For any bail bond agency, it is important to know if there have been any complaints from past or present clients. Knowing what is being said about your business can help you correct any mistakes that have been made in the past and learn from any negative experiences in order to ensure consistently positive ones.

The best way to find out about any legitimate complaints about your business is to check with the local Better Business Bureau. Customers can file complaints with this agency if they have used your business and were dissatisfied for various reasons. It is also where customers can rate your business on a scale of A-F, so it can also work in your favor if there have been positive ratings for your business.

You can also do an Internet search for your bail bond agency to see if anyone has left a comment or ranking with any other sites, like Google, YellowPages or Yelp. When you are aware of what people are saying about your company, it gives you greater insight into what is working and what is not.

Some complaints that clients may have about your business may be completely out of your control however. Here are three of the biggest ones that you are likely to hear:

It is taking you too long to get my friend/family member released from jail.

As a bail bond agent, you have absolutely zero say-so when it comes to the time it takes to get an inmate released from jail. There can be thousands of inmates in some jails, which mean that the process of getting one person released takes time.

The person will first have to complete the booking process after they are brought to the jail. That means that, even if the defendant contacted his/her friend or loved one immediately upon arrival, it can still take hours to get processed depending on how busy it is in the intake area of the jail.

Once they are processed, you are then able to post the bond for their release. After the paperwork for the release has been turned in, then the jail staff can complete the steps for getting the defendant released. This can still take several hours, so friends and family will have to be advised to remain patient. Reassure them that each step has to be done with every person’s safety in mind.

I didn’t get my money back even though my case was dismissed.

The purpose of a bail bond agent is to help someone get out of jail as soon as possible. Most people do not want to spend too much time in jail, waiting to find out if the case will be thrown out. If a person cannot afford to pay the full bail amount, then they have the option of paying a bondsman a fee to help get them released sooner. The fee for a bail bond is only 10% of the total bail. As long as the defendant returns to court, they will not have to pay the entire bail.

The bail bond fee is non-refundable, regardless of whether the defendant was found not guilty or if the charges were dropped altogether.

My friend/family member didn’t pay me back for the bail bond.

There are many instances where a defendant promises a friend or family member that they will repay them if they will pay for the bail bond, and then they fail to actually pay them back. When that happens, the cosigner will ask the bondsman to remove their name from the bond. This is not allowed because a bail bond is considered a civil contract between the defendant and the cosigner.