Review, evidence and removal policy

Reviews help homeowners make an informed choice and give providers a fair opportunity to respond. Quote Guys checks that work took place before publishing a review. We do not promise that every opinion is correct, and an approved-provider badge is not a guarantee of future workmanship, price or conduct.

1. Every rating is treated equally

One-star and five-star reviews use the same submission form, evidence standard, content rules, moderation queue and decision process. We do not ask whether an experience was positive before accepting a review, give providers a veto, or delay negative reviews to steer customers into private feedback.

Providers cannot pay to publish, hide or remove a review. If an incentive is ever offered for feedback, it will be available regardless of the rating and clearly disclosed on the review. We do not allow a provider, employee, family member or paid reviewer to write a customer review without disclosing the relationship.

2. Proof and verified-work labels

Before a review can be published, we require:

• a job receipt or invoice that identifies the provider and work;
• proof that the work was completed, such as a service report or relevant job record;
• a completion date within the five years before submission and a service category; and
• a declaration that the review is first-hand, honest and not submitted for somebody else.

At launch, reviews are accepted through the customer receipt-and-work-proof process only. A separate Quote Guys booking record is not treated as proof unless the platform evidence workflow for that job is available. “Verified work” means that Quote Guys checked the submitted evidence of completed work. It does not mean we endorse every statement or guarantee the provider.

Reviews cannot be submitted for work completed more than five years ago. Raw receipt and work-proof files are placed on a controlled deletion schedule after the final moderation decision unless a dispute, fraud-prevention need or legal hold requires preservation. The minimized verification and decision record may be retained as described in our privacy policy.

3. What we publish

The public review contains the rating, review text, chosen public display name, service, approximate work date and the relevant verification label. We do not publish the receipt, proof file, email address, account, job, household, property, storage path or other private identifier. We redact direct contact details and links from review text.

Provider pages show the number of published reviews and the basis of the displayed rating. Reviews can be viewed across all star levels. A review that is temporarily restricted for a genuine safety, privacy or legal assessment is not quietly presented as a positive review.

4. Content rules

Reviews may be positive, mixed or critical. They should describe the reviewer's own job and clearly distinguish personal opinion from an allegation of fact. We do not publish threats, harassment, hate, doxxing, unrelated material, impersonation, fabricated evidence, undisclosed conflicts, or content that is unlawful.

Quote Guys does not secretly rewrite a review to make it more favourable. The current process either retains the published review or removes it after a recorded policy decision; it does not silently alter the customer's words or rating. A reviewer may contact us with material new evidence for a further recorded assessment.

5. Provider replies

A provider may submit one professional response. Replies use the same content and privacy rules as reviews. Providers must not reveal or hint at a customer's address, finances, identity, contact details or private job evidence, and must not pressure a reviewer to change or delete honest criticism.

6. Honest removal requests

A provider may challenge a review with evidence for one of these reasons:

• the reviewer was not a customer or the evidence was fabricated;
• the review identifies the wrong business or duplicates another review;
• there is an undisclosed conflict of interest;
• the review exposes personal information or contains abusive or unlawful material; or
• another specific published policy rule was breached.

Negativity, disagreement, a refund, a repaired issue, a settlement or the provider's commercial relationship with Quote Guys is not enough to remove a genuine review. A remedy must never be made conditional on the customer deleting criticism.

7. Decisions and further requests

Quote Guys keeps internal case and decision records, including the moderator, timestamps and policy reason. A provider can see the recorded status and outcome of its own removal request through the provider portal, but not the customer's private evidence. A further request should identify new evidence or a material error; repeated requests do not make honest criticism removable. Every fresh request is assessed under the same published grounds regardless of the rating. To prevent repeated requests from being used to retain private evidence or overwhelm the queue, providers must wait seven days after a decision and may make no more than three requests about one review in any 180-day period.

8. Formal legal complaints

A person who says published material is defamatory should send their name, the exact review URL and words, the alleged defamatory meaning, the serious harm claimed, supporting material and the requested action to ben@ehustle.com.au. Mark the message “Formal review complaint”.

We acknowledge and triage a sufficiently detailed formal complaint promptly and make a recorded assessment. Where section 31A of Queensland's Defamation Act 2005 applies and reasonable access-prevention steps are available, we take those steps within seven days. That is not an automatic promise to permanently remove criticism. Court orders, urgent threats and serious privacy exposure are escalated immediately.

9. Approved providers and website links

“Quote Guys Approved” describes defined checks, including business authority, relevant credentials, provider terms and website control. The provider page states what was checked and when. Approval can expire or be suspended and does not guarantee a particular job.

Approved providers have a commercial relationship with Quote Guys and must display a visible relationship link on their website. The link may and should be qualified with rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow"; we never require a link that passes search-ranking credit. Links from our provider and review pages are likewise qualified. This link requirement never affects review moderation, ratings or removal.

10. Contact and further guidance

Review or removal enquiries: ben@ehustle.com.au. Our policy follows the principles in the ACCC online-review guidance, the OAIC guidance on negative-review responses, the Australian Privacy Principles and Google's link-spam policy. These sources do not endorse Quote Guys.