Your guide to leaving reviews on Checkatrade
So, you’d like to leave a review for a Checkatrade member – fantastic! Before you do, check out this handy guide alongside our Terms and Privacy Policies which cover the key things you need to know.
Fast facts:
Your reviews help other consumers decide which trade is right for their job.
Reviews allow us to make sure our trades meet the Checkatrade Standard.
You can leave a review for any trade – whether they are a paying member or not.
There are some things that can and can’t be included in reviews. In rare cases, if reviews don’t follow our guidelines, we may not publish them.
We have a handy guide to managing customer reviews on Checkatrade which we share with our trades.
What to include in your review
Here’s a rundown of what to include in your review and how to include it:
You can leave a review at any stage. This could be the first contact you have with a trade, when you receive a quote, during the work, when you paid them and the work was completed, or if they came back to the job for any reason. All we ask is that you share your genuine experience, ideally from the last 12 months (to keep things timely) and photos if you’d like to.
If a trade has offered you a gift or discount on the work they’ve done in exchange for a review, this undermines its authenticity. So, if you’ve been offered an incentive, or you’ve been pressured into leaving a positive review or not to leave a negative one, please contact us. And, if you have an association with a trade that’s competitive or friendly, it’s best not to leave a review so that our reviews remain impartial.
Your review will be more helpful if you decide to include appropriate photos – but they should be taken by you. This means they can’t be subject to copyright, be someone else’s intellectual property or deliberately misleading. We screen and moderate all the photos we receive and won’t publish any that aren’t relevant.
Try to keep your review factual, clear and concise. This enables other consumers to select the right trades for the work they need completing.
Keep your review honest – but avoid profane, obscene or inappropriate words and photos, and keep to a factual review of your experience. We ask that you do not use phrases that could harm a trade’s reputation or result in financial loss. Words like ‘cowboy’, ‘con artist’ or ‘scammer’ might be your opinion, but they’re not necessarily facts. If you make a claim in your review, you may be asked to provide evidence to back it up. We won’t publish reviews if they contain any content that’s inappropriate, promotional or spam.
Don’t include anything that identifies a person or features sensitive information - such as a full name, address or phone number.
It’s good practice to read through your review before you send it. Check you’ve included everything you need and want to.
So that we can check the authenticity and verify our reviews, we don’t allow any anonymous authors. Leaving your name alongside your review increases accountability, ensures your review is fair and factual, and helps us easily look at any concerns you raise.
If you decide you want to edit or remove your review, please contact reviews@checkatrade.com with your name and the email address used when the review was left.
We want to make sure that everyone has the chance to share their feedback with us, and we know that leaving a review online isn’t always easy for everyone. If you have a disability, are in a vulnerable situation, or face any other challenges that make it difficult to leave a review, we’re here to help. You can reach us by calling 0333 014 6190 or visit us online and we’ll be happy to support you in sharing your experience in a way that works for you.
What happens after you've sent your review
You’ve followed our guidelines and sent us your review. Here’s what happens next:
1. We’ll check it over
We’ll run some checks on your review to make sure it’s not fake and meets both our guidelines above and Terms and Privacy Policies. If we think a review isn’t right, we’ll investigate it. Any fake or incentivised reviews will be blocked, and any trades who have commissioned fake reviews to boost their score could be removed as part of our Deactivation and Sanctions Policy.
If you spot a review on a tradesperson's profile which you think is fake, you can report it using our Contact Us Form and we’ll look into it.
2. We'll publish it
Once your review has been checked and confirmed, we’ll publish it within 24 hours. We’ll then let the tradesperson know that they have received a review, and they can reply to it.
We won’t publish a review if it doesn’t meet our guidelines, or if you ask us to edit or remove it. We may ask you to send us an updated review, if you prefer. In extreme cases, such as legal proceedings or if there is a risk to personal safety and security, we may choose to remove a review.
3. We might ask for more information
If we think your review needs investigation, we may get in touch to ask you some more questions. This could include requesting additional documentation to demonstrate poor quality work. So, it’s a good idea to keep any relevant paperwork that supports the review you’ve sent - such as pictures of the work that has been completed or screenshots of communications.
If your review contains a complaint about a trade on our platform, we may investigate to gather accurate information from both you and the tradesperson as this will helps us decide whether they should remain on Checkatrade. If you prefer, you can send a complaint directly.
By following these guidelines, we make sure Checkatrade remains a trusted platform for both consumers and trades - upholding high standards and fostering trust within our community.