About a month and a half ago I received a press release from an art gallery in Charleston who had just received the 2008 Best of Charleston Award in the Art Galleries & Dealers category by the US Local Business Association (USLBA). We receive a lot of press release about all kinds of things, but this one had a few items which caught my attention.
First, I never heard of the US Local Business Association, but I don’t know every organization out there and second, the gallery winning the award wouldn’t be my first choice as the “Best” gallery in Charleston. But, then again I didn’t know how the award was selected – what factors were involved.
I checked out the website given for the USLBA. That didn’t reveal too much info about this organization or the award process. Unlike other groups that give out awards I couldn’t find a list of all the winners – all I found was a place where you would put in a code to see about your award. Another flag when up in my mind.
So I e-mailed the gallery and asked if they knew anything about how they got this award. They responded that the USLBA surveyed 25 galleries in Charleston and they had received the highest level of customer satisfaction. Another flag was shooting up. There are a lot more than 25 galleries in Charleston. Now I really wanted to know who came in second.
I e-mailed the USLBA and asked if they could supply me with the names of the galleries surveyed and what was involved in the process. Their site said they would respond within 24 hours. It’s been more than a month and I haven’t gotten a response. Now I know why.
I read in a Post & Courier article submitted by Michael Buettner on Aug. 25, 2008, in the paper’s Business Review section that no one he has contacted has ever heard of the USLBA and he’s still waiting for a response to his e-mail too.
The USLBA is a website that sells businesses awards. You get an e-mail from them telling you that you’ve been selected to received an award – just go to their website, put in the code associated with your award and it will tell you how much your plaque will cost. You can also select how big you want your award to be – at various price levels.
The USLBA is probably nothing more than a great cover for a company that makes awards – even if you get your award after sending in your money. Very clever – banking on people’s pride and stock in receiving awards.
I get calls at least once a week and sometimes more often from people who say they represent certain companies trying to sign me up for a service. What’s funny is that many of them are representing people we already have services with and they don’t know I’m already a customer. It doesn’t take long to ask a few questions to get that special click! When they realize I’m not fooled.
After 20 years we’ve heard a lot of different pitches – some sound real, but we always run into a snag when I ask them to send me the pitch in the mail. They never seem to come. Sometimes if I’m not real busy and they seem to think we talked on the phone about this before or at a party – I play along taking up their time and running up the cost of their call.
When it comes to awards, I would at least like to have heard of the organization giving it and I would always want to know who came in second. And, I’m sure not going to pay for it.