same suppliers you use. Ouch!
D&B is utilized by ALL major banks. So whether you like it or not, your bank incorporates your business’s risk factor with your D&B scores. It’s in the software. There are hundred-million dollar contracts written on a regular basis with these lending institutions. Reducing their risk saves them billions and has been for over 150 years. Your local loan officer does not know this nor does he or she care. Their job is to lend you money. But guess what. It’s not their money, it’s the banks. So before you start crying “scam” you should probably get the facts.
Look, if YOU don’t update the profile of your company, D&B then verifying it, then your customer will just go to your competitor; or you’ll miss out on business you never knew you missed out on. It’s not personal it’s just business. D&B provides the 3rd party objective format and the verification process. The rest is up to you. So use it to your advantage. Now put down your fancy cigar & fruity highball, do the proper research and get the vital facts, and stop being such a whiney ass pussy! Sheesh!
I also work for DnB. I understand the concern of it being a scam but unfortunately its the demand that created the company and not the other way around so keep that in mind. Companies should pull reports on other businesses because its safer!!! I wouldnt wanna invest 100 grand into a company that wasnt paying its bills. You dont pay to see the report, you pay for the partnership in updating, verifying and disputing innaccurate information that will HURT YOUR SCORES. NO WE DONT DO THE WORK FOR YOU BECAUSE ITS NOT OUR REPORT! WE CALL TO DO ONE THING AND ONE THING ONLY AND THATS TO MAKE YOU AWARE PPL ARE CHECKING ON YOUR BUSINESS AND AFTER THAT YOU SHOULDNT EVEN HAVE TO BE TOLD TO BUY THE REPORT. AS A BUSINESS OWNER YOU SHOULD ALREADY BE ASKING TO GET ACCESS TO IT AND START TO MONITOR. jeez lol. Simple as pie, D&B is like facebook for businesses except its not free and its not free because we have to pay ppl to go out and collect information, place it in the report and then run software analysis to compare with other companies in your industry and evaluate risk numbers for your business. If you complain you gotta pay for the service then why dont you give out YOUR SERVICES FOR FREE and see how that works for you.
**** D&B EMPLOYEES: READ THIS****
Just a heads up. All those that work at D&B, either spend the time reading the full post and write smart and useful replied or risk having your information sent to the Vice President of customer service there, who gave me her email and phone in case I need it.
They haven’t done a good job of educating their sales reps yet. I received a call today giving me the same sales pitch. I told the lady that if we had the $449 to spare we wouldn’t have had to cut our employee’s salaries by 10%. So not only are they hitting up small business, they are now hitting on nonprofits that provide housing for the homeless. Not once did she mention that I could update our information at no cost – only the sales pitch for the Self-monitor package so I would get all the notices on my desktop.
I am the president of a small non-profit. We had to get a DUNS number so that we could register with the Fed’s CCR in order to receive a Federal grant. An agent from DNBi cold called us and blatantly told us we needed to purchase the SelfMonitor service in order to receive the grant. We unfortunately took the bait so as not to hold up our grant processing. Then I double checked with our grant manager and found out that we did NOT need the SelfMonitor service.
This demonstrates that D&B sales staff are using pushy tactics and outright lying to the consumer in order to make their sale. Today we got our refund after calling the main customer service line at 866-584-0283.
I found that throughout this process D&B staff were generally unprofessional and somewhat rude and discourteous. Just a reminder…buyer beware! It’s ironic that D&B, which is in the business of business due diligence, should be engaging in tactics that make its clients do due diligence on them.
I am the president of a small non-profit. We had to get a DUNS number so that we could register with the Fed’s CCR in order to receive a Federal grant. An agent from DNBi cold called us and blatantly told us we needed to purchase the SelfMonitor service in order to receive the grant. We unfortunately took the bait so as not to hold up our grant processing. Then I double checked with our grant manager and found out that we did NOT need the SelfMonitor service.
This demonstrates that D&B sales staff are using pushy tactics and outright lying to the consumer in order to make their sale. Today we got our refund after calling the main customer service line at 866-584-0283.
I found that throughout this process D&B staff were generally unprofessional and somewhat rude and discourteous. Just a reminder…buyer beware! It’s ironic that D&B, which is in the business of business due diligence, should be engaging in tactics that make its clients do due diligence on them.
As a follow up to the previous post, I got an email from the D&B Sales lady today in which she still insists we need the product! Unbelievable.
The date is 9/21/10 and I just got the D&B call about how screwed up my information was and it would cost $449 to fix it. Give me a break. What a racket. Just goes to show the D&B rating isn’t worth anything.
Just had my first DNB experience. One of our vendors used them to check our credit. My company does not have an account with them. They reported to one of our vendors that we have a “low score”. My company has great credit and open balances and certainly nothing over due. So I called them to ask why we have a low score. The response, “if you pay for us to collect your credit data from your other vendors then we can adjust your score”. The reason the score is low is they have no info on our company. So I have to pay them to get a good score??? This seems crazy to me.
I just received a call yesterday (09/23/10) with the same lame story that an Alert had come up on my companies D&B report and I must pay $449 for D&B to resolve and rate our company. I went on to ask this specific question to her ” Are you saying to me that I must pay D&B $449 to have my company rated by D&B to improve my companies reporting? Her answer “Yes”, every company must pay this. What an outrage! I have lost all respect for D&B. The D&B rep’s name is Algira Braz (BrazA@DNB.com).
This definitely smells of a SCAM!
The last time I got a call from D&B for an “info update” , I told them it would cost $500.00.
She said we don’t pay for company information.
I asked her if they have a free service for
the information they gather ? No was the reply.
So I said why should I give you my information
for free when you are going to sell it?
To hell with em.
My new employer requested a Duns number from D&B last week she asked them to speak with me to follow-up on the request. She did not want to Pay for the monitoring right now – just wanted to obtain her number – they advised that she will have to wait 6 weeks for her number. A friend of mine called them today signed up for the monitoring and received her number today. My boss has to wait 6 weeks to get her number because she did not pay. But my friend got her number today because she did pay – how is this in any way fair to businesses? I told the woman on the phone that this is not fair. She said “well do you get paid from your customers?” I answered yes but my customers can go somewhere else if they dont like my terms. We must go to D&B for the number we cannot go anywhere else. We must also pay to see what they have to say about us and we must pay for that too or we cannot see our own information. There should be a free report provided to us also 1x per year. This is completely unfair. And ALL DUNS #S should be available to all businesses immediately upon request.
I got the call this morning. We have had a Duns number for 35+ years. Recently I purchased all the stock from my other family members and due to my gov’t contracts need to retain the Duns number on my CCR. Otherwise trust me I would have cancelled it immediately with this caller.
So this guy Kody calls to tell me there has been a lot of activity and my rating has dropped to a 4 (!!!!!) due to bad information and he wants $500 to fix it. I told him that sounded like blackmail to me. What a racket!
We have always had a rating of at least a 2 and we always pay our bills on time.
Where is the class action suit being started cuz I am on board. There is right…and there is WRONG. This is W.R.O.N.G.
Here is the other side of the D&B scam. Last month I purchased a business list from Selectory.com, a subsidiary of D&B. I purchased around 5000 contacts and paid around $800. Ivan Goodinho, the salesperson guaranteed a list accuracy of 88%. We send letters to the first 50 contacts, each with a dollar coin in them.
Here are the results:
50 letters Sent Out
3- Returned as bad address
Out of the 47 that were not returned:
12- were wrong company, wrong NAICS number (hair stylist with NAISC code of a bank).
11- Too small (mom and pop, only a few employees)
17- No answer (which would not happen to a company with 10-100 employees), or disconnected.
So, can anyone add?
50-43=07.
That’s a contact list that is only 14% accurate.
Here’s the kicker:
I called to tell them this, they told me it wasn’t their fault and that it was THE BUSINESS’S RESPONSIBILITY TO KEEP THEIR INFORMATION UPDATED WITH D&B.
I asked for my money back. They said I had to talk to the actual salesperson. I called him, he said to try more addresses, and if I got similar results, they would refund my money. I did another 100. Same results. Now the sales person is avoiding my call.
I have received a call from them like clockwork the past 3 months. Same person (Lisa). I talked with her once and she did the scare tactic of our business needs to “clear up” some of our credit issues. We are a small cardiology practice and our credit is great. Of course it would cost me $500 dollars to put our credit “back on track.” She precedes to call me every month and repeats the same BS to my voice-mail every time. Persistence must work for them. I have never dealt with them before, but my first impression is …slimy company!
They are a scam! The information we have is outdated. It’s at least 5 years old and they said that they have received recent inquiries so we need to update. Then tney ask me for $$$ to update our records. I’m not paying for my own update. They can keep whatever record they have and those inquiring can pay for outdated records. The salesman tried to make me feel bad, for not paying them.
D&B has had a wide and good reputation (so I had thought), so I too was dismayed to hear from them what I was hearing. They called to tell us that we had a couple of flaws on our credit report. There were 2 flaws, both of which were a mystery to us and D&B would not explain where they came from. They also said we paid bills 39 days after terms, which is totally innaccurate; we alwasy pay bill within terms, and usually before they are due. They told us how many companies have requested information about our business, and how many other companies were monitoring us. We told them that their information was wrong, and asked them how we can correct it. Only D&B can correct it… all at a fee: $450. That, my friend, is the definition of a SCAM. D&B or B&D or whoever else… I don’t care who they are. Their reputation is in the toilet as far as I’m concerned. Stay away.
I got a letter from Dun and Bradstreet saying that my company needs an update in their database. Since I have never heard of “Dun and Bradstreet” I googled them and the google search automatically suggested “dun and bradstreet scam” when I finished typing “dun and bradstreet.” That there already tells me that A LOT of people are already associating “scam” with “dun and bradstreet” in their searches.
Then I came to this website and read all the comments. I read that some of you are told to pay Dun and Bradstreet so that your company’s credit profile can be improved.
Right there, you have to stop and think a little about it. This Dun and Bradstreet company is in the business of reporting credit. That is, they give credit ratings to the public on companies in their database. The public in turn uses this rating to make their business decisions. Now, credit rating should be based soley on an entity’s credit history, their ability to pay and their likelihood of defaulting on credit. If Dun and Bradstreet is able to improve the credit rating of a certain company because that certain company paid Dun and Bradstreet for it, does anyone here think that is an accurate picture of that company? Would you pay for information where the information can be altered merely by the company’s ability to pay for altering it? The answer of course is a resounding ‘no’. Credit should be based soley on credit history and should not at all be altered by any company’s payment for adjusting that credit.
It is similar to all those scams out there promising consumers that their credit can be “fixed” by using the scammer’s service.
I agree with your assessment of D&B, however, I believe they are even more sinister and incidious then you know. Our company does business with the Federal Government and we are required to register with D&B. D&B feeds the fundamental information to the Feds for their database. The information includes our company name, address, contact info, and some other size information. I have noticed that our address occassionally gets “screwed” up. Since the feds require us to have this corrected by D&B, I am forced to call them. Then, they launch into sales mode about keeping our information up to date, attempt to sell me a bunch of stuff, and typically fail to explain that I can have our information corrected if I talk to their service guys. So, I find it interesting that the world’s largest collector of business information can’t seem to keep our address correct, which by the way, has not changed since the company was founded in 1999. Accident?
I just got off the phone with someone from Dun and Bradstreet–or so they said. They tried to sell me a 250.00 package so I could see my credit score. I explained that I am a sole proprietor and have not debt. Then they said I wouldn’t be able to access my account online if I didn’t pay up. I said that it sounded like a rip-off and that I wasn’t interested. I have no proof that this individual was actually from Dun and Bradstreet. The only reason I registered with them is that the federal gov. requires it.
Totally true about D & B. They have the blessings of the government and that is why they are so blatant.
My small business was lured into working with nightmare that this defunct behemoth D & B is by exactly the same process, 6 years ago when we started by no less than a ‘sourcing agent ‘ for government contracts. Fed gov requires you to have a D & B number – or you will not be able to get this contract he said.
I succumbed. Needless to say, I never received a dime from the govt. and ever since I have got nothing more than arm twisting by D & B staff to ‘buy’ their membership so that i can ‘manage’ my credit. I refused point blank and in return they undermine my business that has since then grown by leaps and bounds, to every person who contacts them about our credit!
Just today, oddly I heard from a vendor that D & B gave us “poor and bad credit of 45 ” and so they wanted to know if we could pay our $40/ bill in cash !!!!!!
To this day, I have not received a credible answer as to how D & B could possibly have given the fed govt – GOOD CREDIT standing to my company the year it started, and ever since issued nothing but bad reports because i cancelled my membership !!!!
I am going to get to the bottom of it, and when I do I will post it here.
I’m registered with D&B and recently started doing business with a two small companies in Philadelphia,Pa. I checked D&B and find any information on these two companies the bottom line is you can not judge some books by their covers.
You can’t judge a book by its cover!
I invest mainly in the Dover, DE area through my company Curtain Bird, LLC.
We recently started investing in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area. I called a Real Estate Wholesaler in the North Philly area, Nahab Properties, LLC. It was located on a first floor apartment on 26th Street Philadelphia, PA. I was very apprehensive and wondered if this agency could really serve my interests.
I was called to their office by Mr. Cropps the CEO of Nahab Properties, LLC, which is operated out of an old row-home in North Philadelphia. The area was crime ridden so I was also very sceptical. Again wanting to know if they could help me with my Real Estate investing needs given their location. The building looked fine but the area did leave a lot to be desired. I had not heard of Nahab Properties, LLC.
I had seen his listings in various ads placed on http://www.craigslist.org. Mr. Cropps explained that he runs a little web-site http://www.nahabproperties.com. Well, I have found several properties that I did, in fact, purchase from him, via an assignment of contract. I later found out that the CEO of Nahab Properties, LLC is also a General Contractor in the city and is involved in several projects estimated worth $19,000,000. His company also imports and exports building materials to contractors throughout the United States with a staff of about 20 employees throughout America. This guy is into everything related to Real Estate.
To top this off, he took me to his competitor, Deals of Philly, LLC. I meet the CEO, a woman named S. (Samirah) Thomas. She operates a web-site for Real Estate investors called
http://www.dealsofphilly.com. She sold me four more properties. What seems funny is, the fact that she is located in the same building but on the second floor, that’s right the same address on 26th Street in North Philadelphia. She also “DOES IT ALL! She purchases single family homes (via assignment of contract). She buys and sells apartment buildings and her company does about $7,000,000 in business.
I thought, “WOW!” In the Real Estate business you never know where you will find your next deal. But I truly thought I would be wasting my time until I met these very charming and accommodating people. I asked them, why have such a successful business in an area that does not reflect their status. I was informed that they have a need to “FIGHT THE BLIGHT”. By being located where there is a need to rejuvenate the housing system, they both “FIGHT THE BLIGHT”, one property at a time. That thought captured my heart and also my wallet. At that particular time, I bought those other properties from Deals of Philly, LLC. I want to feel like more than just a business man. Buying there in that neighborhood made me feel as if I too, was helping to “FIGHT THE BLIGHT”.
Upon leaving, I asked Mr. Cropps, (the CEO Of Nahab Properties, LLC) why would he introduce me to his competitor? He smiled with a grin that covered his while face and ” I’m here to provide you a service. I want you to come back to me. If I don’t have what you need, then I should refer you to someone who does.” I told him with great assurance, “I will be back.” Wow! You can’t judge a book by its cover!
Mary Matthews, CEO
Curtain Bird, LLC
4375 N. DuPont HWY
Dover, DE 19901
All the stuff they want you to buy you can do for free on their web sit with a little patience. But the DUNS number is real and your bank really does use it. You can keep an eye on your score but you really should make sure that your vendors are reporting on you and make sure they are reporting correctly. As a business owner you can not to expect a company to make sure “your” information is correct. If they do not trust the people that are reporting why would they let them report.
I have been getting calls from D&B people lately as well. It seems like a shake down. For $449 they will tell me who has asked about my company. And, if I’ll tell them more about my company they will have more information to provide to anyone who calls to ask about my company. And, it only costs $449 for me to give them information about me! So that they can ‘watch out’ for me.
Really? And they always call from blocked numbers. I only got a DUNS number because one entity asked for it. I thought it sounded legit, being an old company, etc, but I have serious doubts about this outfit. So glad to know that others feel the same way.
Carla
That is totally correct. We have been fighting their illegal practices for several years now. Every so often we are made aware of some bad reporting on D&B and when we inquire they push all their services saying we need to pay in order to get any sort of report or response. When we threaten legal action, they say, “ok this one time…” we get the report to see one bogus reporting of an undisclosed company that they will not tell us who they are. We dispute the report and it disappears and our score goes back above 80. This has happened at least 6 times over the last 15 years. It is a scam construed by D&B and someone needs to pull a class action against them and make the STOP!!!
I just got a call from ‘Mario’ at DB and was told that there have been 7 different inquiries about my small company’s credit rating. DB’s report is not up to date, and that has hurt my credit score. If I pay them $449 and catch up my information on their website for them, which they in turn sell to others, then my credit score will go up.
I told him that I have been here 33 years, have asked for no credit, pay all my bills on time or early, and have no changes in operations of late.
I told him that I had no interest in paying him anything. It seems to me that DB is beginning to look somewhat tarnished.
We need to investigate D&B for fraud…
the US economy is based on Small Businesses and D&B is straight out robbing them or fearing them into buying their “bogus” report..
Did you kno for $500, you can “TELL” them about your credit history, that is, you tell them about the references who you did business with (which can be a fake company) and specify your own payment history etc…once they call the company, they will post the payment history on your profile..
this is flat out scam…
Check it for your self..
Somebody needs to investigate D&B.
Small businesses need to come together and file a class action lawsuit against D&B
I recently received a similar call from a D&B rep named Algira Braz (1-866-573-5342 ext. 5474 BrazA@DNB.com). She told me the same story with 2 recent alerts and asked for $449.
After going through your comments , three facts come out
1) Businesses which give credit need information about other businesses especially their Credit history/payment habits
2) Businesses are forced to pay to update their own data (which they have not volunteered to give in the first place) for maintaining a clean record
3) Information service providers exploit this to make money
We can circumvent the problem by providing information ourselves to the credit providers.
We can use a federal/government issued credit rating for one if it works
We can also get a ‘payment done on time’ certificate for each payment we make from the suppliers and maintain records of them
In short , if as small businesses start maintaining our credit and payment history ourselves (with help from suppliers and customers) we need not have to depend on information service providers.
