Mechanic’s Responds®
(Mechanic's Responds.com News, LLC) is a Business News and News Opinion Reporting Web Site and News Investigative Web Publication, by Businesses, for
Businesses
anywhere in the United States. Mechanic’s Responds® is sponsored by Mechanic’s Heating & Air Conditioning, LLC,
herein sometimes referred to simply as "Mechanic's". Mechanic's
Responds.com News, LLC is a Georgia Limited
Liability Company, based in Rome Georgia. 
"How the bureau chooses to issue extra points is comparable to a student paying a teacher for higher grades. As this practice would never be tolerated in the academic world, such practice should also be condemned in the business world."
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File a Complaint on the BBB Now! E-mail Us! See our List of BBB Complaints! |
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Simon Weinstein Loses Big to Mechanics |
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| Breaking News | Mechanic's Sets the Record Straight | BBB Complaints | 15 BBB Facts |
"Business News for Business People"
We Are Devoted To Exposing The BBB
The BBB is Unfair -
"Unlike what many consumers may think,
the BBB is not affiliated with government. It is a membership group that
requires dues from businesses and rates them higher if they join."
Please visit our friends at
BBBRoundup and the
Better Ethics
Bureau. |
| Mechanic’s Responds® TO the BBB: |
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Fed up with many years of abuse by the Metro Atlanta Better Business Bureau, Inc., and fed up with ever present BBB abuse, BBB fraud, BBB Complaints by BBB members and BBB non-members, BBB unfairness, BBB harassment, BBB retaliation, Unethical Behavior of the Better Business Bureau, and alleged BBB rip-offs, Mechanic’s Heating & Air Conditioning, LLC funded the start up of this News Web Site and News Publication (Mechanic's Responds.com News, LLC) for the benefit of the public and Businesses across the USA that have been victimized by the abuses and unfairness of the BBB, CBBB, any Trade Association, Individual, Entity or any Business Group. When Mechanic's Heating & Air Conditioning, LLC (Mechanic's) refused to "pay up" to the Atlanta BBB its so called "Membership Fees" back on July 13, 2007, the Atlanta BBB retaliated against Mechanic's changing Mechanic's "satisfactory" rating (As of June 2007) to an "unsatisfactory" rating (now Mechanic's grade ranges from a "C" to an "F' Grade), and "turned" Mechanic's into the tabloid press which then triggered government investigations. Even the BBB's own consumer complaint form has a place for consumers to allow so called "press" contact. The Atlanta BBB uses the tabloid press like a mob Family who uses their Family enforcers. The Atlanta BBB, under the leadership of BBB President Fred Elsberry, has proven to only be interested in the slandering, embarrassment, harassment and the focused destruction of any business who (a) refuses to "pay up" and join, and (b) then calls the Atlanta BBB out on their unfair actions (Like Mechanic's has and continues to do so). As in the case of Reliable Heating & Air, LLC (Operated by Dan Jape), the Atlanta BBB is willing to forgive "past sins", and turn a blind eye to these "past sins", including crimes, for the right price, in the form of heavy "membership fees". The Atlanta BBB has even awarded Reliable Heating & Air, LLC an "A+" grade despite their many problems, including past Bankruptcies and false advertising claims, the Atlanta BBB knows all about. The Atlanta BBB has proven to be as ruthless as any "for profit" company. Mechanic's Responds.com® News, LLC is VERY aggressive in Investigating, Identifying, Exposing, Commenting on, and Responding to any News Worthy Story specifically involving the unfair BBB, Corruption, Unfair Practices, Injustice, and Consumer Abuses Against Business.
At Mechanic’s Responds® we encourage
and even require authors or News sources to only file truthful BBB Complaints or
other Complaints and
give only truthful News information. Mechanic’s Responds®
does not guarantee that all Complaints, News stories, or postings are correct, true, authentic or accurate.
Be an educated Business person or consumer. Read what you can and make
your decision based upon an examination of all available information.
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story to
Mechanic’s Responds® will be discovered by Business owners and consumers across our country!
