Community Guidelines FAQs

Reviews

How are reviews published?
After a review is submitted, it is evaluated by our team before being published. The evaluation process includes verifying the reviewer’s identity, checking for conflicts of interest, and evaluating if it conforms to our guidelines.

Are negative reviews published?
Our mission is to help people and organisations find the best activity or service that fits their needs and, similar to other review platforms, we provide a forum for discussion between vendors and users. By keeping neutral, we can host a wide array of opinions that help users make informed decisions. For this reason, and also to ensure compliance with applicable laws, we do not modify content or remove an opinion or statement from a verified review.

Why was a previously published review disabled after being published?
We are continuously evolving and improving our processes so we would at times audit previously published reviews as they are flagged by our system. If a past review does not meet our current standards or our current guidelines, it may be removed by our team.

What happens to fraudulent reviews?
We will remove a review if it is found to be fraudulent by our team. In addition, the reviewer may be removed and/or banned from leaving future reviews from our site. Fraudulent vendors may also be subject to future sanctions such as a publicly visible warning about suspicious activity.

What does fraud entail?
Although every reviewer is entitled to their own opinion, we do not condone attempts to deceive through a review’s content. Any reviews found to be fraudulent or not in compliance with applicable law will be removed, and the submitter of the review will be subject to penalties.

Fraudulent activity may include, but is not limited to, the following:
Attempts by a vendor or user to influence the reputation of themselves, or another vendor, by:
• Paying for the services of a third party, such as a marketing agency, to post reviews.
• Submitting reviews of their own product, or of any product (such as a competitor’s .product) in which they have a financial interest.
• Submitting reviews on behalf of an actual user, with or without their consent.
• Encouraging reviews to be posted based on false pretences.
• Discouraging users from posting negative feedback.
• Harassing or bullying a reviewer over a review in an attempt to force its removal.
• Coaching users in their writing of the review.

Vendors must not review a competitor’s product or pay for reviews to be submitted for a competitor’s product.

Fraudulent activity may also include attempts by a reviewer to damage the reputation of a vendor, or obtain incentives, through false pretences such as:
• Writing a review of a product without actual experience using the product/service.
• Writing a review of a product after being solicited by a competitor.
• Copying content from another source, including our own site.
• Allowing a third party to post a review on your behalf.

A reviewer should not review a product for which they have a conflict of interest or a financial stake in its success.

Should vendors with “Bad” reviews be avoided?
Do not focus on the star rating alone, but read the contents of each review to see what the negative feedback was about. Sometimes, it is because the product did not fit the user’s needs or aims, or an unforeseen circumstances. Having some less than perfect reviews often makes the product more believable. A “lower” score often also is accompanied by more details of the product and provides a much clearer picture of an experience than a five-star review with few details.
We encourage our vendors to respond to all customer reviews, regardless of rating given to build credibility and show responsiveness. Moreover, responding to a negative review can help create goodwill which may lead to a more favourable opinion of the vendor and product.

Can a review be submitted by a competitor?
A review cannot be submitted by a competitor. When our Quality Assurance (“QA“) team verifies each reviewer’s identity, we take steps to ensure that they are a real person, not a scammer, and (among other items) do not have any conflict of interest (financial or competitive) with the vendor they are reviewing. Please see an overview of our Quality Assurance guidelines for more details.

Are old reviews removed if a product’s features have been updated?
If a published review was submitted for a version of the product which was active/listed at the time the review was submitted, the review will remain published as it is an accurate reflection of what the user’s experience at that point in time.
Older reviews may help show how things have evolved over time and help potential customers gain confidence that issues are being addressed and updates being made over time.

How can I flag a suspicious review?
We take several steps in an effort to safeguard against fraudulent reviews. We have technology in place, as well as a team dedicated to verifying the authenticity of the reviews. But no system is perfect, and an inappropriate review may slip through. In these rare instances, please flag a review by completing our Contact form by logging into your account profile, providing as much information as possible about the review, and the reasons you believe it should be investigated.
Vendors may log in to their vendor portals for instructions as to how to flag a review. For more details about our process, please refer to our Reviews Investigation Guidelines.