I paid the 500 because a potential client demanded a D&B score. I never got the business. I don´t really need the D&B now either since I have all the credit I need. Now they are calling saying I have to pay every year and that since they sent me an invoice I´m obligated. What can I do to get out of sending them this money? Will they report me and create a collector nightmare? Thanks!
Well, all businesses have to sell. That’s what pays the bills. It seems like you are buying credit with dnb at times. We paid for dnbi and three weeks later we received an email from a rep who is now in charge of our account. The email states more products are avaiable if needed and so on. At the bottom of the email it states advertisment. Sell sell sell. We all do sell if we are in business for our selves right. Maybe we just don’t like being sold.
What a ridiculous answer from Steve. I should buy for the sake of being sold? I don´t want the service anymore. I did buy it for one year and paid. Now they say I´m obligated to continue for another year and so on. They say I have to pay. I don´t want the damn service Steve.
Wow! Thanks for posting this. I just got off the phone with a rep from Dunn & Bradstreet and we have never been late on any of our payments for the past 7 years and they are telling us we need to purchase the same program for $500 to up our score. They are very tricky with how they approach the subject and make it seem as though there are dire consequences and its extremely urgent. I’m sorry but we have vendors offering us extended credit on equipment/supplies daily and am not buying this garbage from D&B. This really needs to be investigated, preferably 60 minutes.
I just can’t believe it. I started a holding LLC back in 2006 and obtained a D&B # when it was formed. My customer base was developed from relationships where I gave free information and assistance to individuals who then became loyal clients once my business was started. As such, the D&B# was never needed for credit; business financed more business. Today I received an email stating my business credit file was incomplete. Always looking to improve, I’m thinking maybe it’s time to go ahead and sign up to make my credit file “complete”. I call, and from the start I begin to sense a passive aggressive sales attitude. He tells me I simply have to pay the $449 or whatever to complete my file. I told him, you know what… I’ll get back to you. I call again, attempting to get someone else with a better vibe. The call starts ok, but turns into the same passive aggressive sales attitude once I begin to question all of the “packages and services”, which all seem to be variants of one another! He was told to have a nice day.
My point is this… the problem is D&B has no competition and based on the posts above, I immediately notice something that’s missing. That ‘thing’ is the characteristic that drives us to become business owners rather than remain employees. Instead of hoping someone starts a class action suit that we can then join, why not start an organization made up of small to medium sized business’. This organization could then perform the same functions as D&B. Sort of like a B to B directory for credit worthiness, payment history, etc. D&B pulls this nonsense simply because they can. Create competion and see what happens!
Wow I just starting a corporation and what I gather from all these comments is to find vendors who report directly to shady d and b and keep those accounts current and pay the invoices way before they are do.plus utilize the d and b website to find my business credit rating to circumvent their bullshit.thanks everyone.
Got the same aggressive sales call Xmas Eve on my cell! I told them they were calling my cell and I was with family, and to call my office and leave their info on my machine and I would take care of it when back from the Holidays. I received a follow-up call, again on my cell right after Xmas, while still on vacation. I had to be blunt and tell them not to call my cell again, I would call them that Tuesday. Because of the huge blizzard in the northeast, I was delayed a day getting back to the office and received another call basically wanting to know why I haven’t followed up. Aggressive and hard to get off the phone with.
On top of that, I come to find out that when I stupidly elected this service the first time and listed one of the vendors I worked with, that vendor mistakenly told them I was late on my terms. I didn’t even have terms with this particular vendor, I paid everything up front with a credit card. So because I paid to have DNB contact my vendors, and one of them mistakenly gave them the wrong info, it actually made my report worse than before I paid, and it was such a mess to clear up.
My company also needs a CCR number to do business with the fed. Gov. We have called D&B numerous times trying to get our info corrected and did the on-line update(what is not locked out) Just when we think it is right, they change it and screw it up again. They have used the hard sale on us several times during the process saying we need to pay for them to do a review of our company and we won’t get government business until we do. According to my government sources, that is not true. No company can be so bad at correcting information as they are. I would gladly join any class action suite against them. How do we go about it? I’m actually afraid of posting this with my correct name and email because they hold the power to destroy my business. Please post it anyway. This is dishonesty at it’s core.
DnB, Better Business Bureau, the Who’s Who….really? Can I get a DnB number from the DnB? Can I report bad business practices by the Better Business Bureau? Should LAPD police itself? These “reporting’ agencies that call themselves Bureaus and Authorities are at the brink of extinction with social networking, Google searches, plus the current business climate makes the business-to-business referral more than enough. I’ve been asked for my DnB # twice, the 5-7 top vendor contact references usually tells them everything they need to know in 15 years of business.
I am on the phone with a D&B right now and he is giving me the scammola big time. Apparently I’ve had 10 hits to my account and I’m supposed to give them $269.00 to update my account to make these 10 people comfortable with my organization. When I started to protest the guy got irate and basically told me I didn’t know how to run my organization.
I run a non-profit. People look at guidestar and at my 990. If they are going to D&B they aren’t that interested and donors definitely don’t check on us at D&B.
Boy, look out small non profits! When I told this guy we didn’t have $200 in the budget for this he told me that my cashflow problem was because I did have an updated profile!
Unbelievable!
I got the same call the last 2 days telling me that unless I paid them $449 to update my info no company can receive information on my company. Then I received an email stating:
Per our conversation, I’m including information for you on how to set up your company’s fully rated D&B file. This is how you build the business’s credit as well as to help provide more information for potential customers or business partners who want to know the risk of doing business with you. We will first verify your company’s information such as legitimacy, time in business and legal structure, and then investigate to make sure there is no negative information on your company in terms of public records or slow payments. Then we assign the Duns number and scores. The cost for this basic setup is $229. With the options listed below we also create a link where you can view these scores online any time. It also tells you why you are rated where you are, and provides a tutorial on business credit. Depending on which package you choose, you can also add credit references manually to help get you better scores faster, and you receive email notification of changes. Below I’m listing the different service levels and billing options.
-Self Monitor Basic
Annual: $449, includes 4 credit references manually and the features listed above.
Monthly: $99 set up fee, plus $39/mo with a 3 month minimum, includes 1 credit reference per quarter manually
-Self Monitor with Inquiries
Annual: $799, includes all features listed above, 12 references added manually and also includes email notification of inquiries.
Monthly: $99 set up fee, plus $69/mo with a 3 month minimum, includes everything listed above but gives you the ability to add 3 references per quarter.
-Self Monitor Premium:
-Annual: $1399, see attachment for a list of features because there are a lot of extras with this. You also get to add 100 Credit references manually.
-Monthly: $119/mo with a 3 month minimum, allows you to add 25 references manually.
Carina Fletcher
eUpdate SMB Credit
tel.800.627.3867×2918
fax.866.886.1461
fletcherc@dnb.com
Our company has been called upon by this D&B company and its true it to my ears….all sounds like CRAP to me.
These D&B scum bags just tried pull this same scam on me. Lets see how long it takes them to devalue their own brand with tactics like this. Total scammers hiding behind a prestigious brand…at least for now.
Wow!! I just started a small business. I thought about getting a D-U-N-S number. Now, I am wondering if it is worth it. Would you guys recommend me getting a D-U-N-S number and just ignore the sales pitches or is it just better to avoid this company period. I guess I am asking is it worth the aggravation in the long run? I have no business credit at all, and I thought this would help. I do have a tax ID number and seller’s permit. I am in Wisconsin and I never had a request for a DUN number. Just not sure if it is worth the trouble.
Thanks in advance
Tonya
I had a similar experience. DNB told me that I needed to pay them $250.00 for a DUNS number because the free ones can’t be used for business credit. I did that, then received a call back 2 weeks later from another rep who informed me that I needed to pay another $500.00 for the $250.00 I already spent to be worth anything. Basically, the $250 is just to get the number, and is useless if you don’t pay the extra $500.00 so you can go in and manually enter information not automatically reported to DNB.
I’d normally write something like “this company is slime” but I use their Hoovers service and love it. I just think they need to be more transparent.
My daughter and I have a small business and D&B have been pressuring us to buy their monitoring system for years. As it is a small retail store, we do not need them in any way, shape or form. Soooooo, they decided to send our ONE business credit card – Staples – a report saying that we were a poor risk in that we always paid our bills late. Staples KNOWS that isn’t true, but based on the D&B report they received (but won’t send us a copy of it), they closed our account with them. Now, as the business account had my name attached to it, it is beginning to effect my personal life. What the heck????? If anyone knows of a class action suit going on, please let me know. This is unbelieveable!!! Does the word extortion mean anything to you?????
It looks like everyone else is getting a deal. With my call they wanted $700.00! In my case the companies who gave me a negative are loosers. The first company overcharged me for parts used to repair their new and defective items. They have now filed bankruptcy for the 3rd time.
The 2nd company is our uniform service. Granted I don’t pay this bill on time, but when the driver asks me for a check I pay him, in full. Keep in mind that this is the company who looses our uniforms and charges us to replace them. They also lied to us about our contract, but thats another story.
A 3rd company says I’m 120 days late. If I’m 120 days late then I never got the bill. I’m not sure who this one is, but if its who I think it is they have the most screwed up bookkeeping system in the world and I stopped doing business with them over 2 years ago.
Then there was the time I looked up a phone company on D&B to check them out. The company checked out fine, a year later I was in a class action law suite with this fine company. Google Norvergence.
So I guess if you pay D&B you can say whatever you want, true of false. However, if you want your side of the story told it will cost you $$$ Isn’t this kind of how the mob works? “You don’t pay us, we burn your store”. OK, so their not fire bombing our store, but they are or can do a number on our credit with what amounts to hearsay evidence.
D&B offers an outdated business model. they need to intimidate business’ to get their $ 500.00 per customer to pay their burocratic network of useless desk people. Wake up D&B computers were invented 15 years ago and today everyone has several machines in their home and offices. With plenty of sources to obtain credit information about any company in the world. Grow UP!
I am happy I found this forum. I received a letter today from D&B telling me that there was a Decline in Credit Score for my business. Then they invited me to sign up for DNBi SelfMonitor. There was no pricing or explaination, but this webpage outlines everything. This is very similar to another well known company called the Better Business Bureau. They have been hounding me for years to pay them $500/year so they make sure my company has a clean record with them. They have been calling every few months. Last month I threatened to call the BBB if they did not put us on their do-not-call list.
I keep getting these calls as well, also from a Dunn and Bradstreet Credibility Corp. I talked to them once a year or so ago and it’s the same thing. D&B seem to be going the same route as the Better Business Bureau, where if you pay to be a member, your rating increases. I can’t imagine how this can be a legal practice.
I am in total agreement. About a month ago I receive a call about updating our Dunn’s info. i was new to our company and agreed to pay the 449.00, not knowing any better. Upon further discussion with the owners I promptly called back an canceled the order. Now, we are trying to get credit with a compnay and they asked us for our D & B #. We agce it to them and they could not pull up any info on us. I called D & B and (I know you will all be shocked) but they have outdated info on us and no rating. If I pay 69.00 down and make payments for some 90 day freakin special they will update my info anf thus give us a rating. This seems like a HUGE scam. We give them $ so they report favorably, or just reoprt. Wouldn’t that be like me sening Experian 500.00 to improve my credit score. Wher is the honorability in this?
Wow, I’m glad I did a web search before signing up for their service! We’re a small biz, federal government contractor, listed in CCR, got the DUNS, CAGE, etc. They didn’t want a one-time fee, just $69/month so we could see our report and update our info. What’s odd is that we don’t have any business LOC’s – everything is under a PG (and I have sterling credit) and we have no business loans anyway.
Also, the work we do for FedGov/DoD is all via purchase order, so I’m extending them a line of credit with net-30 terms, not the other way around! If anything I need to pull their credit report… 🙂
I just today got a letter from D&B saying they need “additional info.” and I need to call them so they can complete my credit rating.
Does anyone know, do I have a LEGAL obligation to respond to D & B? The letter is worded as such that makes me believe it is, but I think that is their intent so that I respond.
I threw the letter in the trash, so I hope I have no legal obligation to respond.
Well don’t bother trying to buy a report from them. I’ve attempted three times on the internet (all three I was kicked off – later told ‘Oh, our website is down’). I called the customer service line and was told I couldn’t order through that number because I didn’t want the YEAR LONG PLAN. I was transferred THREE TIMES eventually to a recording that said “Please try your call again later.” I’m thinking the customer service reps make commission off the plans. What a rip off!
Wondering if anyone has noticed two different websites: http://www.dandb.com and http://www.dnb.com – I got on live chat with someone at http://www.dnb.com and here is the transcript:
Welcome to D&B. We are here to assist you in finding new opportunities and gaining insight to help grow your business. Please wait for a site operator to respond.
You are now chatting with ‘Michele’
Michele: Hello!
Michele: Welcome to D&B.
you: Hi Michele, I was wondering – I have noticed similar websites at “www.dnb.com” and “www.dandb.com” – are they both official websites?
Michele: No.
Michele: DNB.com is official
you: Wow, so you guys know that you’re being impersonated by the dandb folks?
Michele: No.
you: It looks almost identical; is the service they’re selling legal?
Michele: I’m sorry for the delay. I’ll be right with you.
you: I guess you can’t really tell me if what they’re doing is legal but if I were DNB, I would definitely be looking into these guys. They are tarnishing your reputation.
Chat session has been terminated by the site operator.
Weird, right? I can’t tell if these two websites are related or not. I went to the better business bureau and got the number of the service manager for the “Dun & Bradstreet” that comes up and has been accredited since 1948. I will leave a message with this guy and see what happens and let you know!
The number listed on the BBB.org website for the service manager at D&B has been disconnected. Thanks D&B – I am feeling better and better all the time about turning down your offer of “services”.
Even if it’s not a scam, there is certainly a pretty large conflict of interest.
http://blog.g2link.com/blog/bid/20055/Business-Credit-Frustrations-DnB-Conflict-of-Interest
OH…and forgot to mention. It looks like they’re giving out hats if you have good credit http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Dun-Bradstreet-Credibility-iw-2728740580.html?x=0
C… http://www.dandb.com is the new website for Dun & Bradstreet Credibility, a spin-off of D&B, that is privately held and run by Jeff Steibel, who was involved in Web.com. D&B Credibility owns the Credit on Self or the Self Monitor product line and still use the D&B data base. dandb.com just recently went live… but looks very amatuerish for hawking credibility and business credit… oh and take a look at the “about us” section.. It looks like the cast from Glee! Makes one feel very secure in using the product, he says with a wry smile!!
D&B is a very useful company. The monitoring service they are offering is wonderful. YOU get to control the information being reported to D&B by YOUR vendors. IF something hits the report that is wrong, you know immediately. I’ve seen late pays on there simply because an invoice needed to be adjusted. Your vendors are the ones reporting your payment history to D&B. Dun and Bradstreet is merely the keeper of the information. Control your ratings by knowing what’s being reported. The service lets you add more credit lines to YOUR business credit report. It’s advantagous to be able to build your credit report and KNOW what is going into it. New business might pass you by and your competitor might get the order instead of your company if your information is not updated by you as well. Public information comes from the Secretary of State, the banks, the courts and the vendors. So be proactive and know what others are reporting to D&B about you. And make sure you report your accounts to D&B so that if someone pays you slow, D&B knows about it and they can list it in the company’s report too. D&B is one of the best companies to have as your partner when it comes to credit. You have the ability to make it better for YOUR company.
Thank you for this blog and all the comments people have left. A number of years ago a D&B person called and was very argumentative when we questioned the value of the “service” he was offering, telling us we couldn’t borrow money unless we paid D&B to update our credit report. We told him we don’t borrow money and laughed him off.
Yesterday we got another call from D&B. This time the approach was much different. This guy started talking about the general business climate and challenges facing businesses today. I knew he was eventually going to get around to selling us something, but he went on and on before starting to come in for the sales pitch.
Basically, we have to pay $500 for us to be able to update our information with D&B. As other people have said, this doesn’t make sense since D&B sells information, you would think they would want to sell ACCURATE information. And it’s even more ironic when they actually KNOW that the information they’re selling is incorrect. In our case, our information hadn’t been updated since 1998.
Anyway, we got him off the phone by having him e-mail us some more information. But I’m sure we’re going to get a call back real soon.
Dun & Bradstreet’s own web site says it all! They are not responsible for the accuracy of the information they sell!! They are nothing but snake-oil salesmen!!
I reported them to the FTC. They told me if I didn’t pay up they would downgrade my credit rating. I told them that my FIC0 score was 780 and that I did not care what they wrote about me. They hung up.
Wow, I received one of these calls today. I use to think Dun and Brad Street was the best. That was until today. The individual on the other end of the phone proceeded to tell me that our credit score was a 3 on a scale of 1-4, 4 being the worst. I kindly told him that he was full of shit, the last two vendors that we applied for accounts with told us they have not seen a credit score that high in years. As soon as I said proove it and send the report to me, he said that would be 179.00.
I did read some of the posts above from D&B employees trying to justify themselves, and its complete B/S. I own a telemarketing company and its tactics like this that make this business hard for everyone trying to do it the right way. I will never ever give them information again. What a scam!!
I totally agree with all comments. Dumb & Backscrap are a friggin’ SCAM! I advise all to STEER CLEAR!
We got a call yesterday with the same thing…send us $549 to get your credit cleared up. My boss sent a fax of his check information because he doesn’t like giving credit card info over phone. Last night he got a call from his cc company saying there might be fraudulent charges on a card he hadn’t used in over 1 year. DnB was who the charge was by and when he called them, they said his score was so low that they couldn’t take a check from him so they charged his card. WE DIDN’T GIVE THEM CC INFO!!! What can we do about that? Obviously we have been on phone most of day trying to deal with it and they keep saying they have refunded the amount to cc so we should be happy! They illegally charged his card!! We are a very successful company and in a growing time so he was worried about the loans he is getting ready to get so he felt it was necessary to “fix” his DnB rating. Any suggestions?!?!?!
I am suing Dunn & Bradstreet in Federal Court. Contact me if anyone wants to join this class action lawsuit. I will simply add you to the suit.
Have been with D&B for years, all of a sudden there is a negative on our business? Multiple calls to D&B to inquire what it is and who, the rep says, we do not have to tell you who is reporting…. supposedly a late payment (which we disputed) have not been late!