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on the world wide web when Businesses and individuals are searching, using key
words relating to your Mechanic’s Responds® Complaint or News story. Be sure to visit Mechanic’s Responds® often, as we constantly update our site. Take time now to fight back! Our Company News slogan is “Start With The Truth And Full Disclosure Of Everything”.
Disclaimer: The
information contained herein is for informational purposes only. The
information contained herein is believed accurate but is not warranted. We
encourage all interested parties to verify the information contained herein on
their own. The information contained herein was derived from public
information sources, from our records, or from News Stories, Sources, Reports or
Complaints filed with us. All Mechanic’s Responds® News Stories produced
and published herein by Mechanic’s Responds® are the opinion of Mechanic’s
Responds®.
| Breaking News | Mechanic's Sets the Record Straight | BBB Complaints | 15 BBB Facts | |
| 15 Facts about the BBB you may not know | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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FROM THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD
6) The Better Business Bureau's model of operations seems to closely resemble that of McDonald's restaurants--plenty of individual franchises (or BBB offices) under a central command (The Council of Better Business Bureaus) "CBBB", albeit with much less oversight than practiced by McDonald's, and that is part of the problem. With McDonald's you're pretty much assured that a cheeseburger you buy in St. Louis, MO will taste exactly like one in Bend, OR or Macon, GA. With the Better Business Bureau, there is no consistency in grading from region to region, and this lack of oversight is used by the CBBB as an "out." There have been numerous press articles, recent and old, that have pointed out discrepancies in evaluating businesses and questioned the BBB's "pay for play" ethics. These seem to have been easily deflected by the BBB as just being momentary aberrations of a regional nature, and not something to concern, or come under the purview of, the CBBB. 7) The BBB is funded by its Membership. Both Consumer Reports (Consumer Union or CU) and the Better Business Bureau (BBB were created to protect consumers from false, misleading, or grandious advertising claims). The BBB was established in 1912 as a self-governing body to police misleading advertising. CU was established in 1936 in response to advertising flooding the mass media. Both CU and BBB are non-profit organizations. CU judges products, the BBB judges businesses. In spite of these similarities, there is a marked difference in their business models. Consumer Reports is funded through subscriptions from consumers who are interested in their reviews of products. The BBB is funded by memberships paid for by businesses. This rightly or wrongly gives the appearance of a conflict of interest. 8) The National BBB Adopted The Los Angeles Better Business Bureau System of Letter Grades in order to generate more profits for the BBB. The BBB does this by high pressure telemarketing tactics to business. They have chosen to continue to publicly support a grading system that has been demonstrated to be arbitrary, subjective and in many cases flat-out wrong. And to make the Letter Grade system truly work, they will find they need to adopt the very high pressure, deceptive telemarketing tactics of the LA BBB, the very type of sales tactics they (the BBB) deplore publicly. The BBB has become the captain on its sinking ship that refuses to leave the vessel. It would seem that the CBBB is at a crossroads: they can continue to stonewall the situation and behave like Mark McGwire or Roger Clemens in the face of steroid allegations and meet increasing skepticism and investigation or they can take the high road, like Andy Pettitte and admit their mistake and (hopefully) get back on track.
9) The
Better Business Bureau current grading system is inaccurate, biased, and faulty which has caused legitimate, well run, consumer friendly businesses to suffer
greatly from bad grades given to them by the Better Business Bureau.
