The BBB Is A Lie | Brian McSteen

Dmitry talks to Brian McSteen about his battle against leadership at the Better Business Bureau (BBB) after 10 years with an A+ rating went down the drain. 

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Today's guest:
Brian McSteen
McAllen Roofing: https://mcallenroofing.com/
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Dmitry’s coaching program: https://roofing-school.com
Have a question? Text me: 612-558-4881
Connect with Dmitry: https://dmitrylipinskiy.com/
Contractors I recommend: https://directorii.com
Best Deals on Underlayment: https://BemDirect.com
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Insights
00:00 – Coming Up...
01:00 – Brian McSteen Background
02:02 – How He Got Accredited with the BBB
04:20 – Is the BBB Rating System Manual?
05:07 – Becoming an Advocate & Joining the Board
07:22 – The Houston BBB President
08:01 – Challenging BBB Policies (Door-to-Door Ban)
10:10 – Conflict Escalates with BBB Leadership
12:33 – Impact on Leads, Revenue & Reputation
14:13 – Legal Action & Escalation to Higher Authorities
17:30 – Massive Business Losses After Storm Opportunity
19:55 – Questioning Leadership & Credibility
20:29 – Final Thoughts on Power, Influence & Accountability
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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

And he said, Brian, you're really forward thinking. I love your ideas. And I want you to be on the board of Houston. Apparently that kicked back really quickly.

SPEAKER_02 0:10

Was it all manual, would you say, or was it any of it like legit?

SPEAKER_01 0:14

The way we know it was manual is they put an F and put these like a whole list in red that we didn't get the proper licensing. He thinks he can do whatever he wants. He's about to realize that uh he can't.

SPEAKER_02 0:27

Do you want to share with me that uh those financials?

SPEAKER_00 0:29

I'm already in hot water. How much hotter can I get, right?

SPEAKER_02 0:32

You're not the first business owner who exposes Houston office. I've heard a lot of bad stories from that location in particular.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

You know one of the things that made me really question the president? The Russian consulate is right above the Better Business Bureau. And this guy has the audacity to tell a civilian something that's highly classified.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

Brian, uh, introduce yourself as like what do you do? What market are you in? What's your background?

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Uh so my name is Brian McSteen. Uh, I'm the owner of McCallan Roofing and Budget Roofing Supply. I have other numerous businesses, but I'm originally from Chicago. I was uh born in Minnesota, but uh I grew up in uh Chicago with my family there, started roofing out there, and uh kind of moved around the country a little bit um and uh kind of started to do the whole uh sick of you know doing sales and uh become uh an owner of a roofing company on my own. And so uh I planted myself in McCallan, Texas. I lived there for seven years, and uh now I live here in San Antonio, Texas.

SPEAKER_02 1:48

Very cool. And what are your connections with the BBB? Um, that's the angle of the show today. Like, what's your story with the BBB? How long you've been accredited with the BBB, uh, and are you still with the BBB?

SPEAKER_01 2:02

So when we went down into McCallan when the hail storm had hit, this was in March 2012. Okay. Uh, and to give you an idea, uh we about I we try to get accreditation, I think, in about May of 2013. We were like, okay, let's get accreditation. Um, so in since 2013, we became accredited with the Better Business Bureau. We signed a contract, I I think in about May. Um, then we got, I think in June our accreditation was approved. And so around around that time.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

I see. How long have you been accredited? And uh did you get like straight A plus right away, or do you remember how much you paid?

SPEAKER_01 2:46

I th I believe it was only like$250 at the time.

SPEAKER_02 2:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

I'd have to look at the contractor, uh contract uh that we signed. Um but I believe it was it was, I mean, we were accredited since 2013. They cut our accreditation in 2022.

SPEAKER_02 3:06

So you've been accredited for 10 years.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

Yeah, we're we're accredited for for 10 years.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

Any complaints during those 10 years?

SPEAKER_01 3:14

We had some complaints. You know, we do a lot of a lot of volume. Um, we did get complaints, but we always addressed the complaints. Um, but just to give it to answer your first question was with the A plus. We received that super quick. And I think a lot of that had to do with the BBB president liking us. The you know, she showed up. The BBB president showed up to our ribbon cutting. Um, she saw what we were about, we she saw that we were doing things the right way. Um but you know, I I told her, hey, I used to have another business that had an A plus with the BBB, and we received that accreditation basically instantly. So And so there was no real algorithm or you know, we're a long waiting period of time to just receive an A plus. It's not like they you know they could have seen the complaints over a period of time and said, hey, they're obviously doing something properly. They we just received it kind of up front.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

I see right away. It makes it makes sense. I mean, I've been saying for years that BBB does not have algorithm, I love that you said that word, because um would you say it was pretty manual to list you?