Don’t they have to tell us who is reporting falsely? And do they not have to investigate when we tell them we dispute the negative report? The rep we have spoken to, is very rude and refuses to disclose what the company is or who, I know that they are held to the same fair credit reporting laws as the credit bureaus, so what is the problem and is there a secret number to the top dog, we should call?
Appreciate any advise or information on this matter. If people can just make false reports and you are not allowed to know who, how in the world can it be corrected? No one we do business with has reported this, so who is it? What to do from here?
D
I am posting my real information so anybody willing to check it can do so. I have been in business on my own for over 12 years, and I can assure you that D&B is the biggest scam on earth.
About 5 years ago, or more, I paid them over $ 385.00 to update my listing. I did provide them with the list of my main suppliers. The result: NOTHING. They did nothing. When I dared to complaint, and request a refund, they told me…”Good luck”. They continue to send me those Mickey Mouse postcards saying that a company has recently requested my credit report, but it is not up to date. I called them up, asked them to review my history, but the little angel can only go back 2 years, he could not verify that I had paid them already. In any case, he said: “It does not matter since that information stays there only for 2 years, so I would have to pay them every 2 years to keep my company info up-to-date. I told him to go and fly a kite. I strongly believe that there should be an investigation by the Justice Department of this whole situation. These company is worst than the mafia. My advise to anybody is: Avoid them like the plague, and don’t pay them anything until they go broke. There should be competition in the business credit report industry, or this will not change. I always advise my potential suppliers that my D&B report is not up-to-date because of the above mentioned reasons, so I encourage them to contact my suppliers for credit references. I hope they never call me again, or I will be forced to be rude…All the best to all the small business owners that everyday give their customers the best possible service…Raúl
idk if this will help you change your mind or not, but i’m a current employee for D&B. I actually work for a contracted company employed by D&B and we are responsible for the sales part. I agree, it is a little about sales, but we do call customers up to give them a heads up. And just fyi, YOU have control over when and if you pay your vendors or do all your credit stuff. So if your good with your money and such, then you don’t need to buy your credit report. We sell it so you can know things.
Also, if you go to http://www.iupdate.com, you can update your basic information in our systems. ALSO, just because you don’t purchase our product, doesn’t mean we’re going to lower your score. that’s ridiculous that you say that actually. If you don’t purchase it, then you go back into our systems to be called again sometime in the future. Your the only one that has control over your credit scores.
It is an absolute SCAM! They did the same game to me, showing we had a less than perfect score (although we have perfect record) and the ‘way’ to improve it was to pay them $500. We paid, and they made it perfect! We needed all the points for an RFP competition. A year later they just send us an invoice for the renewal. It took many calls and emails to explain that we rejected the new invoice. Guess what? They downgraded our score again! On an investigative report on TV I saw an investigation into BBB how they do the exact same and even gave great reviews to a company that did not exist. They should unmask D&B also, they are an absolute racket and something should be done about it! We depend on their score to compete for business, and you basically have to pay them for ‘protection’ on the best mafia tradition!
For D&B to be useful, they would need to sell accurate information. Trying to collect money both going and coming means that they have an intrinsic conflict of interest.
Why should someone pay for “information” on other companies that is almost certainly inaccurate? This “information” is more than likely inaccurate because who wants to pay to make sure a busybody third company is selling corrected information to various other unknown entities? What a stupid setup! Who would pay at either end of this?
If D&B wanted to be an actual service, they wouldn’t attempt to sell any information that they had not verified. If someone asked to buy information on someone else, they would need to ask that someone else for the information, verify it, and then sell it. Right now, they simply hoover up whatever they can easily collect. It’s not just the low hanging fruit, it’s the stuff on the ground, too. They then sell it, knowing it’s very likely to be inaccurate, fluff it up, and say “we’re the best there is”. Do they give an “information quality” rating along with their “credit rating”? I’ll bet they don’t. Information you can’t trust isn’t information, it’s a distraction.
For D&B to have any chance of having accurate information to sell, they need to make it easy and cost free for companies to provide their information. They also need to make sure that the companies doing the providing know that there won’t be other D&B like entities coming along asking for the same information. Hmmm. That would be tough without some regulation.
So, D&B is in a tough spot. They want to be the one and only, but they don’t want to take the high road that might make that happen. Instead, they oversell their wares and extort the public for things to sell. All I see is greed, and it’s hard to trust anyone or anything greedy. I think that’s clear from the comments posted here. People are saying “we don’t trust your business model and ethics”, and D&B is saying “we’re big and there’s a need, get over it”.
Well, until D&B gets over it, we are not dealing with them in any way. We have informed them multiple times that the information they have on us is incorrect, and they should not be selling it to anyone. We have also told them we would consider providing information to them if we could do so easily and without cost to us, and if they could tell us how that information would be used and what would be disclosed. They have refused.
Everyone has this big misconception that you half to pay to provide information, thats not what you pay for at all….. You pay for validation. Its one thing to say you pay your bills and have a perfect record its a completely different story to actually prove that information… If someone could tell me how we are supposed to identify and prove everyone information at no cost ,,, its actually impossible… Why does it work in personal credit you ask??? thats because bank and credit card companies get paid tax dollars to report to the the bureaus … i personally wish there was a similar system for business credit. If there was, our information would be more complete and thus accurate .. but unfortunately theres no logistical way to do that. Clearly i work for D&B and im just so sick and tired of the ignorance business owners have towards our company and its operations .. Would u work for free??? probably not … its funny how everyone thinks we should… you owners need to get educated on D&B or at least be respectful enough to talk to and respect a sales rep that calls.. were all professionals in business credit and thus our advice is sound..
Its even more hilarious that people complain about the fee(which is a business expense and can be written off) when this can help you grow expand and prove the worth of your company..You pay for your license,, youll pay for CCR but all of a sudden when D&B calls you think it should be free.. it leaves me wondering …
WE ALL RECOGNIZE THAT PERSONAL CREDIT IS CRUCIAL TO OUR LIFE SUCCESS AND WE PAY FOR IT IN OUR TAX DOLLARS… WHY DONT WE ROCOGNIZE THE IMPORTANCE OF BUSINESS CREDIT ….
I HAVE TO WORDS FOR ALL THAT COMPLAIN….
GROW UP..
Dear D&B employee. YOU ARE FULL OF IT. MY COMPANY HAS TO WASTE COUNTLESS HOURS EVERY WEEK MONITORING YOUR CONSISTENT ACCEPTANCE OF BOGUS INFORMATION THAT WE HAVE TO CHALLENGE TO GET CLEARED (AND WIN EVERY TIME WE CHALLENGE). THE FACT THAT YOU ARE USED BY CCR FOR VERIFICATION DOESN’T MAKE YOU ANY BETTER THAN EQUIFAX OR ANY OTHER LOSER REPORTING AGENCY, IT JUST MEANS YOU GOT THERE FIRST. YOU GROW UP AND REALIZE THAT SMALL BUSINESSES AREN’T COMPLAINING BECAUSE THEY HAVE TONS OF SPARE TIME ON THEIR HANDS TO WHINE, IT’S BECAUSE WE CARE ABOUT OUR NAME AND REPUTATION. I CAME HERE FOR THE SAME REASON THEY DID-YOUR LAME-O AGENCIES REPORTING METHODS SUCK AND SMACK OF A SCAM!!!!!!!!
to vonrick:
imagine how bad your report would be if you didnt monitor it and challenge info that is erroneous. We’re not perfect thats the whole point of the service, even if its annoying, your better off challenging it over and over than letting it hurt your report… as u said image and reputation are crucial to a small business..so doesnt the service allow you to maintain that…. im glad you could explain the point and use of the service for me
THX
I own a small business, recently got a letter from D&B, or two stating firmly I would need to complete my business credit profile with them (because it is incomplete now!) and after a month as I did not proceed, I got a call(it was today (and the day started so nicely till she called me). Well the lady (English as second language) said I HAVE TO provide the information about my business for their data base or nobody will want to deal with my business anymore. So many companies is checking on my business recently she said and my credit will be discouraging them unless I pay about $400 fee to B&D! (MAGIC!) She also said: I am sorry but EVERY other business does it (keep the complete data base with D&B). I said I do not think I have that much money to pay you but she insisted to schedule a follow up call and set the login to start signing up. I didn’t set any follow up and thanked her for her call. She sent me and email and some info about their company and how to register with them anyhow. I think it is outrages to charge so much for that kind of service for who knows of what importance to anybody (customers or a business.) And btw their website is poorly made, their newsletter is poorly made, can’t they afford a skilled IT and webdev guy… it is supposed to be a well established company for goodness sake! be well and thank you for sharing your experience regarding this. (I asked my bank what they think about it, but they said they cannot advise)
I haven’t read all of the comments on this post, but was just taken aback by the idea that what I do is a “scam.” As one of D&B’s writer/editors (not a salesperson by any means) I work extremely hard to be certain that what I write is accurate, timely, and fair. I’m not interested in making sales or garnering subscribers. I’m interested in making our records as current and full of accurate data as possible. Before you go accusing a company of something as serious as scamming you, you should really find out more about the business and its practices.
Had the same call today saying 13 companies bought the report on us recently at $179.00 each Thats $2,327 that they made on my business then they have the Gall to extort me for $700 plus dollars to update my information because my credit Paydex rating magically went down, what a croc of Bull , They will never get a dime from me again.
SCAM SCAM SCAM Sorry Sophia your working for a dishonest company or at least the sales department is dishonest.
I like Jim’s comment in September:
The last time I got a call from D&B for an “info update” , I told them it would cost $500.00.
She said we don’t pay for company information.
I asked her if they have a free service for
the information they gather ? No was the reply.
So I said why should I give you my information
for free when you are going to sell it?
To hell with em.
That will be my response when they call again which they will
On Monday, May 2, 2011 I submitted an application to a semi-trailer sales and leasing company. On or about the next day, the salesman called to inform me that we had been declined based on our credit score with D&B. I was both shocked and embarrassed, even though I knew there must be a problem!
We have been doing business since August 2005 and I do not recall ever being contacted by or even having heard of this D&B, but somehow my company had been assigned a DUNS number and I am still looking into that.
Upon my request, the trailer leasing salesman provided me with our account number and contact information for D&B, which I promptly called. The D&B customer service rep (with a very thick accent, making it difficult to understand her clearly)instructed me on how to access and update my account. It was then that I discovered 5 derogatory listings on my account for which the rep advised me to launch an investigation. I was then told that it would take up to 23 days for any issues to be resolved, which is wonderful because we need to rent a semi-trailer in less than a month from now.
By that evening, all but 4 items had disappeared from our account. By this morning, I had received 4 separate email messages announcing that “the creditor” had removed these entries in the Payment Summary section, but that they chose not to reveal their identity.
Only one entry remains and unfortunately it is the worst of the 5 and is still under investigation – but it’s ONLY a $10K “bad debt” – a debt that I am positive has never existed!
So it appears to me that D&B entries can be just as easily be removed as they can be added by the powers that be.
Question is – why would a creditor choose not to reveal their identity if in fact they were owed money? If D&B is not posting these entries themselves – then WHO IS?
What would prevent, for example, a spiteful ex-spouse from submitting false reports through their employer’s account? The thought did occur to me that this may be the culprit 🙂
I certainly do not appreciate being falsely accused of crimes I did not commit and being helpless to defend my company’s reputation against this credit mafia. Today I have forwarded this link in a message to the salesman at the trailer leasing company. Although he has no control over company policy, I sent it to him in an attempt to defend the reputation of my business. He might think it’s funny, but it’s not and I will get to the bottom of this.
Next, in addition to having to clean up my own report and continually monitor it for discrepancies, I am going to alert EVERYONE I know in the trucking business to be aware of this nonsense.
I am at least grateful that I found this website and I encourage others to post their experiences and updates.
Look , im so sick of hearing all this crap about our business model… get over it ,
we’ve been around forever , we’re relied upon by the government and the most reputable companies across the world. Obviously to gain the respect and trust of those types of entities as well as 170 years in biz, we’re doing something right. Now since we deal with millions of files theres bound to be some discrepencies in the information on some companies credit reports, thats why we make the calls to consult with owners and determine if its in their best interest to monitor the information. WE ARE NOT SCAMMING PEOPLE/BUSINESS’S, WERE DOING OUR JOBS.
In the sales department we unfortunately half to deal with all the companies that have never validated info with us, dont know who we are, or are posting in this blog ( those that allow personal feelings to determine their use of d&b ). These owners are very difficult to talk to and thats generally why the calls may seem aggressive. As a rep its my role to make sure that the owner fully understands the file and our services. The decision to use us is yours alone.
MY ADVICE IS AS FOLLOWS***
When u get letters or calls from d&b regarding your commercial credit file you should respectfully take the time to understand the company that is calling you, as well as how your business credit report can affect your company. Ironically we “sales reps” are professional advisors for business credit, we deal with this all day everyday, so I’m confident saying that we know more about business credit than 98% of the clients we speak with.
With that said , at least take the time to listen and ask questions about the file and how it affects your business and make an educated decision, instead of crying like a little baby about a service fee. You owners pay out fees for licensing and taxes and incorportion, but yet its unjustified to charge for business credit management???
DUN AND BRADSTREET IS HERE TO STAY AND COMPANIES WILL CONTINUE TO USE OUR INFORMATION TO MAKE BUSINESS DECISIONS, THERES NO WAY TO AVOID INTEREST INTO THESE FILES, SO AT LEAST TAKE THE TIME TO SEE HOW IT AFFECTS YOU, GET INFORMATION FROM A PROFESSIONAL AND MAKE A DECISION.
CLIFF THOMAS how do we contact you?
Jeremy
CLIFF THOMAS how do we contact you?
Jeremy
We purchased the $449 package last year. We submitted our 4 vendors, which was the biggest effort. Our vendors had to repeatedly submit our scores (via fax and email) Our credit score improved. However, a few months later, we were called and asked to spend a few more hundred dollars to add more vendors. I said that I prefer to pay my vendors right now and our payment had significantly improved that I was satisfied with our progress. Later, I noticed our credit risk factor became extremely high in Stress factor. A few years ago, we were somewhat shaky (though far from failure rate). Now we are within a few days of 30 days (typically cutting the check day 32. I think in this day, is quite good, considering our clients are not paying us this quickly. When we did not pay for additional DNB services, our rating substantially declined.
I always had respected DNB, but now I know that I cannot trust them. It’s a sad sad time in business ethics.
To Hadi,
we dont just arbitraliy lower scores or increase the risk factors on the reports because a client doesnt want to spend more money. I’d advise you to log into your report and study the payment breakdown to see if any lates or erroneous payments are on file causing the impact to your scores. We are unbias so there is no connection between the score change and your denial to spend more money. YOur just being near sighted and blaming a problem on us when the problem is within the information reported on your company. REMEMBER** I fyou dont agree with the information on your report its your responsibility to call in and challenge the information. That’s why you have the service, to protect the scores, and see what others are using when they m;ake decisions on how to business with you. I hope this helps you..
Dear “d&b employee,”
It is difficult to take your posts seriously when they are absolutely littered with mispellings and chat-speak. You are not doing your “biz” any favors by telling me I “half to” do something and that “your” being near-sited. It makes you sound like an idiot and makes the company you represent seem even less credible. Just some friendly advice from someone who is trying to sort of the facts and fiction about D & B.
Ok, so it seems I got the same thickly accented woman from D&B on the phone that the person from Gerdes transportation talked to. What a coincidence!
The amazing coincidence is that after 18 yrs. of successful business ALWAYS paying our invoices on time (you don’t make it 18 yrs. as a small business unless you pay your invoices on time) we were rejected for the financing on the purchase of a new vehicle because of a D&B report that was not to the liking of ALLY Bank. Really interesting is that 1 week earlier Chase (JP Morgan Chase) renewed and increased our business line of credit to almost 1 Million Dollars.
So I wasted a bit of my time trying to dig into the D&B report and was told that I can “correct” my report on line if there are any inaccuracies. I also wasted some time trying to do that. Ultimately D&B is hiding behind international consumer privacy laws to keep its bogus information secret (see the following if you really want to dig into it) http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/privacy/wkshp97/comments1/ntia.htm
Bottom line is that D&B has some fictitious vendor that says that we paid a $100.00 invoice slow. When I tried the online “fix” all I got from D&B is that they “investigated” and determined that the information is accurate. But will they tell me who this supposed vendor is that claims we paid a $100.00 invoice slow? Hell no – (Please refer to the above URL. – They don’t have to)
All of this crap because I wanted to take advantage of GM’s 60 month 0% APR offer to buy a new vehicle.
I am blessed to be able to say that I
Have NEVER had to borrow any money in 18 yrs. in business. Recently started the Line of Credit with Chase to build our relationship with our bank. And low and behold – after 1 year they deemed us a worthy company to renew our line and not only that – Triple it ! Funny thing is that the original charter of D&B – was to be able to help businesses make a determination if a company could be trusted with credit.
The underlying philosophy of The Dun & Bradstreet Corporation, “Man’s Trust in Man,” is at the heart of the company’s activities, especially in its handling of information. A statue bearing the quotation sits in the lobby of the company’s headquarters, underscoring a principle of its founding in 1841 — created for the purpose of providing accurate, impartial and trusted information about businesses to facilitate commerce.
It seems they have “lost thier way”
Due to a bogus D&B report Ally Bank denies a $50,000 loan on a new GM truck?
I smell a fish here. I smell Chicago style corruption. ( yes I know that D$B is from NJ )
My daddy ( God rest his Soul ) warned me about D&B over 25 yrs ago. Said they were (Bad word)
To all you D&B employees out there that say that all of us complainers need to Grow Up – and that your employer is offering a good service? Facts are Facts children. Extorsion is Extorsion no matter how you serve it up. Might I suggest The duck test:
“If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck”
D&B is nothing less than a legalized Mafia Extorsion ring. They should be stopped – Will it ever happen? Grow Up !
Well they are definitely keeping with their same antics. I am glad that I saw these posts as my manager wanted to pay the $449 and I disagreed. I also think it is a scam. One other thing that I have not seen mentioned is that the gentleman I spoke to stated that sometimes vendors do not provide information under the Duns number but by the business address. Here in lies our problem. We are located on another business’s grounds so the only thing that deciphers us from them is a room number. So we have vendor information on our report that belongs to them (which is a huge government entity). For instance, $100,000 credit limit for phone service. We are a nonprofit and do not have phone service. nice, huh??