What evidence do you consider while evaluating a review flagged for fraud?
While our internal investigative processes are confidential and all decisions are subject to our discretion, we have outlined some key factors that we consider during our reviews investigation process. Click here for an overview of our investigation process.

Do you require proof of use when evaluating a review?
We will request proof of use from users when investigating reviews, but it‘s not required. “proof of use” is a valuable piece information, but not a reliable source of proof on its own. It is just one aspect among an array of considerations we use when evaluating a review. Faking proof of use through doctored screenshots or images taken from web searches is a method favoured by those looking to scam our system. Moreover, with so many products listed in our catalogue, it is simply not feasible for our team to become experts in verifying proof of use across all products. In our ongoing efforts to treat all vendors equally, we consider “proof of use” as one aspect among the many that make up our investigation.

How is it possible for fraudulent reviews to pass verification?
We have technology in place, as well as a team dedicated to verify reviews, to safeguard against fraudulent reviews. Every review is verified with care and consideration to ensure a high quality of content is published across our site. No system is perfect, however, and with a huge volume of reviews submitted monthly, an inappropriate review may slip through. In these cases we rely on our vendors and our reviewer community to alert us of potential fraud by “flagging” a review for further review.

Why are some reviews accompanied by a notation stating they were incentivised?
We have implemented an “i” icon on our site, which will indicate the reviewer was offered an incentive to leave their review. Our policies require that any such incentive must be disclosed and made known to all users, regardless of the rating ultimately given of the product being reviewed.

Do you fact-check reviews for accuracy?
It would not be feasible for our QA team to become experts equally across all products or to spend an equal amount of time verifying the details of each review. In our effort to treat all vendors equally, we must not fact check the opinions submitted by our reviewers. Instead, our Quality Assurance team focuses on verifying the identity of the reviewers and ensuring that reviews posted meet our site guidelines. Please find more details about our QA process, and our Reviews Guidelines.

May a foreign language review be published on your site?
As we are a small team, we currently accept only reviews in English.

FAQs for Vendors

How can a vendor respond to a review?
We allow, and encourage, all vendors to respond in a constructive and respectful manner to reviews left on their profile pages. For guidance in this process, vendors may access their vendor portal to find more details on leaving a response via our platform.

What should we do if we receive a negative review?
We understand a negative review can be upsetting. As a reviews platform, we provide an opportunity for vendors to address misunderstandings or issues. A vendor’s response to a negative user review has the potential to result in a positive experience for both vendor and reviewer, as well as demonstrate to other users a great customer service experience. Please see our guide to addressing negative reviews as well as this blog post about the positive outcomes of negative reviews.

Will my responses to reviews be sent to the reviewer?
When submitting a response to a review through your vendor portal, there will be an option to select “Send response to reviewer.” This option will be available regardless of whether the reviewer decided to publicly display their information.

Will we be notified of a new review submission for my product?
No, vendors are sent a notice only after a review has been published by our team. To avoid confusion from spam or reviews that do not pass our QA process, no notifications are sent upon a review submission.

We didn’t ask for this review to be published to our profile – why was it published on your site?
Visitors to our sites are free to submit reviews. As an unbiased, user-driven reviews platform, we do not ask for consent from the vendor before a review is published. All vendors are treated equally in this respect and cannot opt out of receiving reviews. In this way, our reviewers generate valuable content that help our other community of users make informed decisions.

May a vendor request its profile or listing be removed from your site?
We do not remove listings from our sites unless: (i) the listing does not fit within one of the existing categories (or “directories”); (ii) the vendor can provide evidence that product is no longer actively being marketed and/or sold to the public; or (iii) the listing or profile fails to comply with our guidelines. A label/content will be added to listings for businesses that have ceased operations to indicate that the business is no longer in operation.