Mechanic's Heating & Air Conditioning, LLC's BBB "Letter Grade" is one such
example of the BBB's unfair system. 13) Consistency is a concept that the Better Business Bureau has yet to perfect. Take for instance the Better Business Bureaus' policies on how they take into account government actions against a business when grading said business. According to Howard Schwartz of the Connecticut Better Business Bureau the bureau "does not report on government actions." Contradicting this, Judy Mills of the Southwest Missouri BBB states that "Variables plugged into the (grading) algorithm include government actions against a business." Based on the events, it seems likely that the Connecticut Better Business Bureau wishes they adopted the Missouri approach. On March 18, 2009 the Attorney General for the State of Connecticut filed suit against this year's Connecticut BBB Torch Award and has demanded responses from the Connecticut BBB on their grading system and other issues. (Note: for an excellent series on the troubles facing the Connecticut Better Business Bureau read George Gombossy's column in the Hartford Courant.) The inconsistency in what counts and doesn't count towards a businesses' grade has led to great disparity between different regional BBB offices grading essentially the same businesses. This is why Disneyland in California had a "F" and Disneyworld in Orlando had a "B", the San Jose Mercury News a "F" and the Philadelphia Enquirer a "C", and other regional discrepancies that have no rhyme or reason. Other inconsistencies exist: how the word "accreditation" is used and what it means; how complaints are displayed (some BBB's list only 12 months of complaints, others 36 months); whether one can view the actual complaints or must make-do with the synopsis; even the color scheme of the various member sites differs. Just as one trusts that a McDonald's Quarter Pounder with Cheese would taste the same in Chicago as it would in Reno or Little Rock, one would hope that a "A" grade in one BBB region would mean the same as an "A" grade in another. Sadly this is not the case.
| Breaking News | Mechanic's Sets the Record Straight | BBB Complaints | 15 BBB Facts | |
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| Mechanic’s Responds® Crime Scene: Starring Fred Elsberry |
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Mechanic’s Responds® records, found via public records, the Internet, and our own records, shows Fred Elsberry (AKA Fred Elsberry Jr., Fred T. Elsberry, Fred Thomas Elsberry) associated with the BBB of Metro Atlanta.
Public Divorce Records of Fred T. Elsberry and Pamela B. Elsberry See Fred Elsberry at www.FredElsberry.com Visit Fred Elsberry On FaceBook
How Fred Elsberry's BBB Treats Non-Members
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| Mechanic’s Responds® NEWS Hammer: Starring Simon Weinstein |
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Mechanic's is Celebrating its 2nd Year Anniversary of their Victory in Court against Attorney Simon Weinstein!!
Comments or Questions? Email us at
comments@simonweinstein.com
Attorney Simon Weinstein
The Legend of Simon Weinstein “…..Some of us spend our lives serving others. Some of us spend our lives accomplishing great feats. Yet some of us have a life that amounts simply to serve as a warning beacon to others like a doomed upturned ship sticking out over the rocks on an ocean shore saying loudly, ‘Don’t do what I have done!’ ” It was a cool February day in 2008 when a caller identified as Simon Weinstein called Mechanics Air for service at one of his properties. Following normal procedure, the technician responded and arrived on the scene to find a pleasant Simon Weinstein making one his properties available for servicing. The Mechanics Air technician worked quickly to find the problem and relayed that information to Simon Weinstein. Knowing beforehand that he had a problem and knowing that it needed to be repaired, Simon Weinstein agreed to the get the repairs done. The diligent and honest Mechanics Air technician went over the contract thoroughly with Simon Weinstein to make sure he knew the terms and conditions. Simon Weinstein nodded in agreement as he read and understood that the agreement was noncancelable and the deposit was nonrefundable. After all, the technician explained, we are picking up this equipment now to bring here to your property and once it leaves the supply house, we have bought it. Simon Weinstein seemed unconcerned when he signed and initialed an agreement with Mechanics Air nine times. At this point, the technician’s gaze was focused on the agreement and not on Simon Weinstein’s crossed fingers behind his back. Simon Weinstein then, as agreed, tendered a check for the deposit. Mechanics Air sprung into action purchasing the equipment from the supply house and loading it up for delivery. While on their way to the