I would also like to know the information for the class action suit to at least have the government take a look into these people.
This is my second post and although I could “vent” my frustration about D&B a whole lot more, I’ll refrain. But there is one thing about this whole D&B bs that I’ll never understand. If I have a customer who does not pay me exactly on the thirty-day mark and he is otherwise a good loyal customer, I’ll let him ride some. If he goes to far, we put his account on hold. If paying very late becomes his norm, we close his account and tell him cash only.
That said, I would never report a customer to the likes of D&B for paying me a few days late, or even thirty days late. At least, not if I wanted to keep him as a customer. Suppose I did report him and now he is trying to increase his credit line in order to pay of all people, me. But his bank turns him down because someone (me) threw him under the bus. Now suppose he finds out that it was me? Do you think he’ll keep buying from me? I sure as hell would not! Yes, I know D&B does not give out names, but they do tell categories, and you may be the only one that fits that category.
The other thing I’ve noticed about the companies that give negative reports to D&B is that it’s always the companies that are so big they trip over their own feet. I have had three such companies give me a bad report for being past due. The story is the same for each company. You receive a bill that is either wrong or not yours. You call them and after pushing buttons and being put on hold you finally get to talk to someone who assures you its all taken care of. Next month the same bill shows up again and back on the phone you go. The next month it’s the same thing only the bill comes with a past due letter.
So, as a result, all my purchase orders have a D&B warning at the bottom. This warning tells my venders how I feel about D&B and I tell them that if they do report customers to D&B to please do not report us, no mater if it’s good or bad. Because If I find out that they do, we
will no longer buy from them.
Just spoke with D&B too, which tried to sell me on a $600 annual plan to update my company’s credit info. I did not receive from D&B the info you have on this page about how to update the account, FREE, which I found after googling “value of incomplete duns report.” I updated my corporate account info, free. Thanks for providing this information. NOTE: On a mac, had to use Safari (not Firefox) to submit the updates.
For the post by the D&B employee – yes, charge for your services. But don’t double dip or overcharge. D&B is providing a service to my company by validating what it can about my company credit rating. It is providing the same service to companies that want to do business with my company and want to know whether my company has good credit. So D&B charges those companies $180 to give them my company’s report – for which I provide much of the information – and my company $600 a year? Not sure what’s a reasonable rate here, but don’t think we’re there yet.
All very interesting. Thanks for posting.
The worst part is that the Government REQUIRES you to have a DUNS number to register for Grants or Research Funding. Take a look at http://grants.gov for eg.
This only means that the DUNCE people are in cahoots with the Government – and what can be better – private and public fleecing of the citizen!
Amazing.. I just got the same call just now.. ‘TWO companies (couldn’t tell me who) are INTERESTED in doing BUSINESS but were not able to get your D&B number (or something to that effect). Its the same thing the BBB is trying to pull.. and in my land, we call it E-x-t-o-r-t-i-o-n.
To LCR,
we charge on both sides because it cost us money to validate info about all the companies and maintain the database.
(People tend to forget we are a BUSINESS!!)
WOULD YOU WORK FOR FREE ( excludes non profits )
The free update you did helps the file but doesnt validate it. Were just taking your word for it and releasing your file as non validated. There is a fee associated with validation. ( Hence, we actually perform a services we get paid for )
To Tom ;
Interesting perspective regarding the larger companies, i half to agree they are a pain to work. However, in the case of incorrect invoices that are reported to your credit report you can challenge them off of there for free through customer service or through your self monitoring service. The only way to know those invoices are on your file is to have access to it or to have been notified by the reporting party. Hope that helps you…
To Vino..
We forged our relationship with the US government back in the 1800’s , theres a reason they rely on our database..its not about “cahoots”. It’s called trust..
To Dono..
I’d like to see you run a business credit bureau and release names to the public.. you’d be sued so fast its ridiculous and wouldnt last more than a few months. Based on your post you likey don’t understand how business credit works and just want to bash us..
ITS NOT EXTORTION.. IF IT WAS DO YOU REALLY THINK WE WOULD STILL BE AROUND!!
Let’s be realistic. Plus. if you know a way to service business credit better than give me a call, we’ll start a business and get rich. ( I doubt we can do better than a 170 years of history in the field ) Something tells me that this is the way it will be done for the next 170 years…
To others that have posted at me:
Forgive the spelling errors, I’m multi-tasking while i post. and btw,, I’m not bitter that you have negative opinions about D&B I just want to help clarify the situation for those that disagree.
If anyone has any questions concerns or simply wants to rant post and I’ll reply
All the best to All,
D&B Employee
Dun and Bradstreet operate in the small business arena like a monopoly. When working for larger corporations the use of D&B was a requirement for credit control. With the exception of trade experiences, that can be a useful guide for large companies, they rarely even managed to know a company had entered chapter 11 let alone come close to predicting it in advance. Their problem is that what their customers really want is access to information that is unpublished and, of course, for a public company that is not permissible, and for a private company, none of their business. As an example, I own a number of companies that have a Duns number – not my choosing. My business partner ran a D&B at a cost of $149 on the business to find that we were rated as very likely not to pay on time in the next twelve months and significant likelihood of financial stress in the next twelve months. Fascinating. Having listed no “noteworthy events, no legal suits, no open judgments or suits” and a single (fictional, I believe) report of a $100 cash transaction D&B is able to conclude that the company is not creditworthy. The crime? Not giving D&B privileged access to the private accounts of the company. However, as some D&B employees have reported in these blogs, you can give them what they want so they can then sell it and it would give us a good credit rating. They obviously miss the point that D&B has no special right to private information and that by declining to give it to them is not a reason to be treated like a criminal. The second experience is with another company that I part own that is expanding at a fast rate, is known both nationally, and in a more limited fashion, internationally. According to Dun And Bradstreet in their “Special Notice” that they will provide to “Dun and Bradstreet customers who request a report your business” the huge research capabilities concluded that “this business is no longer active at this location”. Other than employing close to fifty people, having a real person manning the front desk and phone for 14 hours per day, seven days a week at the address they list and some new technology that apparently D&B does not have called the telephone and internet, this malicious report gets published. We can of course just give them what they want. Extortion? I hate dealing with attorneys and deplore class action lawsuits but given the complete lack of any interest or response from D&B I do understand why people go there. If someone wants to pursue a class action lawsuit I would, reluctantly, support it as D&B consistently fail to present anybody in authority to answer customer complaints – try and find an e-mail on the internet for that department.
To The D&B Employee,
You said it all in your first sentence, “it cost us money to validate info about all the companies and maintain the database.” Thats just it, you #D&B#don’t “validate” anything. A company can say anything about another and D&B will publish without every contacting the other company to hear their side of the story.Just because a company pays to say something about another does not mean its correct. As a small business owner I have enough to do without haveing to look over my shoulder to see whos been paying to bad mouth me.
Oh,about that being around for 170 years. It doesn’t always mean you good or know what your doing. It does however mean your getting old and oudated.
To The D&B Employee,
You said it all in your first sentence, “it cost us money to validate info about all the companies and maintain the database.” Thats just it, you (D&B)don’t “validate” anything. A company can say anything about another and D&B will publish without every contacting the other company to hear their side of the story.Just because a company pays to say something about another does not mean its correct. As a small business owner I have enough to do without haveing to look over my shoulder to see whos been paying to bad mouth me.
Oh,about that being around for 170 years. It doesn’t always mean you good or know what your doing. It does however mean your getting old and oudated.
I’m getting harassed by D&B as well. I get daily calls stating “it is very important that you contact us ASAP re: your credit rating”. I don’t like getting sales calls in the middle of the work day and I find this shake down really annoying.
Dun & Bradstreet uses fear tactics against you. Some how they are trying to get money out of you!! The biggest lie is that people or customers are checking you out. What they do not tell you is that the people or companies checking you out are just looking to sell you shit!!! They have less power then the BBB. Maybe if your working for communist Wal-Mart. You need to be in good standings. Do not waste your money with these scumbag New Yorkers.
What I want to know is why no one has talked about their bigest scam off all. If you have someone report negitive credit on your D&B report and try to find out who is reporting it there is no way to get the name. Now I cant beleive they have found a loop hole in the consumer reporting act and are exploiting it big time!!!! Dont beleive me check it out for your self. I have had many times that they have put somthing negitive on my report to try and get me to pay for their service. When I dispute the info they take it off but never never never can you find out who is putting it on. Now since when in America are you not allowed to face your accuser. This is just plain fraud and our congress needs to update the credit reporting act to include small business. If there is any one working on this I would love to help. These guys are as low as you can get using peoples credit to squeeze money out of people. Just so the readers know I have 28 years of perfect personal and Business credit so this is not about any sour grapes they are just plain taking advantage of a loop hole in they law and should be Quashed hard by the legislature!!!!!!!
To Rick:
The reason the name is not being identified to you is because the reporting company declined us to release that information to you. When you dispute information, we ask the reporting party if we can release their name to you. Frequently they decline.
You could deduce who it is by cross referencing the dollar amounts, industry, and tiimelines with your accounts payable history.
Good Luck
To GEN. Alexander,
Call the Federal Trade Commission and ask them if we create fake credit checks….
D&B Employee:
It’s a scam because you charge the inquiring company for access to supposedly good information, but then you tell the inquiree that they need to pay money to make sure the credit data is good. That is YOUR job, because YOU are trying to sell accurate data, and it should be supported by the sale of the data. ALL “monitoring” services sold by the sellers of the monitored data are scams.
If you don’t want to look like shady crooks, you need to change your policy and not allow inquirers to hide their identity and you need to establish the same data monitoring standards for ALL subjects in your database.
Companies dont pay for good information, they pay for reporting. The data we sell is accurate and of high quality. What causes people to say what you said is their inability to identify and interpret the data they access. They just look at the score and if its 80 everything is ok. Where the failure lies is identifying the payment history on file. I see files with a perfect scores all the time , the catch is that they are only based on a small number of payment experiences that are usually small dollar amounts. Thus interpretation of the payment breakdown on a file is crucial to making sound decisions based on our information.
Its all too sus for me. Why would they call the home phone number and not the registered business number?
To Kezza.
Simple, the telephone company gave us that number connected to your name and it was the only number we can find.
REMEMBER EVERYONE:
THE ONUS IS ON THE BUSINESS OWNER TO MAKE SURE THE INFO ON THEIR BIZ IS ACCURATE, NOT OURS.
JUST LIKE THE ONUS IS ON YOU PERSONALLY FOR YOUR PERSONAL CREDIT INFORMATION.
I totally agree with the posting above. I got a call from someone that sounded like a broken record and he gave me the same false information: Poor credit rating, average 10 days late on bills (bull – we pay our bills as soon as we get them, not even at the grace period), and that there are two clients that inquired about my company’s credit and each one of them paid $180!! it is absolutely a scam and a way to gather marketing information and sell it without the member’s consent..
Wow- Our company doesn’t have any account with D & B, but we just received a letter addressed to a person who doesn’t exist at this company. Since I was worried that some person was using our company information/name fraudulently of applying for credit under our company name, I called D & B for information and to clear it up. D & B tried to sell me a package so that I could be notified if anyone actually did use our company name – I could monitor for between $250 and $800. Sounds like they deliberately sent the notice to us using a fictitious person’s name so that they could instill fear in us and get us to buy their product. I bet this is an unfair business practice for which they could be fined considerable sums!!!!!
When I started my company I was freaked out that my D&B standing would be critical, since I rely 100% on business credit to get things done. So I paid the $500 or so to enter/update my information. I was pissed at their two-fisted model – having to spend money to give them my data so they could sell it to others. So I did the best I could and made the salesperson personally guarantee (whatever that meant) that my score would improve within 3 months.
It didn’t. When I called back he was gone. That was 3 yrs ago, and since then 4-5 other salespeople have called and threatened doom and gloom upon my firm if I didn’t pay more money. The latest was today:
“Again, there has been 44 recent requests for your report and 15 additional alerts have gone out to other companies monitoring your report for changes to your commercial credit scores and ratings. Your current Credit Score has dropped to a 5 and the report is in need of some attention”.
Now here is the kicker: not only have we never paid a bill late, but we spend over $7M each year with direct-bill vendors. And each year we add new vendors eager to do business with us. We give them our existing vendors as references and everything works out fine. Only one of them, very early on, had an issue with our D&B report. We got through that with a credit-card as backup.
Our “dismal” D&B score has never been a problem for my company’s growth. We just recently closed a $750K SBA revolving credit line, and D&B never came up in the process. Why? Because D&B has agressively marketed themselves into irrelevance.
My advice, like others, is this: don’t waste your time or money with D&B. They got way too greedy and turned an otherwise reputable and trusted business into a hated, despised scam. You don’t need them. Your creditors don’t need them. Hopefully they will be a relic within a few years.
Our small company has a DUNS number and we signed up for the eupdate awhile ago. Lately, we get emails from Duns with the title: “An Alert has been placed on your D&B business credit file”.
This is pretty funny as we have zero loans, have no line of credit, we have no telephone utility, water utility, or electric utility bills. We use VOIP which we pay cash for. We have no corporate credit card. And our utilities are included in our lease. I checked with our corporate land lord and they did not pull our credit. Basically, there is zero reason for a credit inquiry into our business.
So exactly who is this mysterious company seeking our DUNS information?
My personal feeling is that a company owner would see that email and pay the $500 to see what it was. But to us, it seems like a scam and totally irrelevant to our business.
To Tex,
you didnt include potiential commercial client in your assessment there. That was likely the source. We dont arbitraily ‘create’ inquiries. We’re regulated by the FTC and we wouldn’t jeopordize business to land one account.
To D Roberts,
I agree we call too much but we are still very important to business….
When I called due to a bad score due to no information about our company, the rep told me that D & B was in business for 170 years. I told him that the mob was also…. and that they are both illegal!!
What a joke. I called D&B several weeks ago, to register our company for a DUNS # in order to enter the enterprise enrollment process with Apple. The D&B agent informed me that we were already registered, and gave me the number. Weeks later Apple responds that the # is invalid, and an agent from hoovers.com nonchalantly says it’s no surprise, and to email update@hoovers.com to get to the bottom of it. Terrible service, horrible waste of time.
I had my fill in 2005. We had a small family business that was bought out by another company. The original company was dissolved. New tax id #, sales tax id, and business license, the new owners changed everything. We were not bound to this company in anyway. We were employees. Things went south pretty quick so we quit and started a new company called Heartland Stone LLC. D&B associated all the negative transactions and debts from the other company that we had no affiliation with to our new company because of my fathers ownership in the original company. I fought with D&B for hours and finally proved to them that they were reporting inaccurately. They acknowledge that I was right but insisted I pay $849.00 for them to report the accurate information.
Since then we have grown our sales 6 times from what they were. We have done it without the help of D&B. I still hear from D&B about every 6 months. Every time they call I tell them where they can go!
I just recently bought a company and secured a Duns number. I have a long time customer that is constantly late and now it has become a chronic problem. I contacted D&B to try to report these late payments and was informed that I would have to purchase a marketing plan in order to report information to D&B. WOW! I agree it is a SCAMMMM!
I read your blog after receiving several calls from D&B reps harassing me to update our company info and threatening a negative credit rating if I failed to do so. They never even got to the “give us money” stage of the call and it reeked of a scam to me. After reading others’ comments, this is definitely a scam! The “company” I work for is just one wealthy guy who is retired, travels on his private jet and yacht and has an LLC that owns all of these fabulous things and we’ve never requested a Duns number. My first inkling of the scam was D&B’s cookie-cutter pitch that several companies have been inquiring about our credit. I politely tell them I don’t know what companies those could be, because we don’t do business with other companies and have no need for financing and the telemarketers are simply rude when I try to explain that we don’t have a need for D&B’s services. They threaten a “bad rating” will affect our business. Well, hel-lo? . . . how many times must I tell them we don’t do any business? If this were legitimate, they would understand we are not a viable prospect and note their system to stop calling, instead of trying to convince me again and again that they know better than I do what my boss needs. I’ll simply hang up in the future.
This just happened to me and my company. I have been issued a PAST DUE BILL for $449.00 out of nowhere! This is crazy – they are SCAMMING anyone and everyone for money!!!!
I will never look at D & B the same.
Kari
Here’s a new one- someone from D&B calls and says they are ‘renewing’ our account but the credit card info they have ‘failed’ –how stupid are they? They really imagine I’m going to give them credit card info? I told them I was sorry but we don’t “renew” over the phone and all requests for information must be done in writing. They’ve called twice so far. Times must be tough for people to resort to this for a living!!
I received a D&B call today – the same aggressive sales tactic. You have had 17 inquiries in the past month and your credit rating has gone done. We are never late with our payments. At the end he pulled how I need to pay $549 to review and update our own record (so that they can turn around & sell this record).
He pulled “you would not want to work for Free” when I balked at paying to see if what he claims is even remotely true as I could not recall such situation. I have had two experiences when I knew they had bad reports – reporting companies which we have never done business with on our records and I had to pay them to get them removed. D&B is indeed a SCAM. I would not trust their data, given its poor method of collection of data and their ways to rate people who pay up better. Their data is often inaccurate. Their assessment of business finances would be intentionally negative to drive small business owners to pay up fees by scare tactics. “Your insurance rates and interest rates will go up.” The rep realized he was not going to make his sale and hung up. Stop supplying D&B with your data which they wish to sell for profit.
We have received two calls in the last week. And a post card today. Same program. The call started out with the fact we have had THIRTY TWO inquiries in the last few months. That seems excessive to me, since we haven’t made many changes in our vendors or business practices. I joked around with the sales guy a bit (Happy Birthday, D&B), but I explained that our vendors do not require the use of D&B info. We are a privately held company, and we sell direct to residential customers. The sales rep couldn’t understand how I wouldn’t care what they report.
I have specifically asked my vendors if they require a current D&B. I even asked my bank (we use a regional bank). They ALL replied, “No.”. Everyone of my vendors uses my personal credit rating (and yes, I am a corporation, not a sole proprietorship). So, ask your vendors/customers. If they don’t use D&B info, then don’t waste the money, in my opinion.
