Fresha Review Policy
Introduction
Reviews are the most useful thing on Fresha. They're real people telling other real people what actually happened in the chair - no marketing gloss, no filter. That only works if everyone plays it straight, so here's how we'd like it to go.
None of this replaces our Terms of Use. It just puts the review bits into plain English.
Who can leave a review
- You need your own Fresha account. One person, one account - don't share it or hand it to someone else.
- You need to be old enough to use Fresha where you live.
- You need to have actually been. We publish reviews for appointments that went ahead. If yours was cancelled or something went wrong before you got there, don't review it - email us at hello@fresha.com and we'll sort it out.
- Review your own appointment. If you went with a friend, they'll get their own chance to say their piece.
- Don't leave it too long. You've got 30 days from when you have completed your appointment.
What makes a good review
Say what actually happened. The specifics are the whole point - what you booked, how it went, what you'd tell a mate.
Be fair, especially when it's bad. If something went wrong, say what went wrong. "Terrible" tells nobody anything. "Colour came out two shades off what we agreed and they wouldn't fix it" tells everybody something. It also gives the business a real shot at putting it right.
Short is fine. A sentence is better than nothing. We're after useful, not long.
Stick to what you know. Your opinion on your treatment: always welcome. Claims you can't back up: not. For example - you can say the treatment was rushed and you weren't happy. Don't say the therapist isn't qualified unless you genuinely know that, because that's a statement of fact about someone's livelihood and it can be defamatory.
Keep it about the appointment. The treatment, the venue, the service, the price. Not the weather, not the other customers, not something you read somewhere.
Write how you write. Typos are fine. Any language we support is fine. We'd just rather be able to follow it - if a review is genuinely impossible to make sense of, it may not help anyone.
What we won't publish
Our Terms of Use call this Prohibited Content. In practice, that means we'll take down reviews that:
- Attack people. Threats, harassment, personal abuse, or anything hateful or discriminatory - on any ground. Criticise the service all you like; don't go after the person.
- Get explicit or crude. No sexual content, no obscenity, no propositions.
- Contain payment details. Never put a card number, security code, expiry date, passcode or bank details in a review. Reviews are public and they are not a secure channel. If we spot payment data, we'll strip it out.
- Share other people's personal information. Don't out someone's private details, and don't post anything that breaches someone's privacy or data protection rights.
- Say things that aren't true. Knowingly false or misleading claims, or anything defamatory.
- Advertise. No promo links, no phone numbers, no email addresses, no "come to my salon instead". No spam, bulk posting or unrelated content posted to drum up business.
- Pretend to be someone else. No impersonating a customer, a business, a member of staff or us.
- Belong to someone else. Don't post content you don't have the rights to.
- Break the law, or carry anything harmful - viruses, malicious code, that sort of thing.
Fake reviews: a hard no
This is the one we're least relaxed about.
- Don't write a review for a business you didn't visit.
- Don't write reviews for your own business, or ask friends, family or staff to.
- Don't pay for reviews, and don't sell them. Buying, selling, commissioning or hosting fake reviews is illegal in the UK.
- Don't offer anything in exchange for a positive review, or for taking a bad one down - no discounts, no freebies, no "we'll knock a bit off next time".
- If you got something for reviewing, say so. Incentivised reviews have to be disclosed. Undisclosed ones come down.
When we find fake or incentivised reviews, we remove them. Depending on how bad it is, we may also suspend or close the account, and for businesses we may take it into account in how you appear on Fresha. Under our Terms of Use, we can cancel any credits or unredeemed vouchers on a terminated account and stop you opening a new one.
What happens after you hit submit
Every review gets checked before it goes live. We use automated moderation to check each one against these guidelines. The vast majority clear in seconds and publish on their own.
If it doesn't pass, it doesn't publish. We'll let you know, and we'll tell you which part of these guidelines the review ran into.
A person can look at it again. If you think we've got it wrong, ask us to review the decision and a member of our team- not the automated system- will take another look. See If your review doesn't pass below.
You still own what you write- you're just giving us permission to use it. The full licence wording is in the User Content section of our Terms of Use.
Reporting a review
Spotted something that shouldn't be there? Tell us. Email hello@fresha.com with the subject line "Content Report" and include:
- What the content is
- Where it is (URL or location)
- Why you think it's illegal or breaches these guidelines
- How we can reach you
We'll look at it promptly and do what needs doing. While we're investigating, we may temporarily hide the review.
If you're in the EU, hello@fresha.com is also our single point of contact for Digital Services Act matters.
If we take your review down
We'll tell you, and we'll tell you why. You'll get a message that explains:
- what we did and what it affects
- which part of these guidelines the review didn't meet
- that the decision was made by our automated moderation system
- how to challenge it, and how long you've got
If you disagree, email hello@fresha.com within 14 days of our notice and we'll take another look. Our automated systems get the first look, but they don't get the final word.
If your review came down over something fixable - a bit of ad copy, a claim you can't back up, some heat you'd rather take out - you're welcome to edit and resubmit.
One appointment, one review. If a review comes down, that is it for that booking- cannot swap it for a fresh one. If you appeal and things go your way, we will simply restore the original post.
If you're a business on Fresha
- You can't ask customers to take reviews down, and you can't offer them anything to change one.
- Don't filter who you ask. Inviting only your happy customers to review isn't a fair reflection of your business.
- Reply if you'd like to. A calm, professional response to a bad review often reads better than the review did. Same rules apply - no abuse, no customer details, no arguing about facts you can't evidence.
- If a review is wrong or breaches these guidelines, report it. Don't take it up with the customer.
Serious allegations
If something happened that involves the police, or you believe a crime has been committed, a public review isn't the right place for it - for your sake as much as anyone's. Please contact us directly at hello@fresha.com so we can handle it properly and privately.
We'll take down reviews that raise allegations of this kind and get in touch with you to help.
The legal bit
These guidelines sit under our Terms of Use. Bookings, payments and vouchers are covered by our separate Terms of Service, and how we handle your data is in our Privacy Policy.
Breaching these guidelines can mean a review comes down. Repeatedly or seriously breaching them can mean your account goes with it.
Fresha.com SV Ltd, registered in England no. 11326509, 71–75 Shelton Street, London WC2H 9JQ. Got a suggestion for these guidelines? We'd like to hear it - hello@fresha.com.