property, Simon Weinstein called and stated he was cancelling the contract and have a good day. Mechanics Air tried to explain the predicament and the costs to Mechanics Air but Simon Weinstein was having none of it. It seemed like this was a negotiating stunt to force Mechanics Air to heavily discount their equipment because they now had to eat it. Of course, Simon Weinstein had another plan. He wanted Mechanics Air to pay him tons of money. Yes that’s right. He wanted Mechanics Air to return his money with a bonus on top that would make Donald Trump blush. If not, he was going to make a lot of money disappear! The technician and management staff at Mechanics Air were stunned. They had just been hit upside the head with a two-by-four and were now facing a significant loss. What was going on? Simon Weinstein let Mechanics Air know that he had taken down other businesses which he perceived had wronged him. This was not going to be Simon Weinstein’s first rodeo. Mechanics Air would not the first horse he had ridden and tamed. It was at this moment that Mechanics Air discovered they had stumbled onto a Goliath and would be in a battle for their lives. Simon Weinstein was not only an attorney but worked on the powerful Georgia Court of Appeals. For uninformed folks like myself, when you go to court you have a judge and sometimes a jury to make sure justice is happening. But who supervises the judge and the jury? The Georgia Court of Appeals. That’s right! They are the boss of the judges and juries. They hear appeals from the trial courts in Georgia. And these judges on the Court of Appeals review those judges’ and juries’ decisions to make sure everything’s good. Simon Weinstein is not a judge but works for these judges and does the heavy lifting for them. Sure, the judges make the actual decision but Simon Weinstein drafts documents for them, reads the appeals and does the research that helps them make these decisions in supervising the judges and juries. If the judges of the Court of Appeals are Kings, Simon Weinstein is a highly decorated knight. And the knights are the ones with the swords. Simon Weinstein had a big, shiny, sharp sword: it’s called a law license. So, here is the powerful attorney Simon Weinstein working for powerful judges and seeing all the powerful lawyers coming before his court for relief from the decisions below. Simon Weinstein has access to top legal talent in Georgia (because he deals with them every day) and has the best research equipment available (besides being pretty smart himself). Furthermore, if this goes to court and Mechanics Air loses and they appeal, guess where that appeal goes? Yep! The Georgia Court of Appeals. To use a southern phrase: that’s a big load of whup ass coming. Mechanics Air faced a huge decision: write a large check and take a huge financial loss in not only writing out the check to Simon Weinstein and the loss on the equipment that was already purchased or they could fight. Who could blame them for going to the bank, taking out a big loan and paying Simon Weinstein to go away? Wouldn’t we all consider it? How many times have we all turn tail and run? But first, Mechanics Air hired a lawyer. Maybe there was a chance to survive this whole thing. The lawyer called and tried to reason with Simon Weinstein. He literally begged Simon Weinstein to reconsider. Simon Weinstein again responded that he had taken down other businesses and Mechanics Air was next in the batting order. The lawyer floated all sorts of compromise yet Simon Weinstein was having none of it. In fact, he was emboldened. He smelled fear. He could tell he was holding all the cards. Despite signing an agreement nine times, Simon Weinstein knew that he had the law license, the legal talent, the position and the know-how. Facts did not matter in the legal arena. What mattered was money, knowledge and access to people. Simon Weinstein was on top of Mechanics Air pinning their arms down with his knees and clenching his fists ready to start pummeling their face into a bloody mess. This was a horrifying time for Mechanics Air. Mechanics Air then convened a meeting of every employee and their families. It was a somber, bitter cold Sunday afternoon when they huddled into the meeting room to discuss the situation. Long faces were all around. Cups of coffee cooled quickly without being consumed because the good people were preoccupied. A few stragglers dragged in from a late church service. The management staff swallowed hard as they laid out the scene. If we fight, they said, it would cost a lot of money. And, our enemy is very powerful. He will not allow surrender……..only death. There will be sacrifices. We will all have to do without in order to mount any type of war. Pay and benefits will be cut. Future expansion of the business will be shelved. Temp workers in……full time workers out. It will be long and costly and we