To the D&B Employee – how can I remove myself from your call/mail list? Legally there has to be a “do not call/mail me” option. 🙂
J
TO JV,
All those companies you work with and your bank have personal guarantees from you.. Why would they encourage you to establish business credit when they have your personal assests in a vice. In a tough economy they dont wanna lose out if your corporation fails, they wanna make and protect their money $$.. You develop your business report then leverage it to get rid of the personal guarantees..(I’d tell ya the same crap , no im not checking your business credit info,.. i dont need to see if your paying others late or getting sued… no i only lent ya thousands and it costs me like 100$ to to watch this … even if the info is limited its still worth it … come out that rock your living under and see the real world…)(in a sarcastic tone…not trying to be rude)
Try Customer service # 1-800-234-3867 for DNC
Thanks for this posting. I just received a call from D & B, and of course they are a “marketing” firm.. I would not trust what the rep say on the phone..SCAM…
This is no different than what the BBB, Yelp, Angies List and all other review and rating services do… Its like paid protection… Isn’t this was the mob would do?
This is no different than what the BBB, Yelp, Angies List and all other review and rating services do… Its like paid protection… Isn’t this was the mob would do?
I am going to be kind and generous and suggest that perhaps D&B originally had a good product idea for smaller businesses. I had an account with them in the past and is was beneficial, particularly in dealing with a deadbeat customer.
So I was receptive when they called regarding an old business that had shared this address decades ago, and sought to correct them.
The fatal flaw was NOT realizing I was not in fact talking to D&B, but rather to the boiler room vermin they had hired to market the “Product”. The claims became extravagant, such as “You will be assigned an account representative who will be calling you” and other such fraud.
Recognize that the excrement that is employed by boiler rooms will say ANYTHING AT ALL to close that sale. They will just make it up on the fly if that’s what they think the sucker wants to hear, and this scum deserved a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
It is not a total loss: I can deduct it, but shall have to ask my CPA if it is a business expense, or a casualty loss due to fraud.
Needless to say, I will never have anything to do with D&B again, and if any of my customers are D&B rated, I will downgrade them for being as stupid as I was.
Right now I’m in the middle of dealing with D&B on fraud that is on my D&B report of three new trade accounts that are maxed out totaling $50,000 in one month. This is a business that I dissolved in 2008. Somehow someone has updated the info in my D&B account and is using the company name to create new accounts. I have gone round and round with them on the phone and am getting no where. Why is it they will not supply the creditors name so that I can report the fraud to them and have the accounts closed. I doesn’t make since to not supply the name since they are the ones who are going to suffer when they don’t get paid because of the fraudulent activity. How is this protecting them or us? I agree with you that D&B royally sucks. Maybe I should try to buy the information from them. Do they have a special rate for D&B customers to buy a certain number of names on your payment history? This is a gaping hole in their system. I am concerned this is going to affect my personal credit report and I don’t know what to do.
Just call me tired of D&B’s BS.
Right now I’m in the middle of dealing with D&B on fraud that is on my D&B report of three new trade accounts that are maxed out totaling $50,000 in one month. This is a business that I dissolved in 2008. Somehow someone has updated the info in my D&B account and is using the company name to create new accounts. I have gone round and round with them on the phone and am getting no where. Why is it they will not supply the creditors name so that I can report the fraud to them and have the accounts closed. I doesn’t make since to not supply the name since they are the ones who are going to suffer when they don’t get paid because of the fraudulent activity. How is this protecting them or us? I agree with you that D&B royally sucks. Maybe I should try to buy the information from them. Do they have a special rate for D&B customers to buy a certain number of names on your payment history? This is a gaping hole in their system. I am concerned this is going to affect my personal credit report and I don’t know what to do.
Just call me tired of D&B’s BS.
To everyone that realizes the importance of maintaining their business credit. I tip my hat off to you. I have read most of the threads on this forum, and it is sad to see very few business owners prioritizing business credit as they would any other financial aspect of their business. I get it! There are sometimes a few bad apples in the barrell, and when we as humans encounter such, we quickly become judgmental. If you are reluctant to purchase from a telephone salesperson. Great! You should be. However, get their name and number, do the research, become educated, and then proceed. I am an employee, and I also own two small businesses outside of work, in which one is a Limited Liability Corporation, operated by a sole proprietor. In order for that business to grow, and for me to avoid personal gaurantees, I must have a firm business credit profile. That is common sense, and an extension of Business 101!
I have read post in which everyone is saying D&B is only suitable for the larger businesses. Ask yourself; how did some of those businesses become large? Proper financial management in every aspect. Think about it “Business Owners”.
Well, “Another Employee”, you surely understand guilt by association.
I do not care if the Vatican did it, when someone hires a boiler room to sell their product, they OF COURSE lose credibility.
Normally, that may be survivable, but with D&B, credibility is their primary product.
You now have no more credibility with me than the vinyl siding telemarketers, the fake charities, the offshore fake Yellow Page Scammers, or anyone else in that category.
When I am called next year to renew, it will be an interesting day for the caller.
I suggest posting the (800) number for the Samaritans in your boiler room.
Help!!! I am in the beginning phase of starting a new company. Papers were only submitted 2 weeks ago and I was contacted qgressively by DB to sign up for credit monitoring. I know many an owner that has praised their services, but I am not at a point where I can say this would be beneficial. My question is: could vendors ( which I don’t HAVE any yet) or competitors do such low handed trickery as to report negative infarctions? I wouldn’t put it past some companies I have dealt with while employed at another company in the same field. Thanks.
Help!!! I am in the beginning phase of starting a new company. Papers were only submitted 2 weeks ago and I was contacted qgressively by DB to sign up for credit monitoring. I know many an owner that has praised their services, but I am not at a point where I can say this would be beneficial. My question is: could vendors ( which I don’t HAVE any yet) or competitors do such low handed trickery as to report negative infarctions before I have evenSTARTED? I wouldn’t put it past some companies I have dealt with while employed at another company in the same field. Thanks.
They probably get the leads from your Sec. of State filings. Aha! A new business! A Virgin!
Should that happen, I’d involve a lawyer instantly. The type who tortures puppies. Offer a retainer plus a massive contingency, and turn it loose, suing the John Doe who filed the report, and compelling D&B to release the identity and substance of the libel and defamation.
But I would not worry too much. By the time this all plays out, no one is going to pay any attention to anything D&B has to say, anyway. Any damage to our reputations will be trivial compared to whatD&B has done to itself.
It’s like the virtuous Town Librarian of impeccable reputation being caught turning tricks at a truck stop.
Businesses that want to grow to medium and large size understand the concept of business credit. The reality is consumer credit and business credit both cost money. Consumer credit is run by three Gov. subsidized agencies that are federally regulated & funded(yes that means your tax money). You have no choice in consumer credit to pay for the tracking and building of your file and it certainly impacts the majority of the populations ability to pursue various opportunities. Business credit however is private and yes D&B pretty much owns the credit game. The naive businessman gets angry at D&B when they try to sell them or talk about how little credit their business has. This is irrelevant to an experienced business owner. Depending on your industry, your goals, and needs D&B much like any other vendor or supplier who wants your business. You have to be the judge and decide what might not be a good fit for your business. I do recommend you cooperate with their methods in collecting data and check it at least annually. I know! I know! You are thinking “why?” “Why should I do anything?” “I have a private business.” “I shouldn’t have to give anyone information.” I have only one suggestion and it is because it could be sending mixed information to other business. GPS/Government Agencies/ Search engines/Directories……All built off D&B they provide a wealth of information and the people who don’t care if others know how to reach their business to improve your sales is out of their mind. You do this not because you want to help D&B but because you want it to help customers find your business. D&B does not force you to pay to update your file because I have three businesses and only ever paid for one entity to pursue credit endeavors. The truth is business credit doesn’t happen but if you want it to happen or if your company grows to the point where it becomes a factor in the decision making process……”guess what” you should probably start brushing up on how this all works and how you use it to an advantage. This is a cost of doing business much like insurance, and advertising. If your customers want to see how well your business pays your bills, and what size jobs your company can take on proven by your ability to fulfill large overhead you show them. If thats what gets you business that $500 dollars is a pretty good investment. Listen I am not saying this for every company and I think there in lyes the problem. D&B targets all businesses and some may not need it but they are a business too and don’t forget it so do exactly what you would do if you were buying a new car or TV check the product out! D&B is a business information source know for “risk evaluation” you may not be interested in one thing they offer but if you find a good rep. who cares and a fitting product you may like working with them. If you see no value then do or don’t update your information but don’t complain about it if its outdated because you never updated in the first place. I also find some of these posts hilarious how well could a business that does not budget credit cost into expenses. Furthermore you (joke) about suing a company that is ancient, huge, and strategic partners with the federal government. This cracks me up when a business says they are suing D&B because they tried to sell them a service. Grow up… look up the cost to get an attorney and then call D&B bak and sign up its cheaper! Come on don’t be foolish a mom and pop company will go under before that thing ends. Bottom Line I read this and think the ignorance is amusing.
Business owners have lied to me! Merchandise has been misrepresented to me. I have heard business owners complaining when I am shopping and have walked out when it got too much for me. I told a Dentist once to stop disciplining his Employees while he was working on my teeth and did not return to him.
IF YOU THINK DNB IS A SCAM PUT YOUR $$$ WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS AND HIRE AN ATTORNEY!!! Attorney will cost more than $500 to fix your Credit report!!!
This makes me think that you are probably the ones I have walked out of your Businesses because I heard you whining rather than working. And not taking care of your Customers.
Who will take care of your business for free?? Tell me so I can use them please.
On your page Barry there are offers to check Credit for free, the only thing is that you have to present payment info for the free trial. Offers for credit repair, same thing.
You are promoting these on same page your are bad mouthing another company.
DB has called me three times in the last ten days with the same thing about all these hits on our credit report. Yes I am always looking for new vendors for new products but have only had one ever ask me for our DB # in 30 years and that was the fed govt (navy). We pay all our bills on time and always have so how could we have a low credit rating? DB is fabricating this with their own system of saying our info is outdated. I got a credit report off Experian in our business name and it listed that we pay our bills and on time and we are a low risk so isn’t that good enough. It almost seems like blackmail to demand paying them money or they will downgrade us, that’s not good business in my eyes and the way they start off the conversation is antagonistic and going for the scare factor, just like the compliance people who want to sell you posters that you can get for free elsewhere. Yeah good credit is important and we have done our best to be model business owners and have never been delinquent. The lady on the phone said it would give us more access to extended terms, well we do not want extended terms and built up a 90 day debt with a vendor and then be in the hole for a lot of money. We take deposits from our customers, order the goods and pay for them in 10-30 days depending on the vendor. Yeah the last couple of years have been rough and sometimes money is tight so the owners go without a paycheck here and there to keep it afloat. Every small business is a different story and DB lumps us all into the same catagory.
I just got a call on my cell phone with this scam today. The guy sounded really sales-y as you said, and it was the same pitch. And he sounded increasingly defensive when I asked questions about what companies were asking for credit reports, and how could it be that my credit score was under 300 when business credit scores as scaled 1 to 10, not to 800 like personal scores; he got huffy. He knew I was onto his fakery. Glad I didn’t fall for it. Called my business banker immediately to tell him, and he hadn’t heard of this scam, but is ready to warn other clients. Thanks for the post!
I also think that Dun & Bradstreet has become a ruthless scam based on the tactics of extorting money to keep their (!) data up-to-date. I would have to pay to see what they are reporting to others. If I had more time and thought that D&B is important (they no longer are), I would’ve sued for libel and for sharing data that they have no rights to.
I got an “alert” email over the weekend with a reported credit score issue. Went online, paid the $119 for the “report”, and the found a nondescript $50 payment that was supposedly 30 days past due. This activity dropped our PAYDEX score from an 80 to a 70– indicating that were likely to run 15 days late of payment terms. We clear all AP every-other week (usually weeks ahead of terms) and in the 10 year history of our $3.2MM firm, have only disputed two invoices– both of whom were subcontractors with errors on their invoices.
I received the same bullshit pitch from a sales guy vis-a-vis, “if you pay us $500, we’ll square you away.” What a complete scam. After barking at the guy on the phone, he informed me that I can go to http://iupdate.dnb.com for free and update my business info and dispute any payment reports for free.
I have been online for the past 30 minutes trying to get the info corrected and to say that the system is slow would be gracious. How disappointing to see what was once great American company become such a piece of crap outfit.
You are not the only one.
we had the same experience as you.
I am also fed up with D&B telling me I need to pay to get my business credit rating up to date. On the personal side, I don’t pay Experian, Equifax or TransUnion and they seem to manage quite well thank you!
I also have received multiple phone calls from D&B to pay a yearly fee. They are using a slightly different tactic with me. The salesperson says that they are not able to give any of my company information to enquirers because I don’t pay the fee. I just have a DNB # and my business cannot benefit from that alone. They are using the tactic that I possibly am losing business because enquirers cannot see my information. I have a very small company and the $500 is a lot when you only clear 5k a year. After reading all of these experiences I feel better about declining the offer.
I had my first call from them today. Wasn’t sure what it was so I googled their name and seen your page. Thank goodness you posted this! I will NOT be putting up with any of their BS! Thanks again!
Scam is not the word. Blatant theft.I own my own co. We paid aprrox. 500 dollars earlier this year due to the call from d&b then we called later on a bad report they could not find my payment. They said they set up a account for the same ( not ours) co. And you lost your money. They are a big company bully with zero customer service. They will do nothing but raise your blood pressure.
We just receieved a phone call from the Dun & Bradstreet boiler room, saying companies were looking into our credit and needed to update for the bargain price of $499.00 saving over $400.00. Lucky us!! I have not applied for any new credit, we are an established firm with more than 35 years in our business, recently our bank, Wachovia was taken over by Wells Fargo and our line of credit re negotiated with out personal guarantees or any problems, so why would I beleive D&B. Am thrilled I found this blog..
D&B is lame, I totally agree that it’s a scam. One huge problem is that in order to do business with Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club, they require that you have a good D&B rating. I currently have a vendor who anonymously (and falsely) reported to D&B that my company owes 100k past due. This has killed our chances of selling our product in Sam’s Club. This is crazy!
I got a call saying I have a company on record that I didn’t pay $500 to. I run my business on a cash basis, paying everything immediately, not letting any credit extend. I have NEVER not paid ANY bill. He said he could not find out who it was until I subscribe to their SelfMonitoring system. He told me I had had my DUNS number a long time, but could not tell me how long. Sorry, but this is nothing but an arrogant SCAM by an arrogant company (also exemplified by at least one of the previous DNB employees who wrote here) out to make a buck by scare tactics. This is tantamount to a loan company calling and threatening to foreclose on your house, or break your legs. The guy was pushy and when I asked for information about what he was talking about, or literature, he said none existed, but they have a promotional video he emailed. I don’t need him or his company that bad. He needs to get a real job where he can sleep well at night instead of worrying if someone will find out who he is and come after him. Honor, honesty, and integrity are bywords of our company. What happened to them within DNB?
I got a call yesterday and was told my company’s rating was a 3, and for $449 they would make it a 1A. My respect for D&B dropped to 0.
I got the call yesterday but the price must have gone up. She told me $549.00 however since I was nice to her that she was authorized to give me 10% discount, wow. She also told me that our company had 300 hits last year looking at our credit, and 50 last month, bs. We don’t apply to one new company a year for credit and I don’t see our one insurance company checking it over once a year. Don’t tell me that there are 300 companies out there looking us up to wanting to do business with them. We are just a small family owned mom & pop furniture store in rural NC. Give me a break, there has to be some wrong info here somewhere! Make it believable and reasonable if you want your scam to fly!
Any way to get back to those VPs and let them know what a colossal failure their re-training efforts were? The scam continues today…. Karen just spent 45 mins trying to convince me that the only way to improve my credit rating was to update my information, and that the only way to do that was to pay the $500. A lot of wiggling when I tried to pin her down on facts, a lot of fast talking, and when I referenced a response from D&B regarding inaccurate information, profuse apologies for their information not being updated. She had to switch to a different system, and even though the items in dispute had been removed from my records, my scores had not yet been updated, 60 days after the fact. Skeevy. Something stinks at D&B. After 100+ years, they are gearing up for a deep sleep, is what I think. If enough of us complain, we can help them along. Complete rip-off
I got call from D&B on at least couple occasions. they were trying to sell me on the same package for $500. I am not registered with D&B and I will never register with them. I asked their rep every time they call me: “You want me to pay you $500 and give you all my information so you can sell it to other people for $60-$180?” That’s double dipping. Consumer credit companies like Equifax, Transunion or Experian charge money for companies to look at reports but they never charge people to update their own records. What a rip off. I do not have any business loans or credit cards and pay for everything in full. I look at couple loan and credit card offers from time to time and I never actually seen credit card or loan application asking for D&B number! It’s all based on your personal credit and it’s all that matters. What’s the point of having excellent score with D&B when you can’t even finance a cheese burger with your personal credit? Also if you want to look up a company to see if you should do business with them, just use Google.
Here is something interesting you can look at before you give them your hard earned money:
B&Bs CEO, Sara Mathew’s compensation in 2010:
$4,586,462.00 in 2010
That means they have to sell over 25 memberships at $500 each every day just to pay their CEO! Their Revenue in 2009 was $1.69 Billion!
What a rip off. Sh*t like this makes me very angry.
I got call from D&B on at least couple occasions. they were trying to sell me on the same package for $500. I am not registered with D&B and I will never register with them. I asked their rep every time they call me: “You want me to pay you $500 and give you all my information so you can sell it to other people for $60-$180?” That’s double dipping. Consumer credit companies like Equifax, Transunion or Experian charge money for companies to look at reports but they never charge people to update their own records. What a rip off. I do not have any business loans or credit cards and pay for everything in full. I look at couple loan and credit card offers from time to time and I never actually seen credit card or loan application asking for D&B number! It’s all based on your personal credit and it’s all that matters. What’s the point of having excellent score with D&B when you can’t even finance a cheese burger with your personal credit? Also if you want to look up a company to see if you should do business with them, just use Google.
Here is something interesting you can look at before you give them your hard earned money:
B&Bs CEO, Sara Mathew’s compensation in 2010:
$4,586,462.00 in 2010
That means they have to sell over 25 memberships at $500 each every day just to pay their CEO! Their Revenue in 2009 was $1.69 Billion!
What a rip off. Sh*t like this makes me very angry.