SPEAKER_01 4:30

I mean if you if you can convince them saying, hey, I had a business, it was I'm a good guy, you like me, hey, A plus. That's pretty much how it went.

SPEAKER_02 4:40

I see. Um for 10 years, were you always A plus?

SPEAKER_01 4:45

We had an A plus. We went to an A one time, I think, because of a complaint, but that's it.

SPEAKER_02 4:51

Did you bounce back from Yeah?

SPEAKER_01 4:54

We bounced back, we had an A plus. I see.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

What happened in 2022?

SPEAKER_01 4:59

Because of you know, always being there for the BBB and showing up to the meetings, they would say, hey, you know, we have these meetings. And uh I was always an advocate for the BBB, you know, um, because people believe, like to believe in them because they advertise themselves as marketplace trust and a place for people to go. So I said, you know, why not be an advocate for it and show up to their meetings and be a part of you know the BBB? Well, I was asked to be on the board of the Better Business Bureau by the president.

SPEAKER_02 5:33

And so I was like, what's responsibility for someone on the board? Like how many meetings, how many, like, what do you have to do? What does board do?

SPEAKER_01 5:42

Uh, you just you you basically just meet, uh, you meet every month and uh you talk about the issues, um, they send you uh a list of you know the expenses, um, everything and things to vote on um before the meeting. So you basically you can look at documents and say, hey, we're gonna vote uh that uh solar contractors can't knock doors. And so you show up to these meetings and everyone says aye. But they're just a bunch of myrmidons. Everyone just says I. They don't actually pay attention, they just want want to say, hey, and I'm on the board of the Better Business Bureau, but they're not actually doing anything.

SPEAKER_02 6:22

Okay. And with that, what what kind of expenses do they have? Like you said they send expenses. What kind of I I've look at the financials of different BBBs. It's like they have to spend everything they make because they're a nonprofit.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

So if they can't you know what's funny, I I don't know if I can disclose that, but um I will tell you, I have their financials.

unknown 6:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:44

You want to say how they spend their money, where they spend their money, everything.

SPEAKER_02 6:53

Can you give me like details? Is it like lunches, meals, threats?

SPEAKER_01 6:58

Give me an idea. I mean, I I can see the salaries, I can see everything.

SPEAKER_02 7:03

A lot of it is public. I actually have seen their financial, some of it is public. You can you can see some of the reports public.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

Like I've seen because they're they are public about it, but it's like, you know, like the president of the BBB of Houston, I think he gets uh$250,000 a year just to be the president.

SPEAKER_02 7:20

Um what happened in 2022?

SPEAKER_01 7:23

So I was on the board, and then I was asked to be on he's uh this guy, Dan Parsons with the Better Business Bureau, he's the one, he's the president of Houston. And he said, Brian, you're really forward-thinking. I love your ideas, and I want you to be on the board of Houston. Apparently that kicked back really quickly. Uh, so I was on a board meeting, and there's about 54, I think, or so members of big businesses there. Most of the people, when he talks, he talks with just kind of this authority, and people just listen, and he's just he's kind of hypnotizing in a way, and everyone just says, I, right? They all agree with him. Yeah, sure, let's do it. Yeah, sure, let's do it. Yeah, I, yeah, I agree. But no one contests him, and so I think maybe he was thrown off that I contested him. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's this guy's got a big ego, and this is not the first time this has happened. So they're talking about uh do not contact lists. So they came up with a list of companies, types of companies that cannot knock doors. And I said, Whoa, whoa, whoa. I was like, what do you mean they can't knock doors? Well, yes, they we made a list of companies that we've been getting a lot of complaints about, and now we basically are voting that they cannot knock doors. I'm like, whoa.

SPEAKER_02 8:51

I was like, so you're saying that a lot of people are we're talking about industry or are we talking about individual companies?

