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GotAPalBuilt on the water
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Trust & safety

Trust that proves itself.

Trust has to be earned, and shown honestly. This page sets out what we check, what we do not, and what we are still building. Where we have not checked something, we say so.

Principles

Four things we hold to.

Confirmed reviewers

Every review is confirmed by email before it is published or counted, and a business cannot review its own listing.

Paid placement is labelled

Results are ordered by how well a trade matches your search, then by claimed profiles and reputation. Top Pal listings are shown first and always labelled Featured.

Bad reviews stay

Nobody can pay to remove a genuine review, good or bad. Reported reviews are re-confirmed with the reviewer, not quietly deleted.

Tied to a ServicePay job

A review can come from a job the business completed in ServicePay. Those are labelled. Anything else is an ordinary customer review, and is labelled that way too.

Reputation score

A 0 to 100 score designed to resist gaming.

Five weighted factors, all from reviews and how a trade responds. Paying for Top Pal changes where a listing is shown, never its score. Most listings have no reviews yet, so we only show a score once it has been earned.

A reputation score or a review does not guarantee workmanship, insurance or qualifications. Always check a trade's credentials yourself before you hire.

Review rating

35%

Review volume

20%

Verified jobs

15%

Vouches received

15%

Response rate

15%

Example only

85Reputation
Highly trusted
47 verified jobs 4.9 avg

Common questions

No account is needed to leave a review, but every review is confirmed by email before it is published or counted, and a business cannot review itself. Once ServicePay opens, a review of a job paid through it will be marked as a verified job. ServicePay is not open yet, so every review on GotAPal today is an ordinary, email-confirmed customer review.

A verified job review will come from work the customer paid for through ServicePay, so we know the job happened. ServicePay is not open yet, so no review carries this mark today. These count for more in the reputation score. An email-confirmed review proves the reviewer owns the email address, not that the job happened.

Results are ordered by how well a trade matches your search, then by claimed profiles and reputation score. Top Pal is paid placement: those listings are shown first and always labelled Featured. Nobody can pay to remove a genuine review.

Once a trade has published reviews, its 0 to 100 score comes from five factors: review rating (35%), number of reviews (20%), share of verified jobs (15%), vouches (15%) and response rate (15%). Most listings have no reviews yet; their score starts from a baseline set when the listing was added, and we only show a score on a listing once it has been earned.

If you believe a review is false or unfair, hit Report on the review itself. We ask the reviewer to re-confirm they are a real customer; if they cannot, or our team finds it breaches policy, it is removed. Genuine reviews from real customers always stay, good or bad.

Use the link below or email us at hello@gotapal.com. We take every report seriously.

See something wrong?

If you spot suspicious activity, fake accounts, or inappropriate behaviour, let us know.

Report an issue