I don’t think the caller was from Dun and Bradstreet, and I certainly believe it was a scam. I just got the call and told her there was no way I could authorize $549 out of my small non-profit coffers.
My company just got the call…. I am really angry!
They have called me twice this week, both times the it shows up Out of Area with no number, they start asking me to give them info about my company. How stupid do they think people are? When I won’t give info because I can’t verify who they are, they tell me to call an 800 number of theirs. Yeah, that will work. What’s funny is check out their BBB rating – it’s a B-. Maybe I should call them and tell them that lots of companies are viewing negative information on their BBB report and for a fee we can fix that.
I just got a call from one of the db scammers.
I asked where he was calling from, he said same city as my business.
I invited him to come here in person and lie to my face.
he hung up.
I found this site via the same method I suspect all of the former posters found it — I “googled” for D&B and scam. Having been in business for 12 years and only disputed a single payment, and having otherwise never made a late payment with any vendors, I asked the same common sense questions as the original poster and most of the authors of prior comments.
My business has been contacted by D&B on countless occasions, and in my first year of business I did pay them. I can attest that there is very little value in the product they offer, from the perspective of a small business. I can also attest that they are in most cases irrelevant, and unnecessary to build business credit.
If one of your business objectives is to build business credit for credit’s sake, or to have the appearance of a credit-worthy partner without earning it, then perhaps you should follow the advice of the D&B employees here, and purchase their product, and follow up by vigorously defending the never-ending stream of misrepresentations and anonymous and dubious false marks against your company.
However, if the products and services you provide are truly valuable in your marketplace, you’ll find that your D&B rating is irrelevant, and effort is better spent cultivating your business relationships, increasing your value to your customers, and honoring all of your contractual obligations.
These are things you undoubtedly already know, and believe firmly, otherwise you wouldn’t be outraged enough to spend time to see if others are outraged as well.
As can be clearly seen by the consistency and quantity of postings here of those who feel that D&B uses predatory and unscrupulous marketing practices to support their organization, it cannot be downplayed by anonymous “D&B Employees” as an isolated practice. The obvious conclusion is that this is their standard practice for their business unit that attempts to build revenue from small business.
Small businesses do not typically purchase the credit reports for their (typically larger) customers. My company has never bothered with these reports, and has an on-time A/R of over 99.5% over 12 years. There are many inhibitors to getting paid, and the credit worthiness of your larger customers are likely to be the most minor of these reasons. Therefore, at the dollar amount of the typical small business invoice, there isn’t enough credit risk to justify an expensive risk management strategy. Its smarter to “self insure”, and prepare for a certain amount of loss due to bad debt. So small business do not typically buy D&B products.
Because D&B cannot typically get revenue from small businesses in their traditional manner – SELLING credit data, they decided to generate small business revenue in the process of OBTAINING the data. This business unit has been a “drag on the organization” according to their CEO, so they licensed that part of the business to a completely new venture with completely new people, using a derivation of the brand, “Dun and Bradstreet Credibility” corporation.
The goal of this new company is to go beyond just traditional credit, and offer more of a comprehensive suite of reputation management products — using the same old tactics as the “tip” of their marketing spear.
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jan2011/sb20110113_331630.htm
So, posts like the above comments here are working. D&B sees the light, and they are out of this business.
I’m personally curious to see if the new “Credibility” unit can restore the credibility of D&B among small business owners. I would like to see that fail.
So please keep posting your true and accurate experiences with telemarketers who call you, and unsolicited emails you receive.
I would also advise cross-linking other D&B scam blogs and commentaries…so that these types of pages rank higher in Google, and future would-be suckers don’t have to spend as much time learning the truth about D&B.
http://scam.com/showthread.php?p=909429
Business credit may be important to your business. It has not proven to be terribly important for mine, because the depth of relationships I have with customers and vendors have always made a path for putting together and closing my “deals”.
Realize that the value of D&B has usually been more important to your VENDORS than it will be to you, as a small or startup business. Your VENDORS are VENDORS. YOU have the money. THEY want your business. They will work with you to find an avenue or strategy to build credit with THEM. It helps THEM do more business. They will NOT walk away from business with you arbitrarily based solely on a lack of information, or false information from D&B.
Common sense will win the day. You can negotiate initial purchases via a credit card. You can then negotiate to do more business based upon terms, and even pick your vendors at least partially based upon their willingness to extend you credit terms. Then pay reliably, honor your contract terms, and build your credit.
Don’t be afraid to walk away from a vendor that will not do this for you. This is how the free market works.
If you sell a valuable product or service, and build relationships and a good reputation for caring for your customers, you’ll find that its quite easy to obtain their help in financing “big deals”. Until I had the bank account and credit to internally finance 100% of my deals, I frequently negotiated with customers to pay up-front.
It all has to do with VALUE. You know this. Don’t let a company who clearly doesn’t understand VALUE persuade you otherwise.
John, thank you for you well-crafted advice. I use my Business Amex until the vendor gets to know me, and see that my company is a serious repeat customer.
Likewise, on exceptionally large orders, none of my customers has ever had a problem with 50% on order to cover raw materials.
I really have no need for financing, otherwise, and no need for credit. Each product’s revenues pays for the development of new products.
So I must have been tired or drunk when the predator called. OK, they got one year out of me. But after trying to use this “service” for a few weeks, I saw it for what it was, deleted the email address I created for them, and trashed to bookmark, and never logged in again.
There are too many of these fake vaporware “products” around, that are really nothing of value and contain no value added. I make real physical products with intrinsic worth.
We need more of mine and less of theirs, because the paper-based bubble is over. This is just one last looting from the people who caused this mess. People who make nothing, add no value, and otherwise have no skills. Parasites.
Total Scam from the get go. Another Wall Street Crook stealing money from the small businessmen. Big guys just pay . It’s a drip in the bucket.
Owned successfull bar for 10 yrs. Never even heard of them. Then started another succesfull business , was new at it, made the mistake of paying them for (1) yr. Have not in last (5) not a problem.
I got the same “$449…” call today from D&B. I did not fall for it this time. It is interesting that I came upon this blog when I googled “D & B SCAM”.
seems like DUN is a scam. You have go to this private service and get a number if you want to get any work from the federal gov. As soon as you sign up you get tons of calls wanting you to “upgrade” for huge bucks….Its a bull shit deal.
Try to update the info on the DUN site and you just get a “wait loading” message that goes on for hours until you give up or pay the $400+ a year for really nothing.
D&B Credibility Corp is a borderline scam… I say “borderline” because it seems to be legal, but no business should ever sign up for their so-called services. Furthermore, I am certain that their sales people lied to me on multiple occasions (but I can’t prove it). I’m very sorry I paid for their Self Monitoring service last year… which basically means you get access to a useless and meaningless website, where you do all the work for no benefit. A disgrace! Never again!
Yep, they did the same with my non-profit.
I’d be glad to tell you more for the low low price of $449.00 🙂
The BBB is the same way, they called me and said my non-profit could have a triple “A” rating with them if I would pay them 700. I asked her “you mean I can get an excellent rating with the BBB just by sending you a check and you won’t do any investigation at all?” she said “that’s right”. So, they’re another scam.
Ok,
so what i am reading here from everyone confirms my thoughts about the call i just got so this is what i think i will do, I am going to call back my rep @ d&B and i am going to tell him that their reputation is really shady out there and that for $1000 dollars i will go back on these post and say some positive things about them to get their credibility back up. Lets all do the same thing and see if they change their ways. wish me luck while i try and hold a straight voice while i pitch this proposition to him.
I agree with most posts that D&B’s ratings can be very misleading. Just to throw in a perspective from the other side-I work for a large ($30 million a year sales) company, that uses D&B for it’s SOLE determining factor in issuing a customer credit. I have seen companys larger than ours that have a recommended credit limit of $500 from D&B. I have seen customers have D&B alerts issued that can mean anything from a)had a utility disconnected at their request, to b)filed for bankruptcy. It’s extremely frustrating using their system to try to determine risk when dealing with a potential client. Our company tends towards the conservative side, so we follow D&B’s recommended credit limits. I wonder how much opportunity we are missing because of outdated or flat out false information. However, I can tell you first hand, that notions like “D&B doesn’t matter”, “nobody uses it”, “you shouldn’t worry about it”, may not be true. Your D&B rating may very well be affecting your ability to have large accounts with your vendors, and may be giving your competition advantages.
When I opened shop a few years ago I got a DUNS number because, well, I thought I was supposed to, and I had no idea of what D&B had become. I entered my company information at their website.
Time went by and I got a call from a D&B boiler room zombie. She barely spoke English. Probably from an offshore call center. She asked questions, I told her the answers. I had to keep correcting her as she didn’t understand English so well.
Later I went online to the D&B site to check my information. She had totally screwed it up. A major mess.
This is the supposedly credible information that is being used for rating my creditworthiness? From that day, I refuse all calls from D&B and all mail from them goes straight into the trash. When I apply for credit, I just leave the DUNS number field blank. I’ve never been denied terms. B of A gives me all the credit I need (which is very little).
For years they had my animation company listed as a massage parlor and charged people to tell them that. What a SCAM they are. All the D&B employees showing up here are hilarious.
Today I was called by D&B with their typical scam telling me they were suggesting to all creditors that we be limited to $500 credit because they had limited information on us, and there was no way we could be successful unless I paid them to update the listing. I own a 20 year old company worth a few million dollars, just a few weeks back the bank gave me a $150,000 line of credit. I do just fine without them. Anybody who pays them for anything deserves to lose their money.
I received a call just a few moments ago from D&B telling me that 16 companies have tried to access my file but it’s incomplete. I wanted to know how I could update the information. I was absolutely shocked when he told me I had to pay $799 PER YEAR so that I could keep my information up to date and not “force them” to tell my potential creditors that the information on file for my company has not been validated. I told him this sounded like EXTORTION to me! I think that pissed him off. At that point he told me that it was up to me whether or not I wanted to pay the money, but without it they will not release information on my company which is potentially damaging to my business so I can “do whatever” I want to do.
“I received a call just a few moments ago from D&B telling me that 16 companies have tried to access my file but it’s incomplete.”
First, it probably did not come from D&B, but from their boiler room. Go ahead. Call D&B’s real number and demand to speak to the person who called you!
Second, 16 companies did not “try to” do anything. It developed the only people who “tried” to access mine were marketers or worse.
TELEMARKETERS LIE. They are scum.
I replied to an email from the BBB just yesterday explaining why I am not renewing our membership to continue to be “accredited”, mostly for reasons that parallel those in this blog. And, I just received a call from D&B this morning soliciting the Self Monitoring service – again. Over a year ago I replied to them with a link to this blog and a request to send me testimonials from satisfied customers. Here is part of the reply I received:
“Our service is not something that I want to push on you because our service is for those customers who care about and know the importance of their business credit. If you understand how important it is to build your business credit and how important the role your business credit will play in the future success of your business I wouldn’t need to send you testomonial. It shouldn’t take testomonials to help you understand how important business credit is. I hope you take your personal credit seriously, if so then you should know that your business credit should be taken even more seriously.”
Really! The issue isn’t good credit, but rather why we are being extorted to have it reported accurately. These people are shameless.
A while back I applied for a DUNS number. Shortly after I received a letter saying I needed to contact them to finish my account information. I ignored the letter.
A couple of weeks ago I signed up with a new distributor and they had a field for my DUNS number so I filled it out.
Today I received a phone call saying that there have been “multiple inquiries” into my business and that my business profile hadn’t been completed. They verified my info and updated some stuff. Then they went on to say that it would be $500-something to do this. They didn’t really tell me what exactly it was for either and made it seem like it was mandatory for just getting a DUNS number. I told them I wasn’t paying anything. They went on to tell me a bunch of crap and I made it clear I wasn’t paying a dime. The guy acted like a dick and that was the end of that.
Until this company straightens their act out I would suggest avoiding them like the plague.
P.S. Also stay away from AT&T Advertising Solutions (YP.com/Yellowpages/etc.), Citygrid Media/Citysearch, and the rest of that whole merchant circle scam.
I haven’t received the sales calls, but I’ve spent the last 3 days trying to register with CCR. I receive an error every time I try to complete the registration. DnB says they have completed my registration, but no records are found when I use their search feature and CCR says that they cannot verify my DnB number. Now I’m at the mercy of DnB, waiting for them to complete a registration that they are unable/unwilling to complete. DnB is a SCAM!
I so concur with you I joined Dun& Brad two years ago with the agreement If I add one acct per quarter I would receive a great credit rating. I added several accounts and have paid them religiously sometimes even early payments !!!! Now I have no problems with majority of my current vendors. I have the issue’s with Dun & Brad consistently attempting to SCAM my company into buying more products that aren’t helpful.
I just received a call from Dunn and Bradley for the exact same thing. They said our company had received 4 inquiries and she wanted me to update my company info for some monthly fee. I responded, ‘wait, so you’re trying to sell me something’… she said yes, and I simply said I wasn’t interested and we hung up. Seems like a reputable company doing a very unrepeatable practice. Is there word that means legal-scam?
D&B uses only fear tactics to get your money. What they have about you and your company is nothing that other people or companies can already find out without PAYING FOR IT, basically and short, its all public records from your state court records and secretary of state records. All other information is their try to get it from you, SO, DON’T GIVE THEM ANY OF YOUR INFORMATION AND TELL THEM TO PUT YOU ON DO NOT CALL LIST.
Bottom line, as the world turns, this is SCAM!!!
Thanks for this.
I just got the call. She set the phone down and continued her hardball pitch to someone else, and I could hear the whole thing.
She said “If you don’t pay you score will remain a 3. If you do pay it will immediately be moved to a 1… our highest rating.”
Then, 2 seconds later, I hear a cheer in the background and a guy say “I got one!”
Shortly after, she ended her other call, and was back on with me. As we spoke directly, I could not hear the background noise anymore.
Forget the shakedown on our side. I plan to send this link to any creditor that asks for my DUNS number.
If WE pay, WE get to write our own credit history. What value is that to a creditor?
If you pay DUNS, you are participating in the scam, and the scam is against creditors.
D&B is not alone. The entire credit rating industry is a scam.
D&B “Credibility” should actually be named “D&B Lack of Credibility”. They are using the same tactics as many of the posts here have attributed to D&B.
Worse yet, some “Credibility” employees (or sub-contractors) deny that there is a relationship with D&B and they claim to be a completely “private” and independent company. Therefore, when you ask “Credibility” to correct simple erroneous information, they refer you to a “different” company, “D&B”.
The truth of the matter is disclosed in the most recent D&B 10-K (12/31/2010):
“Note 17. Divestitures and Discontinued Operations
Divestitures
North American Self Awareness Solution Business
On July 30, 2010, we sold substantially all of the assets and liabilities of our North American Self Awareness Solution business. The sale is part of a strategic relationship whereby the buyer will operate the acquired business under the name of Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp. and distribute certain D&B-branded products primarily to the micro customer segment. Under the terms of the agreement, we received $10 million in cash at closing and we are entitled to annual royalty payments from the buyer for data and brand licensing.”
So while separate, technically, there is still a licensing relationship present and D&B “Corporate” certainly has an interest in the way in which “Credibility” operates and represents the D&B brand.
When you then follow up with “D&B” you are told that THEIR information is correct and the problem is with the “Credibility” database. Seems like Yosarian still can’t figure out how many missions he needs to fly!
As to the assertions from D&B “employees” posted here (as D&B employees or under “assumed names”) most are laughable. We pay our suppliers for the products that we sell. We provide labor and services for these products, at our expense. Our vendors don’t pay us to sell their products, but our customers DO pay us for the products and services that we supply to them. These costs are simply our cost of goods sold or, more simply, the cost of doing business.
The D&B model and the model used by their spun-off subsidiary, D&B Credibility, seems to be that they are getting paid on both sides of the equation; not a bad situation (for them) and they do appear to be pulling it off.
Will D&B AND D&B Credibility now want to get paid for keeping information up-to-date and correct?
Who is on “first”?
Incredible!
I think it’s worse that a scam, it’s actually a shakedown.
My experience is that a vendor declined to renew my Net 30 terms after a 7 year relationship. The vendor said that the D&B report on my company said: “not enough information on this company to rate”. The next day, D&B calls me pitching their “credit builder” product to the tune of $800/year.
As far as I can tell, D&B purposely sends out a thin report on your company, expects that your vendor will react negatively, and then swoops in at the vulnerable time to help you “build your credit”.
It’s a shakedown, absolutely.
“My experience is that a vendor declined to renew my Net 30 terms after a 7 year relationship. The vendor said that the D&B report on my company said: “not enough information on this company to rate”.”
When the vendor starts asking why you have given them no more business, send them to this blog.
I have preferred vendors also, but have been known to fire them anyway, when given ‘attitude’.
Years of personal performance trumps any outside report. I have customers with low D&Bs that always pay me, always have, for years.
Their money is just as good as GE’s.
I’ve been having the WORST experience with D&B. Recently I applied for a loan and was denied due to information listed on my D&B report. With numerous lines of credit/ loans, and perfect business and personal credit, I was shocked to hear I was denied. I immediately contacted D&B and subscribed to their dnbi service.
Upon receiving my report I noticed my paydex was a 71 and there were 3 collection accounts for $100, $1,000 and $2500 respectively. I know in fact I have zero bad debts and immediately disputed the validity of all the debts listed. Both the $100 and $1000 debts were removed within 3-5 days but the $2500 debt was verified as accurate with the vendor refusing to release their name. In addition to paying and signing up for their monitoring service, I got notification a few days later that my paydex had dropped to a 51!
Upon several failed attempts to dispute this erroneous account for $2500 and upon speaking to numerous customer service reps at D&B (in which I must add that everyone I spoke with was polite and seemed to care about trying to correct the error) I was ultimately told there was nothing they could do and the debt would remain as valid.
I repeatedly explained that this account mysteriously appeared on my report in October of 2011 and was suddenly charged off less than 2 months later! I further explained if I had opened an account in October an invoice wouldn’t have even generated until Nov/Dec. Therefore, how could it be charged off as a bad debt in December? All the CSR’s I spoke with agreed and some said they’ve never seen anything like that before but still the debt remains. After countless disputes I was ultimately told to “check my records”.
In a last ditch attempt to find out who the culprit was I even requested D&B to notify the person alleging this debt that I would be willing to pay them if they released their name – in an attempt to discover whom the account holder was. Still to this day the person continues to validate the alleged debt and refuses to release their name.
