BBB Scraper - Business Ratings, Complaints & Reviews (US/CA)

For lead lists, vendor checks and reputation research: Better Business Bureau (BBB) data for any business type and place in the US and Canada: business name, BBB letter rating, BBB Accredited or not, category, address, phone, review count and average stars, total complaints and complaints in the last 12 months, resolved and unanswered complaints, and complaint types, one row per business. Type what you would type in the BBB search box and where (for example Plumber and Roofing Contractors in Austin, TX, Dallas, TX and 78701) and every combination is collected in one run, with each business returned once.

Search and the review and complaint numbers come in the same row from the same run, so there is no second tool to feed profile links into. Filter to BBB Accredited only or a minimum BBB rating and the businesses left out are not charged.

Input

Field	What it does
keywords	What you would type in the BBB search box: a business type (Plumber, Roofing Contractors, Auto Repair, Dentist) or a business name
locations	US or Canadian city with state or province (Austin, TX, Toronto, ON) or a ZIP code (78701). Every keyword is searched in every location
startUrls	Optional. BBB search pages (https://www.bbb.org/search?find_text=plumber&find_loc=Austin%2C%20TX) or business profile pages (https://www.bbb.org/us/tx/austin/profile/plumber/<name>-0825-1000223803, its review and complaint pages included)
maxResultsPerSearch	Most businesses per search (one keyword in one location). Empty = 50, up to 225
includeDetails	On (default): review count, average stars, stars breakdown, complaint count, complaints in the last 12 months, resolved / answered / unanswered and complaint types. Off: the search list fields only (faster)
accreditedOnly	Only BBB Accredited businesses. Others are not charged
minRating	Only businesses with this BBB letter rating or better (A- means A+, A and A-). Others are not charged

Example: {"keywords": ["Plumber", "Roofing Contractors"], "locations": ["Austin, TX", "78701"], "maxResultsPerSearch": 100, "minRating": "B"} runs four searches.

Up to 25 searches (keywords x locations + start URLs) per run. The same keyword written twice (Plumber, plumber) is searched once, and a business that appears in several searches is returned only the first time.

What you get

Field	Example
businessName	Calixto Plumbing
bbbRating, bbbRatingScore	A+, 98.49
accredited	true
category, categories	Plumber, ["Plumber", "Commercial Plumber", ...]
phone, phones	(512) 945-3143 (business phone as shown on BBB)
address, city, state, postalCode, country	8410 Georgian Dr # B, Austin, TX, 78753-6003, US
latitude, longitude, serviceAreas	Map point and the service areas BBB lists
reviewCount, reviewAverageStars, reviewStars	17, 3.88, {"1": 3, "2": 2, "3": 0, "4": 1, "5": 11}
complaintCount, complaintsLast12Months	All complaints BBB shows for the business (BBB keeps about 3 years), and those filed in the last 12 months
complaintsResolved, complaintsAnswered, complaintsUnanswered, complaintTypes	Complaint status counts and types (Service or Repair Issues: 31)
localBbb, isCharity, outOfBusiness	The local BBB office and flags
bbbUrl, businessId, bbbId	The BBB profile page
positionInSearch, resultsInSearch, searchKeyword, searchLocation	Which search found it and where it sat
status, detailsNote, note, fetchedAt	ok for a business row; see the table below

The overview view of the dataset shows the columns used for calling and sorting; the all fields view shows everything.

Why this one

• One run, one row per business: search list, review numbers and complaint numbers together.
• Review average from every review: counted from the stars of each review BBB shows.
• Complaints in the last 12 months, next to the total, so a recent problem stands out.
• No duplicates: a business listed on several pages or found by several searches is returned and charged once per run.
• Filters are not charged: businesses left out by accreditedOnly or minRating cost nothing.
• A clear row when something is missing: if a place is unknown, a list is cut or a page cannot be read, a free row says so.

What is charged

• business-returned: one per business row with status: ok.
• actor-start: $0.005 once per run, only when at least one business is returned.
• Rows with any other status are free.

Plan	Per 1,000 businesses
Free	$15.00
Bronze	$14.00
Silver	$13.00
Gold and above	$12.00

If you set a maximum total charge, the run stops before it and says so in a budget-reached row. Nothing beyond the limit is charged.

Rows that explain instead of failing

These rows are never charged. The note says what happened and what to do next.

status	When
no-results	BBB lists no business for this keyword at this place
not-found	BBB does not recognise the location, or the business page is not on BBB. Check the spelling, or use a ZIP code
more-not-returned	Fewer businesses were returned than BBB lists: BBB's search shows only the first 225 of a search, or filters left some out. Search a more specific keyword, or several ZIP codes or nearby cities
incomplete	One page of a list could not be read. The businesses above the row were returned; run again later for the rest
details-unavailable	One business's reviews or complaints could not be read. It was not returned or charged
unreadable / blocked	BBB could not be read. Nothing is guessed. If reviews and complaints cannot be read for the first businesses, the run stops; run again later, or turn off includeDetails
budget-reached	The run's maximum total charge was reached; the businesses and searches not returned are listed
bad-input	The input could not be used, so nothing was requested

FAQ

How do I get a list of BBB rated plumbers in Austin with phone numbers? Run it with keywords: ["Plumber"] and locations: ["Austin, TX"]. Each row has the business phone, BBB rating, accreditation, address and the review and complaint numbers.

How do I get only BBB Accredited businesses rated A or better? Set accreditedOnly: true and minRating: "A". Businesses outside the filter are not returned or charged.

How many complaints did a business get in the last 12 months? Put its BBB profile link in startUrls. The row has complaintCount, complaintsLast12Months, the resolved / answered / unanswered counts and the complaint types.

Can I search several business types in several cities at once? Yes. Every keyword is searched in every location in one run (up to 25 searches), and a business found in two searches is returned once.

Does it work for Canada? Yes. Use a Canadian city with its province, for example Toronto, ON. country is CA on those rows.

Do I need a BBB account? No. Only data anyone can see on bbb.org without signing in is read.

Good to know

• Rows can contain business phone numbers and addresses that BBB shows publicly. For a sole proprietor these may be personal information; you are responsible for using them lawfully (for example GDPR, CCPA, TCPA and do-not-call rules).
• BBB's search shows at most 225 businesses (15 pages) per search. For a big city, search several ZIP codes or nearby cities.
• With includeDetails on, 400 businesses took about 8 minutes in our test. Turn includeDetails off for the search list fields only, which is much faster.
• Website, accreditation date, year founded and owner names are not returned.
• Review text, reviewer names and complaint text are not returned; the counts, stars and complaint types are.
• complaintCount is what BBB shows on the business's complaint page (BBB keeps complaints for about 3 years), including complaints BBB counts but does not publish.
• If BBB's review list changes while it is being read, reviewStars and reviewAverageStars are left empty with a reason in detailsNote instead of being guessed.
• Phone numbers are the business numbers BBB shows. Email addresses are not returned.
• This Actor is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by the Better Business Bureau. BBB's terms of use restrict use of its content, including republication and aggregation; decide for yourself whether your use is permitted before you run it.

Thanks for using this Actor

We build these tools for people who run them every day, and we improve them from what users tell us.

• Missing a field, or need another filter? Tell us in the Issues tab. If the data is there, we add it.
• Found a bug or a wrong value? Post the run ID in the Issues tab. Wrong data is the thing we fix first.

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