Customer Service Reviews or Manipulations?

In the past couple of years I have had encounters with Angie's List and Better Business Bureau that make me question their purpose. Both of these businesses have built their reputations on facilitating customer responses to a variety of businesses-for-hire. Angie's List claims to serve potential customers in finding reliable service and product providers who cannot sway the publicity; yet, when I purchased a vehicle, the dealership wanted to reward me with free oil changes if I agreed to post a good review! Investigating the service, I discovered that Angie's List wanted me to pay them a fee to read or to post information. What would keep anyone from posting a fake review for personal benefit--positive publicity for one's own company or for negative publicity for a competitor? Another time, I uncovered a scam out of an operation in NYC and contacted the BBB there. The scammers threatened to harm my credit rating if I did not pay them what they wanted. The BBB could not help because the scammers would not reply to the BBB. Soon after, the BBB notified me that they recorded my claim as their success because I had not continued to follow-up, and, therefore, must be content with the outcome! In another BBB encounter with the KC office, a client's former customer made a bogus claim. I agreed to mediate the claim through the BBB. The customer lied about the circumstances of the claim and the content of the signed contract to the BBB. Regrettably, attorneys were required and my client settled out of court just to relieve his dwindling resources caused by attorney fees and days of lost work. The BBB said they would rate my client's business a B+ for three years as a result of the claim. I asked why not an A and was told that that might happen if my client were to join the BBB for a fee. Again, the BBB took credit for a successful outcome. Then the BBB called to ask me to pay them for my company to join! The manipulation of customer service expectations makes me question the validity of these sites. Beware!