At this point for all I know this could be a competitor attempting to cause financial ruin to my business and I’m floored the federal government would allow a company like D&B to operate in this manner. If there’s anyone out there that has experienced a similar situation and was able to rectify it through a third party/lawyer or entity other than D&B please advise.
I got a call from D&B today, telling me my business information was incomplete and an order to fix it I had to pay for one of their services.
I explained to the Rep that at this time I was not interested in any additional services, as I was in the process of working with D&B to correct information from the initial setup they messed up (DUNS number) and that is when it began.
The Representative was argumentative and rude to the point I had to hang up. There is no way I will do business with D&B until they change their sales tactics and train their reps in proper customer service.
Ironically, I was interested in the service they were offering at a later date. Now after such a bad experience, I am no longer interested in anything D&B has offer.
Just got hit up by D&B to fix “incomplete reports”.
I’ve never had ANY dealings with them. Total SCAM!!
Okay, this is more articulate than my post and my experience was the exact same.
“I received a call just a few moments ago from D&B telling me that 16 companies have tried to access my file but it’s incomplete.”
First, it probably did not come from D&B, but from their boiler room. Go ahead. Call D&B’s real number and demand to speak to the person who called you!
Second, 16 companies did not “try to” do anything. It developed the only people who “tried” to access mine were marketers or worse.
TELEMARKETERS LIE. They are scum.
Improve your credit score with DNB Free. DNB does not publish the vendors who report against you. They only release the industry those vendors represent. The only way to find out who is reporting against you is to dispute the negative report. Non of the vendors who report negative information will actually reveal who they are because they still want your business even if you pay late. Once you dispute the negative information, and the vendor fails to release its identity, the negative information on your report must be deleted.
All of this is interesting. I recently applied for a DUNS# online. A rep called me this morning offering her assistance, she was very nice. But the whole point was to ask me to subscribe to their credit builder service. $799 ANNUALLY or $69 monthly with a $149 activation fee. It’s ridiculous. For a sole proprietor just starting up, what makes them think I would do it? It sounded good for a minute, but not realistic at all. She said something about benchmarking being included, as well as unlimited access to the report. Reminds me of the regular credit reporting agencies and their subscriptions. It really isnt necessary if you do right on your end, paying your bills and keeping in contact with creditors.
D&B is a big scam I paid 799 for a report they said would help build my business credit. They did nothing and want 299 more for a printed report
Beware
In short, you can update your information for free at eupdate or by calling them at 866-584-0283.
I am on the phone right now with Ismael from DnB (after going on line)and he is telling me that only “some” things that can be changed that way. If you want to REALLY fix your report then you DO HAVE TO PAY. HOLY COW!!! How is that not extortion.
I mirror your thoughts on D&B. As a principal of RedEarth Technologies, Inc. they have repeatedly attempted to run the same sales pitch on me. In their words, several companies are querying reports on RedEarth, if I’d like the info it’ll cost, etc… My response; “Send me the info. If I feel it would profit RedEarth, I’ll pay you for it. If the information in mute? Then I’ll shred it. Let me know.” The silence is deafening!
I too received a phone call from D&B. Salesman told me 4 different companies accessed my report. Also that several companies had reported late payments. One was for $2500.
We are never late with payments.
It would cost 69 per month to update my information. OR 599 per year.
Did I hear “class-action”? If yes, we’re in.
Yes, I am convinced D & B Self monitor is a complete scam. I joined it and then as the renewal approached received a phone call inquiring as to whether I was going to renew, I told them I was not sure. Suddenly my class was lowered to a 2. So I renewed and magically the score was once again raised to a 1. This year I was fully convinced this a total scam, decided to not renew and sure enough my score was lowered to a 2. They seriously need to be investigated by Attorney generals across the country for deceptive business practices.
I can honestly say I just spent hours reading every word in every post within this blog..I am appaled at what I have been reading.
I have had a DBA for two years and just today incorporated my event planning business. I’m frustrated at the fact that
there seems to be no way to legitimately seperate my personal (and unfortunately shitty) credit from my untouched and brand new business credit. I am hoping to secure a credit card for business expenses such as much needed advertising, new printer, etc…but am concerned that the only way to distinguish the two is to subscribe to D&;B for a DUNS # in what will surely be a hellish experience. My question is are there any other legitimate entities that can help me establish credit worthiness? Anyone know of a specific credit card that will grant me a first time business card based solely on business risk, not personal? Under $5000I intend on opening a new bank acct under the inc. Name although I did have one under the DBA. I usually deal with vendors in a cash or upfront credit card payment for goods needed. How on earth do I establish good credit without dealing with the insanity that it seems DNB has become.
I cannot begin to agree that DNB is a scam, and the fact that our federal gov allows it to continue only solidifies that this country is going to hell in a handbasket real quick. Business credit should be regulated in the same way as personal. Amazing, I only have to pay$ 500 and I can put on my business report whatever I choose, and can raise or lower my own score at will if I just pay the right amount. How f**ked up is that?
I hope some of you can guide me in my new business in the right direction. I have enough headaches and would rather not invite anymore in willingly…thanks in advance!
Your stupid for this post. I have used there products, and since I understand that the SMO Self-Monitor, that was being pitched to you is not a product that takes your commercial credit score from 5 to 1 (1 being the best) because you have it….moron! It is a tool for you to monitor your file and dispute slow payments from reporting in by your company’s suppliers and vendors. “Who impact the score.” because they are reporting how well you pay them. Total dollar amount and with in terms (net 30)
Think about it, personal credit is based on a debt to income ratio. Business credit is a dollar weighted score, and is also based on History, Demographics and if you have any suits, liens, judgments, or bankruptcies.
I now have personal credit and commercial credit that I leverage just by giving out my Duns number. It’s like being 18 again and building up credit for the first time but with all the knowledge I have from my personal experience… that is power. I just leased a vehicle with no personal guarantee. You have to pay because they are going to verify all the information you are suppling them. Like bills you are removing from you personal credit file and redirecting that data reporting into your DnB file.
The don’t just take your word for it stupid!
“Your stupid for this post. I have used there products, and since I understand that the SMO Self-Monitor, that was being pitched to you is not a product that takes your commercial credit score from 5 to 1 (1 being the best) because you have it….moron! It is a tool for you to monitor your file and dispute slow payments from reporting in by your company’s suppliers and vendors.”
I think that shows us all we need to know.
They ignore disputes.
It’s the next morning now. Time for you to get back to the boiler room, make some calls, shout “I got another one!”, and GET THAT PORSCHE!!!
I WORK for Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp and they are all full of SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!
I think a little kindness and compassion might be needed here, regarding the callers and some of the defenders. The above post of Jan 31 made me think about this. The people calling are not the ones who hatched this scheme.
The job market at present is dreary. What does anone expect of these people? Are they supposed to cook meth and rob convenience stores?
Or, is the person above supposed to go to NASA and design rocket engines? What will it take to satisfy people around here? What they are doing is not exactly illegal at present, despite its ethical defects.
Look, at least they are buying groceries and paying taxes, and supporting more honest businesses.
It looks like many of us have had the same scenario, where we are blackmailed for a credit rating by supplying the information to them and paying fees. It seems like some journalist should do a story on it – 60 Minutes style. Who has a contact???
I work at law firm that is investigating possible fraud being committed by business credit rating agency, Dun & Bradstreet. Our firm has uncovered information from various websites, blogs and business owners supporting possible fraud on the part of D&B, and we have become privy to several businesses being put in situations similar to those described on this blog. Our firm itself has been the victim of such conduct on the part of Dun & Bradstreet. In our case, D&B fabricated a $2,500 debt allegedly owing by our firm to an unidentified “vendor”, which lowered our business credit rating to extremely risky and suggested we were a threat to go out of business. When we confronted D&B representatives, we were advised that we could sign up for D&B’s service in order to “repair” our credit rating and inquire as to the outstanding “debt”. Once we paid the fee and challenged the “debt”, D&B refused to identify the vendor and eventually (over several weeks later) removed the outstanding debt from our credit score, but only after we had paid hundreds of dollars to Dun & Bradstreet.
If you or your business believes it has been the victim of fraud or scammed by Dun & Bradstreet, please share your experiences by sending us an e-mail at dandblitigation@gmail.com or visiting our blog at http://www.dandblawsuit.com . We will investigate your experience and evaluate whether you may be a proper party to pursue a class action lawsuit.
SOLICITATION
By: Shanberg Stafford & Bartz LLP, attorney Ross E. Shanberg. Shanberg, Stafford & Bartz LLP is licensed to practice in the State of California only. The
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Lets start with I did read the entire original post and updates from Rustybrik. I did not read all the replies/comments. I have used some of D&B’s products in the past and feel I have a decent knowledge of them.
I just responded to an email from D&B I received today:
>Hello ,
>
>My name is (withheld) and I am your Account Representative with Dun & >Bradstreet Credibility Corporation . I am attempting to contact you >regarding your Company’ s Credit Report.
>
>If you could please contact me right away so that we can go over this >information, I would greatly appreciate it.
There was a contact number and extension so I called to update my file as requested. At first it seemed like there was interest in updating my file’s information (last update per their records was in 2005) but as the call progressed, it was apparent that the purpose was to sell something. I agree with what Rustybrik has already posted (my specific problem was a low PayDex score vs credit score) but wanted to ‘help’ by selling me a report. I did not even bother to find out what report or what the cost was, as I have been there/done that.
What I would like to restate to this discussion is after I had turned down buying the report, there was no mention at all that I could update my file with ‘iUpdate’ and my only choice was to leave my information outdated.
Apparently, the “…educate the sales reps better in the future.” that was referenced in the original post, is still in progress and I also had a $2500 past due amount that I have no record of.
Notice how it’s always $2,500?
The script writers cannot make it >3000, because in some jurisdictions, that’s a “magic number”, where things can get very serious.
I think we should all take the time to write to the above worthy barristers.
Granted, in Class Actions, we might get a WalMart gift certificate as a settlement, but this is no longer about money.
This is about stepping on cockroaches.
thanks for this info. Years ago we trusted Dun & Bradstreet. Now, after the problems we have had with them this year(2012)we do NOT trust them. We are much wiser now and have a new policy at our business – everything is a scam until proven otherwise.
Scammers allright. Some guy called and said all I needed to pay is 9.99 for one year so I said for 10 dollars I’ll accept and gave him my card. He chargd $999 instead. So I’m disputing the charge and have no need for their “services”
I had a guy call me to say our info was out of date and he would send me some info in an e-mail and call me tomorrow. When I opened the e-mail there was a sample of a credit report. When he called back I asked him to send me mine instead of the sample so I could fill in the blanks and send it back with my credit card info…….he declined. I asked him what our adress was in order to confirm he had the correct data…he obviously got it off our website. We had an error on our website and this clown wrote down the error and repeated it to me. I am sure we have never sent these guys anything since we have been in business. I will not be sending these guys one dime. They should be shut down. P.S. I am forwarding this blog to the e-mail adress he sent “my info” from.
I am glad I found this. I was just about to get my DUN number. I cannot believe what this company is doing to companies. How can we get out of this financial mess in this country if we have companies like this scamming the small business person? Scary indeed. Why doesn’t D&B charge the companies making the inquiry about a business credit rating? That would make more sense to me.
Of course D&B is using predatory tactics. They should allow the business owner or the company to add references for free and charge companies requesting references. It looks like they put pressure on business to buy “credit buildup” products because their other source or revenue is dwindling, more likely because they lost credibility themselves! I just spoke with two “credit advisers” at DNB – they were rude and put sales pressure on me to buy right away their products. A reputable company would not use these techniques.
I’m glad I found your post. I just got off of the phone with a rep who had called at lease ten times in the past ten busness days. I raised the same point as you did regarding not having up to date or accurate information from my suppliers… “Why would someone pay for bad information? And why should I pay to update my information?” I am reluctant, but willing to provide limited information and I will not charge them for that information but I will not pay to update it!
You are absolutely RIGHT! They want money both ways. when you approach them with a with a question of their wrongful report on your company, and their answer is that you need to buy more product from them. It seems like they intentionally give bad score to your company until you realize other company pay for their bad information, and leave you with no option but to pay more to them. But I operate on matter of principle. Yes, it is small money to pay to have DNBI-selfMonitor, but it is simply not the right way for D&B to conduct business that way. Their sales people are pushy, rude and condescending, as if we, the business owners are all too stupid for not falling into their scam!
You are spot on here! It’s a “scam”, and I hope more people don’t fall into the trap of thinking it’s worth paying for. If they want a quality product of updated and correct info, they shouldn’t be charging people to provide it to them – what business model is this???? God, I hope more and more people wise up and stop giving in to these fees so their data becomes as useless as possible.
Glad to see posts like this one out there letting people know! Though it was originally posted in 2010, people are still finding it an commenting on it in 2012 – that’s what we need.
Total scam. A rep called with some “critical information” about our DnB account and insisted on talking to the person in charge of financial matters. I said that would be me, but we have never created an account or submitted any info to DnB. He kept insisting someone did, but of course, he didn’t have a name for this supposed employee. The only name they had on file was the company’s owner’s name…which happened to be misspelled in a way that I’ve only seen on junk mail! Enough said.
I own a small business with limited employees and for the most part pay my bills on time. I have been in business for over 10 years and have only had 1 line of credit and never needed any more. I don’t care if DnB exists or not. I don’t need them. I get a call from DnB. Someone is checking on my business credit and there are discrepancies and I need to pay to fix them. Why are you giving out false information about my company? I didn’t ask to have a file created on my company and I don’t need your services. Answer: either pay to correct the information or we will continue to give out bad information. And why can’t I opt out? Answer: either pay to correct the information or we will continue to give out bad information. Why can’t my files be removed at DnB, especially since I don’t want them to exist? Answer: it is all public information and either pay to correct the information or we will continue to give out bad information. How is this not extortion? Any company that needs to consult DnB is a company I don’t need to be in business with. And why as a business or an individual am I not guaranteed som sort of governmental protection from predatory companies spreading lies about me or publishing my private information at large? I am sick of companies like these. Something must be done. And perhaps if our government wasn’t so misguided, it would.
i would like to join in a class action suit if anybody knows of one
I started my business in August 2011 and my website went live on Feb 7, 2012. I noticed when I searched for my business name online that D&B had the wrong address listed for my business. I am the Registered Agent for my business which uses my home address. D&B picked up that information from the Secretary of State office and is using that in error. I tried to update the information online and it is part of the fields I am not allowed to change. Later in the afternoon, someone from D&B called and tried to “high pressure” me into the $299 one time fee to verify everything. I told him that it was his responsibility to verify that the information they used was accurate but he disagreed. My Business License and Reseller Permit show the correct address but they do not care. They just want the money. They state on their website that they are the number one resource for up-to-date information but that is wrong. If they pay a third party to collect information that is inaccurate then they are the problem. I have been given multiple 800 numbers and an email address to deal with this and I am very frustrated. I do not believe that a business should be allowed to treat other businesses like this.
Brian W, see the above post of Feb 6, and join in the fun.
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Firm does not intend to represent anyone desiring representation in a state where this Web site fails to comply with all laws and ethical rules of that state.
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Posted by: Shanberg Stafford & Bartz LLP | February 6, 2012 7:30 PM”
I’m glad I came across this article. I recently sent in my information to D&B for a newly established business to get listed. After reading part of this article I’m reconsidering. They also asked me about the monthly or yearly package. I opted for the free. I agree why should a business have to pay them to report correct information.
I just received a letter from these guys that telling me that they just downgraded my SER due to financial stress.
Of course I am under financial stress, US is too, but I paid all my bills, I have honored all my contracts, and I keep applying to this crippled government for which words have no match in reality …
I am offering advanced Nuclear Technology Research to US government, do they want to convince me to offer those nuclear solution abroad?
Maddof was also long time in business and over credited…I think these guys are too,
For those who may be questioning the validity of this post, don’t. This exact same thing happened to me. There was no mention of the ability to update information without paying the $449.00 fee. I learned of that option by reading this post.
What’s worse, is that I fell for this presentation of incomplete information provided by the sales rep a year ago and have been told that it will automatically renew shortly. I called to cancel this and was told “Unfortunately, they’ve connected you with the wrong department. I will pass your name and number to the correct department and they will call you back within three (3) business days.” I explained that this seemed unreasonable, that I would need to be available to them for three days to simply cancel a subscription. The gentleman apologized, but insisted that this was the “only” way to proceed. This is day two, and still no contact from them. This feels like one of those ‘try it for free, cancel if you don’t like it’ deals where they are simply not available for the cancel part.
Dun and Bradstreet may be legitimate, but they’re not behaving as such.
Yes, this is most certainly a scam. The D&B folks keep calling my cell phone number (usually before 8 AM, just to be extra annoying) to tell me that two people are inquiring about my business credit and that it’s “critical” that I call them back immediately to update my record.
There’s just one small problem with those claims, D&B. The business you are calling about is defunct! I guarantee that NOBODY cares about my business credit (not even me). If you have two suckers lined up to pay you for that information, then have at it. But we both know you are lying, so the claim that anybody is looking into my credit is just a failed attempt to rip me off and/or make yourselves feel more relevant. But I would like to sincerely thank you for being too dumb to identify my active business and not bothering me there.
I think D&B once was a legitimate business (maybe a hundred years ago), but now they have gone the way of yelp, the BBB, and other companies that simply cannot prove their relevance so turn to extortion tactics. They seem incredibly desperate for cash, which I find amusing for a company that claims to specialize in credit ratings.
The various comments from D&B employees are just plain ignorant. From the typos, snark, and just plain idiotic advice, I imagine that most of the people “selling” these useless D&B products have a high school education at best.
Okay then. I just received a letter giving me my DUNS number which I never applied for. Okay, fine. The letter suggests I need to establish credit for my company separate from personal which is somewhat believable. The reality is if my company “sinks” my personal credit does as well. I am thankful for this website because I’ve been hounded by money-grubbing sales pitches by relentless sales persons in the past and will now avoid any kind of contact with DnB. This company seems no different to me than the same ‘grubbers’ that are self-serving. I would bet that even without the need for credit in my company, DnB would try to wrest some $$ from me to keep my record “clean”. One annoying fact about some postings here, many say there should be a class-action lawsuit but no one acts. It’s weak and you should refrain from saying “should” and be proactive and lead. Is there really a case? I think the best way to bring DnB down is to not support them. As for DnB emps responding, not one single post has me convinced that he/she or DnB is on the up-n-up. I believe there is great potential for DnB but my guess it’s run by some less-than respectable people with any kind of desire to be part of the business community, rather, they are in the rat-race being the ugly rat. Just an opinion with no proof but I do smell the rat.