Why is a review submitted in the past just now being published?
In our ongoing efforts to improve our service, we periodically audit our reviews database. And, as our ability to vet these reviews improves, we may find past reviews that still contain entirely valid content that we can now publish. These reviews will display in the order of their submission date. Because there is no time stamp on verified reviews, we treat these past reviews the same as all other verified reviews submissions. We publish them as they were originally submitted, unless we have edited them in accordance with our Community Guidelines.

We flagged a review for investigation, but it was not removed. Can you tell us why?
If a review was not removed following your investigation request, this means that during the course of our investigation our team found the flagged review to be in compliance with our site guidelines. While we cannot provide further details about the investigatory process, we can confirm that the reviews team devotes significant time and effort to investigating every escalated review and evaluating the review against our site guidelines.

The reviews on our profile mention features we no longer offer – can we remove those reviews?
A review cannot be removed simply because it is referencing features that are no longer actively supported. If the review was valid at the time of submission, it is reflective of the user’s experience with that product at that point in time. While recent reviews are more likely to reflect a product’s most current set of capabilities and most relevant experiences, it is important for our shoppers to consider how reviews about a vendor have progressed over time as the product develops.

Does your site share the contact information of a reviewer with a vendor?
Our site does not share the personal contact information provided by the reviewer along with a submission to any vendor, though certain non-private information such as name and company may be publicly displayed (in accordance with our Privacy Policy) alongside a review when permitted by the user to provide important context to our site users, except in cases where reviewers have opted to submit an “anonymous” review.

As a vendor, would any evidence we provide along with a review be considered in its evaluation?
Yes, we consider all information when investigating a flagged review. However, we are unable to act as an intermediary between vendors and reviewers as we cannot validate or make decisions based on interactions which include private communications, such as email exchanges or phone conversations that took place between a vendor and a reviewer outside of our site. Therefore, we consider outside communications as one aspect among the many that make up our investigation. More details about our investigation process can be found here.

This reviewer made a purchase from us but did not use our product. How could they leave a review of our product?
These cases include but are not limited to the following:
• User accounts that are shared by multiple users or business units at a single company. The reviewer may not be the actual user of the vendor’s product and may be relaying feedback from actual users from the company.
• Vendor contracts that are signed under a company name, not by an individual.
• Users who submit under a name other than the name used on their contract with the vendor. For example, “Jon” rather than “Jonathan”, or the use of a maiden name.
• Users who enter an alternative name for their current company, such as initials or a shortened name, or a parent or sister company, rather than the name used on their vendor contract.
• Users who opt to use an abbreviated or screen name to maintain their anonymity.

As a neutral platform, we rely on our reviewers to provide accurate and honest descriptions of their experiences. Because any user has a valid experience to share, a reviewer is not required to be the account owner or to have been in direct contact with the vendor. However, vendors should contact us if they consider a review is not authentic (see Review Investigation Process).

Can vendors get multiple reviews for our product from reviewers working at the same company?
Reviews can only be made via a user account so only 1 review can be made for each purchase. However, we cannot stop the person who submits the review to gather and incorporate feedback from their co-workers.

Are vendors allowed to ask for a review in exchange for an incentive?
Vendors are permitted to ask their customers for reviews and offer nominal incentives for doing so.
• These incentives must be offered to all reviewers, regardless of whether they leave a positive or negative review.
• Vendors found using incentives to influence the content of a review will result in the review’s removal.
• Vendors are required to notify us if they source reviews in exchange for an incentive.

Please refer to our guidelines section About Incentivised Reviews.

