How we verify
The honest answer is that no review site can prove every review. What we can do is show you exactly which ones we could check, and never blur the two.
Three kinds of reviews
The vendor’s shop sent the invite by itself after an order, through our API. A person could not have typed the address in. We know an order happened and that the reviewer is the one who placed it.
A person at the vendor typed or uploaded the address and we sent the invite. The vendor says this is a customer; we could not see the order. It counts, and the profile shows how many reviews came this way.
Anyone can write one from the vendor’s page after confirming their email. We check for bots and duplicates, but we could not confirm the purchase. It still counts, and it still shows.
How the score is calculated
Once a vendor has five or more verified reviews, the score is the average of verified reviews only. Below that, it is the average of everything published. The verified share is always printed under the score so you can judge for yourself.
What we do to every review
- 01One review per email address per vendor. Enforced in the database, not in a form.
- 02Throwaway email domains are rejected.
- 03Rate limits per connection. A burst of reviews for one vendor pauses new unverified ones until a person looks.
- 04Vendors can reply once per review and can flag one with a reason. They cannot edit, hide or delete.
- 05The reviewer’s real name and email stay private in every display mode. Full name shows only what they typed.
What we cannot do
We cannot tell if a vendor invited only happy customers. That is why we push vendors to invite everyone from a period, and why the verified share is public. A vendor with 300 reviews and 4% verified is telling you something.
We cannot test products. A review that says a COA was provided means the reviewer saw one, not that we checked it.
We cannot stop a vendor from inviting addresses they made up. That is why a typed-in invite earns a weaker badge than one their shop sent, and why a profile with many “Invited by vendor” reviews and no connected shop looks exactly like that. A review brought over from Trustpilot keeps Trustpilot’s own verification, in green; we did not check those orders either.
Found a review that breaks the rules? Vendors can flag it from their dashboard and a person will look.