Dun and Bradstreet is little more than a modern day extortion racket using you’re credibility against you by purposefully misrepresenting your profile, if you fail to utilize their services, by that, meaning paying a fee (like a protection racket) for them to represent your company credibility profile correctly. I would strongly advise anyone to refrain from using their services as from information gathered being that from public opinion (and this is the bottom line for any business) the credibility of Dun and Bradstreet may well as a result of a company’s involvment with them, be discredited. There should be laws that protect businesses from this level of extortion perhaps by tweeking existing laws. It’s a new spin on heavy handedness that needs to be eliminated.
Still a scam….I was refused credit from a company I really wanted to do business with…seems my D & B rating was not very good….no credit for my company….Guess what! For $299.00 I can get started and achieve a new low rating…seems I am “non-rated” That’s right, they have NO information on my company but stopped me from getting the credit I needed by reporting me as a bad risk. I am calling an Attorney to see if I have any recourse. Scam scam scam!!!!!
Just lie about everything, revenues, employees, location, etc. etc. D&B lies all day long, so why shouldn’t you.
D&B is not bound by FCRA. They can do what they want. Play the game, pay for vendors to report you favorably, make your company seem bigger than it is, pay on time, and when you’re ready to pull the trigger, FUCK ‘EM ALL!!!!!!!!!
I incorporated in 2008. My business was around 28 years old at the time. In trying to get credit from fedex I was refused. I asked why and he told me to call D&B. I did and it came out that I had only a 2 year history of business due to the fact that I had just incorporated.
So I paid them the 500 bucks and added old credit vendors but more importantly they assisted me in getting the history of my company to go back to around 1990 which was much better than before. My credit rating went through the roof. I was happy.
I declined to renew in the next year when d&b called. And everything was peachy until a month or so ago when I received a suspiciously similar call like above telling me I had a lot of inquiries on my credit lately. That shouldn’t have been the case.
I declined then and I declined two weeks later when I received the next call.
Last week my rating went from 1 to 2. Imagine that.
Basically what B&D is doing is screwing a lot of people for a bad reason. But inevitably what will happen is a 2 will equal a 1 once this information gets out and it won’t hurt anyone.
My advice is when you get that call, tell them you know about the scam and stay on the phone as long as you can to get that point across.
I’m a former investigative reporter. I now lead a small business. I have for the past decade. Today, D&B sent me an email that said:
Commercial Credit Score Class
Your Commercial Credit Class has changed from Class 2 to Class 3.
The decline in your Commercial Credit Score has moved you closer to a high risk category of paying severely delinquent
I called thinking I’d somehow missed a bill. Interestingly, I came to learn that there has been no delinquent payment or negative event. They explained the rating is because we don’t use more credit than American Express and our credit line — even though my history with both is squeaky clean and goes back years. So, while I do have a credit history that is excellent and do pay on time, apparently it would be better if I carried more debt. They claim that in my sector that, comparatively, i have fewer clients reporting credit on my firm than do other companies. However, the credit reporting is completely voluntary and as such, is unreliable. It results in comparing apples to oranges when one company’s clients volunteer to report and the other’s do not. Moreover, since our operations do not reflect those of other firms that comparison is also flawed. Worst of all, they’re operating on 2 year old data and do not have a current client list. Apparently, they have missed Fortune 100 client #1 and Fortune 100 client #2 and Fortune 100 client #3 . .
I had given them my client list in 2010 when my business checking account got hacked into and I had to get a new checking account and monitor my credit. While expensive, I wanted to monitor for unauthorized transactions. After a year of monitoring with nothing irregular reported, I stopped paying them because it seemed to make no sense to continue. And, now apparently, this is the result. They issued a lowered rating, claiming my firm is “high risk” without the courtesy of a call. When I made that point, they argued they had, indeed, called me. When I asked what number (because I received no messages), they read back a number I’d never heard before. When I pointed that out, the woman said “let me check” and I was disconnected. Again, they acknowledge that there was no event. No delinquent payment. Nada But apparently facts don’t matter. They decided in their wisdom, in the absence of data, to declare us high risk.
Of course, the solution they kept directing me to would be to sign up and pay them to get it right. At $69+ a month.
The responsible thing for an alleged data service to do would be to assume a neural stance in the absence of accurate reporting. Even better, they should just come clean and admit that they don’t know. Instead, what they pulled, from a consumer advocacy standpoint, is so unacceptable on so many levels, it verges on extortion.
After arguing with them, I finally got them to give up the URL of a place where I can input more current company info FOR FREE so they can get it right at iupdate.dnb.com They do not make this information available in the alert emails or in any obvious place that I can find on their website. I’ll go ahead and update our company credit information and see if that returns our rating to normal. But if this is how they operate, Attorneys General and/or class action lawyers ought to come down on this company hard. If their lies do result in monetary losses, which is the threat they allege and if it is based on lies and misinformation, then the amount one could sue D&B for could be sizable. Any lawyers out there listening?
Just got a phone call from D&B and feel like the mafia is trying to stong arm me to use their services….. Seriously, she just told me that we don’t pay or bills on time and that 3 of our 12 vendors are going to no longer offer us terms if D&B tells them we are poor to pay our bills on time. First of all, we only have 6 suppliers, so I know she is full of BS and second of all we are never late with payments!!! They can lower our score as much as they like because their services are becoming not necessary in todays world. Best of luck to D&B and I hope Karma doesn’t bite those involed in the a**.
Similar story, D+B “credibility corp” send me a letter saying that my credit is not good, and of course they can help… But wait a minute, I DO NOT own a “business”. I do rent a few apartments out, but use my SS# and personal credit for everything. So how did I get that number?
D+B “credibility corp” gave me no satisfaction, so I called D+B “proper” and explained the situation. They promised to purge my duns number and name from their system as this “business” never existed.
This is a SCAM and the AG should stop suing Arizona and get after these parasites!
Two things:
1. D&B “Proper” does not charge current customers for updating their information. They collect data from many different sources and would not charge for someone to give them more information. If you are a current customer and get something from “Dun and Bradstreet Credibility Corp”, throw the paper away and call your Customer Representative at D&B. Otherwise the main D&B number to call for help is 866.203.3151 or try http://www.dnb.com or http://www.mydnb.com
2. D&B Credibility Corp is a seperate company that is not affiliated with D&B – now an independent company that was started in 2010 by Jeffrey Seibel and located in Malibu, CA(D&B “Proper”- is the company that has been around for over 100 years, not this one). If you look at the link for Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp., in Wikipedia, you will read this. Here is the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dun_%26_Bradstreet_Credibility_Corp
Their website is http://www.dandb.com
Their number is 800-700-2733
Dun and Bradstreet Credibility Corp sells a service that claims to help with improving your score. The service fee they charge and that most are speaking of here is to “monitor” your report.
I would suggest that if you want to know about your real report, you contact the company know as D&B or Dun and Bradstreet, not Dun and Bradstreet Credibility Corp. They are in the business of selling a service with a fee to monitor your report but they do not have direct access to your report like a D&B Customer Representative would.
Sorry you all are frustrated but hopefully this might help resolve some of your problems and to get your record updated!
Thanks for the clarification CKwells. That is very helpful to know. It’s interesting that none of the other D&B employee responses made that distinction. I’m guessing they are mostly Credibility Corp people who don’t want that distinction made.
I got a letter from the D&B Credibility Corp and it definitely felt like scare tactics and extortion. I own a relatively new small business (1 yr old) that I started using my own private funds. My business has no debt. I personally have excellent credit (never a missed or had a late payment) and no debt (other than the mortgage on my home) and my business only has one line of credit, an Amex with a very generous limit, that I have always paid off in full each month. I have no vendor credit as I buy everything up front with the Amex. So the only real data with any relevance to my business, including bank accounts, should show a healthy business. Yet I have a Supplier Evaluation Risk (SER) rating in the 7-9 range that suggests that my “business may be unable to pay its bills or cease operations in the next 12 months?” If they don’t have enough relevant data, they shouldn’t establish a rating. If they had relevant data, the rating shouldn’t be that bad. I understand new businesses are generally risky, but wow. This SER rating is detrimental to new businesses that have not done anything wrong. The only reason I can see to establish a rating for a business that is so bad with no real data to support it is to create a problem for small business owners and scare them into “fixing it”. Sounds like a racket to me. My question is, who establishes the SER? It seems like D&B “proper”, which means they are essentially part of the racket by supplying bad data.
Fortunately I found this blog. John’s post back in Oct put it very well. D&B’s ratings will have no relevancy for my business unless I decide to expand dramatically. I am a small business operating locally and establishing a great client base. I’ve never had a dissatisfied customer, I have all the credit I need, and I operate in a financially responsible way. I pay for everything upfront and I bill for services already rendered, so my clients won’t be spending money for a D&B report. I don’t need D&B’s ratings or services. If I decide I care about their rating in the future, it sounds like going through D&B proper is the way to do it. I’ll never deal with the “Credibility Corp”.
I received a letter that said something like you are receiving this notice because my SER has been noted in my D&B file.Basically was saying that my rating was betweeen 7-9 and that I wont be in business in a year from now. So I called and the fellow gave me the pitch. So I told him so this is like a scare tactic and he agreed. So how much do I have to spend to have this not happen, $850 or so.So they want me to pay them to create a credit file on my business or we will fail. We 7-1/2 years into this, so I don’t think so!
I was contacted by D&B today through the mail again. They send me the same letter at least once/month. I finally called them and they informed me that 1 company had inquired about my company and that I could raise my credit rating by paying their fee. This is the most RIDICULOUS thing I have ever heard of. Paying a credit reporting agency to give you a better credit score. Knowing this what company would pay D&B to get information on another company? If all you have to do to get a good score is pay these crooks money.
Its sad that this company is viewed as reputable and that our government obviously has some stake in them (be it campaign donations or whatever) and not only allows them to stay in business but requires participation in their program. These are MOB tactics….pay up or don’t do business.
Thankfully I never use credit outside of credit cards and thus am not forced to pay them a cent. I tried providing services to the government but when D&B was required I decided I’d rather lose that revenue stream then allow myself to be forced into paying into this corrupt system.
I received a letter that said you are receiving this notice because my SER has been noted in my D&B file.Basically was saying that my rating was betweeen 7-9 and that I wont be in business in a year from now. So I called and eric gave me the pitch. So I told him so this is like a scare tactic and he agreed and also stated they knew their information they were reporting wasnt factual.So how much do I have to spend to have this not happen, $69.00 for the next 12 mos and also $299.00 for the small business package.So they want me to pay them to create a credit file on my business or we will fail. Eric didnt like it when I questioned mafia affiliation since they both operate out of new jersey. Was advise to report to the NJ BBB…they claimed they had never heard of D&B.
I got the call yesterday – sounded like it might be a shakedown, so I googled and ended up here. Their quote for the “Credit Builder” service was $69/mo or “special savings” for a yearly plan of about $699. My business is self-financed and we pay everything by credit/debit card, so I really have no reason to sign up with D&B except to keep whatever info they have on us from being incorrect. They appealed to my vanity by talking about ensuring my business “appears legitimate” and also used scare tactics by telling me other businesses were already paying to look up my info so I’d better sign up in order to make sure it’s correct. This is extortion — and apparently there is no alternative for business credit ratings.
This just happenned to us. We have been in busines since 1972 and D & B called to say there were several “inquiries” into our company. Turns out D & B just picked up on one of ur DBA’s and was claiming that we needed to pay them to link it correctly with the Corporate name.
Additionally some 3 years ago I got sucked into doing this $449 deal with another company of mine and in the end it did absolutely nothing. I was told due to the “high risk of our industry” our score was lowered. And yes I could restore it by paying them.
Is this illegal???
“Is this illegal???”
It is if Little People do it.
But they are Special.
I am self-financed, but fell for it last year. I enjoyed the call this year. They had a bad day.
I doubt there are ever *any* hard inquiries about small businesses. The only contacts I have ever had through “D&B” were either offshore call center scammers, like the pretend yellow pages, or recently a horrible “Capital Grants are ready for you” mailing that is really a way to get you to change CC processers, attaching itself to your cash flow like a lamprey eel.
Picking up the phone lately really is like walking through a bad neighborhood.
Question: I received a letter today from D&B stating my Evaluation Risk is the lowest possible – a 7-9 rating. I have no idea why this rating is so low, whether this really matters, and if it does matter, the best way to strengthen my rating. I can call D&B and pay them to increase my rating…but after reading your comments I wonder if 1.companies really check a DUNS before awarding a contract and 2.will contacting D&B really get them to raise my number. I have a DUNS becasue of a gov contract- no company has ever asked for or, to my knowledge, reviewed my DUN prior to awarding a bid to me. What is consensus- is a D&B rating vital to a vendor’s success in being awarded contracts TIA.
We have been battling a lawsuit with a competitor for a couple of years. All of a sudden we get a call from D & B stating someone has been reporting a negative rating to our account for 10 months. When we asked who that was or for some proof we were told they could not divulge that information. They said they would have to investigate and request proof from the reporting party but that we would never be able to know who that was. 4 weeks later all of the negative reports mysteriously disappeared. While I am sure it was my competitor I have no way of proving it. What legitimate credit reporting agency will not give you complete and accurate information about YOUR credit. I am told by government agency’s that because you choose to belong to D & B different rules apply. Needless to say we no longer belong to D & B. No body ever asks us anymore if we have a Duns number and we no longer ask our clients for theirs.
While I agree with the original post, there is room for improvement. Now days the search engine optimization is part of online marketing.
My bank manager suggested I get a business line of credit since rates are so low even though I didn’t need one at the time. She verified all my info and said the loan would close in 2 days. Just as I was leaving for the bank she called me and said the underwriter got a credit report from D&B showing I had a $5000.00 bad debt and could not proceed on the credit line. I told her I don’t even have an account with D&B and furthermore in my business all of my bills for vendors are paid 30 days in advance.
I have no outstanding debt with vendors. She gave me a phone number for D&B and said good luck. When I called they tried to sell me a package for $795.00 which I refused. After about 10 minutes of pressing her, she said I could register for free and monitor my credit report. Sure enough there was a $5000.00 bad debt listed. I called another number to dispute it and had to pay $9.99 to process the dispute. He said it would take 7 to 10 days. After 30 days, I called again because the bad debt was still on my report. All I was told is that it is still under investigation. At this point I retained a lawyer who had the matter resolved in several days. D&B will not identify who listed this bad debt and I am still pressing them to do so. If they do not respond by the end of the month, I will contact the proper state and federal agencies who regulate them and file a complaint. I am looking to recoup my legal fees and the worth of my time which I have spend on this matter. I can’t believe they can accept information as fact without verifying its validity. Tom P
Thanks for your post and the comments. I listened to a seminar about grant readiness that said I should have a Duns number. So, I applied, got the number, and then got an email stating “your company’s Report being in a Incomplete/Review status, we are unable to complete the verification process, and validate the changes”. When I called to complete the verification process, they wanted to charge me $250 or so. I asked a lot of questions about why, though it seemed odd, and said I’d call them back. Then I found your post. I think our organization will be just fine, unvalidated though we are.
How about this one, we have an esteblished organization for years, been paying D&B for self monitor and many other their products, sure our payees was 80 etc… But in April of this year they simple distoroyed our profile and put a stairs that we are bankrupt organization… Since then we have been trying to solve an issue with them without any luck.
By the way most important issue for us becouse of they tactics that most of our vendors who use Eulere, Coface and Tardius they relay on D&B data for credit insurance had to cancel our credit insurance polices becouse information on file show that we are out of business so we lost over 50 vendors and credit lines with them after 5 years of doing solid business and paying in time.
Greed is Greed comes in all shapes and forms. Just because a buiness has been around since 1841 does not make it credible. It’s now 2013 and the price is $699.00, same tactics, nothings changed. Thanks for the info, thoughts,and feedback. Pretty easy…it’s NO for me. Now I can put the $699 to good use!
I received an email from Dun & Bradstreet that may be phishing from a third party. They claim a complaint has been filed against me from one of my customers. It has a zip file attached which I will not dare to open. Since I only have two customers and am currently under contract to work with them, I’m guessing this is either D&B trying to SCAM me AGAIN or someone else trying to send me some ugly-ware.
After reading this blog I fully intend to ignore it. I can’t afford to fight it, financially or emotionally. Looks like “what I don’t know won’t hurt me” anyway, since I never borrow money for my business. Thanks so much for this conversation. You confirm my frustration and mistrust of D&B.
The company you are speaking about is Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp. in Cali. Not Dun & Bradstreet. Two totally different companies
Yes, Todd, thanks for the clarificaion in the comment you posted.
Barry, you are absolutely right in that the interaction you had with that sales rep must’ve left you feeling frustrated and I can understand that, as well as the subsequent frustrations echoed in the comments posted by everyone here. However… there’s a HUGE piece of information you are mis-representing. The sales rep you spoke with was NOT a Dun & Bradstreet rep. It was a Dun and Bradstreet Credibility Corp (DBCC) rep. Completely separate entity. DBCC, and you even have their link posted in your blog post (DandB.com), is a small company headquartered in Malibu, CA, that spun off of Dun & Bradstreet-headquartered in Short Hills, NJ-in July 2010, and is a completely separate company. Dun & Bradstreet is and always has been, for 173 years now, the company who owns the largest database in the world, and who by the way, allows businesses to update their files, add references, and dispute incorrect data free of charge. Additionally, you may think you’ve only needed to utilize your information, such as your DUNS number, rarely over the years, but there are millions of businesses that pull reports on other businesses on a daily basis to make credit and/or other business decisions. Just because you heard about the last 2 times another business checked your info out, what makes you think you haven’t been checked out dozens, even hundreds of times? Not to mention Dun & Bradstreet’s database is used to pull data for sales and marketing, too. If it is known for being the most reliable worldwide database, wouldn’t you want to be listed in it to gain visibility in the business world?
And if you’re planning on ever doing business with the government (government contract) registration with Dun & Bradstreet is required by law.
Don’t trust me, verify this info for yourself. Self-education is precious!