SPEAKER_01 8:57

Industry.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

Industry, okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

So they're discriminatory. So what really made me mad was the discriminate the discrimination. And so I said, Well, this is discrimination. He's like, Well, no, it's not. I'm like, okay, discrimination is going to a certain industry, regardless of the if they get complaints or not. I was like, what makes them different between a roofing company and a solar company? Really nothing, right? But maybe there's a lot of complaints with solar right now. I get it. But roofing also gets more complaints than almost any other industry. And I know that because I would see the uh they they had a list of the top complaints, and they would send out a memo uh every single month, and roofing was in the top three always. And so I was on the meeting and I contested him, like, whoa, whoa, whoa. So I have a roofing company and I also have a solar sales company. And he's like, Well, wait a wait, you have a solar company? Oh, really? We're gonna investigate that. And I was like, and I never admitted to knocking doors because he said that this was a do not contact list. You cannot allow to knock doors. I said, this is discrimination. I was like, what you need to do is you need to have uh rules across the board that everybody, regardless of their industry, has to follow. And if they get complaints for not following those rules, then you kick that company off the BBB. You don't just go to a uh a company that is in good standing, does things the right way, and say, I'm sorry, but you're part of the list, and I can't lie to be part of the BBB. We're gonna kick you off. And that's what they're doing. And so I didn't agree with them. And we kind of got into it. And in front of 54 board members, he told me that he was gonna investigate me. And days later, they sent uh a notice to us to McCallan Roofing that had nothing to do with the solar company, which is a totally different corporation, making asking questions about uh what how we conduct our business. But they addressed the wrong company. And solar was never an accredited business, they didn't have a contract with the Better Business Bureau, only McAllen Roofing did. And so they didn't have any right to even question a company that didn't have a contract with them. And uh days later, after that, they put an F and revoked and put these uh basically these uh like a full list in red that we didn't get the proper licensing and uh basically we got revoked. And across all of our listings, roof cleaning USA. I mean, roof consulting, uh solar, McCallan roofing, McCallan Valley roofing, McCallan residential construction for all the cities that we work in. And we were getting a lot of we were actually getting leads from them. We had advertising with them, we were getting an average of about 80 uh views on our on our profiles a month. 80 views is a lot. The conversion when someone actually goes on the better business realm is looking and they're looking for someone to trust and they go to your profile, that converts. And because they did that, it hurt. It cost us a lot of money. Yeah, and it's still there today. Yeah, they took off the F, they took off the revoked, you know, big stamp on the profile.

SPEAKER_02 12:33

Um But it was also Was it all manual, would you say, or was it any of it like legit or because they have those 13 factors, would you say the way we the way we know it was manual is magically after a couple years, I I talked to the Better Business Bureau and says I want to be a member again uh to the local chapter.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

And then all of a sudden I had an A plus. But they didn't make me a member yet. They said, Well, you haven't had any complaints, so I think they did something. And then I sent a certified letter to the Better Business Bureau say, Hey, now that I have an A plus again, can you reinstate me? You know what they did? They left the this company doesn't have a license on there and removed the A plus manually after I sent their certified letter. Unbelievable. And then why so it just not just that, but we also know this. We had reviews on one profile was McCallan roofing. It was a five, it was a five out of five. Okay. We had a complaint on a complaint or two, and they're old over the years. Uh we had a 3.7 out of five on McCallan Valley roofing. Okay. Truth. You know what they did manually? They removed the good reviews and only left the bad ones. So we had a worse rating so it would match uh what the the F and the revoked that they had manually placed on the page.

SPEAKER_02 14:11

Where are you at with BBBS? Yes, it is. Where are you at now? Are you trying to sue them? Are you in a legal dispute? Are you just calling them out?

SPEAKER_01 14:21

Or I I sent them a warning. So I reached out to the International Association of the Better Business Bureau to the presidents. And this went all the way up to the IABB because they're the ones that actually control all the better business bureaus. So apparently now they have a new president, but I can't say who, but a president of another Better Business Bureau told me that this has been a problem with this president of Houston for a long time. And she's helping me. I sent another letter to the IABB saying that we need to sit down and talk about the damages that you guys cause for the torturous interference. For basically, when people look up my company name and they see something in red and that we didn't follow the guidelines, it they don't want to do business with us. And it's a complete false lie. We literally, I literally walked into the Better Business Bureau, gave them the cert that said that you do not need a license to sell solar. You only need it to install it in the state of Texas. We were doing it through power, through a third party. We weren't contracting, we weren't subcontracting. We was just a it was literally just a solar sales company. And they just torched us for it. And they were they're wrong. I mean, I literally have this the cert from the TDLR that strictly says a company can sell solar panel system without holding an electrical license from TDLR. But the homeowner or business owner would need to find a licensed electrician to do the installation. And I gave I sent this certified mail, and they still haven't taken this off of my pages. They're intentionally trying to hurt me. And uh the IABB got involved with Houston, and they just they just won't do anything about it. So at this point, I was talking to an attorney actually this morning, and we're calculating our damages, all right, which is pretty extensive because we had to shut down our solar company because people in the community are saying, hey, you don't have a license. Uh, we looked your company up, and we didn't actually need one. And we've lost so much business uh because of what they've done, and they just won't they won't remove it. So we're gonna be filing uh first we're sending them a warning, and then we're gonna be filing a lawsuit against them. I mean, we shouldn't even be in this situation. Once you provide proof, like I provided the proof from TDLR, Texas Department of Licensing, for state of Texas, they clearly state she don't need it, and they won't remove uh what it says on there. And we had an A plus before they took it down. And then the A plus popped back up after I talked to the BBB, and then they took it down again. And it's just uh it's really, really frustrating. I think from the beginning of the relationship, it's it proves uh that it's intentional, uh, that they have control over it, and it's not something that just works on its own.

