Information and Alerts

Pattern of Complaints

According to information in BBB files, Support Black Colleges has a pattern of complaint alleging Delivery and Refund Issues.

Specifically, consumers alleged that they purchased items on Support Black Colleges' website, https://supportblackcolleges.org/, however, the items are never shipped nor received. Consumers further allege that they may receive a general response email with an update in reference to the delay of shipping but do not receive responses when they inquire about their specific product or shipping information.

On February 2, 2021, BBB contacted Support Black Colleges to seek their voluntary cooperation in resolving the unanswered complaints as well as their cooperation in eliminating the pattern of complaint.

On February 4, 2021, Support Black Colleges provided the following response to the pattern of complaint:

"HOW WE GOT HERE
Beginning around August 2020, a series of events led to us getting severely
behind. Our overseas manufacturers who produce the patches for our most
popular product, our signature adult hoodie, were closed down completely
for several months due to COVID leaving us to only use what we had left
and to try to find another vendor that could make the product exactly
the same. This proved to not be possible and we simply had to wait. Our
warehouse also suffered a massive flood that ruined many of the
specialty items. These were pieces that we only made a limited number of
and were not planning to produce more. Many of our customers were
refunded. Our blank hoodie manufacturer also saw issues of their own, so
there was limited availability for us to get what we needed.
Simultaneously we were trying to use our funds in the way that made the
most sense before they ran out while we were unable to run Facebook ads,
they stopped us from being able to do so after the complaints began. We
were able to hire a team to help us get out as many orders as possible
and we were able to get in a somewhat decent position after that, but
the orders continued to roll in. Over the course of these months we did
the best we could to balance ordering merchandise, getting it produced,
and shipping it out as quickly and as cost effectively as possible.
During this time we felt it best to utilize all of the bodies we had to
solely focus on getting orders filled and customer service became less
of a priority, this includes responding to BBB complaints as well.
Immediately once we fully realized the impact this was having we hired
an overseas freelance rep to hop on emails as soon as possible, and our
COO also went back to assisting with those as well.

WHERE WE ARE NOW
We are truly on the move! We were able to not only receive a PPP loan, but
our new production facility can produce up to about 10,000 hoodies a
week. Every day we ship out between 300-600 orders starting with the
oldest ones from Black Friday. This will increase as we move into next
week when the production facility gets the next batch complete! In
addition to fully resuming answering individual customer service
inquires, we have sent multiple email blasts with updates for customers
and posted several posts and videos to our IG and Facebook pages with
updates. Here are some of the mass correspondences we have posted for
customers with their updates:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CKo2VJ2Hsh9/?igshid=1kiisg6iubh3i
https://www.instagram.com/p/CJZBtXBH136/?igshid=yqj790r8883z
The email attachment below was sent once on 12/29/2020 and again on 01/12/2021


We've also sent individual updates to every single DM that comes through our IG.
ETA OF COMPLETION
We can confidently say that we expect to be fully caught up by 02/13/2021.
If for any reason we are not able to adhere to that another mass email
and IG post will be sent."

While Support Black Colleges did see a sharp decrease in complaints from June 2021 to November of 2021, their complaint totals increased significantly in the month of December 2021, and have been consistently increasing since then. The previously identified pattern of complaint involving delivery and refund issues appears to have returned.

Although Support Black Colleges agreed to BBB's request in February 2021, consumer complaints continue to allege similar issues. It is the position of BBB that Support Black Colleges has failed to eliminate the pattern of complaint.