How reviews work here.

The short version

• Payment buys placement, never ratings or review removal. That sentence is in the terms every pro accepts before paying us anything.
• Every review is confirmed by email before it appears — the same rule for a 1-star review and a 5-star one.
• Everyone can review a pro here. Where we have verified a pro's Google listing, we also link to Google — today that is 1 pro, and the number grows as we verify more listings. We never ask "were you happy?" first.
• The Google rating on a listing comes from Google and is labeled as Google's. It is never mixed into IGotAPro's own reviews or scores.

Writing a review

Anyone who hired a pro listed here can review them, from the "Leave a review" link on the pro's page. Your name and town show with your review; your email never shows — it is only used to confirm the review and to spot fakes. When you submit, we email you a confirmation link. Open it and tap "Publish my review" and your review appears — and that same link lets you edit your review for 7 days.

There is one published review per person, per pro. If you confirm a newer review for the same pro, it replaces your older one — the older one is kept in our records, marked "replaced," never quietly deleted.

What can hold a review back

Every review passes the same automatic pattern checks. They look for spam shapes, never at the star rating — a 1-star review that follows the rules publishes exactly like a 5-star one. A review is held for a person to check when it trips one of these:

• It looks like a bot or a bulk submission (hidden-field, timing, and rate checks).
• Three or more reviews for the same pro are confirmed within 24 hours of each other (a burst is a pattern, not a verdict — and only confirmed reviews count; a submission nobody confirmed never triggers a hold).
• It contains threats or profanity.
• It contains links, an email address, or a phone number in the text.
• It is gibberish — not real sentences about a real job.

Held reviews are checked within 3 business days. If a hold has not been decided by then, the review publishes. Every hold and removal is logged with the rule it broke.

What gets a review removed

A published review comes down only when it breaks one of these rules, and the removal is recorded with the rule it broke:

• It is fake — written by the pro, an employee or relative, someone who was paid, or someone who never used the business.
• It contains threats, slurs, or somebody's private information.
• It is about a different business, or is not about a job at all.
• It contains illegal content, or a court orders it down.

Never grounds for removal: the review is negative, the pro asked nicely, the pro pays us — or the pro doesn't. Reviews removed under these rules: —. Reviews currently held for a check: —. Held reviews later published: —.

If a listing is removed from the directory, reviews published about that business are not deleted with it. They stay part of the public record, and the removal is counted in the public counter above.

If a review is disputed

Reviews are for a job you actually hired the pro to do. A review from someone who worked for the pro, rather than hired them, counts as "not about a job" under the fake rule above. When a pro disputes a review, the review stays up while it is checked — a dispute alone never takes a review down. We ask the reviewer once for proof of the job — a receipt, an invoice, a text thread, anything reasonable. If we hear nothing within 7 days, the review is removed under the fake rule and the removal is logged in the counter above.

For pros

You can reply to any review of your business. In this first version, replies come through us: email your reply to hello@igotapro.com and we will post it under the review, word for word — we will not soften it or sharpen it. Think a review breaks a rule above? Email us which rule. Decisions cite the rule, and they are the same for Featured pros, free listings, and everyone between.

We post a pro's reply only when it comes from the email or phone on that pro's claimed listing. Haven't claimed yours yet? Claiming is free.

Questions

Write to hello@igotapro.com. A person reads it.