- Complaints feed the letter grade through BBB's published rating elements. Reviews do not, per BBB.
- A complaint starts a response clock of 10 to 15 calendar days from filing. A review notice asks you to confirm the interaction.
- A customer must choose a complaint or a review for the same experience, so the customer's choice decides whether your grade is exposed.
- Complaints appear on your profile for three years from filing. BBB says reviews are reportable for 36 months on an accredited business profile.
- Treat a complaint as a deadline task and a review as a reputation task.
On this page
The Consequences Side by Side
A complaint can change your letter grade and demands a response. A review changes how buyers see you and, per BBB, does not touch the grade.
Most guides define the two terms and stop. This one starts with what each does to you. It belongs to our BBB reviews hub, and it pairs with the complaints hub for the grade-moving side.
| BBB complaint | BBB review | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A request for BBB to help resolve a dispute, usually involving money | A 1 to 5 star opinion about a marketplace experience |
| Effect on letter grade | Yes, through the published complaint elements | No. BBB says reviews are not considered in the rating |
| Your obligation | Respond within 10 to 15 calendar days of filing | Confirm the interaction and respond if you wish. No resolution is required |
| Closing status | Resolved, Answered, Unresolved, Unanswered or Unpursuable | None. A review is published or it is not |
| Who can withdraw it | Not deletable by the consumer once submitted | Generally the reviewer |
| How long it shows | Three years from filing | BBB says reviews are reportable for 36 months on an accredited business profile |
| Who can file | A consumer with a marketplace relationship | Only the original consumer who had a marketplace interaction |
Sources: BBB's pages on the complaint process, how reviews work and the value of reviews. The deadline details differ slightly across BBB pages, so we use the sourced 10 to 15 calendar days and suggest you aim for day 10.
Why the Customer's Choice Matters to You
BBB tells consumers to choose either a complaint or a review for the same experience, so an unhappy customer who picks a complaint puts your grade in play and one who picks a review does not.
BBB's FAQ says a consumer with a genuine experience must choose whether to file a complaint or submit a review. They cannot do both about the same experience. A complaint is for someone who wants BBB's help resolving a dispute. A review is for sharing an opinion.
That choice is outside your control, and it explains why service recovery matters before a customer reaches BBB. A customer who feels heard may do neither. A customer who feels ignored and wants money back is more likely to go the complaint route, which is the one that is scored.
For example, imagine a fictional appliance repair shop and two customers with the identical late-delivery story. One leaves a 2 star review. The other files a complaint that nobody at the shop answers. Only the second can show up as an Unanswered complaint, the status that sits in the widest published point range, 40 to 0. Nothing about the experience differed. The path did.
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What Complaints Do to the Grade
Complaints feed several published rating elements, and BBB lists unanswered complaints at 40 to 0 points and unresolved ones at 30 to 0.
BBB builds the letter grade from information in a business's BBB file, and it publishes the elements. The ones fed by complaints are in the table. Our guide on how BBB ratings work lists all seven elements.
| Published element | Published point range | Fed by |
|---|---|---|
| Complaint volume weighted by age | 15 to 0 | Complaints |
| Unanswered complaints | 40 to 0 | Complaints |
| Unresolved complaints | 30 to 0 | Complaints |
| Complaint resolution delayed | 5 to 0 | Complaints |
| Failure to address a complaint pattern | 0 to -31 | Complaints |
| Customer reviews | Not used | Not applicable |
These are BBB's published ranges, not a promise of what any single answer will earn. If you have a live complaint, start with how to respond to a BBB complaint and the deadline calculator.
What Reviews Do to Your Reputation
Reviews do not change the letter grade, but they sit on your profile where buyers read them, and your reply is public too.
BBB says reviews are vetted and sent to the business before they are published, and that the business can confirm the interaction and respond. Both sides can comment. Third parties cannot. A buyer who looks you up sees the review, your grade and any complaints together.
BBB's own page on the value of reviews cites outside research to argue that reviews influence buying decisions. We have not verified that research, so we do not repeat the figures. The practical point holds without a number: a thoughtful reply is visible to every future reader.
We found no BBB source on how reviews affect search results, so we make no claim about that here. If you want the full rating answer, read do BBB reviews affect your rating.