May a vendor contact a reviewer to request that they remove their review from the vendor’s profile?
We encourage interchanges between vendors and reviewers via our review response mechanism. Vendors should not contact a reviewer, either directly or indirectly, with the goal of getting a review removed or edited. We do NOT condone, and have a zero-tolerance policy for, any threats or bullying of our reviewers, users and vendors. If we receive a report that a vendor has reached out to a reviewer to request a review to be removed/edited, or harasses that reviewer in any manner, we encourage the reviewer to contact our site immediately by logging into their account and submitting and completing our online Contact form. Based on the results of our investigation, users (vendors and reviewers) that violate our guidelines repeatedly or otherwise attempt to abuse our Programme will be issued notice of our concerns. If the user continues to violate our Guidelines following receipt of such notice, we reserve the right to impose penalties at our discretion, including without limitation the right to modify or discontinue (temporarily or permanently) users access to our Site and Services.

Do you treat all users and reviews the same ?
All users and reviews are treated the same to ensure that we remain completely unbiased and neutral.

Why are users found to have participated in fraudulent reviews activity not banned from your site?
We believe that providing a full catalogue of products across a variety of categories is more important to our users than removing a listing altogether. Instead, we look to sanction vendors for activity which does not comply with our Guidelines in other ways, such as flagging their profile for fraud as a warning to potential customers. In this way, we provide valuable information to shoppers that would not be evident were we to simply remove the profile from our catalogue.

Our product has been penalized, what can we do?
In the event that your product or profile page displays a warning or flag and you’re unsure why, contact the reviews team through your vendor portal for a brief synopsis of the activity that led to the warning, along with additional details about the warning.

What should we do if someone is blackmailing us by threatening a negative review?
We are not mediators or arbitrators and do not intervene in disputes between our reviewers and vendors. If you feel you are being harassed or threatened, we suggest you contact applicable law enforcement.
If a negative review does not meet our guidelines, please flag the review for investigation through the vendor portal. Our team will investigate accordingly as per our standard investigation procedures.

FAQs for Reviewers

Why am I receiving emails from FitXHub after submitting a review?
As set out in our Privacy Policy, users who submit a review on our site agree to receive to future communications from us and our Affiliates in relation to our products. Users who submit a review on our site may receive future communications from us about the submitted review. Any user who does not wish to receive these marketing notices may choose to opt-out of our email programme by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link provided in these emails. Please review our site terms for further details.

Why wasn’t my review published?
To protect the integrity of our reviews programme, reviews may be disabled or not published if we do not feel confident we have verified the identity of the reviewer, or if we feel the content submitted does not adhere to our guidelines. In some cases we will reach out to reviewers requesting additional information to help us determine whether we can publish the review. Following your review submission, please keep an eye out for an email from us requesting additional details that may be required to publish your review!
If it’s only been a short while since you submitted your review, please be aware that it may take up to a week before a submitted review has time to be properly vetted. On average, a review takes 72 hours to be verified and published.

There were some edits to my review. Can you tell me why?
As per our reviewer policies, so long as a review meets our guidelines, we will not edit it in any way that would change the original meaning. However, we may make edits to correct typos or remove non-standard characters or clarify (for example if there was a missing word). The reviewer will not be notified about these edits, which are made at the discretion of FitXHub.

How can I edit or remove my own review?
Simply log into your account to see your reviews and edit as required. Please note that any edited content will be subject to our standard Review evaluation process.
**I submitted a review but was told the review did not meet site guidelines and will not be published. What now?
If a review does not pass our QA process or is identified by our team as not meeting our Community Guidelines, the review will not be published. Users may submit another review that meets our guidelines.

Is a reviewer allowed to review the same product more than once?
Only 1 review per product listing and/or purchase is allowed and this permission is automated by our review software.

Are reviewers liable for leaving fraudulent reviews?
In short, possibly. As a condition of submitting a review, you tick a box stating that you acknowledge and agree to our site guidelines, which among other things state that all content submitted meets our guidelines. Our site has the right to seek legal action against any reviewer who submits a review containing fraudulent, or misleading, information. In addition, many jurisdictions in and outside of Singapore take reviews content very seriously and have prosecuted reviewers over posting fraudulent content.

Updated: 28 June 2022