Review flagging & moderation guidelines
We have automated processes to check reviews left on our website and will, where possible, remove those that break our user guidelines. Sometimes, people visiting our site will spot something that they believe is incorrect. These guidelines outline how to flag those reviews and what we’ll do about it.
Flagging a review
Both companies and customers can flag a review on the Smart Money People website. You’ll need to log into your Smart Money People account to do this. Before reporting, you should check that the review falls into one of these categories:
- It’s harmful or illegal
- It contains personal information
- It contains advertising or promotional content
- It’s not about the business on whose page it appears
- You don’t believe it’s based on a genuine experience
- You believe it’s been left by a competitor or an individual not eligible to leave a review
- Other (you’ll need to explain your reason)
You should only flag a review if you genuinely believe there’s a problem and not just because you disagree with what’s been written. We’ll check all flagged reviews to see if they breach our user guidelines. If they do, we’ll take appropriate action.
Moderating reviews
If a review is flagged, we’ll check to see if it breaches our user guidelines.
What happens when a review is being moderated?
Any review that we’re moderating will be blurred out on the website. The scores will still be included in the overall company and product ratings.
What happens when a decision has been
Once we’ve checked the content of a flagged review there are three possible outcomes:
- Review remains on the website – if we conclude that the review doesn’t break any of our user guidelines, it’ll remain on the website, and we’ll remove the blurring.
- Review is edited - if we conclude that only some parts of the review break our user guidelines we’ll remove or edit that part of the content appropriately.
- Review is archived - if the review breaks our user guidelines it’ll be archived and will no longer appear on the website.
Communication
When a review has been moderated, we’ll contact the individual or company who reported the review as well as the customer who wrote the review. We’ll let them know about our decision and what action we’ve taken.
In all instances, the decision of Smart Money People is final. We retain the right to update or change our guidelines and how they are interpreted and applied at any time.
Requesting information to authenticate a review
When a company reports that they don’t recognise a customer from a review, we usually ask that customer to provide proof of their experience.
We’ll email the customer and ask them to provide appropriate proof within a specified time (usually 28 days). If we don’t receive appropriate proof within the timeframe, we may archive the review and it’ll no longer appear on our website.
We won’t share the proof we receive with any third party, including the reviewed company. But we may give them some information to help them find your information to help them get to a better outcome for you.
What sort of proof do we accept?
The list below is an example of the types of proof we accept, but it isn’t exhaustive. If you don’t have one of the documents outlined, please send us what you do have, and we’ll be happy to consider it before making any final decision.
- Correspondence from the reviewed business about the product being reviewed
- A screenshot of your logged-in user profile
- A statement for, or any documentation relating to, the product being reviewed
- Your phone call history or text messages where the relevant phone numbers can be linked to the reviewed business
If your documentation contains sensitive information such as account numbers or address details, please remove or redact those bits before sending it to us.
Misuse
If you misuse our platform, we can remove your reviews and/or block or delete your account. If we delete your account, we’ll also delete your reviews.