The Better Business Bureau of Atlantic Canada is defending its decision to remove four complaints and an F rating from its site after Great Buys Auto Sales of Lower Sackville, N.S., asked for a second chance to improve its standing.

"The rating has gone from F to 'No Rating' likely in part because of your work with the company and the customer," the BBB's president and CEO, Peter Moorhouse, told CBC News.

The original BBB rating for Great Buys Auto Sales was an F.

"The company realized they should have been responding to complaints all along and got back to us and said they really do want the opportunity to re-open those and work through them with the customers if at all possible."

Customers brought unresolved complaints to CBC

CBC News reported on Great Buys Auto Sales in June after two customers complained to about the business and the way it dealt with them.

The amended report on Great Buys Auto Sales shows the business as 'no rating.'

One young couple paid salesman Darren Blumenthal $44,000 and returned the car they had purchased, with a promise he would pay off their car loan.

Blumenthal said he did pay the bank but the bank denies that. He is facing a charge of fraud over $5,000 in connection with the matter.

The second customer, one of those whose complaint has been removed from the BBB site, won a $10,000 judgment against the company in small claims court, although the company has said it is appealing that decision.

Moorhouse said now that all four complaints are reopened they're working with the business and the customers to see if they can arrive at some sort of resolution.

Alert recently added

The complaints and allegations that have been removed included being sold a vehicle with a false motor vehicle inspection and no registration. Two complaints allege the company damaged a vehicle while doing work on it but refused to acknowledge it or pay for repairs.

Until recently, anyone checking the company on the Better Business Bureau website did not see those complaints. But now, an alert has been added.

The Better Business Bureau recently placed this alert on Great Buys Auto Sales.

Moorhouse said the change is the way the BBB's systems works and he has little control over it.

BBB algorithm generates ratings

The BBB of Atlantic Canada is part of an international organization and it is required to operate under its regulations and guidelines.

Moorhouse said algorithms generate the ratings.

"When there are complaints in process like that it [the system] would remove the rating that was assigned because of those complaints and wait for those complains to either be resolved not resolved and then would generate the new rating at that point in time," Moorhouse said.

He acknowledges the company had "ample" opportunity to respond when the complaints were first filed, but declined to do so.

'We do owe them an opportunity'

"Their version of events was there was somebody who responded to complaints who was ill and in treatment so now there's backtracking and wanting to work through those complaints so as an impartial and unbiased organization we do owe them an opportunity to do what they say they want to do at this point," Moorehouse said.

He said leaving the complaint details on the website would in some sense be unfairly painting a negative picture on the business.

"Anytime a customer comes to us with a complaint and submits it to us [complaint details] aren't published to the website until the complaint is closed. At that point the customer has had a fair opportunity to have their say but the business also has had a fair opportunity to respond to that complaint," Moorhouse said.

The BBB report on Great Buys Auto Sales does says, "This business has no rating because it is in the process of responding to complaint(s) previously closed with no response."