SPEAKER_02 17:25

Would you drop all the claims against them if they just remove your profile altogether?

SPEAKER_01 17:32

No, because they they they caused they caused damage. When they did this, we had one of the largest storms ever, 60 miles of just basically hurricane force winds tearing off roofs, and we lost a lot of salespeople. Uh, and we lost a lot of people because they said don't work with them. And our competition was using this basically this F and this revoked from the Better Business Bureau is ammo to take. That's it. So we should have doubled and we didn't. We should have doubled or tripled, and we didn't at all. We didn't grow at all.

SPEAKER_02 18:12

I see.

SPEAKER_01 18:13

Do you want to you're talking tens, you're talking tens of millions of dollars just just from that storm alone.

SPEAKER_02 18:19

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 18:20

And it yeah, literally like was right before it happened. It it couldn't have been at a worse time, to be honest. It couldn't have hurt us more.

SPEAKER_02 18:27

Do you want to share with me that uh those financials, or you're not supposed to?

SPEAKER_00 18:33

Um I'm already in hot water. I mean, how much hotter can it get, right?

SPEAKER_02 18:42

I'm on your side. I'm trying to help you expose the uh you're not the first business owner who exposes Houston office. Uh, I've heard a lot of bad stories from that location in particular.

SPEAKER_01 18:54

I mean, you know, one of the things that ri you know one of the things that made me really question the president and just kind of goes talk about his ego and how just loose he runs his mouth and just the way he handles things. And this is it was a matter of national security. Uh, the Russian consulate is right above the Better Business Bureau uh building, like right in their building, it's right above them.

SPEAKER_02 19:22

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

And so I go in his office, and this guy has the audacity to tell a civilian something that's highly classified, and tells me that the FBI was just in his office spying on Russia. And I was like, this is wild. Like who would do something like that? It's done. And so I was less I it just made me uh realize like this guy's just about ego. It's like this is who I am, but you can't you can't walk around like that forever. It'll it'll catch up with you.

SPEAKER_02 20:03

Well, you you you're just renting the space and uh right building, you just the right place, the right time. I don't think it has anything to do with who you are, it's just where you at.

SPEAKER_01 20:13

Yeah, I just but the thing is is if you look up who this guy is and the organizations and who he's dealing with, I mean I'm talking everybody, CIA, FBI, I mean everybody. So I think he uh he's connection with judges and things. I think he just can do um he thinks he can do whatever he wants. And uh he's about to realize that uh he can't. So and this is not the first time. If you look up his name, he's done this to other people.

SPEAKER_02 20:41

What's the name again?

SPEAKER_01 20:44

Dan Parsons.

SPEAKER_02 20:45

Dan Parsons.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

Yeah, with the Houston Better Business Bureau. And he's just a big bully. I mean, he he just uh they they went and attacked me. Uh they got on a meeting with me, which I have recorded, by the way, and I said, Look, I'm gonna report you guys to the news. So this is ridiculous. The fact you guys are coming on here and telling me that I need a license when it clearly states that I don't. And even their letter, it says I don't. They never even approached solar, they never contacted solar, and solar was never even contracted with them. It's outside of their jurisdiction. They can't even they can't do anything. Got it just because I'm the same owner? You're supposed to separate entities. It's a different company, it's a different corporation, it's different employees, different payroll, different books, different EIN number, everything.

SPEAKER_02 21:36

All right, brother. Thank you so much for sharing. We'll uh make it part of the bigger story. All right, brother. Thank you. Good luck.