will have nothing but a slingshot, one stone and a large dose of courage. When they were finished, the group silently prayed for an answer. On this heavily clouded day, a ray of light suddenly shone through the window. An employee’s baby who cried 24/7 suddenly laughed and cooed. Another worker dropped his pen only to reach down and find a twenty dollar bill hidden under a trash can. He held the rumpled bill up and handed it to his manager saying, “Put this towards that one stone. Cus’ one stone is all we gonna need!” The rest of the employees dug into their pockets. A collection was taken up. Then, a rallying cry came forth. In true southern style, the group yelled, “Let’s get it on!” Then next day, the cannon fired towards Mechanics Air. A lawsuit was filed by Simon Weinstein and received by Mechanics Air’s lawyer. Simon Weinstein had emptied out the kitchen sink of legal technicalities. His superior legal knowledge and the talent around him had struck a hard blow. This Goliath was now running full steam downhill towards Mechanics Air. But the best was yet to come. Simon Weinstein got the tabloid press involved. TV stations with cameras to record, pressure and intimidate Mechanics Air. Simon Weinstein gave interviews. He slandered and hammered Mechanics Air. This was Rambo litigation at its finest. Mechanics’ lawyer was not on the level of Simon Weinstein or his buddies who knew all the nooks and crannies of the law. But Mechanics’ lawyer had one thing on his side: righteousness. So Mechanics’ legal team decided to undercut Simon Weinstein’s legal dream team by finding out if he was using the resources of the Georgia Court of Appeals. After all, they are publicly paid resources and why should Simon Weinstein have free access to these resources? Mechanics Air then sent many Open Record Act requests to the Georgia Court of Appeals. They requested the computer access records, the personal notes, the telephone records and anything that might show Simon Weinstein was using public resources for private gain or doing anything private on public assets. Obviously, it had some affect because an angry Simon Weinstein filed more paperwork and oceans of motions which caused more work on Mechanics’ lawyer. And of course, more money. Mechanics Air met with their lawyer to find more nooks and crannies of the law. They got an idea. Mechanics Air management staff studied the law license that Simon Weinstein had. And they found a chink in the armor. It appears that Georgia doesn’t just hand out law licenses like candy. Georgia requires years of study, the passing of a rigorous bar examination and the taking of a solemn oath before anyone can get a law license. All of that comes only after the person has passed a full background check for all sorts of stuff. But Mechanics Air found one tiny little requirement that no one had ever paid attention to and that Simon Weinstein was bound to comply with: The Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct. That is another requirement of receiving a law license in Georgia: a lawyer must follow certain basic rules of professional conduct. Then the good folks at Mechanics discovered that anyone can file a complaint against any lawyer and Georgia conducts the investigations free-of-charge to the victim. The lawyer has to get another legal dream team and fight that investigation, hearing and ruling. Mechanics Air studied these rules carefully and found an overriding theme to the rules. You see, Georgia wants people to use their license for the common good and for justice……..kinda like a shield…….to protect people from injustice. Certainly not as a sword to exploit the poor and helpless. Mechanics Air was able to file a complaint against Simon Weinstein for the actions and attitude he had towards Mechanics Air. And the best part was that the case was not heard by the Georgia Court of Appeals but by a separate group of people dedicated to protecting the public from wrongdoing lawyers. This group has the power to strip away the law license of a lawyer because the license is a privilege granted by Georgia not a right like the right to vote. These people are mean to lawyers. And, if the case had to be appealed, it goes to another group of folks not connected with the Georgia Court of Appeals. That means that Simon Weinstein’s sandbox meant nothing to these folks who live to hang another scalp on the wall. Suddenly, as the battle raged on, the playing field started to level out. Mechanics Air started investigating every aspect of Simon Weinstein’s life. His property, his holdings, his past statements. Did he have any divorces? Anything in public was fair game including public records of past lawsuits. You name it, it was looked into. If Simon Weinstein was going to sling mud into Mechanic’s face, they would sling mud back. After all, this was a fight to the death. Then the day of reckoning came. Both