Reviews Policy

Draft for solicitor review. Last updated [date].

Reviews on Trades Express are there to help homeowners choose engineers they can trust. This policy explains how they work.

1. Who can be reviewed

Only engineers who have joined Trades Express can be reviewed. Profiles and reviews are free for engineers.

2. Types of review

Label	Who writes it	Counts towards the rating
Verified job	The customer, after a job paid for through Trades Express. One review per job.	Yes, fully
Invited review	A past customer the engineer invited through the app, for work done before they joined Trades Express. Each invite link works once and expires after 30 days.	Yes, at half weight
Google rating	Shown from the engineer's Google Business profile, with a link to Google	No, shown for information only

3. How the rating is worked out

The Trades Express rating is the average star rating of verified job reviews and invited reviews, with invited reviews counting half as much. We show how many of each type make up the rating. We don't hide or reorder reviews based on whether they're positive or negative, and we show the newest first by default.

4. What's not allowed

• Fake reviews, or reviews about a job that didn't happen
• Reviews written by, for, or paid for by an engineer, or in exchange for a discount, gift or anything else
• Reviews about someone else's work
• Abuse, threats, discrimination, personal information (like phone numbers or addresses) or anything unlawful
• Reviews that are about Trades Express itself rather than the engineer (please contact us instead)

5. Engineer replies

Engineers can post one public reply to each review. Replies must be polite and must not include customers' personal information.

6. Reporting and removing reviews

Anyone can report a review using "Report a review". We review every report and may keep, hide or remove the review, recording our reason. We don't remove reviews just because they're negative.

Reviewers can edit their review for 7 days after posting.

7. Breaking these rules

Engineers who fake, buy or manipulate reviews are permanently removed from Trades Express. Customers who post fake or abusive reviews may have their account closed.

8. Referral rewards and reviews

Customers can earn referral rewards for recommending an engineer. Referral rewards are never linked to leaving a review, or to what a review says.