Write it like a witness statement.
What you saw, in order, with dates. The next person can’t use your anger, but they can use your timeline.
Last updated 2 November 2026
Paid for a sofa in March. Still no sofa.
Ordered a two-seat sofa and paid $640 by card on 6 March. The delivery date moved twice, tracking stopped and support ignored my last three emails. My card issuer refunded me on 14 April.
What you bought and how you paid
The payment method tells readers whether they could get their money back too.
The dates
Two accounts with the same dates and the same failure make a pattern.
What the site did
Say what happened. Leave out what you think it was planning.
How it ended
Pick the outcome that fits, then explain it. Unresolved is a real answer.
What the form asks you.
- When and what kindRequired
- The month it happened, and whether it was a purchase, a service, an attempted transaction or another direct dealing. Only the month is public.
- OutcomeRequired
- Positive, mixed, negative or unresolved. There are no stars. Choose what happened, and keep unresolved until it is resolved.
- Title and your accountRequired
- Plain words, in order. Don’t pad it: nobody is grading length.
- Issue tagsOptional
- Delivery, refund, contact, product, payment or other. They help people filter.
- Connections and rewardsRequired to answer
- Tell us if you’re connected to the website or got anything for writing. More on this below.
- Private evidenceOptional
- A receipt or email the automated checks can read. It’s never shown publicly.
Praise needs detail too
Bought a kettle with PayPal on 2 June. It arrived dented, so I sent a photo to support. A replacement came four days later.
You sign in with an emailed link and post under a pseudonym. That confirms an email address. It doesn’t confirm who you are or that you bought anything.
A negative experience doesn’t need proof just for being negative. Scam Finder has no verified-purchase label. If you add private evidence, the most a review can show is “Document relevance checked automatically”, which doesn’t guarantee the document is genuine.
The same complaint, after the red pen.
You keep every fact and the negative outcome. You lose the parts that would stop it being published.
WORST CROOKS ON THE INTERNET!!! Paid in May, no boots, no reply
- 1
Describe it. Don’t convict anyone.
“Thieves” is a criminal accusation you can’t support here. What they did is enough, and you don’t have to say why they did it.
- 2
No names, no addresses
Staff and owners are private people. Write “the owner”. A home address never belongs in an experience.
- 3
Only what you saw
You don’t know what happened to anyone else. Your own timeline is stronger than a guess.
- 4
No threats
Not even as a joke. This is a clear rejection, however badly the site treated you.
- Order
- HS-20418
- Placed
- 6 March
- Item
- Two-seat sofa
- Total
- $640.00
- Customer
- Blacked out
- Deliver to
- Blacked out
- Phone
- Blacked out
- Card
- Blacked out
Experiences are public. Black it out first.
Before you paste from an email or a chat, take these out.
- Card and bank numbers
- Passwords and login links
- ID documents and their numbers
- Home addresses, phone numbers, personal emails
- Full names of staff or other customers
- Anyone else’s private details
Keep the originals. Your bank or the police may ask for them. What to save if you’ve already paid
Connected to the site? Say so.
Connections
Tell us if you own, work for, are related to or compete with the website. Your text can then appear only as a business statement, labelled as one. A website’s representative can’t review their own site as a customer. There’s a separate one-reply route for that.
Rewards
Declare anything you received for writing: money, a discount, a free product. A reward tied to a positive or negative opinion isn’t allowed. A refund can’t force you to withdraw a review either: only you can say something was resolved.
In the US, the Federal Trade Commission bars businesses from offering rewards for reviews that express a particular opinion. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority publishes guidance on fake reviews.
What gets rejected.
Someone else’s story
It has to be your own dealing with this exact website. A site that took your money and sent nothing counts. Something you read about doesn’t.
Private details
Withheld straight away. You’ll be asked for a version without them.
Criminal accusations you can’t support
You’ll be asked to change the words or show what backs them up. You never have to allege a crime for your account to count.
Threats or extortion
That includes “refund me or this stays up”. An experience can’t be used as leverage, by either side.
Pretending to be someone
No posing as a customer, a company or another person.
A second review of the same site
One current review per member, per website. If things change, update yours with the new date.
Spam and recovery offers
No promotions or off-topic text. Offers to recover lost money are rejected: those are often a second scam.
A harsh account isn’t a broken rule. Neither is one a business dislikes.
Software decides what publishes.
Reviews don’t wait for a person to approve them. Two automated evaluations read each version, and fixed rules decide what they’re allowed to do. They make mistakes, so every rejection can be appealed. Your words are never changed for you: suggested edits only apply if you accept them.
You’ll also see a pause notice when the service is at capacity. Your draft isn’t accepted until intake reopens.
How appeals work- Published
- Both automated checks allow it and no rule blocks it.
- Changes requested
- We name the exact part. You fix it, and the new version is checked afresh.
- Evidence requested
- We name what’s missing. If you don’t answer in time, the new text isn’t published.
- Rejected
- You get the reason, the passage where it’s safe to show it, and an automated appeal.
- Withheld
- The automated checks couldn’t reach a defensible answer, so it stays unpublished.
After publishing, you can update your experience with a dated note or mark it “Reviewer reports resolved”. Withdrawing it hides it straight away, and bringing it back needs a fresh decision.
Got something to say? Find the website.
Search for the exact address, then add your experience on its page.