sides faced off in court. Mechanics Air employees prayed that their one stone would be good enough. Simon Weinstein showed up with his high-powered legal team. Mechanics Air arrived with their simple lawyer. The TV cameras buzzed trying to get the right angles for television. The Remote TV trucks lined the streets extending their masts to the heavens. They prayed for ratings. A large crowd gathered next to the cameras to see Simon Weinstein and his dream team disembowel another small business. Blood and guts is such sport. As they say in the TV business, “If it bleeds, it leads!” Witnesses came and went. Evidence was offered, entered or excluded. After a long court fight, the judge adjourned the case and stated he would mail out his ruling. As tensions were high, that was a great idea. As he left court, a surely soon-to-be victorious Simon Weinstein gave TV interviews about the ass whipping he had just put on Mechanics Air. He did a victory lap celebrating what was soon to be the death of Mechanics Air. And then, several days later, the judgment came……………………………………… It turns out the judge looked at something no one thought was possible: the facts. That’s right, the facts! It seems that because Simon Weinstein signed nine times, that meant he was actually bound by a contract. The judge said one signature was actually good enough but nine times was good too. Then the judge went further and stated that the ten’s of thousands of dollars Simon Weinstein had spent on his dream team was money he would have to eat himself. Yummy! And then, the one stone that Mechanics Air possessed found the only spot available on Simon Weinstein’s forehead. Bingo! Thump! Simon Weinstein was down for the count. The judge ruled Simon Weinstein had to pay damages to Mechanic’s Air. It was done. In jubilation, Mechanics Air celebrated. People cried. Babies laughed. Their lawyer lit a cigar. They all danced on an effigy of Simon Weinstein. But there was still work to do. Liens to be filed. Wages from Simon Weinstein’s paycheck in the Court of Appeals to be garnished, bank accounts to be attached and liquidated. And of course, just like Simon Weinstein had said he would do to Mechanics Air, it was now Mechanics’ time to return the favor. Of course, eventually and unbelievably quickly, Simon Weinstein sent a check to Mechanics Air’s lawyer for payment of the judgment in full. At the beginning, when Simon Weinstein had told Mechanics Air that he was going to make a ton of money disappear, it turned out he was right………only it was his money that disappeared! As I sit here at the beautiful white-clothed table at Ritz Carlton, the management staff of Mechanics Air is signing a victory song: “What we took from Simon Weinstein Allowed us to have such a fine time. A fine time from nine-time Weinstein! Nine-time Weinstein and our fine time. Nine more times will we have a fine time, Thanks to Nine-time Weinstein. Sally up and drink from our bars. All hail to Mechanics for victory is ours!”
Next time you hear about someone demanding a free stay in a hotel room because they found one dead fly on a windowsill, or demanding a free roundtrip ticket because there was a slight smudge on an airline pillow or someone carefully ordering an elaborate gourmet meal, having it served properly, eating the entire meal and demanding that they not have to pay for that meal, think of Mechanics Air for they decided to take a stand and refuse to give into bullies…..even ones with law licenses. Epilogue According to Mechanics Air’s small-time lawyer, it turns out that getting the media involved or posting things on line makes one a public figure and thus allowed this website offering a warning to whomever shall ever deal with Simon Weinstein. All of his TV interviews ended up serving someone after all. Mechanics
Air had this statement for this story: “As long as the internet exists and as
long as we have the $9.00 each year to pay for this site, there will be
forever a tribute to our miraculous victory over attorney Simon Weinstein
and his legal dream team. We are just sorry we could not help the businesses
that ran into him before we did.” | Breaking News | Mechanic's Sets the Record Straight | BBB Complaints | 15 BBB Facts |
"Nine Time Weinstein" Loses To Mechanic's Simon Weinstein Signed or Initialed Mechanic's Documents 9 Times!
Attorney Simon
Weinstein
Attorney Simon
Weinstein
Have you seen
Simon Weinstein, pictured above, on the tabloid
news in September 2008? Remember Extra Articles:
http://www.prlog.org/10590298-david-takes-down-goliath-powerful-lawyer-gets-stoned-by-small-business.html
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| Mechanic’s HEATING & AIR CONDITIONING SETS THE RECORD STRAIGHT: |
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Mechanic's Heating & Air Conditioning, LLC Responds To Its Detractors
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