Since 2002, Joanne Zich, owner of Trinity Diamonds, Inc., has been fashioning elegant jewelry for Tucsonans, and doing her best to give back to the community. Along the way, she’s earned a reputation for providing superb service, elegant products, and an unflinching dedication to ethics in the marketplace.

BBB sat down with Joanne to find out how she came to design jewelry, her passion for helping the needy- in Tucson and Africa, and to learn more about her philosophy on customer service.

Trinity Diamonds has been a BBB Accredited Business since 2007.

Looking for love online or through a traditional dating service may seem like an easy way to spice up your social life, but consumers tell Better Business Bureau that some services have left them frustrated and disappointed.

Consumers from all over the country filed complaints with BBB about dating services last year. Complaints concerned customer service, billing issues, sales practices and difficulty canceling contracts.

Matchmaking and dating services often promise to introduce people to other area singles that meet specified criteria. However, many services also generate complaints about the quality of matches they make and their cost, which can run to thousands of dollars.

Many complaints about the dating service industry concern personalized matchmaking companies and online dating websites. The two services take different approaches to helping people find love and lead to different types of complaints.

Common matchmaking complaints include:

• Failure to match with singles that met specified criteria: Non-smoking complainants said they were matched with people who smoke, well-educated people were matched with less-educated ones or religious people were matched with atheists or people from other religions. Some were matched with people who lived too far away or were married.
• Use of intimidating or duplicitous sales tactics: Complainants reported being yelled at, being told to not be so picky or being completely ignored by the companies involved.
• Failure to deliver: Complainants were told the service had a database of thousands of singles, but they didn’t receive the promised number of dates or introductions. Others said a singles club sponsored events to bring singles together but the events didn’t live up to their billing.

Online dating service complaints include:

• Minimum enrollment period: Online dating services normally require a specific length of membership and charge a monthly fee, which is renewed automatically when it expires. Either the customer didn’t realize the steps needed to cancel the account, or the consumer took the (more…)

Better Business Bureau of Southern Arizona and Mountain State Employers Council (MSEC) will host a workshop, Navigating the Murky Waters of Wage and Hour Laws, on Wednesday Feb. 16, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Residence Inn Marriott, located at 5400 Williams Circle in Tucson.

Class action wage and hour lawsuits have been exploding, and are now as common as discrimination suits. Employers have fallen prey to many of these lawsuits, in part, because the laws can be confusing.

Presented by Curtis Graves, staff attorney for MSEC, this session will give businesses an understanding of the Fair Labor Standards Act and the most current information regarding Arizona wage laws. Registration is $10 for BBB Accredited Businesses and MSEC members; $15 for all others. Lunch will be included.

Anyone who wishes to attend should register no later than 5 p.m., Feb. 14 by visiting, www.tucson.app.bbb.org/events.