You Got a Notice. Which One Is It?
A complaint notice asks for a response by a date. A review notice asks you to confirm whether the person is a customer.
| What the notice says | What it is | First move |
|---|---|---|
| A consumer has filed a complaint and a response is requested | Complaint | Log in, read it, and write a response inside the window |
| A customer review is awaiting publication and you can confirm the interaction | Review | Search your records and answer the interaction question |
| A follow-up because you have not responded | Complaint | Respond now. An unanswered complaint closes as Unanswered |
| A new comment on an existing item | Either | Open it and read it before replying |
In our work since 2013, owners often confuse the two because both come from the same BBB account and both look like a customer complaining. The tell is the request. A complaint asks BBB to help resolve something. A review just shares an experience.
Which Can You Remove?
Neither can be deleted on request. Both can be challenged only on the grounds BBB publishes.
Complaints
- BBB does not handle some complaint types, such as employer and employee disputes, debt collection or disputes based solely on price
- A complaint can close as Resolved when the consumer verifies satisfaction
- Complaints age off the profile after three years from filing
Reviews
- A review needs a marketplace interaction, so no interaction is a ground
- Personal information and inappropriate language are removed by BBB
- A published review is generally retracted only by the reviewer, or removed by BBB when it fails its own standards
Read can you remove a BBB complaint for the complaint side and can a BBB review be removed for the review side. If you think a review is fabricated, see fake BBB reviews.
What You Cannot Do
You cannot move a complaint into the review column, ask a customer to switch, or trade anything of value for a different filing.
- Ask the customer to turn a complaint into a review, or the reverse, to protect your grade
- Offer a refund or gift on the condition that the customer withdraws or rewrites anything
- Threaten the customer, which the FTC's 2024 rule treats as a problem when it is a groundless attempt to remove a review
- Pretend a complaint is a review and skip the response window
You can fix the underlying problem and invite the customer to update their feedback in their own words, if they choose. BBB's own guidance is to encourage feedback, not suppress it. We do not offer to suppress either one.
Common Mistakes Owners Make With the Two
Most mistakes come from treating a complaint like a review, because the review needs no deadline and the complaint does.
- Skipping a complaint notice because it looks like just another unhappy customer
- Spending a week drafting a perfect public reply to a review while a complaint window runs out
- Sending BBB notices to a shared inbox that nobody owns
- Assuming a five-star review average protects the letter grade, when BBB says reviews are not part of it
- Arguing with the customer in a review comment instead of resolving the issue privately
- Believing a complaint can be deleted on request, when BBB says a consumer cannot delete one once submitted
In our work since 2013, the cheapest fix is administrative, not clever. Name one person who watches the BBB account, give them a backup, and agree that anything marked as a complaint is answered the same week. Everything else on this page is easier once that is true. The BBB complaints hub covers the complaint side in depth.
How to Handle Each, in Order
Handle complaints first because they have a deadline, then reviews.
Triage by request
Sort every BBB notice into complaint or review using the table above.
Answer complaints inside the window
Aim for day 10. An unanswered complaint is the costliest outcome on the published scale.
Check review notices against your records
Confirm or dispute the interaction in writing before publication when you can.
Reply to published reviews
Our guide on how to respond to a BBB review gives a structure.
Fix the cause
Look for the process failure behind both, such as slow shipping or unclear pricing.
If your grade is lower than you expect, our free BBB audit reviews your profile against the published rating elements. Our BBB complaint resolution service works the scored side. All our work is results-based. We agree the result in writing first, and you pay when it is delivered. We cannot assign a rating or delete a genuine complaint, and Business Rating Fix, the BBB rating division of Reputation Resolutions, is independent of the BBB.
Anthony Will
Founder and CEO, Reputation Resolutions
Anthony Will founded Reputation Resolutions and has worked in online reputation management since 2013. Reputation Resolutions is BBB Accredited with an A+ rating and is a Google Partner. Business Rating Fix is its Better Business Bureau rating division.
- In online reputation management since 2013
- Reputation Resolutions: BBB Accredited, A+ rated
- Google Partner
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Fact-checked against bbb.org · Updated November 2026
