Below are a few frequently asked questions about The Knot's review dispute process.
What is your review policy?
Our reviews platforms are designed to encourage honest opinions about the events leading up to, surrounding, and after a wedding in order to represent the wedding professional's interactions with their clients. Reviewers can leave their opinions however the review must remain free of accusations, assumptions, and hearsay. We also require that statements of fact must be accurate. Reviewers are required to have an actual first-hand wedding-event related experience to share.
All reviews and review replies give wedding professionals an opportunity to showcase their professionalism and empathy.
Clients are defined as the individual who pays for the services but also includes the couple getting married as long as their names are on the contract. Regardless if services are terminated prior to the event date, if business interactions took place, then that client will still be permitted to post a review. The client experience begins with the first contact and we recognize that the services they may or may not provide on the day of the event are only a portion of a client's overall interaction with a wedding professional. That is also why a review is allowed at any point before or after the wedding has taken place.
Employees of a wedding professional, other wedding professionals at an event, competitors of a business, etc. are not eligible to leave a review on our site(s) unless they are reviewing their personal wedding and used the professional’s services.
All feedback is allowed regardless if it is negative, positive, or neutral.
Does The Knot Worldwide verify the content of reviews posted on the site?
The reviewer is responsible for the content they have posted.
The Knot Worldwide does not act as a publisher and has not “published” the content posted by users. Under Section 230 of the Computer Decency Act (“CDA”), The Knot Worldwide acts as an “interactive computer service”. The CDA provides in part, “No provider of user an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider” The CDA further states no cause of action may be brought and no liability may be imposed under any State or local law that is inconsistent with this section.”
An “interactive computer service” means any information service, system, or access software provider that provides or enables computer access by multiple users to a computer server. The Knot Worldwide clearly falls within the interactive computer service definition and is specifically the type of entity that Congress protected under the CDA.
How do I bring a review I believe violates your review policy for another vendor to your attention?
Please report the content to us that is violating our Terms of Use so we can further investigate by emailing ReviewInquiry@WeddingPro.com. It is important for the The Knot community to work together to help maintain the high quality and integrity of the reviews on this site!
How do I formally dispute a review my business received from my storefront?
If you believe a review violates our Terms of Use, you can dispute the review. To quickly flag a review, it is best to officially dispute the review through your vendor account. To dispute a review, please follow the instructions included in the following support article: Disputing a Review
What does the verification process entail?
Our Policy team will accept disputes on the basis of the below reasons:
- Contains profane, vulgar, racist statement or adult material
- Contains a last name, date of birth, address (outside of the business)
- Is for a non-wedding related event
- Is factually inaccurate (backed by documentation)
- Written by someone that didn’t conduct business with you.
Invalid dispute reasons include examples such as:
- Wrong wedding dates. This doesn’t change the content of the review and we don’t require reviewers to update their wedding dates in the system as they change.
- Reviews written over 12 months ago. We don’t expect the wedding pro or the reviewer to retain documentation beyond that timeframe.
- A difference of opinion. No one’s opinion is right or wrong so we won’t discuss those during a dispute.
- A review that has already been reviewed. You may only dispute a review one time. Once the Policy team has closed the case, the review is no longer disputable.
Once you have disputed the review our Policy team will begin to investigate the claims. Please note, that we have sole discretion whether or not the reviews flagged will be further investigated or not. We require written documentation to do a complete review of the claims. Statements of opinion are not open to dispute.
When a vendor disputes a review from their account, that review is temporarily inactivated from the vendor's storefront.
How long does a reviewer have to send in the appropriate documentation?
If we reach out to a reviewer for documentation or to request edits, they have 7 days from initial contact from our Policy team to respond in order to ensure timeliness of the dispute process.
Can you share the reviewer's information they sent to you?
No, we cannot. Due to our strict Privacy Policy, we cannot disclose any of the reviewer's information, as it is not our information to share.
What can I do if a review is reinstated?
Nobody enjoys getting a negative review, so we recommend reaching out to the customer directly to discuss how expectations were not met and how to best resolve any outstanding issues. Reviewers have the ability to update or edit their review at any time, and this happens more frequently than you might expect!
Or, if this customer does not want to resolve their issues, then your best course of action would be to post a response to the review. Formulate an empathetic, professional response that directly addresses any of the customer's concerns. Remember, responses are not only a direct response to the customer who posted the review, but more importantly content that future potential clients might read - so make sure it is professional and polite!
For tips on how to respond, please view the following support article: Posting a Response to a Negative Review
For more information, you can view our full Review Policy.