Reviews are central to how OpenList247 helps people choose businesses with confidence. This Review Policy explains who can leave a review, what we expect from review content, and how we moderate reviews to keep them honest and useful.
1. Purpose of Reviews
Reviews exist to share genuine, first-hand experiences with a business, so other users can make informed decisions and businesses can understand and respond to feedback. They are not a venue for advertising, personal disputes unrelated to the business, or content unrelated to an actual experience with the business being reviewed.
2. Who Can Leave a Review
You must have a registered OpenList247 account to leave a review, and the review must be based on your own genuine experience as a customer, client, or visitor of the business. Business owners and their staff may not review their own business, and may not review a competitor.
3. Verified Interaction Reviews
Where possible, we mark a review as based on a "verified interaction" when it is linked to a completed booking or order made through the Platform under the same contact details as the reviewer's account. This is shown to help other users gauge the reliability of a review, but a review does not need a verified interaction to be published, provided it otherwise complies with this policy.
4. Review Content Guidelines
A review should: describe your own experience with the specific business honestly and fairly; be based on an actual interaction, purchase, or visit; focus on the product, service, staff conduct, or experience relevant to the business; and be respectful in tone, even when critical.
5. Prohibited Review Content
We do not allow reviews that: are fake, exaggerated, or not based on a genuine experience; are posted in exchange for payment, discounts, free products, or other incentives, without clear disclosure; contain hate speech, threats, harassment, or discriminatory language; include another person's private information (such as a phone number or home address) without consent; are defamatory or knowingly false; promote a competing business or unrelated product or service; or are posted by someone with a conflict of interest, such as an employee, owner, or close competitor of the business being reviewed.
6. Business Owner Responses
Business owners may publicly reply once to each review left on their listing, to thank a reviewer, provide context, or address a concern. Replies must comply with the same content guidelines as reviews — professional, honest, and free of harassment or personal attacks against the reviewer.
7. Moderation Process
Reviews are subject to review by our moderation team and may be checked before or after publication. We may edit a review only to remove content that violates this policy (such as personal contact information), or we may reject or remove it entirely where it cannot be reasonably corrected. We do not remove or edit reviews simply because a business disagrees with a fair, honestly-held opinion.
8. Removing or Reporting a Review
Reviewers may delete their own reviews at any time from their account. Business owners and other users can report a review they believe violates this policy using the report option on the review, or by contacting us directly with details of the concern. We investigate reports and take appropriate action, which may include removing the review, warning the account involved, or taking no action if the review is found to comply with this policy.
9. How Ratings Are Calculated
A business's displayed rating is the average of all its published, non-removed review ratings, updated as new reviews are added or removed. We do not manually adjust a business's average rating outside of removing reviews that violate this policy.
10. Consequences of Policy Violations
Accounts that repeatedly post reviews violating this policy, or that are found to be posting fake or incentivized reviews, may have their reviewing privileges restricted or their account suspended, in accordance with our Terms and Conditions.
11. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Review Policy from time to time to keep reviews useful and trustworthy. Continued use of the review features on the Platform after a change takes effect constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.