The Spokane-based Better Business Bureau Serving Eastern Washington, North Idaho and Montana says it's on track to field a record number of requests for business ratings again after a sizable jump in such inquiries last year.

The organization received about 226,800 inquiries in 2009, 350,000 in 2010, and is on pace to receive about 471,000 inquiries this year, having already exceeded last year's total, says Jan Quintrall, its president and CEO.

"It just sort of keeps building," Quintrall says. "To see the kind of increases we are seeing is just different. I think it's partly the economy," and also partly increased awareness about the BBB's services among people wanting to check out businesses before paying them money for products or services, she says.

The organization handles 98 percent of the inquiries it receives via the Internet, which is fortunate because its staff here isn't nearly large enough to field that volume of telephone calls, Quintrall says. "The phone calls we're taking just continue to decline every year," she says.

In what Quintrall says she views also as "a sign of the times," collection agencies—previously not among the top 10 types of businesses that people inquire about—leaped to fourth place in year-to-date figures through August, based on more than 6,300 inquiries fielded.

"People who have never used a collection agency as a businessperson are checking on them before they turn (delinquent) accounts—which are more plentiful—over to an agency," Quintrall says. "On the other side, individuals who have always paid their bills on time are finding themselves due to loss of a job facing calls from collection agencies, and they are unsure how it works. This is not a good one to see" that high on the top 10 list.

General contractors, often at or near the top of the list, were in first place in year-to-date figures, with slightly over 17,000 inquiries, followed by roofers, at about 7,600; and car dealerships, at about 6,400. In fifth through 10th place were used-car dealerships, tax consultants, automotive repair, banks, real estate management, and windshield-glass shops.

What appears to be the common theme among those highest on the top 10 list is they involve "big-ticket items," or sizable expenditures, which cause many consumers to want to research the providers thoroughly before proceeding, Quintrall says.

Electronic-equipment dealers have fallen from the list this year, after being on it for years and topping it in 2005 and 2006, which might indicate people are making fewer nonessential consumer-electronics purchases.

Also falling off the list, perhaps not surprisingly, are payday loan companies. Payday loan centers in the Spokane area and throughout Washington state have declined in number since more stringent regulation of them went into effect at the first of last year.

As for complaints the BBB office here receives, they tend to be so skewed by "one or two bad actors" in each of the monitored industries that identifying trends in the data is difficult, Quintrall says. Leading the list last year were car dealerships, used-car dealerships, magazines-subscription agents, and collection agencies.

The BBB office here announced two months ago that it was one of a small group of BBB offices nationwide that is testing a new online "customer reviews" feature for BBB ratings.

The office, located at 152 S. Jefferson, employs a little over 20 people. It derives its operating funds largely from the dues paid by accredited businesses. As of mid-August, there were more than 3,200 accredited businesses within its service area.